Menorca: what to see, where to stay and how to get around
Maó sits on the cliff above one of the finest natural harbours in the Mediterranean, five kilometres long, and for most of the eighteenth century the British held it as a naval base. They left sash windows, gin, a naval hospital on an island and the habit of afternoon tea, and the French, who took it from them for a few years, left the island’s name on a sauce. Two hours on foot plus a boat trip.
A short history of Menorca
Menorca has hundreds of megalithic structures from the Talayotic period, among them huge T-shaped stone tables. In 1287 the King of Aragon captured the island from the Muslims. In 1708 the British seized it; they held it for most of the 18th century and moved the capital from Ciutadella to Mahón because of its large natural harbour. In 1802, under the Treaty of Amiens, the island returned to Spain for good. From the British period Mahón keeps houses with sash windows and the local gin industry. In 1993 the island was declared a biosphere reserve.
The ten best sights in Menorca
1MaóThe capital on the cliff over the harbour, with British sash windows
2Santa Maria, MaóA church with a giant organ of over three thousand pipes; noon concerts
3Illa del ReiA British naval hospital on an island in the harbour, now an art gallery
4La Mola FortressA huge nineteenth-century fortress guarding the harbour mouth
5Fort MarlboroughA British fort cut into the rock, with tunnels to walk
6Cales FontsA little harbour of boathouses cut into the cliff, now restaurants
7TrepucóA talayot and a T-shaped taula on the edge of Maó
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8Talatí de Dalt
A prehistoric village with a taula propped by a fallen pillar
9Torre d’en GalmésThe largest Talaiotic village on the island, on a hill
10Naveta des TudonsA stone tomb shaped like an upturned boat, three thousand years old
Scan with your phone camera to open the map there
What is an audio walk?
Tours in Menorca →A guide in your headphones: open the walk on our site, walk from stop to stop, and at each one your phone tells its story. No guide, no group, and free. This is the first walk in Menorca:
Free walking tours in Menorca
The British harbour
Maó sits on the cliff above one of the finest natural harbours in the Mediterranean, five kilometres long, and for most of the eighteenth century the British held it as a naval base. They left sash windows, gin, a naval hospital on an island and the habit of afternoon tea, and the French, who took it from them for a few years, left the island’s name on a sauce. Two hours on foot plus a boat trip.
- Santa Maria, Maó · The church holds an organ built in 1810 with more than three thousand pipes, brought from Switzerland and carried across Europe while Napoleon’s wars were being fought around it. A short recital is played at noon on most days.
- Mercat des Peix · The old fish market on the edge of the cliff is a hall of tapas counters now. The town has a story about the sauce: when the French took the harbour from the British in 1756, the duke of Richelieu’s cook improvised one from eggs and oil, and called it mahonnaise after the town. Nobody can prove it, and Maó tells it anyway.
- Port of Maó · The British used this deep harbour as their Mediterranean naval base before Malta, and the sailors’ taste for gin started a distillery on the quay that still makes it in copper stills from juniper. Locals drink it as a pomada, mixed with lemonade, especially at the summer festivals.
- Illa del Rei · A small island in the harbour where the British built a naval hospital in 1711. It was abandoned for decades, then restored by volunteers, and part of it is now an art gallery reached by a short boat ride from the quay.
- Cales Fonts · A tiny harbour in Es Castell, the town the British built as a garrison and named Georgetown. The boathouses cut into the cliff have become restaurants with tables on the water, and the streets of the town still form a parade-ground grid.
- La Mola Fortress · The Spanish built this enormous fortress at the mouth of the harbour in the mid-nineteenth century, when the harbour was still worth fighting over. It was never attacked; its tunnels, galleries and a giant coastal gun are open to walk.
The island of the giants’ tables
Three thousand years ago the people of Menorca built stone towers, villages and great T-shaped monuments called taulas, and the island has more prehistoric sites for its size than almost anywhere in Europe — recognised as a world heritage site in 2023. This route crosses the island from Maó to Ciutadella among them. A full day and a car; many sites are free and open fields.
- Trepucó · On the edge of Maó stands one of the largest taulas on the island: a vertical slab with a horizontal one laid across its top, inside a horseshoe-shaped enclosure. Nobody knows for certain what they were for; the best guess is a sanctuary, and the name means table.
- Talatí de Dalt · A Talaiotic village among olive and carob trees, where a stone pillar has fallen against the taula and leans on it at an angle — or was placed that way; archaeologists still argue. Around it are caves and hypostyle rooms where the villagers lived.
- Torre d’en Galmés · The largest prehistoric settlement on the island, on a hill with a view to the sea: three towers, a taula, houses and a system for collecting rainwater. People lived here from the Bronze Age into Roman times.
- Monte Toro · The highest point of Menorca, only three hundred and fifty metres, but from its sanctuary the whole island lies below, north coast and south. The legend says a bull led friars to a statue of the Virgin hidden in a cave here.
- Naveta des Tudons · A collective tomb built of large stones without mortar in the shape of an upturned boat, about three thousand years old, with two floors inside. It is often called the oldest roofed building in Europe still standing as it was built.
- Plaça des Born · In 1558 an Ottoman fleet besieged Ciutadella for a week, broke in, and carried off thousands of its people as slaves to Istanbul. The obelisk in the square remembers that year, which the town still calls the year of the misfortune. Every June, at the feast of Sant Joan, riders bring their horses rearing through the crowd in this square.
The horse path around the island
The Camí de Cavalls, the horse path, is a track that runs all the way round Menorca, built centuries ago so that mounted guards could watch the coast for raiders. Today it is a walking trail of about a hundred and eighty-five kilometres, and the island is a biosphere reserve. This route picks the best of its coves and capes. A full day; in summer the southern coves are reached by bus.
- Cala Macarella · A cove of white sand at the end of a ravine of pines, and a short walk along the horse path leads to its little sister, Macarelleta. To protect them the island closed the road to cars in summer, and a bus runs from Ciutadella instead.
- Cala en Turqueta · The name says turquoise and the water agrees. The cove sits in a bowl of pine forest with limestone cliffs on both sides, and early in the morning the only sound is the cicadas.
- Son Bou · The longest beach on the island, backed by dunes and a wetland, and at its eastern end stand the foundations of a fifth-century Christian basilica. Menorca was Christian early: a bishop of the island wrote in 418 a letter describing how the Jews of Mahón were pressed into conversion, one of the earliest such accounts.
- Cova d’en Xoroi · A cave halfway down a sheer cliff over the sea, reached by steps cut in the rock. The legend is of a shipwrecked Moorish pirate, Xoroi, who hid here with a local girl he had carried off and raised a family, until their footprints in the snow gave them away. Today it is a bar, and people come for the sunset.
- S’Albufera des Grau · A lagoon behind the dunes in the north-east, the core of the biosphere reserve declared in 1993. Ospreys fish here, and boardwalks run through the reeds to hides.
- Cap de Favàritx · A lighthouse at the end of a headland of black slate, bare and grooved, so unlike the rest of the island that it looks like another planet. On either side are wild beaches reached only on foot along the horse path.
Getting to Menorca and getting around
- Menorca Airport · Ten minutes from Maó; buses to Ciutadella across the island
- Port of Maó · One of the deepest natural harbours in the Mediterranean; boat trips and the gin distillery on the quay
Cheap eats in Menorca
Menorca’s cheese is Mahón, a square cow’s-milk cheese with an orange rind rubbed with paprika and oil, sold young, half-cured and old. Its other gift to the kitchen is the gin of the British years, drunk as a pomada with lemonade. And the dish of the island is caldereta de langosta, spiny lobster stewed with tomato in a clay pot in Fornells. The counter bites are sobrassada on bread and the cheese, a few euro.
- Fornells · Lobster stew in a clay pot
- Alaior · Mahón cheese tasted and sold at the dairies
- Port of Maó · Gin from the copper stills on the quay
- Mercat des Peix · Tapas counters in the old fish market
- Port of Ciutadella · Fish restaurants along the narrow inlet
- Cales Fonts · Tables at the water in the old boathouses
Museums in Menorca
Menorca’s great museum is the island itself — hundreds of prehistoric stone monuments in the fields, many of them free and unfenced. The forts and the naval hospital tell the story of the eighteenth century, when Britain, France and Spain fought over the harbour of Maó.
- Naveta des Tudons · The boat-shaped tomb, three thousand years old
- Torre d’en Galmés · The largest prehistoric village on the island
- Illa del Rei · The British naval hospital and the art gallery
- Fort Marlborough · Tunnels of a British fort cut in rock
- La Mola Fortress · Galleries and a giant coastal gun
Nature and day trips near Menorca
Menorca has been a biosphere reserve since 1993, and it shows: two different coasts — the south of white-sand coves in pine ravines, the north of red and black rock — linked by the horse path that rings the whole island, and a lagoon of birds in the north-east.
- S’Albufera des Grau · Boardwalks and hides at the lagoon
- Cala Pregonda · Red sand on the north coast
- Cap de Favàritx · Black slate around a lighthouse
- Cap de Cavalleria · Red cliffs and the northern light
- Cala Mitjana · A cliff-ringed cove on the horse path
- Bay of Fornells · Calm water for kayaks and windsurf
Things to do in Menorca with kids
Menorca is one of the calmest islands in the Mediterranean for families: shallow sandy coves, a bay for paddling and kayaks, and prehistoric villages where children can climb on stones three thousand years old.
- Son Bou · A long shallow sandy beach
- Bay of Fornells · Kayaks in flat water
- Es Grau · A calm little beach by a fishing village
- Torre d’en Galmés · Stone towers and giant tables to explore
- Fort Marlborough · Tunnels and soldiers’ stories
- Port of Maó · A glass-bottomed boat round the harbour
Holy places in Menorca
The oldest sacred places on Menorca are the taula sanctuaries of the Bronze Age. After them came early Christian basilicas, a cathedral built on a mosque in Ciutadella, and the island’s Virgin on its highest hill. And a letter from 418 records the forced conversion of the Jews of Mahón.
- Maó · The Jews of Magona and the letter of 418
- Trepucó · A taula sanctuary of the Bronze Age
- Ciutadella Cathedral · The minaret that became a bell tower
- Monte Toro · The island’s Virgin on its highest point
- Son Bou · A fifth-century basilica by the beach
Nightlife in Menorca
Menorca is quiet at night by design — no mega-clubs — and the evening is a harbour dinner, a cliff-cave bar at sunset, and the summer festivals of each town, when horses dance in the squares and the gin flows. The biggest is Sant Joan in Ciutadella in June.
- Cova d’en Xoroi · Sunset and late music in a cliff cave
- Plaça des Born · The feast of Sant Joan, late June
- Port of Ciutadella · Bars along the inlet
- Port of Maó · Harbour bars and the gin pomada
- Cales Fonts · Dinner on the water in Es Castell
Frequently asked questions about Menorca
What is there to see in Menorca?
The top sights in Menorca are Maó, Santa Maria, Maó and Illa del Rei. The full list on this page has 10 sights, each with a photo and a short note.
How many days do you need in Menorca?
Three to four days are enough to see the best of Menorca without rushing, including at least one walking tour.
Is there a free walking tour in Menorca?
Yes. sleepntrip has 3 free audio walks in Menorca, with no guide and no group: your phone tells the story at every stop. The first one: The British harbour.
How do you get to Menorca and get around?
The main ways are Menorca Airport and Port of Maó. Full details are in the transport section on this page.
Where to stay in Menorca, and for how much?
sleepntrip shows only rooms in Menorca that meet nine conditions: a good location, high guest scores, cleanliness, and a price of up to $80 a night for two. Pick your dates and see what is free.
Looking for a hotel in Menorca for your dates?
Only rooms that meet nine conditions, up to $80 a night.