Palma comes as a surprise to many people - it is stylish, sophisticated, intimate yet bursting with life. Half of Mallorca's population live here, enjoying the island's best restaurants, shops and nightlife as well as a thriving arts scene and a lively cafe society.

Palma's masterpiece is its Gothic cathedral, rising out of the city walls which once marked the edge of the sea. Close to here is the old Arab quarter, its maze of narrow streets hiding museums, palaces and exquisite courtyards. But do not explore old Palma at the expense of its modern side. Take coffee in the former Gran Hotel, visit an art gallery in a converted mansion, join Palma's bright young things on their evening passeig along the waterfront, and you will begin to appreciate the variety of this fascinating city.

Known to the Arabs as Medina Mayurqa and to Mallorcans simply as Ciutat (City), Palma is in fact named after the Roman city of Palmaria. Here you can almost literally uncover the different layers of Mallorcan history. The Roman city still exists, a metre or two beneath the ground; inhabitants of houses near the cathedral are still discovering Roman remains. The cathedral was built on the site of a mosque, once a Roman temple; the royal palace replaced an Arab alcazar.

The city you see today, however, is a relatively recent creation. The tree lined promenades of La Rambla and Passeig des Born, home to florists and newspaper sellers, were built in the l9th century on a dried-up river bed. The walls which once surrounded the city were pulled down to create the ring road Las Avingudas, and Passeig Maritim, the waterfront highway and promenade, was only reclaimed from the sea in the 1950s.

Most of the main sights are located within the area bounded by the old walls, especially to the north and east of the cathedral. Wander along any alley in the ancient Arab quarter, peering through wrought-iron gates and heavy wooden doors, and you will be rewarded with glimpses of one magnificent patio after another, with their stone staircases, galleries and arcades.

But you have not truly seen Palma until you have surveyed it from the waterfront, with the cathedral and Almudaina palace rising proudly above the defensive walls of the old city, their golden sandstone lit up by the afternoon sun.