Mallorca is a holiday hot-spot during the summer months. Millions of people flock to the Spanish island to enjoy the 29° temperatures and sandy beaches. Popular areas range from the capital city of Palma, the party town of Magaluf or the far north with picturesque Pollença. Mallorca is renowned for being one of the top party destinations in Europe. However, very rarely to we hear about the south east, a place largely untouched by tourism.
Today I was going to be exploring the very far south of Mallorca, somewhere I had scarcely visited. We set off on our journey, passing the bustling capital and the hive of activity surrounding the airport. Once we had left Palma behind, we experienced a very different Mallorca.
The roads were quiet and surrounded by golden fields that seemed to stretch on forever. Standing majestically within their fields were great windmills, symbolic of Mallorca. Mallorca is home to a whopping 2,500 water extraction mills (distinguished by their unique arrow features) and most of them are found in south Mallorca, where we currently were.
Exploring Ses Salines Town
After getting a tad lost on our journey, we rocked up in the quaint town of Ses Salines. Ses Salines is a traditional, rural town and is one of the southernmost towns in the whole of Mallorca. The name Ses Salines means “source of salt” and it is situated near some of the oldest salt pans in the world.
The village contains many examples of traditional Catalan architecture and the buildings are made from local stone. There is evidence of occupation here dating all the way back to the Roman age. You can see the Roman influence on the village in the narrow, straight streets.
In modern-day culture, Ses Salines is perhaps most well-known for being the location of the Love Island villa for series 1 and 2.
Ses Salines is one of the many quaint towns in southern Mallorca. If you have more time to spend along the south coast, checkout these awesome day trips to explore Mallorca – many set in the beautiful south coast.
Our stomachs led us to Cassai Gran Cafe and Restaurant, a vibrant turquoise building which is rustically decorated. The restaurant itself is within a Mallorcan house that is over 300 years old. Whilst the front of the restaurant is more modern, as you step inside, you can instantly see the vintage stone walls encasing the courtyard. Decorated with various plants, the restaurant screams ‘Instagrammable’, providing the backdrop for photos.
The restaurant serves a range of Mediterranean food including my favourite, Spanish tapas. We were spoilt for choice with the menu but in the end opted for steak tartar (one of my all-time favourite dishes), home-made ham croquettes and potatas bravas. Between four people (who are all ‘little and often’ type people), this was actually plenty. The quality of the food was exceptional. I was very happy with the croquettes, which is saying something, as when it comes to croquettes I am very hard to please! Although nothing can quite top the croquettes at La Terraza, they were pretty damn close, if not, on parr with them!
Now time for all the picture spam! I literally couldn’t get enough of the place.
Es Trenc Beach
From Ses Salines we travelled west towards the coastline. Here we were able to witness the nearby salt pans which helped to give Ses Salines its reputation for exporting salt.
The salt pans sit just behind Es Trenc beach, a long stretch of white sand surrounded by turquoise waters. If you didn’t know this was in Mallorca, pictures could fool you into believing the beach was located in the Caribbean instead! Es Trenc is in fact one of the best Balaeric islands beaches.
We made our way down a narrow one-car-wide road which ran parallel to the salt pans. Meeting any cars coming the other way was a rather traumatic experience as they past just inches from us. I was amazed we didn’t clip a wing-mirror!
Just before the beach is a nature reserve, an area of thick forest that’s alive with the song of beetles, sizzling in the hot air.
We followed the signs for the car park which brought us to an entrance. We had to pay a fee of €7 before we could go in.
My eyes widened in horror. Before us were rows and rows and rows of glistening cars. I had never seen so many cars in my life!
“It looks busy.” I mumbled grumpily.
Call me a snob, but I really am not a fan of crowds!
From the car park, it was around a 5 minute walk through some thick sand down to the beach. Sand dunes arose on all sides and a murky river appeared on our right, backed by a forest of green.
Once we had entered the beach, our flip-flops thick with sand, the challenge was finding a relatively quiet spot to settle down. That was easier said than done as in all directions I was greeted with a mass of sunbathers. It was overwhelming and very, very hot.
Past experience has always told me that the edges of the beach are the quieter spots and actually more scenic so we turned left and trudged off into the crowd of people.
We walked and walked and walked.
Finally, there was a piece of sand, right beside the rocks, that was free for us to lay our towels down. It was a miracle to actually see the sand as oppose to people, towels or umbrellas.
I had been to Es Trenc beach twice before. The first time was around 10 years ago and I arrived by boat after stumbling across the vast white-sand beach on our voyage round the island. The beach had been largely free of people and was untouched apart from a beach bar in the middle which hardly had any people inside.
We loved it so much that we went again a few years later, only to find it heaving with people and no longer appealing. There was absolutely no chance of getting a table at the beach-bar which was then overflowing with people and swimming was difficult as you kept bumping into people.
Today I had come back to give Es Trenc another chance but I was seeing why I had gone off it. I’m a sucker for areas of natural beauty and if that natural beauty is blotched out by countless bodies, I am unable to appreciate it. It’s a shame really as Es Trenc really is a gorgeous beach, unlike anything else in Mallorca.
Perhaps it was worth visiting at a different time of year. After all, we were there in peak season.
But, I wasn’t going to let my anti-social side get the better of me and enjoyed my time on the beach by doing some swimming (or paddling – it takes ages before the water actually gets deep here) and some exploring of the rocks (which bloody kill your feet if you explore without shoes on!).
Evening was drawing closer so we decided to call it a day and start our journey back. It had been a fun day of exploring and what I had seen of the south had made me curious to return for more.
And what would a day be without a daily dose of cats? Once we had returned to the villa, we were greeted by some furry friends. Meet Limon and Pimi (short for Pimiento). Their owner must love fruit and veg!
