An island you can walk all the way round

Menorca is the easternmost of the Balearic Islands, and a deliberately quiet one. The whole island has been a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve since 1993, and it shows: hotels are low, the interior is farmland divided by dry-stone walls and olive-wood gates, and much of the shoreline can be reached only on foot. Its two main towns, Maó in the east and Ciutadella in the west, sit 45 kilometres apart at either end of a single main road.

The coast has two characters. In the south, white limestone cliffs and pine woods close around coves of pale sand and clear turquoise water: Macarella, Turqueta, Mitjana. The north is rougher and darker, with reddish sand at Cala Pregonda and slate-grey rock around the Favàritx lighthouse. Between them runs the Camí de Cavalls, an old bridle path that follows the entire shoreline.

History lies close to the surface. Hundreds of prehistoric stone monuments stand in the fields, left by the Talayotic culture and added to the World Heritage List in 2023. The British held the island for much of the eighteenth century and gave Maó its Georgian townhouses and its gin. Eat Mahón cheese, lobster stew in the fishing village of Fornells, and a warm ensaïmada for breakfast.