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Menorca is something of the ignored middle child of Spain’s Balearic Islands. With hard-partiers Ibiza (smaller than Menorca) and Majorca (bigger) right next door, it’s not like you could call Menorca “undiscovered.” But it is so spectacularly overshadowed by its good-time siblings that Menorca could run naked down the street covered in cheese and still go unnoticed. And gosh-darnit if that didn’t work in the island’s favor: If Majorca and Ibiza are where you go for sex, drugs, and rock-n-roll, Menorca is the designated recovery tent where you go to sleep it all off.
Also called “Minorca,” this is one of the most untouched of the Mediterranean’s heavily-touched environments. This is fairly surprising, since so many empires have sloshed through that you’d think everything would be pounded flat. Instead, in the cities of Ciutadella, the old capital, or Mahón, the current capital, you have an exotic mish-mash of cultures and styles in everything from the buildings to the food. In a way, the current Catalan-speaking populace is something of a Johnny-come-lately.
And unlike the more internationalized Ibiza and Majorca, Menorca still has a lot of its native culture intact and actively pushes that as the main reason to visit. The “season” is during a slew of native festivals, or fiestas, kicking off in June and going straight through to September, each and every one dedicated to a saint (Menorcans are all good Catholics). Predictably, the grandest of them all are the first, the Sant Joan de Ciutadella, and the last, the Sant Nicolau en Es Mercadal, but it’s not like the ones in between are demure affairs. Menorca may not be the center of the party universe, but are still talking about Spaniards. Trust me, a party is a party.
But even that can’t soften the whallop Menorca sends across your teeth when it comes to a stunning backdrop. With 216 km of coastline spangled with over 70 beaches and coves and a rocky, wild interior slashed with gorges and mountains, Menorca is as close to a garden paradise this neck of the Mediterranean gets. Throw in absolutely ancient necropolises rising from the high meadows and suddenly the thumpa-thumpa-thumpa of Ibiza isn’t so important. It is any wonder the island (all of it!) is UNESCO Biosphere Reserve? I think not!
In short, Menorca is what Ibiza and Majorca used to be before the tourists got there — and that’s no small trick considering massive overdevelopment is really in right now. So get it while the getting’s good.
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