Menorca

Menorca has always been different. It lacks the dramatic geography of the Tramuntana mountains in Mallorca, but it is also largely free from the frenzied overdevelopment that has destroyed great swathes of Mallorca’s shoreline. There are holiday complexes and resorts, but they’re largely contained in relatively small areas, leaving much of the island untouched.

It developed later than Mallorca, and with less abandon, yet it too has suffered from image problems. Or, rather, lack of image problems. Tell anyone you’re holidaying in Menorca and chances are they’ll either look blank or slightly pitying, as if to say: ‘Why? Isn’t it rather dull?’ It’s true that it is a touch more staid, and a touch more British, perhaps a legacy of the 18th-century British occupation of the island; UK holidaymakers make up by far the largest block of foreign visitors (Germans come joint top of the table in Mallorca).

Yet Menorca offers plenty of surprises. There are the two delightful, pint-size main towns at either end of the island: Maó and Ciutadella – the former, a commandingly located port overlooking one of the Mediterranean’s finest harbours (hence the 18th-century British interest); the latter, a seductive citadel filled with mansion-lined winding streets. The resorts, it is true, are largely lacklustre, but they are concentrated on the west and south-east coasts, leaving most of the island largely unspoilt. The north coast, in particular, is wild and often wind-ravaged, bringing to mind unlikely comparisons with some of the remoter parts of Ireland. The interior is littered with unique prehistoric sites, the origins and meanings of which are still subject to debate. They make a cultural counterpoint to the lazy pleasures of Menorca’s prime beaches; though some are long strands, coves are more characteristic, with perfect crescents of ivory sand melting into azure seas.

Local history

The Balearics have been attracting invaders for millennia – Phoenicians, Greeks, Carthaginians, Romans, Vandals, Byzantines and Moors. In the 13th century, Jaume, king of Aragón and Catalunya, took Mallorca by force and gained Menorca by guile. Jaume III was killed in battle in 1349 and the Balearics lost their independence forever. Not until the tourism boom of the last few decades did the Balearics regain any level of prosperity.

Local politics

The few years have seen an acceptance of the need for more responsible development, for a less-is-more approach, encouraging higher-spending visitors with classier accommodation, and keeping a tighter lid on the boozed-up bucket-and-spaders. Mass tourism made the Balearics and mass tourism threatens to destroy them. The key to the islands’ future lies in trying to find a solution to this dilemma.