Recommendations for Menorca.

[MarioandLuigi]

I have never been to Menorca before, and am looking to book for summer 2012.

Can anyone recommend nice areas/resorts? I like it when there are quite a few things to do but dont like places that are really popular and heaving.

Also, anyone got any idea of the temp in the summer. Is it similar to Majorca where we have been before.

I don't think there is a 'bad' resort on Menorca. I like the Cituadela side (West) but I think the south and east have lots of family friendly resorts. Just around Mahon is popular with my friends and their 7 year old.

It is very hot in the Summer - July / Aug can be around 35 degrees, but usually on Menorca, there is a breeze, so you don't always feel the heat.

I've been visiting for many years. I would recommend the following, not in any particular order:

Son Bou - lovely long beach, watersports if you want, but a five minute walk up the beach and it's almost deserted (bliss), enough to do on an evening, but not too busy, pretty, got a small water park.

Arenal d'en Castell - really beautiful horseshoe beach, nice restaurants and bars , some evening entertainment. Scenic.

Santo Tomas - beach, bars, entertainment, but a fairly small resort

Punta Prima - white sand beach, a few restaurants and bars, fairly quiet.

Cala Galdana - the queen of coves apparently, very popular with lots of people but too busy for me.

Playa des Fornells a couple of km away from the gorgeous fishing town of Fornells, but has a beach, basically privately owned holiday accomodation with a few restaurants. Pretty. (Look on Owners Direct if you fancy this place)

Most of the resorts near Ciutadella don't have beaches, but are fairly busy, apart from Cala'n Bosch which has a beach and a marina, but it is a bit English, (for me) ditto Cala'n Porter.

The resorts near Mahon (Punta Prima, Binibeca are nice), but I prefer the more Menorcan towns of Es Grau and Sa Mesquida which aren't really in the UK tour
operator remit.

Good luck. I first went nearly 10 years ago, and have been back every year since.

Cala n bosch is by far the best we've been to.
Lovely marina with lots of nice restaurants round it, safe atmosphere, no clubs, no burger king/subway.
We have been twice and stayed at viva menorca, it was immaculately clean, great entertainment, lifeguard by pool.
Dd has stayed at the valentin star wirh my mum and they loved it there too.

Plus the healthcare in menorca is exvellent, ds1 spent a nite in the hospital in cuitadella, was like a hotel!

mosschops agree - my DS stuck a beach parasol spike in his foot once! They were lovely to us, even though our Spanish is quite poor.

Cala N Bosch is lovely.

We stayed at the Viva Menorca last year and, although is is a fair walk to the centre, we had a great time. Lovely accomodation and a great holiday.

We went to Cala Galdana a few years ago, it was late in the season so not too busy.

It was nice but we were really disappointed in the restaurants. We didn't have one good meal in the week we were there.

Also the beach was closed for the last couple of days because of a jellyfish invasion. Can't really hold that against the resort though.

we went to punta prima last year it was beautiful ,we hired a car and went around the whole island ,we are hooked and are going back this year to son bou and i cant wait and i think we will be booking very soon for next year cuitidella is feb x

this is where I have been looking at Has anyone been here or near?

Though everywhere looks really lovely, and thank you for your advice

Cala n forcat is a bit trashy imho. Very english, plenty of vest wearing men!
It has a burger king which is generally a no no for me sorry

Thats not the type of holiday we are looking for really. I need somewhere with a splash pool as DS2 LOVEs them!

Will continue the search :)

MarioandLuigi - we are going to Talayot this year!! I don't know what the resort is like but was looking for a splashpool too as DS2 loves water but has no inclination towards actually swimming. The complex looks really nice, hope it's not too busy though. We really wanted to go back to Miestral and Leibeg (sic?) in Santo Tomas as we had a great time there two years ago. Very small quiet resort, lovely beach.

MarioandLuigi We stayed here a few years back.Perfect in every way.Very close to shops,restaurants,beach etc.Pools are great and kids club.Would go back.Not too packed either and we went in June.

We're going to the Talayot in a couple of weeks (ok, a month, but it feels like a couple of weeks away) - didn't plan to do much other than stay around the pool(s) so hope it's not completely trashy! We needed somewhere suitable for my 78yo mum as well as 3yo DS. Oh, and DH. There's another kid to add to the mix ;)
Anyone know if the bus links to Cuitadella etc are easy to fathom out as I don't plan to drive while we're there. Thought we'd do a day trip or 2 to other beaches by bus.

The Talayot was superb, pretty clean apartments & had what we needed there even though they're pretty basic. Bus stop is right outside, we got it once but didn't find much of interest in Cuitadella to keep junior entertained. Kids Club at the apartments was superb & worth every penny...so much face painting & running around. DS didn't believe in siestas though, he was up by 8 every morning & wouldn't sleep until 10 or 11pm.

The swimming pools are pretty cold until you get acclimatised, and also the main pool is incredibly deep (over 6ft) for a large area, so we had to make sure DS was arm-banded up all the time.
There are quite a few playground areas too.
We really didn't get out much apart from a couple of walks down to the tiny beach - nice for a visit, but not a big fan of sand! The restaurants are all reasonable unless you're a vegetarian...choice in veggie food is limited to veg lasagne or basic pasta/cheese pizza if you're lucky. Most restaurants had this, not all had veggie salads, but were mostly accommodating if it was requested. Only had 1 terrible meal that was a takeaway & so nuked in the microwave I couldn't get my fork into the pie.
So, if you're looking for somewhere to entertain the kids, this is a wonderful place...if you're looking for somewhere that has plenty of things for the adults to do to, better go to a different area.