Formentor

Formentor is the other face of Mallorca. If Es Trenc is the south —flat, unspoilt, of dunes and salt pans—, Formentor is the north: a long, narrow beach of brilliant white sand at the foot of the island's most spectacular peninsula, with the pine wood coming down to brush the water and the Serra de Tramuntana closing the horizon. It was here that the Hotel Formentor was built in 1929, conceived as a cultural retreat, and ever since the name has carried a prestige no other Mallorcan beach has.

A long, narrow stretch of very fine, pale sand, in the cove of Pi de la Posada —its official name, though almost nobody calls it that—, with the islet of Formentor opposite. What makes it unmistakable is the woodland: a dense pine wood, mixed with holm oaks, covers the peninsula right to the edge of the sand, and the branches almost touch the water. The water is clear and shallow, and behind rises the bulk of the Tramuntana. There are no blocks of flats, no promenade, no development: only pine wood, sand and the hotel hidden among the trees.

Here is the small print, and it matters. From mid-May to mid-October, from ten in the morning to ten at night, you cannot come in by car or motorbike (the exact dates are set each year). The road is split into two stretches: from Port de Pollença to the beach, limited entry is allowed until the car park —around 300 spaces— is full; from the beach to the lighthouse, only the shuttle, cyclists, pedestrians and emergency services may pass. The recommended way is to leave the car free of charge in Port de Pollença and take the TIB shuttle (line 334), which runs every 35 minutes between 9:30 and 21:50 and stops at the beach itself. Residents and vehicles of people with reduced mobility can request authorisation from the DGT three working days in advance. Outside those dates and hours, you simply drive there.

Formentor is not a wild beach, and that is where it parts company with Es Trenc: it has facilities, sun loungers, places to eat and, among the pines, the Hotel Formentor, opened in 1929 by the patron Adán Diehl as a retreat for artists and intellectuals — its rooms have hosted everyone from Winston Churchill to John Wayne and Octavio Paz. That mixture of protected nature and historic hotel-keeping gives it an air more elegant than rugged. In summer it fills up, although the traffic regulations have put a stop to the gridlock the road used to suffer. In spring and autumn, with cars allowed and no crowds, it is among the best the island has.

Formentor is the great asset of the north. Port de Pollença has it on the other side of the bay, and Pollença and Cala Sant Vicenç orbit around it: a premium, very international area where the landscape is literally part of the product. And here is the key for a buyer: the whole peninsula is an Área Natural de Especial Interés —the highest level of protection in the Balearic Islands— and forms part of the Serra de Tramuntana, a World Heritage Site since 2011. In an ANEI no new housing can be built: what is there today is what will be there in thirty years. The price is paid in summer, when going mid-morning means shuttle or bicycle instead of car. In exchange, you have one of the best protected landscapes in the Mediterranean as a back garden — and in October, almost to yourself.