Review of L'Avenida, by Jeroen Bergmans

There are myriad reasons to visit the picturesque town of Sóller on Mallorca's northwest coast, but until ultra-hip boutique Hotel L'Avenida opened its doors in 2007 there was little reason to actually stay there. With only eight individually-designed rooms, l'Avenida stays true to the bona fide boutique hotel philosophy and it manages to achieve the home-from-home feel that is the holy grail of any haute hotelier.

In fact, boutique hotel l'Avenida was once a home, and a palatial one at that. Modernist architect Joan Rubio i Bellver, a pupil and protégé of Gaudi who designed the elaborate church and bank in Sóller town, built it in 1903 for one of Sóller's wealthy textile merchant families, the Magraeners.

When the current owners Tania and Paul Slijper bought the building they found the etched-glass doorways, flamboyant plasterwork, frescoed ceilings and elaborate staircase had survived a century intact. After painstaking restoration they added decadent chandeliers, Philippe Starck bathrooms, Cole & Sons wallpaper, Kastell lamps and fashionable furniture in a palette of black, maroon and purple sourced from Maison et Objet design fair in Paris.

The facilities

Only a year after opening, l'Avenida has already attracted the fashion pack who have staged shoots around the sleek pool where the guests get weekly BBQs in the summer months. Small wedding parties have booked the whole boutique hotel as it can cater to up to thirty, and even in the quieter winter months the boutique hotel is full of visitors who come to Sóller for walking holidays, spa breaks, vineyard visits and gastrotours.

The restaurant is popular for lunch and dinner with locals and visitors alike as Paul Slijper has created an excellent menu of international tapas. Paul (who was Marketing Director for the Orient Express Group) also plays the part of concierge and can arrange anything from in-room spa treatments to hot-air balloons and private yachts for the guests.

The rooms

The eight rooms at this boutique hotel are large by Mallorca standards and the attention to detail is impressive - owner Tania made the organic soaps herself. Her favourite, and ours, is the expansive Luxury Suite which is one of only two rooms with views of Mallorca's highest mountain Puig Major.