Summer holidays in Menorca are enchanting for the whole family, and with Europe in recession the island will be hoping that previous visitors will remember just how good a summer Menorca holiday can be.

Not as many people will be taking a holiday in 2009 than last year, and the Menorca holidays industry is keeping its fingers crossed that their main British market won’t be holding back on visiting the holiday island this summer.

Along with Germany, the UK provides most visitors to Menorca, and there are good reasons why both the British and Germans could be choosing Menorca if they do decide to take a holiday abroad.

Most visitors arrive either at Mahon Airport or in Mahon itself via a cruise ship. Mahon is the capital of Menorca. Its deep sea green and blue water harbour contrast delightfully with its white sand beaches, making Mahon both picturesque and perfect for leisure and recreation on the beach.

Mahon is rife with splendid hotels and fine restaurants, clubs and bars.  However, tourists who want to experience more of Menorca often spend time at Son Bou or Cala en Porter for their holidays in Menorca

These two resort developments are on the island’s central southern coast. It is about a 30 minute drive from the airport in Mahon. 

Only a short distance away from these is the resort of Santo Tomas in the district of Migjorn Gran which is also well worth a visit for holidayymakers.

The beach area in Santo Thomas offers popular busier stretches and quaint hideaways. At two miles long, it’s rarely crowded and offers protection with its surrounding sand dunes. The beach, patrolled for safety, is long and narrow. It offers an excellent swimming habitat, fine sand and warm surf. Scenic countryside and woods provide a backdrop to the sand and the Mediterranean waters.

All three of these resorts feature gorgeous beaches - in fact, Son Bou boasts the longest beach on the island, with an astounding two miles of white sand for visitors to enjoy.

Although the scenery and terrain may be enough in itself to keep holidaymakers busy during their holidays in Menorca - Menorca is also rich in culture and history.

This is visible in its renowned collection of ancient stone monoliths which bear tales of prehistoric times.  Although Menorca has been a territory of Spain for over 200 years, there is still much evidence of its British roots - some English style architectural influences are still apparent even after the passage of centuries.

Menorca will be hoping that British tourists who have been to the island before remember just how good it is, and decide to take a holiday in Menorca whatever the economic forecast is for the summer.

We saw an excellent article in the UK’s Guardian newspaper the other day - below is the first page of three written by Paul Richardson - to read more visit the Guardian at http://www.guardian.co.uk/travel/2008/dec/21/winter-sun-menorca-spain?page=all

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On a Friday in late November the halls of Maó airport were echoing and empty. At the car-hire desk I asked about the tourist office, and the only other car-hirer that morning, a salesman from Barcelona, told me with a grin: “It’s closed. No tourist office, because no tourists!”

From May to October, high season in the Mediterranean, Menorca is a full-on Spanish holiday destination, popular with the Brits who make up by far its largest market. But as the season shudders to a halt, the island suffers a sea-change. Its population, which swells to 180,000 in the summer, shrinks back to its usual 60,000. The autumn rains wash the dust off the leaves, the low-falling light bringing up the colour in a landscape that, in high summer, can look tired and lifeless. Many of Menorca’s hotels and restaurants close for the winter, but enough stay open to make for a perfectly wonderful low-key, low-season break.

I drove out on to roads that had very little traffic, and all of it slow-moving. While Britain shivered in a late-autumn freeze, the mean temperature here was a more-than-bearable 14C. The countryside was bucolic and strikingly beautiful, a mélange of rich pasture enclosed by dry stone walls and grazed by small brown cows, with the occasional palm and fig tree to remind me I was in the south. This may be the Med, yet it looks very little like Malta, Mykonos or even Mallorca. Instead of that familiar patchwork of olive groves, vineyards and herb-scented hillsides, Menorca has lush green fields that, if you half-closed your eyes, might remind you more of Berkshire than the Balearics.

Run through the first Mediterranean islands that come to mind, and this one isn’t likely to be among them. Where its neighbours Mallorca and Ibiza are high in the global Premier League of mass-tourist destinations, Menorca maintains a discreet position in the second division. Unlike the other islands, it failed to make the Mephistophelean pact with tourism on a huge scale that has brought them fame and fortune but may just turn out in the long run to be their undoing. Small though it may be - the island is just 48km long and 16km wide - Menorca possesses a real economy beyond the tourist euro. It has industries that produce tangible things, such as footwear, furniture, jewellery, and a delicious cheese that is one of Spain’s finest (hence all those brown cows).

During the decade that I lived in Ibiza, the existence of Menorca rarely swam into my ken, so caught up was I with the fabulousness of the White Isle. Menorca was far too un-glamorous to occupy Ibiza’s club kids and hippies for more than a moment: it was for middle English families with 1.9 children, not for international party people such as ourselves…

There’s seven new photos of Arenal and Addaya at the photograph galleries of http://www.yourmenorca.net - here’s a couple of examples

Now here’s a great idea, and one that deserves to do well - a company that does guided tours of Menorca.

We know Menorca is a peaceful island and many people in the UK visit for Menorca’s peace and quiet - but a good number like to see the island too, and doing so on a bike with an experienced guide who can lead both on and off road is a superb way to discover more of Menorca.

So when you’re next on your Menorca holidays be sure to visit http://www.menorcabiketours.com/ before you leave home and organise a bike trip on the island.

Minorca - or as it’s often known Menorca - is a pretty small island, and for those holidaymakers who like a few days away at a time instead of a week or two, a weekend based in Menorca’s capital Mahon could add up to a great few days away.

Mahon’s name has been spelled a variety of ways over the centuries. The name’s origin has been traced to about 205 BC and Hannibal’s brother, Mago Barca. The spelling Mahon is most often used in English and Spanish writings. The Catalan spelling is Mao, while the old Catalan spelling is Maho.

But however you spell it, for those who like history Mahon won’t disappoint.

In 1287 Mahon was captured and taken from the Moors by Alfonso III of Aragon. It was then incorporated into the Kingdom of Majorca, which was a sub-kingdom of the Kingdom of Aragon. Mahon’s harbour was, and still is, one of the most strategically important harbours in the Mediterranean.

During the War of the Spanish Succession in 1707, Menorca was captured by the British. The Treaty of Utrecht in 1713 confirmed British ownership of the islands. In the 18th century, under British rule, Mahon was named the capital city of Minorca.

Previously, Ciutadella was the capital of the island. The strategic position of the island has always been a military advantage during wartimes.

Under the dictatorship of General Franco from the 1930s to the 1970s, the original Balearic dialects of Menorqui, Mallorqui and Eivissenc were officially suppressed. After his death and the liberalisation of the islands, the Catalan language was able to emerge once again. However the decades of suppression did take its toll on Minorca’s dialect, Menorqui. Today, the co-official languages in Mahon are Spanish and Catalan.

Post 20th Century Mahon

Mahon is now under Spanish rule, as are the other Balearic Islands. The 20th century brought an entirely new outlook for the islands. Peace was restored, General Franco’s dictatorship came to an end, and tourism was introduced. Some of the first tourists were patients from Spain whose doctors recommended sunshine and relaxation to cure the aches and pains of winter chills. Minorca’s few hotels began to fill to capacity and expand. New hotels in Menorca and eventually resorts were built. Mahon was becoming more like the city so many tourists today have fallen in love with.

In the wake of the turmoil, tourists today find themselves struck speechless when faced with some of Mahon’s archaeological and architectural heritage.

Today’s Mahon is a wonderful city full of rich culture and opportunities for tourists to learn from her past. Many museums, galleries and historic sites tell the tales of centuries gone by. They tell of wars fought and won, or lost. They also tell of how Mahon’s ports were used to aid in war efforts and to help fortify the city itself. Mahon boasts one of the deepest natural ports in the world. This has been both a blessing and a curse in Minorca’s past.

Today Mahon is the most densely populated municipality on Minorca and its ports are used in a much different way. In decades past, Menorca’s many beaches and coves have seen a lot of battles - now the beautiful white sand beaches are filled with the sounds of laughter and happy families enjoying their holidays in Minorca - residents of Mahon still use the main port as a fishing or leisure port. Cruise ships use the port as a port of call for passengers on tours.

From the cruise ships sailing into and out of Mahon, to the churches and museums filled with history, and holiday resorts dotted around the island - a visit to Mahon in 2009 could be a capital idea for a short trip!