For those visitors to Menorca who have never ventured beyond the resort of Son Bou a visit to Ciutadella on the extreme west coast of the island will be a real eye opener, and will hopefully demonstrate that there is more to the island than lazy days spent of the beach.

Although the City of Ciutadella is the former commercial and cultural centre of Menorca, the depth of history, culture and nightlife here often takes visitors by surprise, and with the increasing popularity of the city break amongst travellers, we felt that a guide to Ciutadella was a long overdue omission to our site.

For the most part visitors to Ciutadella arriving at the International Aeropuerto de Menorca some 50km, or 30 miles away to the east, will be independent travellers who would not therefore have the option of a tour operators coach transfer available to them.

For those visitors who chose to collect a pre-booked hire car from one of the numerous agencies that operate from the airport facility and drive into the city, the journey is fairly straightforward as the main ME-1 takes you virtually all the way passing the towns of Alaior, Es Mercadel and Ferreries enroute.

As with the other resorts on the island, we have put together the basic route for this journey, complete with links to maps where appropriate, and this is available from the Route Map link on the left hand frame of this page.

All things considered an experienced driver should be able to make the journey in around 45 - 50 minutes, although as in the UK if you get stuck behind a lorry this journey time may increase substantially.

For those visitors who choose not to drive, there are always a large number of taxis available for hire outside of the arrivals hall. Although in theory at least, these taxis all operate on a fixed price basis, the total cost of the journey is known to vary slightly, however as a very rough guide the transfer to Ciutadella should cost around 60€ for a taxi carrying 4 people plus luggage.

It's also worthwhile mentioning that as a rule, taxis do not normally carry child seats, so very small children will have to sit on their parent's knees for the journey. If this is a cause for concern, we strongly recommend that you make arrangements for a pre-booked taxi to be waiting for you, and clearly specify at the time of booking that a child seat is needed for the journey. Pre-booked taxis are often a little more expensive, although as with all things in life, you only get what you pay for.

Whatever method of transport you ultimately choose for this transfer, after passing the magnificent new statue of a rearing stallion on the outskirts of the city which symbolises the famous Fiesta de San Juan, your first impression of Ciutadella will be of its narrow and often busy streets, although in all fairness almost 40% of the islands 68,000 residents do live here before taking into account the large number of visitors.

The origins of the city can be traced back to Roman times, when during the Roman conquest of the island in 123AD by Quintus Cecilius Metellus, the village of Jammona as Ciutadella was known at the time, became an important defensive point along the vulnerable west coast, and even today inhabitants of homes in the old quarter around the Cami de Baix are often still discovering Roman remains less than a metre beneath the ground. Today much of the Ciutadella old town is surrounded by the "Contramurada", which now runs where the original city walls would once have stood.

As we have already previously mentioned on numerous other pages of this guide, Ciutadella was until 1708, and the British occupation of Menorca, the capital of the island, when despite the protests of both the inhabitants of the city and the Bishop of Ciutadella who refused to relocate his palace, the Treaty of Utrecht formally recognised Mahon as being the commercial capital of Menorca.

Historically, Ciutadella has always played a very important part in the Menorcan economy. This part of the island is the nearest point to the neighbouring island of Majorca, and on most days it is possible to clearly see the northern Majorcan coastline from the port area.

It is from here that Iscomar run a daily ferry service to Puerto de Alcudia, which is something we'll endeavour to cover in more detail on the Ferry Services pages of this guide.

Unlike many of the popular coastal resorts around the island, Ciutadella does have a surprisingly good public transport system. The west coast bus service operated by Torres Alles Autocares sa makes the short trip west around the Cala'n Blanes / Cala'n Forcat / Los Delfines developments, and south towards the resorts of Cala Blanca and Cala'n Bosch at regular intervals throughout the day.

For journeys east towards Mahon buses operated by the Transportes Menorca network run approximately every hour. The timetables for these routes are published each year on the bus stops throughout the city, and also on their respective web sites, although, in all cases clearly no responsibility can be accepted as to either the content or accuracy of information provided on these external links.

One thing that we should point out is that Ciutadella does not have its own beach, although for most visitors here this isn’t really a problem as a day on the beach wouldn’t really hold much appeal. However, for those who do wish to escape the city for the day the small beaches at nearby Cala Santandria and Sa Caleta, some 3km to the south of the city centre, both offer a fair variety of water sports facilities and equipment for hire including sun lounges, parasols and pedalos.

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This website was launched on 1 May 2002

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