In mid September, my friend Emma and I spent 4 nights in the island of Menorca, Spain. We got there late in the afternoon and walked around the island a bit in the early evening. We stayed in Cuitadella, the more historical side of the island.
The next day we went to Cala del Pilar. We drove our little Fiat rental car down the back roads, almost not making it past a group of cows, to get to this beach. It was a quick hike in to this gorgeous, red sand beach. People were covering their whole bodies with paste they created from the red clay, which is supposed to have many benefits for your skin! After the beach, we had sangria, paella, and Menorcan cheese — the perfect combination of flavors, so cheap too!
We also went kayaking at Cala Galdana. Although I would not recommend spending too much time on the beach itself since it was terribly crowded, kayaking around the nearby area was super nice. For lunch we got a Spanish omelette and sausage honey pizza. We went swimming at Cala en Blanes in the afternoon. This was one of my favorite spots throughout the entire trip because of its unique environment. It was on a small inlet from the ocean and on the cliff sides, sections of rock were leveled out for people to sit on and jump off of. The water was the most brilliant turquoise color I have ever seen! We cliff jumped and swam with the little fish.
We spent our final day around Mahon. We explored Binibeca, which is a town that has an adorable all white building fisherman’s village! We last minute changed our plan to return our rental car on that Tuesday night, since the car rental place didn’t open early enough the next morning. It would have been too out of the way to bus all the way back to our Airbnb, so we decided to sleep at the airport. We got to the airport around 8pm, only to be told that the airport isn’t open 24/7. So we frantically googled 24 hr restaurants or clubs nearby, but the airport is in the middle of nowhere so we struck out. After much deliberation, we decided to sleep outside the airport on a random piece of concrete in a grass field! We took shifts sleeping and I think I could only sleep about 30 minutes before I woke up freezing and covered in condensation! But despite the last bit, this was an amazing trip filled with gorgeous waters, historic buildings, gelato and paella, and sandy beaches.