Carmen and her family were very accomodating and helpful, friendly and warm, and made our stay there as nice as they could. Carmen's family lives in a wonderful house on a beautiful property near the coast, and the apartment we rented is a little cottage directly next to their house on the side of their land. The cottage is sweet and we could walk everywhere on in their charming gardens including the nice path leading down to the water. Everything there is very pleasant and tasteful and authentic. And their whole family is lovely, including their children and their doggies.
Carmen and her family are real true Mallorquinese, and that was great to experience.
This however brings us to the first of two drawbacks, and this has nothing to do with Carmen's house: the town of Camp de Mar itself consists entirely of hotels and holiday homes. Carmen's mother explained that the last authentic house was their neighbor's, and that was torn down and made into a tourist investment. There's a nice little beach (overshadowed by the hotels and other holiday accomodations), but otherwise the sound of the sea is drowned out by the sound of jackhammers and other construction workers. No school, church, or other sign of life. Everyone speaks German. In some ways this is typical, we learned, of almost every coastal area on Mallorca, and it is sad. So Carmen's charming place, which we thought might be typical of the area, is in some way a last remnant, or a bit of a museum, and this is sad too. We guess that this area attracts uninformed people (like us) or people interested in nice weather who don't wish to be pestered with anything foreign. (Luckily, lovely areas away from the coast, such as the beautiful mountain village of Deia, are only about 45 minutes away by car; why not stay there?) The second drawback was the smell: perhaps this is only in the winter (rainy) time, but there seems to be a bit of a problem with the sewer or drain in the cottage, and while we were there it was quite unpleasant. Otherwise, we can highly recommend staying with Carmen and her family.