Mallorca and Menorca Sailing Itinerary from Port de Pollença: A 7-Day Cruise Through the Northern Balearic Islands

The cruise departs from Port de Pollença, in the sheltered bay on the northern coast of Mallorca framed by the Tramuntana mountains to the west and the Formentor peninsula to the east. The position is one of the best-protected sailing bases in the Balearics, with prevailing breezes that are consistent enough for comfortable passages but rarely heavy enough to generate difficult seas in the main channels.

The first days explore Mallorca's northern and western coastline, where most of the island's most distinctive anchorages are concentrated. The Formentor peninsula and the coves tucked along its northern face, including Cala Murta, Cala en Gossabla and Cala Bóquer, are framed by limestone cliffs and pine forest and reachable most comfortably by water. Sa Calobra on the western coast, one of the most dramatic anchorages in the Mediterranean, sits below a mountain road carved into the cliff face, while Port Sóller adds an inhabited harbor stop with a distinct character shaped by its orange groves and the Tramuntana ridge above.

The crossing to Menorca introduces a different kind of sailing. The channel between the two islands can produce steep short waves in stronger conditions, but the approach to Menorca's southern coast opens into a string of coves whose clarity and color are among the most celebrated in the Balearics. Cala Macarella and Macarelleta, Cala Mitjana and Mitjaneta, and Cala Turqueta all sit within a compact stretch of protected coastline ideally suited to anchoring, with access to shore by tender and swimming in shallow, turquoise water over white sand. Cala Pregonda on the northern coast offers a more remote alternative in settled weather, with reddish sand and a distinctly wilder atmosphere.

Ciutadella at the western tip of Menorca and Mahón in the east anchor the cultural dimension of the Menorca days, the first a compact medieval town set above a narrow harbor, the second home to one of the deepest natural harbors in the Mediterranean with a waterfront lined with Georgian architecture from the British occupation of the island in the eighteenth century.

Days follow a consistent rhythm of morning passages, midday stops at anchor for swimming, afternoon arrivals with time ashore and evenings spent in a harbor or anchored in a quiet bay depending on the stop.