A few weeks ago in early June it had been pretty gloomy and rainy in Biarritz, so feeling deprived of vitamin D I told Brent “We HAVE to go find summer and sunshine somewhere this weekend!” He did a quick search for cheap flights and we saw $150 tickets available from Bilbao (a town in Spain about and hour and a half drive from Biarritz) to Menorca. We did a quick Google image search (or my favorite – a Pinterest search) of Menorca and immediately realized we had to make this trip happen, it was too good to be true. Brent’s boss was nice enough to let him take Friday off, so with only three days notice, we booked our flights, and shortly after found ourselves sitting on the white beaches of Cala Galdana, completely blown away by the bluest, clearest water we had ever seen!!!
Menorca is one of the Balearic Islands located in the Mediterranean Sea, on the eastern coast of Spain. The other more well known Balearic Islands are Mallorca and Ibiza, which you may have heard of. The drive to Bilbao was only a little over an hour (no traffic – sweet!) and the flight from Bilbao to this island was only an hour and a half. We landed at the airport Thursday evening, picked up our rental car, which of course Brent had researched and found an amazing deal on, and headed to our adults-only hotel, Sol Beach House Menorca. ADULTS ONLY!!! Who even knew those existed? We didn’t, but they do, and are amazing. It turned out to be occupied by a lot of old people, but hey – I’ll take quiet old people over screaming children any day. Our hotel was located on Playa Santo Tomas, a little stretch of beach sprinkled with straw umbrellas and palm trees. It actually reminded me a lot of our vacations in Hawaii because it was lined with nice, clean, big resorts – all connected by one long boardwalk that was perfect for evening sunset strolls and morning runs.
The view from our hotel room, at our Adults Only!!! hotel.
Brent enjoying some Spanish Rosé from our hotel room balcony.
Friday morning we set out with one major goal in mind : to find Brent a boat. Menorca is made up of tons of small, isolated, aqua-blue, breathtaking coves, or ‘calas’, that can only be reached by hiking to (not Brent’s favorite in the summer heat) or via boat, so of course Captain Brent wanted a boat. He had done some research and knew what direction to head, so our first stop was Cala Galdana. Cala Galdana turned out to not only be my most favorite beach in the world to date, but also where all of Captain Brent’s dreams came true – a small boat rental stand was setup at the end of the beach where you could rent small boats by the hour and take them off to explore the island. We put our names on the list for the next available boat and spent the next few hours hanging out on the beach until our boat was ready.
Cala Galdana is definitely one of the most beautiful beaches I have ever seen. The water was like a swimming pool – the most un-real aqua blue and so clear you could see the shadows of all the yachts on the ocean floor – words and photos cannot even do this place justice. We hiked to the top of the surrounding cliffs to get a birds-eye view which, even in person, did not seem real! Graphic, colorful umbrellas sprinkled the beach and there was a snack stand and bar where I discovered one of the best mojitos I’ve ever had, made with dark rum, crushed ice (crushed ice makes everything better) and chunky brown sugar. We swam, tanned and drank mojitos in this paradise until our boat was ready!
Birds eye view of Cala Galdana
Captain Brent was so beyond stoked to be on his boat. The boat was small but was the perfect size for the two of us, the captain in his seat and a nice padded flat area up front for me to lay. We set off and cruised both north and south to explore the coves. We dropped anchor in a few coves to take a dip, drink a beer, enjoy the view… little did we know this ‘view’ would often include naked men and topless women. We are used to the topless women now, we see that everyday in Biarritz, but the dudes… that was a new one for us – ha! Brent said he had read that a few of the coves were nude coves, so I guess it made sense. But we cracked up when we would pull our tiny boat up to a big fancy yacht in a cove and the captain of the yacht would be standing on the deck, fully nude, letting ‘everything’ just swing in the wind. But either way, nude or not, it was so epic to be chillin’ on a boat in the Mediterranean, surrounded by fancy yachts, blue water and topless (and bottomless) people. It felt like we were in a movie.
Captain Meatneck on his B O A T ! ! !
Pulling into breathtaking coves to take a dip!
After all day in the sunshine we headed back to our hotel in Santo Tomas, stopping at Mibo to get some Alvarcas – the famous sandals that are made on the island. After we headed to the famous bar, Cova d’en Xoroi, north of hotel on another side of the island to check it out. It looked cool online – built into a cliff over the water, perfect for watching the sunset, but when we got there it was super touristy and crowded and was a bit of a rip off, so we had one drink and then headed back to Santo Tomas for dinner.
Saturday morning, after a big buffet breakfast in our hotel (which included things like eggs and pancakes – so simple but SO exciting when we live in France and never get that!) we headed out to explore more of the island. We stopped at Cala Galdana for a bit for another mojito and more of that crystal clear water, and then drove to the other side of the island to explore more coves. We found a gorgeous cove where we ended up eating lunch (and Brent got complimented on his perfect Spanish – so he was excited), but the water here was filled with jelly fish, so we couldn’t swim. So off to another cove that involved a bit of a hike, but Brent was excited to discover waves in this cove, with about 7 guys out surfing. We sat and watched the surfers for a bit but there were also jellyfish in this water, so we decided to head back to our favorite Cala Galdana for one last swim.
Sunday morning was sad, I did NOT want to leave. After breakfast we went for one more swim out in front of our hotel, in the perfect water, before we had to head back home. It was one of the best summer weekends I’ve ever had, and I already can’t wait to go back to Menorca again someday. And hopefully someday soon because tickets are still only $150!!!
