The popular resort of Cala'n Blanes lies on the extreme west coast of Menorca, approximately 5km west of the former capital of the island Ciutadella, and some 50km, or 30 miles, west of Mahon and the International Aeropuerto de Menorca.

For all intents and purposes, Cala'n Blanes along with its neighbours Cala'n Forcat and Los Delfines, have now all merged to form the one resort that is possibly the largest tourist development on the island. However, in typically Spanish style, this development appears to have been carried out without any real central master plan.

The whole area around Cala'n Blanes is one of Menorca's newest resort destinations, that for the most part has only been built from the late 1980's onwards to accommodate an increasing demand for holiday accommodation on the island.

With the exception of a couple of fair sized hotels, accommodation here is mainly self catering apartments and privately owned villas, and as a generalisation would be best suited towards families with young children or younger couples.

In recent years the transfer into the resort has been made considerably easier with the construction of the RC-1 Ronda Nord Ciutadella northern bypass, however, it has to be said that the journey west across the island along the main ME-1, although being very straightforward, is not particularly fast, and may take between 1 - 1.1/4 hours from the time of leaving the airport grounds.

As with the other resorts on the island, we have put together the basic route for this journey, complete with links to maps where appropriate, and this is available from the Route Map link on the left hand frame of this page.

For those visitors on traditional tour operators package holidays, and who have paid for the optional extra resort transfer, this journey will be totally inconsequential, however, for the ever growing numbers of independent travellers, if the prospect of this journey seems a little daunting you should seriously consider making the transfer by taxi, and then possibly hiring a car once in the resort.

During the summer, taxis are always plentiful outside of the arrivals hall of the airport, and although in theory at least, they all operate on a fixed price basis, the total cost of a journey is known to vary slightly, however, as a very rough guide the transfer to Cala'n Blanes should normally cost around 65€ for a taxi carrying 4 people plus luggage.

It's also worthwhile mentioning that as a rule, taxis do not normally carry child seats, so very small children may have to sit on their parents knees for the journey.

If this is a cause for concern, we strongly recommend that you make arrangements for a pre-booked taxi to be waiting for you, and clearly specify at the time of booking that a child seat is needed for the journey. Pre-booked taxis are often a little more expensive, although as with all things in life, you only get what you pay for.

Once you have settled in to your accommodation, public transport both around the resort and beyond is surprisingly good for Menorca. For local journeys, a leisurely mini train runs around the resort during the day and well into the early evening, and for journeys further afield the west coast bus service operated by Torres Alles Autocares sa make the short trip east towards Ciutadella, approximately every 20 to 30 minutes.

Once in Ciutadella further journeys on the Transportes Menorca sa network can then be made east towards Mahon. The timetables for these routes are published each year on the bus stops throughout the town, and also on their respective web sites, although, in all cases clearly no responsibility can be accepted as to either the content or accuracy of information provided on these external links.

Cala'n Blanes and the surrounding area, is very popular with British visitors, and in recognition of the high number of private holiday villas' and self catering apartments in the town, the resort has a good selection of shops and SPAR type supermarkets that should cater for the everyday holiday essentials, with most also stocking a wide selection of UK recognised branded goods, albeit at slightly higher prices than you would normally expect to pay back home. However, for a wider selection of both designer labels and local crafts you will need to head into nearby Ciutadella.

Much of the west coast of Menorca around Cala'n Blanes is very rugged, with deep rocky inlets that are not too dissimilar to the coastline around Cala d'or on east coast of Majorca.

In all fairness Cala'n Blanes has probably the best beach in the area, but it can become very crowded during the peak summer weekends. In contrast, the nearby Cala'n Forcat beach is really little more than a deep inlet that has a number of concrete platforms to dive or swim off.

The resorts of Cala'n Blanes and Cala'n Forcat are often described by the major tour operators as being "lively". By Menorcan standards they probably are, however, don't arrive expecting to find another Magaluf or Playa de las Americas here, Menorca just isn't like that, which for most people who holiday here is attraction enough.

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This website was launched on 1 May 2002

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