Menorca travel tips and stories. Vacations ideas, cruises, spa and resorts

Menorca is the smallest sister island of Majorca. The island offers a beautifully hilly landscape and pine-fringed coast with more beaches than all the other Balearic Islands – combined with silver and golden sand to tiny calas. It is blissfully free of tourist development and was designated a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve in 1993. Photo by: Stu Worrall

Menorca is renowned for its stone megaliths, some 1,600 of them dotted all over the island, attesting to a prehistoric civilization dating from 2000 BC. From Monte Toro – the highest point at 355 m – there are panoramic views of rolling countryside increasingly wild and rugged to the north and carpeted with a patchwork of fields to the south. Photo by: let²

Mahon, the island’s capital on the east coast is a sleepy, elegant city of Georgian architecture built during a period of British colonial rule in the 18th century. It has one of the world’s largest natural harbours, cause of a centuries – long squabble between the English, French and Spanish, and is surrounded by astonishing scenery. But the architectural jewel is the island’s crown – the medieval Moorish town of Ciutadella, with its narrow maze of streets, old walls and beautiful Baroque 17th century places. Photo by: let²

When to go: May to early July and September to October if you want to avoid the worst of the holiday season yet still take advantages of the Mediterranean climate. Population: 88,434. How to get there: Boat from Palma, Majorca, Barcelona or Valencia; direc international flights to Mahon. Photo by: Stu Worrall

Photo by: let²