It got to the point that both me and the husband were getting desperate for a break so I decided to treat him to a holiday for our second wedding anniversary (I also got him a towel as it was our cotton anniversary). The reason I chose Menorca was purely for the price, I wanted somewhere cheap and cheerful so we could just relax beside the pool. Plus, the photos from around the resort looked super pretty and there seemed to be plenty of interesting places to go.
While I could probably have saved a bit more cash booking flights and our apartment separately, I ended up booking a package through Thomson, as it just makes things easier. We booked our honeymoon through them too and all the reps were really helpful.
It has made it so much simpler to go on holidays, which is great after several years of being stuck in the UK. After uni, the real world took precedent so holidays were put on the back burner. However, the husband enjoyed our honeymoon in Tunisia so much - he hasn't done a lot of travelling - that I promised him I'd take him abroad every year, at least until we have kids. Our trip to Menorca was part of this and seeing how much he was able to chill out definitely made it worth it.
I didn't realise that our resort was on the other side of the island from the airport - we were staying near the old capital of Ciutadella - the resort is called Cala'n Forcat - but the airport is in the new capital of Mahon - which made it sound like we'd have a long drive before we got there. In actual fact, the island is so small that the drive took only an hour. We got to see so much of the island within this short space of time, including the highest point, some old military bases and quaint little towns.
We stayed at the Talyot Apartments, which is a family-friendly resort full of self-catering apartments - we usually go all-inclusive but it's hard to find things to eat when you're a pescetarian. Talyot is in an area mostly made up of hotels and villas but set away from the majority of the super busy places. The fact that we went toward the end of the season also meant it was fairly quiet. I mainly picked it because it has six pools of various sizes.
Because the resort was quiet, there were no fights for sun loungers and we were always able to rock up to the pool whenever and still find a place to sunbathe. The only downside was that the pools weren't heated, but as someone who is used to swimming in the sea and in rivers, this wasn't an issue. It also meant I often got the pool to myself as people are big babes - including the husband who managed to perfect the art of stepping on and off his lilo without touching the water.
I usually get bored of sun worshipping after a day or so, but I was so tired from the last few months that I was perfectly happy to chill out with my book and jump in the water when I got too hot. However, we still managed a three-miole walk to explore the area and head to the supermarket, as well as a couple of half day trips.
Ciutadella is known as the religious capital because it has the most churches on the island. It is also much older than Mahon and has so many gorgeous buildings and small winding paths to be explored. We popped to the market, which is fairly small. In Menorca you don't haggle either, so with the crap exchange rate (thanks Brexit), things were fairly expensive.
We ended up having a wonder around city as the sun started to really blaze, finding that everything is in one small area so it;s easy to get around. I sampled a lot of the local cheese, which is lovely - yes, I did bring a huge block home - and the husband discovered the magic that is melted Buenos on frozen yoghurt. By 12.30 it was far too hot to stay in the city so we headed back to the pool.
The trip also included a few hours just to walk around Mahon, so we got to go to the market, which is bigger than the one in Ciutadella, wonder through the streets and visit one of the most beautiful churches I've ever seen. Just as with Ciutadella, everything is within a small area so it's easy to walk around. I could have spent longer exploring, but we had to head to the gin distillery as the final part of the trip.
At the distillery, we got to try 17 different gins, liquors - some of them twice p and buy our favourites. I don't remember much more than that and strangely didn't take any photos. Needless to say, the trip back to the apartment passed in a blur of gin fumes.
All in all, this was the perfect way to mark our anniversary, say goodbye to the summer and get some well-earned relaxing time in before the year's end. It has already got me planning the next holiday as there are so many places I want to share with the husband and a lot of places I need to tick off my list.
If you're looking for a quiet, chilled out holiday in a beautiful place, I can't recommend Menorca enough.