What this Blog is About
Mallorca and Menorca are two of the three Spanish islands in the Balearic Sea. The third island is Ibiza which is well known as a party island. Mallorca has it all in our opinion. Beaches, azure water, mountains, scenery, wonderful food and even the seasons. Menorca, just a 45 minute flight from Mallorca also has beaches, less mountainous, is smaller and less developed. We went in mid-March. The weather was windy, cloudy and would occasionally rain. However, it’s the offseason according to the locals that we talked to. A lot of establishments are closed but there are still hotels, restaurants, stores and gas stations that were open such that it was never a problem to find accommodations or places to eat.
Menorca
Let’s start with the middle sized island first (the smallest is Ibiza). We stayed at the White Sands Beach Club near Platja Arenal d’en Castell located at the north shore of the island between the towns of Mahon and Ciutadella.
We stayed for three nights thinking that is all the time we need. After all, Google Maps showed that we could drive from Mahon (East end) to Ciutadella (West end) in about 45 minutes, which was close to accurate. We thought two full days would be enough, one day to see the north half and the other day to see the south half. We were wrong. We managed to explore only half of the island because we were rained out on our second full day.
After checking in at our accommodation early in the afternoon, we headed to Ciutadella. Ciutadella is not a modern city. We did not see any high rise buildings. The good thing was parking was not a problem, likely because it was the off season. We found a walking path along the craggy shoreline about 20 feet above the water. It offered some Instagram worthy views. We stumbled into an area where there were steps carved into the limestone rock along the shores. We later found on some informational signage that they used the area as a quarry.
After the shoreline walk, we decided to check out the old part of town. Walking through the narrow streets of the old part of town was a relaxing way to get our exercise while being surprised at what the next corner would bring. There were some shops that were open. There was hardly any vehicular traffic which made the walking exploration enjoyable.
The following day, we decided to explore the southern half of the island. We just used Google Maps and typed in “scenic” in the search bar to show all the scenic points. Then we picked our destinations on the south side of the island. Some scenic points were accessible but we were surprised that about half of the places we wanted to go were not accessible. Google Maps told us to take a road that clearly had a gate with a sign that said “Privado”. “Guess we are not seeing that beach!” However, there are plenty of beaches to go to and some wonderful scenery like in the Cala Mitjaneta area.
On our last full day, it rained pretty much the entire day so we decided to stay in accommodation and catch up on our to-dos. Late in the afternoon, after the rain subsided, we explored about half a mile of the El Mercadal trail near our accommodation. We felt so bad that we did not explore this area first. It had some spectacular views and the trail goes on for miles according to the information board.
Mallorca
Our first impression of Mallorca as we drove away from the airport in our rental car was that it felt like being in a big city. We got on one of the main highways, Ma-1 (Ma stands for Mallorca) on our way to the town of Palma Nova for our first two night’s accommodation. There were a lot of vehicles on Ma-1. Though moving, it felt like we were driving on I-10 towards Phoenix, Arizona during rush hour. Exiting Ma-1 to get to our accommodation did not get us away from the big city feel. Multi-story buildings (around 10 floors) lined the shores. It’s a good thing it was the off season so traffic was non-existent as we maneuvered the narrow one way streets.
The forecast for the following day was sunny with a chance of rain late in the afternoon. So we headed for a hike. Trusty Alltrails app showed us several hikes with nice views nearby. We selected Cala d’en Monjo. It did not disappoint us. Though the hike had over 1,000 feet of elevation gain, we were rewarded with great views when we reached the Mirador de Cap Andritxol.
Scenic Ma-10
Our next accommodation was near the town of Alciuda, at the north part of the island. We could have taken Ma-13, the major thoroughfare that connects Palma and Alciuda, but we decided to take Ma-10 instead which runs parallel to the island’s west coast. What convinced us to take Ma-10 was the number of scenic points located near or along its route, according to Google Maps. We were not disappointed.
Ma-10 pretty much goes on the spine of the mountain range that runs the length of the island. If the views do not take your breath away, the narrow twist and turns will. There is no amount of words or pictures that would do justice to the scenery that we encountered. It reminded us of US Highway 1 or the Pacific Coast Highway (PCH). However, the PCH was carved more on the shore line while Ma-10 is mostly inland with a few spots that veers off out of the forest to present the unique views.
It took us most of the day to reach our accommodation in Alciuda. As we got closer to Alciuda, the number of cyclists that we had to pass kept increasing. Another plus about Ma-10, is that it only passes through little towns so we were in and out in a few minutes. The largest town on the route is Soller which Ma-10 skirted, so we really did not have to go through its town proper.
Sa Calobra
The following day’s forecast was fair weather with no rain. We decided to visit Sa Calobra which is a park located on the west coast just over an hour southwest of Alcuida. The road to Sa Calobra T-off from Ma-10 which we passed the prior day. We could have driven on Ma-10 but we decided to use Ma-13 and cut back through the mountains on Ma-2130 going through the towns of Selva and Caimari. Driving through these two towns was not bad at all. We would have loved to stop and explore these towns but we have seen so many of them in mainland Spain that we decided to just drive through.
The fun started early after we passed Caimari. There were cyclists after cyclists on the narrow mountain road. The parade did not seem to end. They seem to favor uphill roads with a lot of twists and turns. Guess they all want to be king of the hill. We passed a group only to be behind another group. This required a lot of weaving in and out of lanes. We just had to be mindful of the oncoming traffic. Too bad, we could not stop and take photos as Ma-2130 also offered some spectacular mountain views that have some occasional rock spires jutting out of the mountain side.
The number of cyclists on the road sort of thinned as we hit Ma-10 but then picked back up on Ma-2141, the road to Sa Calabra from Ma-10. Ma-2141 is another scenic road that took us from the mountain top to the seaside town. It’s about 13 or so kilometers of narrow twisting road with excellent views. Maneuvering Ma-2141 was not bad as long as the cyclists were well spread apart.
There is a paid parking lot at Sa Calabra. It’s about a 15 minute walk from the parking lot to the Instagram spot, Torrent de Pareis.
Mirador de Es Colomer
Having a couple of more hours left before dark, we decided to check out the northernmost peninsula north of the town of Port de Pollenca. Once we passed the port town, the road (Ma-2210) started to climb up until we reached Mirador de Es Colomer’s parking lot on the crest of the highway. There are three options from the parking lot. One can continue on Ma-2210 down to the rest of the peninsula. We found this drive to have one or two decent viewpoints but the problem is there was nowhere to park to take photos. There was really nothing to see once we reached Platja Formentor, so we quickly turned around and headed back to the Mirador de Es Colomer parking lot.
The second option from the parking lot is to walk up to the viewpoints of Mirador de Es Colomer. The walk up is paved all the way to the viewing area. Mirador de Es Colomer, in our opinion, offered the most scenic spot we have seen during our entire exploration of Spain. We recommend to anyone to make Mirador de Es Colomer a destination if they are in Mallorca.
Pont natural d’Es Caló Blanc
Pont natural d’Es Caló Blanc is a natural arch accessible by a 3 mile round trip hike from the parking lot of Cala Estany d’en Mas near the town of Cala Romantica. We did not see a trail sign. We just followed AllTrails on our smartphone (make sure you open up AllTrails while you have service or Wifi before heading out).
The trail begins with a short climb across the sandy open area south of the parking lot. There are several trails that branch off. We took the trail that hugged the cliff so we have some views. The views came with a price as the rocky trail was over sharp limestone that slowed down our pace. Regardless, the slower pace provided time for us to appreciate the area’s natural beauty.
We reached the arch about an hour and half later. The arch is huge and the best part was we had it to ourselves (one of the perks in going off season). We could hear the waves crash underneath the arch. We took the inner trail (away from the cliff) on the way back to the parking lot. The inner trail has more soil and less rocks. We were able to return to the parking lot in less than an hour.
Summary
The islands of Menorca and Mallorca are certainly worth the visit. Visiting during the spring (off season) was cold, windy, gloomy and sometimes rainy. The beaches are cold and the waves are huge. But the nice thing about the off season is the absence of crowds. Parking was never a problem.
Menorca is smaller and less developed. There was hardly any traffic on the road. Google Maps may show some beaches to be accessible but as we found out, some of them are not, as the path to take is through private property. Regardless, there are plenty of beaches on the island to choose from.
Mallorca almost has it all. Beaches, mountains, hikes, scenery, scenic drives and food. The only thing lacking is a ski resort. The three hotels we stayed at included breakfast and dinner buffets. Spaniards like to eat and they show it in their buffets. We have been to many buffets in Las Vegas and they pale in comparison to the hotel buffets we were fortunate enough to have in Mallorca.
These two islands fit the bill as far as good balance between taking it easy while still having the opportunity to do some exploration. Best thing about being an island is that the drives are short so you get to do more (or not) as opposed to sitting behind the steering wheel.