Salt, Sun and Sapphire Water: Boating in Pollensa
Sheltered water, pine-fringed coves and the great cliffs of Formentor — the north’s most beautiful day out doesn’t need a road at all.
Seen from the water, the north of Mallorca rearranges itself. The mountains you have driven beneath all week rise as a single wall of grey limestone; the beaches empty of their crowds; and coves that take an hour to reach on foot arrive one after another, each with its ladder down into water so clear the boat seems to hover. A day afloat in the Bay of Pollensa is, for many of our guests, the day they remember longest.
The bay itself is one of the most protected stretches of water in the Mediterranean, held between the Formentor peninsula and the Victòria headland — calm enough for first-time skippers and small children, yet opening, for those who want it, onto the wilder coast beyond the lighthouse. Here is how a perfect day unfolds.
Morning: out of Port de Pollença
Leave the marina in the morning, when the bay is at its glassiest and the light still soft on the Tramuntana. Motor east along the Formentor shore, past the grand old Hotel Formentor and its famous pine-backed beach. Drop anchor for the first swim of the day off Formentor beach itself — arriving by sea, you skip the road, the parking and the walk, and slip straight into the shallows where the sand glows pale green beneath the pines.
Midday: the coves of the peninsula
Beyond Formentor beach the coast turns wild. This is where a boat earns its keep: a string of coves — Cala Murta, Cala en Gossalba, and further round, the ravishing Cala Figuera de Formentor — cut into the peninsula, most of them reachable only by long rough footpaths or not at all. Choose one, anchor over sand, and spend the middle of the day swimming and snorkelling; the rocky margins of these coves hold the clearest water and the richest sea life in the north. On a quiet weekday outside August, you may share your cove with nothing but a pair of gulls.
The turn at the lighthouse
If the sea is settled and your boat is up to it, round the final point to see the Cap de Formentor lighthouse from below — the cliffs here fall sheer for some three hundred metres, and watching them slide past from the deck is the most dramatic sight the north Mallorcan coast can offer. Skippered charters will judge the conditions for you; on rougher days, the inner bay has more than enough to fill the afternoon.
Afternoon: lunch and the lazy hours
Head back into the shelter of the bay for lunch. You can go simple — a cool box packed from the Pollensa market with tomatoes, cheese, fuet and peaches — or anchor off Port de Pollença and take the tender in for a long seafood lunch on the Pine Walk. The afternoon belongs to unhurried things: a slow drift along the Bóquer shore below the Cavall Bernat ridge, a last swim in the middle of the bay where the water turns deep sapphire, a nap under the bimini on the way home.
Choosing your boat
Everything from small self-drive motorboats to crewed sailing yachts operates out of Port de Pollença. Licence-free boats can be hired by anyone and are ideal for a family pottering along the Formentor shore; larger motorboats and RIBs need a licence or a skipper, and open up the lighthouse run; and a skippered day charter — sail or motor — removes every decision except where to swim next. In July and August, book well ahead; in May, June, September and October you have the pick of the fleet and the emptiest coves.
Let us arrange it
We organise boat days for our guests throughout the season — from a licence-free runabout for a morning to a fully crewed yacht with lunch on board. Tell us your group, your date and your appetite for adventure, and we will have you on the water.
See Gotmar Beach in Puerto Pollensa or ask us to plan your day on the bay.
