Menorca FTW!

Just back from 11 days in Menorca; the temperature was a balmy 29 - 31 degrees for the duration of our stay, the skies a beautiful blue (one for fourstar), and the sea and pool temperature perfect (not the freezing water conditions we'd been warned of by a couple of people).



We stayed in Santo Tomas on the south coast; about a 30 minute drive from the capital, Mahon. The apartments we stayed in were excellent, mostly because of this:-



a splash pool that was no more than 18 inches at its deepest, which meant that the boys could play in there without Doug or me having watch them constantly for imminent signs of drownage. Totally relaxing.

There were two other pools in the complex, both with adjoining childrens' pools and a bar; perfect for heading to once the sun had dipped behind the palm trees, leaving it cool and shady. But the boys especially loved the splash pool, especially once we had been gifted a couple of inflatables from holidaymakers going home.


The beach was a v short walk away from the apartment and was relatively busy, but certainly not up to the cheek by jowl standards of the costas in peak season. One of the most enjoyable parts of the holiday was going along at around 7pm and staying for the hour till sunset - still warm, but not so baking that you spend every minute slapping factor 50 on the kids or retreating into the sea to cool down.


We hired a car, so managed to get to Ciutadella (former capital of the island):-




Fornells (harbour on the north coast famous for spiny lobsters and big yachts, but it wasn't one of Roman's):-




Aquapark (water park with top slides, too busy sliding to take photos), Cala Morells (cave dwellings):-



Son Bou (for the, erm, supermarket, no photo) and Mahon (boat trip around the harbour in a glass bottomed boat):-




Because its such a family oriented holiday destination we saw none of the bad behaviour typically associated with the brits abroad and most of the restaurants had a kids' playground attached, allowing the parents to relax with their meal while their offspring messed around on climbing frames. At the edge of Santo Tomas, there was a particularly nice seafood restaurant that overlooked the sea; while Jacob and Sam made new friends, Doug and I relaxed with a bottle of wine and watched the sunset. Lovely.