It’s

It’s
been an unusually cloudy day on the northern fringes of
Menorca, and after chasing the patches of blue sky along the coast
we settle into two wicker armchairs in a café in Ferreries, a
sun-bleached town folded into acres of pine tree-covered hills.
With drizzle awaiting us in London, we tip our heads back and wait
desperately for the sun to tear through the clouds. It was only in
that moment that I heard it: silence. No background hum of
conversation. No murmur of traffic. Not so much as a bicycle bell
or a faraway radio. Complete, utter silence, broken momentarily by
the cartoon-like tweet of a bird overhead.

While many tourists flock to nearby Ibiza for its nightlife or
Mallorca for its coastline, Menorca remains the quieter,
lesser-known island of the mighty Balearic archipelago. It is still
largely astonishingly untouched, deliciously stuck in a past of
unmarked beaches, chiming church bells and rugged farmland pocked
with crumbling shepherd’s huts.

You feel yourself slow down almost as soon as you make contact
with the ground here. The pace is, at times, laughably unhurried.
Mealtimes happen at any time between 8PM and midnight, and even the
centre of the capital comes to a halt at siesta time. The island
was declared a Unesco Biosphere Reserve in the Nineties, protecting
it from the growing tourist developments that have scarred Ibiza
and Mallorca. It takes only a few hours – with a loosening of the
shoulders and a few sips of local wine – to adjust to its woozy,
unfussy mindset.

Locals have a strong, instinctual sense of the land. The island
is full of artisans – dairy farmers, painters and cobblers – using
methods handed down by their grandparents. They use the resources
surrounding them, from baskets made with woven palms to cheese,
olive oil and wine all infused with the sun-drenched taste of the
earth. They eat freshly-caught fish, buy their meat from local
farms, and cook with whatever produce the land has to offer. Monika
Linton, the founder of the Spanish restaurant Brindisa, cherishes
this quality. “For nine months of the year it is the agricultural
rhythms of life that permeate the island,” she says. This
resourcefulness, coupled with a healthy disrespect for the pace of
modern living, gives Menorca such a strong sense of identity that
you can touch, smell and taste it – and never, even for a moment,
mistake it for anywhere else.

DAY ONE

The car bumping over the ground like a fairground cart, we
approached Binigaus Vell’s front door on a long farm track flanked
by crumbling dry-stone walls and towering cacti. Situated half a
mile from the sleepy town of Es Migjorn Gran, the hotel is a
converted 400-year-old cattle farm overlooking the glimmering
southern coast. It is a sprawling collection of old sculleries and
outhouses, with an opulent main house at its heart. Seconds after
learning that they ran their own stables, we had booked ourselves a
horse ride for the next morning.

As it turns out, there are more suitable things to wear on a
hack through an ancient coastal pathway than a polyester-blend
jumpsuit. Following our guide, we rode for two hours uphill, past
chalky cliffs, red clay valleys and tangles of perfumed pine trees,
the tips glittering with raindrops. The small detail of being
dragged through low-hanging brambles and needly bushes was easily
ignorable on account of all this natural beauty – even when we
popped out on to an empty, wind-whipped beach and I realised my
clothes looked like they had been through a shredder.

DAY TWO

Ciutadella is a city wedged between the past and the future.
Townhouses are flaking and boarded up, and locals sit at their
front doors watching the world go by. Here, weekdays and weekends
blur together with little distinction. The buildings are the colour
of a fruit bowl – tangerine, banana, peach – and shaded by palm and
pomegranate trees. The narrow streets are filled with sleepy old
leather shops, tapas bars and tabacarias, as well as video stores
and cigarette machines, and the windows are shielded from the sun
by handmade crochet curtains.

Taking the advice of a local, we headed straight to the fish
market. This vaulted hall crawls with activity all day, with women
in blue aprons sharing jokes and hacking away at freshly caught
fish. We bought flaming red prawns and a whole squid and took them
next door to Bar Ulisses, where they were cooked up for us with
garlic and lemon. We ordered two glasses of vermouth with a side of
croquetas de jamón and watched the butchers, hauling carcasses out
of a delivery van, who then stopped to chat with their friends in
the square with half a cow propped up on their shoulders.

DAY THREE

Run by a Parisian with an exceptional eye for design, sumptuous
Ses Sucreres is tucked away down a cobbled street in quiet
Ferreries. The boutique hotel’s soaring, peaceful bedrooms contain
white cotton sheets, cooling terracotta, and straw mats, with the
windows flung open to the sound of horses clopping down the streets
below. A small courtyard is laced with fluttering, soapy linen,
with greenery clambering up the walls towards the scaly green paint
of the building’s shutters. Losing track of time between pots of
hot coffee and flaky pastries in Ses Sucreres’ sun-trap courtyard,
we jumped back into the car for lunch at Binifadet, a winery in the
southeastern coastal municipality of Sant Lluis. Passing through
the primary-coloured seaside town of Es Castell, we reached
Binifadet’s proud, whitewashed main house. Founded in 2004, it has
become Menorca’s most beloved winery.

Driving us up the rutted lanes that thread through the estate’s
24 hectares of vineyards, the founder Luis Menéndez tells us that
of the 100,000 bottles that are produced here every year, 80 per
cent remain on the island. The land’s cool, dry conditions and
tramontane (north wind) make for cleaner, lighter wines than its
neighbours. At the front, a cocktail bar that wouldn’t look out of
place in Barcelona served cocktails and small bites to the
soundtrack of jazz and live DJs. For lunch we ate sardines on toast
and silky salmon tartare underneath a canopy of vine leaves,
sipping a succession of velvety chardonnays, syrahs and amber-
coloured rosés.

After looping north towards the windy bay of Fornells to hop
across the foamy rocks, we made our way to Mercadal. Its knotted
streets are lined with fruit and vegetable shops and blacksmith’s
workshops, and locals knock back cold beer in the sun. A staple of
Menorca’s sweet-toothed diet is the ensaïmada, a coil of golden
flaky pastry filled with homemade jam and dusted with icing sugar.
We picked one up from local stalwart Cas Sucrer and ate it sitting
on a white stone wall in the sun. Looking as though we’d
face-planted into powder, we snaked through flat, flower-filled
farmland back to Ses Sucreres, where we found the house cat curled
up on the sofa and incense coiling through the air.

DAY FOUR

“Shall we just have a quick look?” I said, my nose pressed
against the glass of Ca’n Doblas. The third-generation cobbler in
this small shop learnt to make traditional avarcas from his father,
filling the shelves with supple leather sandals in shades of
clementine, olive and sandy brown. These simple shoes were
originally designed to weather the lifestyles of local farmers. One
pair was necessary; three pairs were purchased.

The nearby ancient quarry of Lithica is a maze of sandstone and
overgrown greenery. Now a concert venue, it looks like a Mayan
temple in a deep subterranean cavern of land. We stood at one of
the lookout points and watched as a family attempted to navigate
it, trying to keep the panic at bay. Afterwards, we bumbled back
into Ciutadella for bitter espresso at the gold-dipped Bar Imperi.
When the barman suggested that we try their homemade ensaïmada, we
thought it would be utterly un-Menorcan to resist.

“This house is like an old lady – you have to keep her healthy
and happy all the time,” laughs Beatriz Gómez, running a hand over
the peeling doorway of Cas Ferrer, the restaurant that she runs
with her partner, Emma Salud. After stints in some of London’s
highest-profile kitchens, Bea grew weary of “using lemons from
China”. The two returned to her native Menorca, where they took
over this small, peaceful blacksmiths and transformed it into
Ciutadella’s best restaurant. The colourful, comforting seasonal
dishes and natural wine served here are made using only organic
island produce. We took a seat beside the heavy stone fireplace
while Bea prepared soft, flaky sardines, pastry with orange zest,
and lilac-laced octopus carpaccio with buttery whipped potatoes. On
our way out we kissed Emma on both cheeks and booked a table for
the next evening.

Wielding a bottle of Binifadet chardonnay (bought for an
unreasonably low price at a greengrocer on the corner), we climbed
up the narrow ladder up to Hotel Tres Sants’s rooftop. This
18th-century former mansion has a Turkish bath, rooms with
four-poster beds and painted stone floors. Up on the roof we found
ourselves looking down at Ciutadella’s sea of terracotta rooftops.
Washing lines flapped in the wind, the church bells chimed and the
sea and sky merged into one blue mass.

DAY FIVE

Understanding that leaving Spain without having had paella would
be sacrilegious, we pulled up a seat at Ciutadella’s bustling
harbour-facing restaurant S’Amarador. We’d spent the day on
Binimel-là, a collection of wild, grassy beach coves in the heart
of the North Menorcan Marine Reserve.

The water had been glassy, cool and transparent; the sand had
been the colour of burnt sugar and our fellow sunbathers had been
stark naked. So, with sunburn on places that should never be
sunburnt, we ate golden paella, which was studded with mussels,
langoustines and squid, and tried to ignore each other’s ruddy
complexions.

That evening we traced the sheer edges of the cliff path leading
to Cova d’en Xoroi, an iconic 1960s bar built into the cool,
echoing mouth of a cliff. Nowadays visitors flock in their white
bodycon dresses to pose on the canopied bar-beds as the sunset
transforms it into a dizzying scene of pink rock and cobalt-blue
water. We enjoyed the views with a frosty gin and tonic, but left
before a selfie stick took one of our eyes out.

DAY SIX

Mahón, Menorca’s bohemian, art-filled capital city, slopes down
towards the harbour. You’re never far from a view of this swaying
inlet – the whole city seems to lean affectionately towards it,
like a mother checking on a child. The pavements are dotted with
olive trees and bronze sculptures, while concept stores (Kala, La
Cereria) rub shoulders with sucrerias selling blousy cream
cakes.

We dragged our bags (growing increasingly heavy with wine,
cheese and pottery) through the cobbled centre towards Casa
Ládico, a brand new, luxurious townhouse-turned-hotel washed in
soft pastels, with a shimmering pool and private sun-flooded roof
terraces. As is the way in Menorca, we spent the entire afternoon
wandering aimlessly, moving in the general direction of Can Vermut,
a stylishly ramshackle bar specialising in homemade (and lethal)
fortified wine.

We dipped into the open door of a grand 19th-century townhouse
on Carrer de Sant Jordi, where a local artist sat at his easel.
Wiping his brush on a cloth, he shook our hands and walked us up a
staircase lined with vibrant paintings of citrus fruits and
almond-eyed women. Artists are at work all over this small city,
from at-home studios to independent galleries. In fact, the entire
city can at times resemble an old, tattered oil painting.

Mahón’s iconic fish market – found behind wrought-iron gates in
the central Plaça d’Espanya – has been serving the city since the
1920s. One fisherman in particular caught our eye – a wide-grinning
Italian who had sailed all over the world and ended up falling for
Mahón and one of its local ladies. He stood over a clattering pile
of oysters, shucking a few for us to try. “Menorca has the most
beautiful oysters in the world,” he told us as we slurped the sweet
flesh. “Pay me later!” he said, sending us to the other side of the
market. Here we joined locals who were feasting on giant, sizzling
pans of paella, steaming tortilla, newspaper cones of battered
fish, pintxos, black rice and freshly carved jamón. After a lunch
of octopus, cod croquetas, anchovies on toast and pan con tomate,
we joined the rest of the city for a much-needed afternoon nap.

DAY SEVEN

After a long walk down a dusty, sun-scorched path we reached
Cala Mitjana, pitching up on the toothy rocks across the bay from
the more popular sandy beach for a day of reading and watching the
sailing boats slide in and out of the bay.

A ten-minute uphill stroll away from the beach, the newly opened
restaurant Francesca serves modern tapas in a terrace overlooking
the water, that is covered with plants. With a glass of
lemon-spiked beer in hand we ate life-altering patatas bravas that
had been doused in sobrassada, along with golden fried baby squid
and octopus with paprika. It was only at the end of the meal (when
talk turned, naturally, to dinner), that we realised we hadn’t
checked the time all day, and turned to rush home. Julia, who has
worked with Francesca from the beginning and had joined us for a
pre-swim lunch, laughed. “Sit, sit! You’re in Menorca. We don’t
run, we walk.”