menorca anyone?

tootoo

We have booked a holiday for next year.
Any top tips, do's or don't's please?

Thank you

Alidolly

Also going there next year - according to work colleagues that have been, its very family orientated and much quieter than Mallorca or Ibiza so while there may be some evening entertainment, its not as loud or "in your face".

Two main towns - Mahon to the south and Cuitudella to the north. Mahon meant to be a bit more frantic to the slower packed Cuitudella.

Can go anywhere on the island in one day so could hire a car if you really want to explore.

Not sure what you like but I got a little Marco Polo book which has some info and maps etc. Cost about £7 or so..

rustyboy21

Lovely Island, been to all 3 and I love Menorca the best, but haven't been for quite a few years. Cant see it changed that much though.


Easy to get around, car hire great, driving simple. Supposed to be a beach for every day of the year. I loved Cala Galdana beach, do a lot of sports from there. We stayed in Punta Prima which is close ish to Mahon.


Take a boat ride out of Mahon Harbour and visit a small beach close by. Visit the Gin Xoriguer factory and have some samples, beautiful Gin. Ca'lan Forcat is lovely, loads of beaches are small coves, eally safe for children and shallow quite the way out. Sea beautiful aquamarine.


If you want party, party, party, then book another island, if you want peaceful resorts with a little nightlife, go to Menorca. Have a great time.

Conrad

Been 5 times and having stayed in various place we found Son Parc with it's villas in the pine forests to be the best spot.


Quite a nice beach there.
Restaurants in the centre.
Mostly peaceful and chilled.


Just to the North is Fornells, probably the nicest little town on the whole island with it's marina and nice restaurants. It feels quite classy here. The sort of place for paella and watching the world go by.



Son Parc villa ^













+ Es Castell - although joined to the capital Mahon, this feels like a very authentic old fishing town. Lots of restaurants set around a quaint boardwalk harbour.


+ Beach wise one of the best is Mesquida of you are nature loving peaceful types.




Mesquida ^


A much bigger sandy beach with facilities is Son Bou in the South.


Arenal beach is nice to swim on if a little, ermm, British shall we say.




Cala en Porter is classic Brits abroad - might as well be in Blackpool only with sun.


We've travelled the whole island many times and overall the feel of the far south east corner around Binibeca feels real nice and more Spannish. Slightly to the north of this it does go all kiss me quick hats once more.


Citudella is ok, but as with such places you are just a cattle herd member to the eager salesmen waiters appealing to you to come into their restaurant. Usually much better food and service away from the tourist traps.


Same with the capital Mahon - there is a strip of restaurants right on the water but they are mainly just sausage machines wanting you in and out ready for the next victim. We found if you go to the quitter bits such as the extreme end you get quaint wonderful establishments such as the little Greek restaurant replete with check table cloths.




There are some stunning cove beaches on the south you will see in the postcards but be warned these are heaving, and when I say heaving the roads are often closed by the police it gets so full.
The way to see on of these in peak season is to go super early like 7am and possibly be happy to leave very late when all the honking cars have gone otherwise you will get caught in a log jam of cars.


Head north if you want quieter beaches with lots of space and where you can easily park. Places such as Pregonda. Bit of a walk but so what, we're too fat so lets burn it off.


There's great karting near the centre of the island outside St Louis.


Overall a nice chilled island in many parts, more raucous if you want it in other parts.






In case anyone is interested we've now discovered an even better place, and I mean really a lot better - KAS in Turkey particularly to stay on the peninsula where there are villas, small hotels and apartments with the best views I've experienced.


Lovely old fishing town of KAS is like being in another world.

tootoo

thank you for the replies.
conrad - what a fab response. we have two young children so i really wanted a 2hr ish flight so discounted turkey/greece/canaries.

We are staying in santo tomas, I've read its fairly small but thats fine with us. any info on there?
we hope to hire a car and see the sights rather than the usual tourist stuff.
we always go off the tourist area to get the better food (worked very well in rome and venice).

Red_Tabby

You can't go wrong with Menorca, 2 hour flight, safe sandy beaches, shallow water, lovely welcoming people.

Have been 4 times with 2 children as they grew up from 20 months to 11 years, always had a great time.

Aqua Centre at Los Delfines is definitely worth a visit, it used to be cheaper if you went in after 3pm, not sure if it still is but still gave plenty of time to have a go on everything and you were there for the quieter part of the day.

Some of the restaurants in the touristy places are a bit 'order your food from a photo menu' but these are also easily avoided and you can find plenty of local restaurants that welcome tourists too.

The island has so many beautiful hidden beaches, hire a car, take a picnic and plenty of bottled water and go exploring.

If all else fails head to Punta Prima for a horse-shoe beach, great restaurants and crazy golf.

Enjoy Menorca!

vroombroom

I used to be a rep and did a few seasons in Menorca, made some lifelong friends and have some brilliant memories. It's my favourite place on earth - went had our first family holiday there when out DS was 4 months old. We're going again next year.

Can only echo what the others have said, hope you enjoy it xx

joaniemerc

Thanks for helpful post, Conrad. We are visiting Fornells in two week's time - and glad we've picked a good place!

Is there scooter hire generally available anyone know pls? If the roads are quiet we would love to spend a couple of days with scooters visiting the coves.

TIA

Alidolly

We're staying at Cala n Bosch to the north as not too far from Cuitudella for a day round the shops etc...

Has anyone seen the horse show (near Cala Galdana) as its an evening thing and our daughter will be 5 then so a "special treat" staying up as late! She's seen the Lippizaner stallions at Lipica but that was a short show lasting 20 minutes or so during the day.

Also, is there any discount leather shops (jackets). I heard "Patricia" have nice ones but their website is limited and not sure if its worth searching out or not...defo want to buy local product rather than made in china or Taiwan etc...

Cheers

gregg1

tootoo wrote: »

thank you for the replies.
conrad - what a fab response. we have two young children so i really wanted a 2hr ish flight so discounted turkey/greece/canaries.

We are staying in santo tomas, I've read its fairly small but thats fine with us. any info on there?
we hope to hire a car and see the sights rather than the usual tourist stuff.
we always go off the tourist area to get the better food (worked very well in rome and venice).

Been going to santo tomas for twenty years. It is quiet and small but very pretty. Also very safe for families. The beach is stunning as well. If you are self catering there are not many restaurants in the resort but as you are hiring a car you will be able to get out and about. There are some wonderful out of the way restaurants all over the island. You should be able to pick up a booklet in the resort showing where these are.

No nightlife to speak of (which we love!). Resort tends to wind down by 11/12pm. Las dunas restaurant in the middle of the resort has kids entertainment most nights for a couple of hours and is very popular.

Be warned , there is a nudist beach at the bottom end of the resort but it tends to be frequented mostly by Spanish!

gregg1

Red_Tabby wrote: »

You can't go wrong with Menorca, 2 hour flight, safe sandy beaches, shallow water, lovely welcoming people.

Have been 4 times with 2 children as they grew up from 20 months to 11 years, always had a great time.

Aqua Centre at Los Delfines is definitely worth a visit, it used to be cheaper if you went in after 3pm, not sure if it still is but still gave plenty of time to have a go on everything and you were there for the quieter part of the day.

Some of the restaurants in the touristy places are a bit 'order your food from a photo menu' but these are also easily avoided and you can find plenty of local restaurants that welcome tourists too.

The island has so many beautiful hidden beaches, hire a car, take a picnic and plenty of bottled water and go exploring.

If all else fails head to Punta Prima for a horse-shoe beach, great restaurants and crazy golf.

Enjoy Menorca!

Second vote for punta prima. We love the Casa Firmin restaurant overlooking the beach. Good food and nothing is too much trouble.