Sa Foradada is a rock peninsula reaching into the sea off Deià, with a natural hole through its centre. It is where the sun sets in almost every photograph of the Tramuntana. In September the sun goes down around 8pm, and from then you have roughly forty minutes of usable light before the path back turns dark.
01What Sa Foradada is, and why it looks like that
It is a promontory jutting out of the cliff on the Deià coast, inside the Son Marroig estate. The rock has a natural opening straight through it, which is where the name comes from: «foradada» means «pierced» in Mallorcan.
Son Marroig belonged to Archduke Ludwig Salvator of Austria, who bought several estates along this coast in the 19th century and left them unbuilt. That decision, a century and a half ago, is why you see cliff today and not a housing development: the whole Serra de Tramuntana has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2011.
02What time the sun sets in Mallorca
Approximately, rounded to the quarter hour: around 9.15pm in June and July, 8.45pm in August, 8pm in September, and 7.15pm in October until the clocks change, when it moves to 6.15pm. In December, around 5.20pm.
The number that matters is not the exact moment of sunset but the fact that you need to be in place before it. The good light starts between forty and twenty minutes before the sun touches the horizon, and from the Son Marroig viewpoint the sun does not drop into open sea: it goes down behind the peninsula itself, which is what creates the silhouette.
03Three ways to get there, and what each one costs you
**On foot**, from the Son Marroig car park on the Ma-10: a downhill path of twenty to twenty-five minutes, with the return uphill and in half-light. Anyone who walks down for sunset walks back up in the dark, so a torch and shoes with grip are not optional.
**By boat**, anchoring in front: the only way to see the rock from the sea side, which is where the hole reads as a hole. The coast between Sóller and Deià is the most vertical stretch on the island.
**By car with a driver**, staying up top at the Son Marroig and Torre des Verger viewpoints: the same sunset without the climb back in the dark, and you can chain it with dinner in Deià. That is what our sunset route does — five hours, from €820.
04The other two viewpoints on this coast
**Torre des Verger**, at Banyalbufar, is a 16th-century watchtower on the cliff edge. You reach it from the road and the sea drops away vertically below: the quietest of the three, because there is no restaurant to fill it.
**Port de Sóller** is the opposite: an almost enclosed bay where the sun sets between the two headlands. You watch it from the promenade with no walking at all, which is why it works when the group includes children or anyone who would rather not hike.
05The mistake people repeat: misjudging the drive back
The Ma-10 between Valldemossa and Sóller is narrow, with tight bends. At night, with the traffic leaving all three viewpoints at once, the drive back to Palma takes a good hour or more.
Whoever is driving the hire car ends up on that road tired and in the dark, after standing around for an hour. It is the part of the plan nobody accounts for, and the reason a sunset route with a driver is not a redundant luxury: it is the one stretch of the day where you actually notice it.
What time does the sun set in Mallorca in September?
Around 8pm at the start of the month and around 7.30pm by the end, approximately. Be in place at the viewpoint thirty to forty minutes before: the good light starts well before the sun touches the horizon.
Can you drive all the way to Sa Foradada?
Not to the rock itself. You park at Son Marroig, on the Ma-10, and walk down for twenty to twenty-five minutes. You can drive to the upper viewpoint, and from there you see the full silhouette of the peninsula as the sun goes down.
How long is the walk, and what is the way back like?
Twenty to twenty-five minutes down and rather more back up, because the return is uphill. Anyone who walks down for the sunset walks back up in the dark: bring a torch and shoes with grip.
Which is the best sunset viewpoint in the Tramuntana?
It depends what you want. Son Marroig gives you the Sa Foradada silhouette, the shot everyone knows. Torre des Verger, at Banyalbufar, has fewer people and the sea straight down below. Port de Sóller needs no walking and works with children. All three are on the same coast and can be strung together in one afternoon.
