CALA DEL PILAR BEACH

This is a wild, lonely, beautiful spot which nevertheless gets busy at weekends with locals trying to escape the crowds. Get there by leaving the main Mao to Ciutadella road from the 34km point beneath the Castillo Menorca factory shop; when the tarmac road runs out, you pass through some gates on to farmland and park in a thick grove of oak and pine. Walk for 20 minutes through the woods and you emerge on to reddish dunes; from here you can scramble down to the beach, or over the headland to the next cove. The woods reach almost to the beach and even the dunes are covered in vegetation. This is a conservation area and notices in several languages remind you to keep the beach clean.