Cycling Planet, Alaró: A Real Mid-Island Bike Stop

Why this place and not another

Alaró has a few cafés that'll happily serve a cyclist a coffee. Cycling Planet is the one that was built for cyclists — by one. David Muntaner, a former world champion on the track, opened it with his wife Laura back in 2012, and it shows in details that have nothing to do with marketing: a lot of the furniture inside is made from reclaimed Siberian pine pulled from the old Palma velodrome track when it was resurfaced. You're drinking your coffee on a piece of Mallorcan cycling history, and almost nobody passing through knows it.

It's also a working bike shop with a full workshop in the back — not a café that happens to sell some kit, but a shop that happens to also pour good coffee.

Where it is and how to get there

Av. Constitució 26, 07340 Alaró — sitting almost exactly halfway across the island, right under the Tramuntana wall. If you're doing the classic Palma–Sóller–Orient loop (or the reverse), Alaró falls naturally into the middle of the day, which makes this a logical lunch-or-coffee anchor rather than a detour.

Rolling out from Palma, the smart line is hooking onto the Camí des Raiguer through Santa Maria and Consell — it keeps you off the high-traffic roads for most of the approach. The final stretch into Alaró on the Ma-2100 is a steady, completely manageable false-flat drag that only turns punchy right at the town limits, where the streets narrow fast and you'll be threading the needle with cars, local traffic and campervans all the way to the door on Avenida Constitució.

Coming from the Orient side, you're dropping off the Coll d'Honor — a fast, technical descent with plenty of blind corners. Stay sharp for oncoming traffic before it spits you straight into the village.

What to order

The bar pours local Arabay beans — a properly good espresso base — plus pa amb oli, sandwiches, and a decent run of cakes including gluten-free and vegan options, which is more than most village cafés bother with.

There's a clear split in who orders what. Visitors swarm the massive slices of homemade cake — the almond and the peanut-caramel ones have a bit of a reputation — and fresh smoothies. The locals and club riders almost always go for something savoury instead: a classic pa amb oli or a hearty tostada with a cortado, built to actually fuel the rest of the ride rather than just taste good for ten minutes.

When to go, when to skip it

Watch the hours: open until 20:00 on weekdays, but they pull the shutters at 14:00 on weekends and holidays.

Weekends here are an absolute zoo — Alaró's position at the foot of the Tramuntana makes it the default meetup and turnaround point for a huge chunk of the island's group rides. If your schedule allows it, go on a weekday mid-morning instead. You dodge the gridlock, the campervan traffic thins out, and you actually get the space to sit down and take in the memorabilia rather than grab-and-go.

Bike parking, charging, basic tools

This is the one category where Cycling Planet should, on paper, beat every other café on this list — they run bike rental (Trek, Cinelli, Orbea, with home delivery) and a full workshop for wheels, spokes, builds, upgrades and general maintenance.

And it holds up in practice, not just on paper. Drop a chain, need your gears indexed, or want a spoke tweaked — David and the team will generally sort you out on the spot, right there, to keep your ride alive. Parking is best in class: dedicated bike racks right out front under the shade of the trees, so you never lose line-of-sight to your bike from your table. Inside there's free wifi and plenty of accessible wall sockets to top up a Garmin or a phone while you eat.

Honest ratings

Coffee: 4/5 — generous pours of local Arabay roast, exactly what you want mid-ride.
Food: 4.5/5 — authentic, no-nonsense fuel, not café-window pastry theatre.
Service: 5/5 — fast and warm even when it's slammed; David, Laura and the team hustle hard without ever making you feel like you're loitering.
Cyclist-friendliness: 5/5 — racks right outside, wifi and sockets inside, and a mechanic who'll fix a dropped chain or index your gears on the spot. This is the rare case where the concept and the on-the-ground reality actually match.
Authenticity: 5/5 — the bar, walls and tables are built from reclaimed Siberian pine pulled from the old Palma Arena velodrome track, the espresso machine wears David's former World Champion rainbow stripes, and the walls are covered in pro memorabilia. The opposite of a tourist trap.

Find them on Instagram: @cyclingplanet_mallorca