Sun, Surf and Sand in Menorca

I didn’t have to wait long for my next holiday in Europe - this time we were off to the sunny Spanish Island of Menorca. Not to be confused with its big sister, Mallorca. And by we, I mean a whole sports team worth of 14 of us. Our only goal on this trip was to do nothing on as many beaches as possible :)

Katie had organised two Spanish villas on the north coast through a work colleague. However the first mission was actually getting there. Being one of the oldies, and therefore a pre-nominated driver, I had to drive on the left side of the road!! - all a bit confusing at first, especially at round-a-bouts, but soo much fun!!

Both villas were gorgeous, and even had their own large swimming pools and BBQ areas. A big ‘O’ for Awesome. After dinner at the local pub, we headed back to our villa to test out our swimming pool and the selection of inflatables, plus the patience of our neighbours.

The next day we headed to the markets in Mahon, one of the Island’s larger towns (and the place where mayonnaise comes from!), to get our selection of local produce, before heading to our first of many beaches on the island: Son Bou, on the south coast. The sand was white, the water was clear and the sun was shining. We knew this was going to be a good trip.
We snorkelled until we got bored of not seeing any fish; played football until James almost broke his leg (and has a wicked bruise to show for it); and sun bathed until there was no sun left. They only thing left to do was head back to the villas for a BBQ pool party!.. oh, and put Chugs in the Tom Cruise closet hehe.

The following day we decided to do something different, and head to a northern beach. Forneils was our original destination, but we struggled to find the beach and got tipped off by a local about a better one close by, so who were we to argue?

Cavalleria was off slightly off the beaten track, and a small walk from the carpark to the beach, which meant less people. Perfect. The northern beaches are quite different to the southern beaches; this time we had golden red sand, with barren sand dunes, and a rocky sea bed with an abundance of sea life to be seen with our new snorkels.
That night James’ €6 bottle of absinthe came out to play for the pool party at villa No. 2: Villa Damien… and the rest is history so they say.

Day 4. We went to the far side of the island to the other large town called Ciutadella, and then spend an hour trying to find where the other car had parked, by navigation of ‘the square with the fountain and the grass… near the BK’. Eventually we found them. By this time we had already viewed most of the city, so headed out to the South Coast to Cala Turqueta, probably my favourite beach on the island.

We had a great time exploring around the rocky cliff edges, while Cam had a great time jumping off them. We headed to Cala en Porter in search of an authentic Spanish dinner and ended up in a seafood restaurant that was recommended to us by a local, but they didn’t warn us how big the dishes would be!

Our last day here, and only two things left to do: head to the beach, and go to the top of the tallest hill. With limited time available we went to a closer beach at Son Parc with more white sand and clear blue water: crisp at the bite, with more beachy ball games to be had. Every day we seemed to introduce a new harder level to the game.

It wasn’t long until we all got itchy feet and wanted to head to the top of Monte Toro, the highest point on the island. The vantage point obviously provided great views 360° across the island all the way to the coast, but it also has a monastery on the very top. We had time for one last rest-of-group photo before saying a sad goodbye to our summer retreat and headed back to cold, rainy London with our golden tans.

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