The secluded resort of Punta Prima and its nearest neighbour
S'Algar
are both part of the municipal district of
Sant Lluís,
on the extreme south east corner of Menorca.
At a little over 10km, or 6 miles, the transfer into the resort from the
international
Aeropuerto de Menorca
is possibly one of the shortest on the island, and should usually take no more
than 15 minutes from the time you leave the airport grounds.
However, from first hand experience I can testify that, despite the relatively
short distance, it is very easy to lose you way and end up driving around the
southern residential suburbs of Mahon.
If however, you are one of those brave souls who prefer to hire a car at the
airport and make your own way into the resort, one thing that you should also be
aware of, is that in recent years the local Government has re-numbered most of
the roads on Menorca, so make sure that you have an up to date map before
setting out!
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 the growing number of independent
travellers who don't have the option of a tour operators coach transfer into
resort, and for whatever reason choose not to drive, there's always a large
number of taxis available outside the arrivals hall.
Although in theory at least, these taxi all operate on a fixed price basis, the
total cost of the journey is known to vary slightly, however as a very rough
guide the transfer to Punta Prima should cost around 25€ 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 will have to sit on their parent's 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 are in the resort, and have settled in to your accommodation, moving
around the town, or back into Mahon for shopping and sightseeing, is then fairly
easy by public transport. For local journeys during the day and well into the
early evening, a leisurely mini train runs around Punta Prima and into the
nearby resort of Binibeca, costing approximately 7€ a head for the round trip.
During the summer months there's usually around 8 or 9 buses a day, running
every hour, into the capital, and the 20 minute trip costs just over 1€ each
way. For the more adventurous, connections are then available to the rest of the
island.
On a number of occasions throughout the year, visitors to Menorca ask us for
details of bus timetables, however bitter experience has shown us that the term
"timetable" is sometimes too generous a term to best describe the time the buses
actually run, although these are published each year on the bus stop in town,
and on the
Transportes Menorca sa web site,
however, in all cases clearly no responsibility can be accepted as to either the
content or accuracy of information provided on these links.
Even by Menorcan standards this resort has to be described as being quiet, and
for many perhaps a little too quiet. However, if all you are looking for is a
beach, a couple of hotels and a shop, this may be the very place for you.
In its defence the resort does have two very well stocked supermarkets selling
the everyday holiday essentials along with a good selection of UK recognisable
branded goods, albeit at slightly higher prices than you would normally expect
to pay back home in the UK.
Punta Prima has a large sandy beach of fine white sand that has for many years
been spoilt by an ugly concrete structure that we understand is to be demolished
sometime "soon". However despite its size, the beach can still become very busy
at weekends due to its close proximity to Mahon.
The sea although very alluring, can also be quite dangerous, and caution is
needed when swimming due to strong offshore currents and rocks hidden under the
waves. A system of warning flags operates from above the Red Cross building, and
as with all beaches, green means safe, yellow warns you to be careful and red
you mustn’t swim at all. Ignore them at your own peril!
In recent years there has been fair amount of residential building works being
carried out around the south east corner of Menorca, and this has seen Punta
Prima grow quite substantially in size. We understand that the municipal council
has plans to re-develop the area immediately behind the main beach, which
include the construction of a wide traffic tree promenade running the length of
the resort, possibly funded the proceeds of the now defunct and much hated
tourist tax.
One thing to always remember though is the bureaucratic processes necessary to
approve this type of project are notoriously slow throughout all of Spain, and
it may be many years before visitors to this area of Menorca actually benefit
from these improvements.
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This website was launched on 1 May 2002
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