Menorca cycling ....

velohutts

Mrs Vh has agreed to the bike coming on holiday to Menorca next year.

Has anyone been this year? Reports I can find suggest an upgrade to the roads out there with designated cycle lanes.

Although not a huge island google maps does indicate some nice looking routes, any recommendations for particular areas/routes would be appreciated.

Cheers VH

ManOfKent

Try posting on the Exploring section of the forum, viewforum.php?f=40007.

markhewitt1978

I haven't been myself but I did investigate it early in the year, and compared to Mallorca it doesn't look great. There's basically one long main road the length of the island, and spurs coming off it (like a fish bone) but that main road looks pretty awful for cycling, but trouble is you can't get anywhere without using it!

You can get between the different spurs but these are often off road routes - hence mountain biking is seemingly quite popular there and I can see why, perhaps doing a bit of MTBing could mix things up a little?

Personally I managed to find so many problems with Menorca that we ended up in Majorca again instead

bernithebiker

Personally I'd leave it behind, and just enjoy a summer holiday - especially if it's in Jul or Aug, as it'll be too hot to cycle anyway.

Then sneak off for 3 or 4 days to a 'business conference' in Majorca in the spring or autumn. You can hire excellent carbon Di2 bikes.

tjm160

We love Menorca, spending the annual summer family vacation there for the last six years, the last four of which have been at the same villa. Although there is a good bike shop in Mahon, who hire decent bikes (from memory ~€150/2-weeks), I opted to take my own last year and would have again this year had illness not got in the way. Although Mark has already called out most of the key features, there are a few additional comments which may be helpful.

Despite being a relatively small Island, it is very cycling friendly. Most of the roads have a good 50cm of tarmac inside a white line at the edge of the road for cyclists, allowing cars and cyclist to happily share the road without getting in each others way. Every time we travelled up the main road bisecting the Island, there were always plenty of cyclist in attendance, but as a pretty busy road, it just didn't do it for me. We stayed in the Nature Reserve in Es Grau, just North of Mahon and I managed to put together a respectable 100km route along mainly secondary roads, largely avoiding the main central road.



The effect of the heat in the first two weeks of August took me a little by surprise. It was typically around 25 degrees, even first thing in the morning and evening and both was and felt considerably hotter in full sun. Drinking sparingly, I got through a bidon an hour and was glad of a small shop in one of the towns where I could buy a can of coke and bottled water to re-fill at least one of the bidons. Most days there was a good breeze, which could be quite strong at times and given the relatively small size of the Island, invariably reached me wherever I was.

The next door Island of Majorca offers much more to the keen cyclist, including a "proper" mountain in the middle. However, we go on holiday to relax and spend time as a family, for which Menorca suits us much more readily and taking the bike was/is just a bonus.

Where are you staying?

Happy to answer any other questions you may have and even share the Strava routes I created. However, depending on where you are staying, they may not be of much use.

velohutts

Thanks all for the updates, Tim I will pm you re routes etc.

Going a bit earlier in the year so according to temperature estimates should be good for some cycling and impressing Mrs VH with some tan line cultivation !

crescent

I posted in another section about my holiday this year. In short - cycling good but not in the same league as Mallorca. Rest of the holiday excellent.

Here it is if it is of any interest.
viewtopic.php?f=40003&t=13014568&p=19640019&hilit=menorca#p19640019

velohutts

Ideal thanks, will be purchasing a decent map to plan a few routes, 'check' them on google maps.

Working on getting Mallorca as a holiday venue at some point in the future as well.

Nearly had it for next year but wasn't to be!