Spain's Balearic Islands

By Dave G. Houser

Mention to your friends that you'll be vacationing in the Balearic Islands and you're apt to draw a few blank stares. But for decades now Europeans in the know have been flocking to Spain's sunny Mediterranean archipelago, famous not only for its beautiful beaches and outrageous nightlife, but a stirring and colorful history.

Owing to their strategic location almost midway between Europe and Africa, the three major Balearic isles of Majorca, Ibiza and Menorca have attracted invading forces from some of antiquity's most famous civilizations, including the Phoenicians, Greeks, Carthaginians, Romans, Vandals, Byzantines and Moors.

Periodic invasions continue to the present day, especially during July and August, when hordes of pale-skinned Brits, Germans and Scandinavians swarm south to tan and frolic in one of Europe's most reliably agreeable climes.

While the islands' earliest inhabitants - a Celtiberian culture known for its fearsome fighting techniques employing stone slings and catapults (Balearic comes from the Greek ballein, (meaning to throw) - weren't so hospitable, modern-day residents will greet you with open arms. Tourism is the lifeblood of the Balearic economy and you'll find a well-developed infrastructure capable of satisfying virtually any vacation requirement.

The Balearics are easily reached via short connecting flights from Madrid or Barcelona -- often in less time than it takes to access such popular destinations as Hawaii or the Caribbean. Year-round ferry service links all three islands with mainland Spain and there are daily inter-island flights and ferries.

MAJORCA

Majorca is the largest and most popular of the Balearic Islands. It is the epicenter of touristic development, characterized by massive high-rise hotels, shopping centers and rambling resorts fanning out around the 30-mile perimeter of the Bay of Palma.

On the other hand, Majorca is the one island in the group where you might come to indulge in more than beach activities and nightlife with scope and size (1,405 square miles) to explore and travel about. More than 1,250 miles of paved roads provide access to a remarkably scenic coastline, pine-forested mountains, lively fishing ports, ancient monasteries and the Balearics' one real city, Palma.

Lest you specifically seek the mid-summer mayhem that is Majorca, particularly in the aforementioned resort areas around the Bay of Palma, come during the fringe seasons - May through mid-June or mid-September through October - when the weather remains ideal but crowds thin considerably.

Regardless of your resort choice, you'll find a mind-boggling selection of recreational pursuits, including some of Europe's best golf courses, tennis, cycling, horseback riding, boating and a variety of other water sports. Restaurants are plentiful, catering to nearly every taste known to Europe.

What I'm leading to here is that you won't need my suggestions to maximize your resort time. I would urge you, however, to venture out, either renting a car or hiring a car and driver, to explore this unusually beautiful and varied island. With that, I can assist by sharing some of my favorite Majorcan things to see and do.

Touring the countryside is a top priority, of course, but don't miss the opportunity to explore Palma. In many ways like a mainland Spanish city, Palma is solid, bustling and cosmopolitan. Home to more than 300,000 people - two-thirds of the island population - it seems to have its own agenda with only a passing relevance to the tourist enclaves around its bay.

Palma's sprawling yacht harbor and seaside promenade present one of the Mediterranean's most elegant settings, backed by the grand golden bulk of its Gothic Cathedral (La Seo) at one end and the white, circular battlements of the 14th century Bellver Castle at the other.

Any exploration of Palma logically begins at spacious Parque del Mar fronting the bay at the foot of the Cathedral. Cutting up from the harbor, tree-lined Av. D'Antoni Maura leads past the Cathedral and Almundaina Palace, once home to Moorish and Majorcan kings, to the lively central paseo known as Es Born. This elongated plaza, which at one time hosted jousting tournaments, is now the hub of Palma's social life.

Tourists and local businessmen meld at the many cafes lining the plaza. At dusk, the leafy promenade comes alive with strolling couples while old men sit on stone benches reliving memories in the fading light.

Take time to visit the Cathedral. It's a magnificent building and certainly, the equal to any you'll find on the Spanish mainland. Built on the foundation of the Moorish Great Mosque following the Christian reconquest in 1299, it reveals some unique modernista interior features designed in the early 1900's by Antoni Gaudi whose architectural fantasies so enliven the boulevards of Barcelona.

A journey up the western coast to the dramatic northern tip at Cabo Formentor makes for a splendid day trip from bayside resorts at Santa Ponsa, Palma Nova and Illetas.

At Andraitx, with its simple stone buildings, you'll find Majorca's oldest church, dating from the early 13th century. Continue a few miles down to the coast and Puerto Andraitx for a glimpse at a typical working fishing village. A number of good seafood restaurants line its gritty waterfront.

Continuing up the cliff-lined coast to Valldemossa, you'll want to pay a visit to the former Carthusian Monastery, La Cartuja, the island's most visited attraction after La Seo Cathedral. It was here that scandal-prone French authoress George Sand and her Polish lover Frederic Chopin spent the winter of 1838. Making local history, at least, Sand wrote the book A Winter in Majorca (a none too complimentary tome in which she described her neighbors as Òbarbarians, thieves and monkeys"), and Chopin turned out one of his better compositions, Raindrop Prelude.

Scenery along the next ten miles of coastline is the most exciting on the island. Rising on the right are wooded mountain slopes broken by terraced fields and olive groves. To the left, more terraces lead to the cliff's brink with sheer drops of several hundred feet to the sea below.

The charming village of Deya, with its honey-colored stone cottages and cobbled lanes, has been a favorite haunt of writers and artists ever since the late, great English author and poet Robert Graves adopted it as his permanent home in the 1940's.

From Deya the coastal road bends and twists around jagged sawtooth ridges then climbs inland and through a mountain pass. From this summit you can see the town of S—ller on a plain below, surrounded by groves of lemon, orange and almond trees. Rising in the background is 4,900-foot-high Puig Mayor, Majorca's highest mountain.

Nearing the island's northern tip at Cabo Formentor, a stop at Puerto Pollensa is in order, perhaps to dine or sip a drink at one of the cafes on the tree-shaded promenade - then cross the road and plunge from white sand into a clear blue sea.

The nine-mile drive along Cabo Formentor is a dramatic one. The cliffs here at land's end tower nearly a thousand feet above the sea. Watch for the turn-off to Mirador de Formentor for the best view of the impressive cape itself - and a glimpse back at pretty Puerto Pollensa.

IBIZA

The Moors gave Ibiza the distinctive character that led to its name - the White Island. And in the 1960's, hordes of fun-loving hippies gave Ibiza an image that firmly established it as one of Europe's trendiest and most tolerant resorts.

The predominant architectural style throughout this arid, hilly 220-square-mile islet still evolves around the white adobe cube. Ibiza's carefree Bohemian spirit lives on as well in its floating summer population of nouveau-riche trendies, artists, musicians, punks, gays and an outrageous assortment of cross-dressers, transvestites and outright freaks.

Tolerance remains a virtue here as well. Which is to say that the goofy glitterati will readily accept you - the clean-cut, conventional American visitor - providing you respond in kind. So, with a live-and-let-live attitude in place, let's have a look at Ibiza's touristic possibilities.

Whether by air or sea, you'll arrive in the capital and port town of Ibiza or, as it is known in the Catalan dialect of the Balearics, Evissa. Most points of historic interest and much of the action centers in D'Alt Vila the walled old town that rises above the harbor and the new town to the west.

You'll enter the citadel through the main gate, Portal de Ses Taules, which leads into Placa Desamparados, a sizable plaza packed with shops, bars and restaurants. Further up the main street, Sa Carrossa, you'll encounter a contemporary art museum and access to the top of the walls for some great views over the town. A tunnel leads to Cathedral Square atop the citadel.

A small museum at the 13th century cathedral features ecclesiastic garments and regalia. More interesting is the adjacent Museu D'Alt Vila, newly refurbished and housing an excellent collection of local archaeological finds the majority of which are from Phoenician and Carthaginian (Punic) sites around the island.

Nightlife and its perpetual parade of oddballs and fashion victims centers in old town and in Sa Penya Quarter, snuggled between the harbor and the ramparts. Take a waterfront stroll after dinner to observe the antics at the Zoo Bar or gay clubs such as Bobby's or Teatro. Even if you haven't heard of Amnesia, Pacha, Ku, Space or Kiss, you'll certainly be made aware of these discos by teams of outlandishly attired PR flacks who each evening descend on town in a whirl of enthusiasm to drum up business.

My favorite excursion cuts right across the center of the island to the north coast village of Portinax. You can follow the main road or zigzag along secondary routes but either way you'll pass some of Ibiza's finest countryside - a pretty patchwork of olive and almond groves and small farms fanning out around sugar cube cottages.

The final approach to Portinax twists through a beautiful valley sided by olive groves and fringed with pines. Although tourism has pretty much taken over here in the form of hostels, souvenir shops and chiringuitos (beach bars), aging Izebenos still fish and farm much as they always have, scarcely taking note of the holiday swarm.

At Cala Xarraca and Cala Xula, just to the west of Portinax, you'll find idyllic little cove beaches with sparkling clear water and rocks from which you can dive into the sea. Another lovely string of cove beaches - Playa des Cara, Cala Nova, Cala Llena and Cala Mestilla-extend northward from the town of Santa Eularia on the northeast coast.

MENORCA

Greener, softer and more subtle than its Balearic neighbors, Menorca is for those seeking a quiet, sensible vacation. No Yamaha-racing yahoos or boozing Euro-brats are likely to disturb the peace here.

That's not to say that some of Menorca's best beaches have been spared the typical Mediterranean mega-development. But the majority of visitors seem to be middle-class, middle age Britons, many with children in tow; hence, a more subdued, family oriented atmosphere prevails.

Although it shares with its neighbors a nearly identical history of invasion and occupation, plus a brief period under British rule in the 18th century, Menorca boasts by far the greatest number of reminders of its prehistoric past - primitive stone remains that litter much of the countryside. These rock mounds and giant T-shaped stone monuments known as taulas are linked to the second century BC Talayot culture though little is known about their original function or purpose. The best-preserved and most accessible examples can be seen at Taula de Torralba just east of Mahón (Maó) and at Torre de'en Gaumes south of Alayor.

Another of Menorca's distinctive features is that it has two main towns, Mahón , the current capital, at the eastern end and Ciudadela, the former Moorish capital, at the western end. The British moved the seat of power to Mahón in 1722, establishing a naval base at its enormous natural deep-water harbor that even today can dock the largest of cruise ships.

British architectural influence can still be seen in a number of classical Georgian sash-windowed townhouses around Mahón 's pleasant squares. The island's three gin distilleries serve as an even more pointed reminder of English taste. Some of this, of course, may go to explain why the Brits still possess such an affinity for Menorca.

Cuidadela, on the other hand, is quite a different place. Its narrow, cobbled streets lined with whitewashed arches have a distinctly Moorish/Andalusian feel to them. As does Mahón , Ciudadela overlooks its harbor but here silting has rendered it useless to all but small pleasure craft. Nonetheless, its waterfront promenade, lined with restaurants and backed by remnants of the old city walls, presents one of Menorca's most appealing settings.

The most obvious excursion on this slender, boomerang-shaped isle is to motor between Mahon and Ciudadela, taking in the taulas and the island's high point, literally speaking. That's 1,800-foot-high Mont Toro from which you can view almost the entire island and peruse a charming old monastery where there's a memorial to Menorcan settlers who were among the founders of St. Augustine, Florida.

Branching off the main road north or south you're never more than a few miles from the coast. Go south, for example, from Alayor to Playa de Son Bou where there's a nice beach and some man-made caves dating to the Bronze Age. A number of them have been turned into discos and cafes.