Guide to S'algar, Menorca

S'Algar situated on the south east coast a few km from Mahon, is a purpose built resort consisting of two large hotels quite a few apartment complex's and privately owned villas. Some holiday brochures state there is a small beach in resort. This is not true the closest is at Cala Alcaufar a steady fifteen minute walk.

Cala Alcaufar is very picturesque, a long narrow inlet (cala) with fishermen's cottages, beautiful villas and a small hotel ( Xuroy) with a bar and terrace along one side of the inlet. It's an ideal place if you have small children, they can play quite safely, although the beach is not one of Menorca's best. There are also lovely walks out to an old Martello type tower on a headland, where there are good views out to S'Algar and the Isle de L'Aire at Punta Prima.

A personal view of the S'Algar Holiday Resort Kindly sent in by Bruce Thomson

Well firstly there is little evidence that this used to be a nice little fishing village! This is a purpose built resort, built by a family business, its focused around a sports hotel and four apartment type hotels and the Hotel S'Algar itself which is right down on the sea front, there is a large lido and the seashore is rocky, so all the day time action is either here, around the pools or elsewhere!

Each of the hotels and apartment blocks have their own "food" flavor, we stayed in the Los Naranjos (which was nice, although the bed was well warn)!, it had a snack bar; which according to the S'Algar guide says it specializes in paellas, this is complete rot they just sell the standard pealla range! However we snacked here a number of times and the food was fine.

Elsewhere in the resort you will find a Pizzeria Grill at the Las Palmeras (we went her twice in the evenings), it somehow felt like a cross been a Scandinavian school and one of those new style wood finish churches! However the food was good, we did not try the Restaurant S'Algar, I don't think they liked the look of our six year old (which is odd in Spain), however this is obviously the posh place in turn with a very extensive menu. Worthy of note is that if you are full or half board you can eat anywhere, you not just in the hotel you are staying in (see your rep for more info).

Night times are mainly centered around the hotels and bar restaurants, with the S'Algar sports hotel putting on a children's show / disco most nights at , however this closes down at mid night, as do most of the bars. Finally there are some places to go in the commercial area down near the sea front. In including, a bakery, gift shop, car hire/bank shop, supermarket (one of two, the other being at the S'Algar sports).

Its a good base for a holiday, it is very clean and tidy no building work! Its hard to complain about anything other than the supermarkets not really having much stock (no milk one day, but this could have been end of the season run down). There are buses to Mahon and Punta Prima which I understand are free! There is also the water sports centre / diving school that will take beginners as well as cater for the more advanced.

We gave S'Algar a 'worth a visit' rating of 5 But 10 for water sports.
We gave Cala Alcaufar a 'worth a visit rating of 8.