Menorca's beaches by water quality: excellent across the island, except near Ciutadella

Menorca tests its bathing water at 30 points, and 24 were graded excellent in 2025. Nearly all of the other 6 are in one place: the shore near Ciutadella de Menorca, the town at the island's western end. Within 4 km of its centre, 5 of 6 points were below excellent; on the whole rest of the island, 1 of 24. The grade counts bacteria in water samples; the colour of the water and the sand are not part of it.

Across the island, 80% of points are excellent. That is below Spain as a whole, at 91%, but above the neighbours: Mallorca at 68%, Ibiza and Formentera at 67%.

How a grade is set

Water is taken several times each summer at every official bathing point and checked for E. coli and intestinal enterococci. A season's class comes from its own samples and those of the three summers before. So it is a memory of four summers: a one-off lapse barely shows, while a lasting problem stays in the grade for years. The EU bathing water directive.

Excellent, good and sufficient mean the standard is met. Poor means it is not; the authorities must then warn bathers and may ban bathing or advise against it. The European Environment Agency.

The shore near Ciutadella de Menorca

Within 4 km of the centre our base uses for Ciutadella de Menorca, the register keeps 6 points. Here they are, nearest first, with their grades since 2008:

• Playa Gran, 0.7 km: excellent 2008–2013, good 2014–2015, excellent 2016, good 2017–2021, sufficient 2022, good 2023–2024, sufficient 2025.
• Sa Caleta, 2.1 km: excellent 2008–2009, sufficient 2010, good 2011–2012, sufficient 2013–2015, good 2016–2020, poor 2021, good 2022–2024, sufficient 2025.
• Cala en Blanes, 2.2 km: excellent 2008–2018, good 2019–2021, sufficient 2022, good 2023–2025.
• Santandria, 2.4 km: excellent 2008–2017, good 2018–2023, excellent 2024–2025.
• Cala en Forcat, 3.3 km: excellent 2008–2011, good 2012–2015, excellent 2016, good 2017–2019, sufficient 2020–2023, good 2024–2025.
• Cala Blanca, 3.6 km: excellent 2008–2016, good 2017–2025.

In 2025 only Santandria was excellent here. The town's shore has been graded poor once in the whole record: Sa Caleta, 2021. The more distant points of the same municipality, Cala Morell at 7 km, Cala en Bosch at 8.2 km and Son Xoriguer at 8.3 km, were all excellent in 2025.

A grade belongs to the spot where samples are taken, not to the whole town. It does not give a cause: the register records what was found in the water, not where it came from.

When it started

Before 2008, the town's shore was rarely below excellent: in 6 seasons of 18, and never more than 3 points at once. In 2014 and 2015 half the points were below, in 2016 one, and from 2017 at least four of six every season. From 2019 to 2023 not one of them was excellent, 5 seasons in a row. On the rest of the island in those same seasons, no more than 2 points of 24 were below excellent.

One beach, two grades

Outside the town, one point was below excellent in 2025, and it is on a beach that has a second one. At Cala Galdana (Ferreries) the register keeps two points 211 m apart. The first has been tested since 1990, and all 36 of its seasons are excellent. The second, tested since 1993, runs: excellent 1993–1997, sufficient 1998, excellent 1999–2023, good 2024–2025.

The second point has been below excellent in the last two seasons, and once before, in 1998. In the beach table Cala Galdana carries the worse of its two grades, good. That does not make the whole beach worse: it means the samples at one end are worse than at the other.

The point that was poor is no longer tested

Cala Pedrera in the municipality of Es Castell was tested from 1994 to 2015. Of the 22 seasons on its record, 9 were poor, including the last 5 in a row. After 2015 it has no grades. The whole record: excellent 1994–1997, sufficient 1998–2002, poor 2003–2004, sufficient 2005, poor 2006–2007, sufficient 2008–2010, poor 2011–2015.

Es Castell now has 1 point: Sant Esteve, excellent. The beach table below counts only points tested in 2025, so Cala Pedrera is not in it.

Never below excellent

10 of the island's beaches have never dropped below excellent in any season they were tested. Since 1990, the start of the record: Arenal d’en Castell (Es Mercadal), Binibeca (Sant Lluís), Binisafua (Sant Lluís), Punta Prima (Sant Lluís), Sant Adeodato (Es Migjorn Gran) and Son Bou (Alaior). Tested from later: Son Saura, since 1991, Ses Salines, since 1993, Cala Mesquida, since 1994 and Cala Binidali, since 2007. None of them is near Ciutadella de Menorca.

Eight municipalities

All eight of the island's municipalities have points. Ciutadella de Menorca has the most, 9: it holds both the town shore and the southern resorts.

At our four places

• Ciutadella de Menorca: 9 points, 4 of 9 excellent in 2025. Nearest to the centre: Playa Gran, 0.7 km, sufficient.
• Maó: 4 points, all excellent in 2025. Nearest to the centre: Cala Mesquida, 3.5 km, excellent.
• Alaior: 2 points, all excellent in 2025. Nearest to the centre: Son Bou, 7 km, excellent.
• Es Castell: 1 point, excellent in 2025. Nearest to the centre: Sant Esteve, 2.1 km, excellent.

Distances are in a straight line from the point our base uses for each place. Each place's beaches with distances are on its own page: Ciutadella de Menorca, Maó, Alaior, Es Castell.

The sea by month

Off Menorca the sea changes a lot over the year: from 14.2–14.3 °C in February to 26.8–26.9 °C in August. The water at all four places stays at the swimming line of 20 °C for 5 months, from June to October. November is already below, at 19.5–19.8 °C, and so is May, at 18.5–18.6 °C. These are NOAA satellite averages for 2015–2024: a cell a quarter of a degree across, centred 6.6–14.2 km from the place; open water, not a reading at a beach. NOAA OISST.

All 29 beaches on the island

Further

Our places on the island, with prices, winter and population, are on the Menorca page. The island against its neighbour is in Mallorca or Menorca. The neighbouring islands' beaches on the same grades: Mallorca beaches and Ibiza and Formentera beaches; the whole country: Spain's cleanest beaches. Water at every place in our base is in our dataset.

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