Best Anchorages in the Balearic Islands

Cala Macarella is arguably the most beautiful anchorage in Menorca — a turquoise horseshoe bay cut into pale limestone cliffs, with a white sand beach at its head.

Cala Turqueta sits 3nm northwest of Cala Macarella on Menorca's SW coast, offering near-identical cliff scenery and turquoise water with slightly fewer crowds.

S'Espalmador is a small uninhabited islet off the N tip of Formentera, separated from Ibiza by the Freus de Ibiza channel.

Cala Saona is Formentera's most dramatic western anchorage, backed by ochre-red cliffs and pines that glow in the late afternoon sun.

Cala d'Hort offers one of the most dramatic anchorage views in the Mediterranean — directly facing Es Vedrà, a 378m volcanic islet rising sheer from the sea 1nm offshore.

Cala Compte is Ibiza's most celebrated west-facing sunset anchorage, a cluster of small bays and rocky islets with technicolour water and a soundtrack of chilled music from the famous Las Dalias beach bar.

Cala Portals Vells is one of Mallorca's most scenic south-coast anchorages — a pine-backed cove with ancient rock-hewn pirate caves at its head and crystal-clear water over white sand.

Port de Sóller is the finest all-weather natural harbour on the NW Mallorca coast — an almost perfectly circular bay enclosed by the Serra de Tramuntana mountains.

Cala Mondragó sits within the 785-hectare Mondragó Natural Park on Mallorca's SE coast — one of the island's few protected areas where anchoring is explicitly permitted in a verified Posidonia-free sandy bay.

Cala Pi is Mallorca's most dramatic fjord anchorage — a narrow 500m-long inlet cut into the limestone of the SE coast, with vertical walls rising 15m on both sides and a small sandy beach at the inner end.