Beaches in Balearic Islands

Four limestone islands with a coastline cut into hundreds of coves, sharing a geology and differing entirely in what has been built on it. Mallorca's south-east is a chain of small calas — a short arc of pale sand between two rock arms, pine standing to the water, and nothing built, because most of them lie inside protected areas and are reached on foot. Several are now managed with summer road closures and shuttle buses, having proved unable to hold the numbers arriving. The island's north-west is the other Mallorca: the Serra de Tramuntana, a World Heritage cultural landscape of terraced mountain falling into the sea, with very little sand and the Sa Calobra road at the end of it. Menorca is quieter, holds a UNESCO biosphere designation, and its best coves require a walk from a car park along the Cami de Cavalls, the bridle path that rings the island. Ibiza has the same rock and a different economy, one built on the clubs of the west coast and the sunset bars of Sant Antoni, with quiet northern coves that share nothing with them but the geology. Formentera, reached only by ferry and with no airport, has the long white sand the other three do not, on a spit where the seagrass meadows offshore are themselves World Heritage listed. The season runs May to October and August is extreme on all four. Practically: ferries connect the islands and the mainland, a hire car is close to essential for the coves except on Formentera where a scooter does, and both car and room need booking well ahead for July and August.

Four of the six are hidden coves; the rest are beach-club shores. All sit on sheltered water. Together they account for 1.1 km of shore. · computed from the 6 records below