Print Exclusive: The day we forgot to check emails

In southern Mallorca, Fontsanta proves that sometimes the fastest way to reset a calendar is to leave it behind, and better yet, forget it exists and cycle to the beach

18 Nov 2025

Shriti Das

What happens when you put three workaholics in a room? We bring with us our laptops, deadlines and lots of coffee. I am in the company of my seniors, Mrudul Pathak Kundu and Misha Bains, the former being our editor, and the latter is our publisher. Both being far more seasoned at balancing calm and chaos but together, we end up recreating a portable office around us; be it the airport or the lobby of a wellness resort. The last time around, that resort was Fontsanta Hotel Thermal Spa & Wellness in southern Mallorca. But much to our surprise, it became the undoing of our hyper-scheduled selves and three workaholics stopped trying to win the day.

Located just beyond the Es Salobrar salt flats, Fontsanta feels like a pocket of still air rather than a destination. The buildings are low, honey-toned and open to the landscape, built of local limestone and lime plaster that seem to dissolve into the horizon. When we arrived, the staff gave us a short tour and, with gentle persistence, urged us to try the thermal springs first. That suggestion changed the pace of everything that followed. We agreed half-heartedly, still in work mode, planning to be in and out before checking our emails. But once we entered the warm mineral water that has flowed beneath this land for centuries, something shifted. The heat wrapped around us, steady and constant, slowing our pulse to match the quiet around it. The staff had said our bodies would know when to leave, and they were right. Minutes slipped without notice.

The water here is not a recent discovery. It rises from subterranean aquifers that have flowed beneath this land for centuries. Officially recognised for public use in 1869, it is believed that they are the only natural thermal springs in the Balearic Islands. Rich in minerals like sodium, chloride, calcium, sulphur and magnesium, they were once prescribed for rheumatism, circulation and skin ailments. Locals came to bathe in them long before the spa existed, believing the water carried healing energy drawn from the salt flats themselves. The current property belongs to the Torre de Canyamel Group, a family-owned collection of historic hotels founded by the Torres family, who restored Fontsanta with the intent to preserve its geological and cultural heritage. That same instinct for preservation extends into the architecture. The story of Fontsanta’s architecture begins long before its current incarnation as a wellness retreat. The thermal springs beneath the property were known to exist since Roman times, though the first formal bathhouse was inaugurated in 1845, built almost as a direct enclosure around the natural spring. In 1869, the waters were officially declared public, and by 1916 the property passed into private hands, eventually acquired by Cosme Maria Oliver. Over the next century, the site evolved from a modest sanatorium into a local thermal refuge. Its latest transformation came in 2012, when the Torre de Canyamel Group commissioned Pedro Pablo Fullana Oliver and Toni Esteva to restore the old spa buildings. The renovation preserved the 19th-century structures, expanded them with contemporary suites, and reinterpreted Mallorcan vernacular architecture through a vocabulary of limestone, lime plaster and light.

The thermal pool, fed by Mallorca’s natural hot spring, has drawn visitors for its mineral-rich waters since the 19th century; Photography by Torre de Canyamel group

Dissolving into the landscape rather than overpowering it, Fontsanta’s architecture is designed to recede. Walls of pale stone and lime plaster hold the coolness of air; shaded verandas open to salt fields that stretch into haze. The courtyards connect rooms through filtered light, each space leading to another. Vaulted ceilings, timber beams, and a plan that opens inward towards salt air and long light. The design is appropriate and enough — in a way that feels respectful of your attention span. Somewhere between soak and sunset, we became people again. We cycled to Es Trenc, the island’s most postcard-friendly beach, with salt in our hair and no itinerary in hand. The flat, open road stretched ahead, lined with nothing but sky and grain and the smell of wild rosemary. It wasn’t that we didn’t care about work anymore. We just temporarily forgot why it felt so urgent. We weren’t trying to unwind. It just… happened. Against our will. And we (specifically me) would do it all over again.