The popular resort of Los Delfines 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, Los Delfines along with its neighbours
Cala'n Blanes
and
Cala'n Forcat,
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 Los Delfines 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 Los Delfines 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 parent's knee 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.
Los Delfines 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 Los Delfines 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 nearby 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
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 Los Delfines, Cala'n Forcat and Cala'n Blanes are often described
by the major tour operators as being "lively". By Menorcan standards they
probably are, however, don't go 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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