Visit to Cala Portals Vells Beach Mallorca

I would not settle for anything less than clear waters and areas for sun bathing that also offered shade. My chosen beach would also need somewhere where I could eat and it would have to be, above all, quiet.

Fortunately at this time of year the summer rush is over and most of the beaches are quite quiet but in order to satisfy my other criteria I headed to Cala Portals Vells. Portals Vells is actually a bay I had visited earlier in the summer when I was on a friend's boat. It's very popular with yachts as the bay is sheltered, has beautiful clear water and it's close to both Port Adriano and Puerto Portals.

If you are coming in by car, and the beach is quite remote so you will need wheels to get there, then follow signs from Palma towards Magaluf and leave the motorway at junction 14. Carry along past the Western Water Park and keep going until the road splits off after the BP garage, from there the beach is sign posted.

The beach is quite isolated and the road that winds through pine forests and a golf course continues for a couple of miles before you arrive at the car park just behind the sand. Parking is free and the cars are sheltered from the sun by the surrounding trees so your seat doesn't burn the flesh from your back when you get into your car at the end of the day.

The beach is quite deep and although the area on the water-front isn't huge there are a couple or different spots where you can drop a towel and catch some sun, even in October. There are some rocks that cut the bay in two and at the edge of these there's a set of steps for easy access to the wonderfully clear water. The perfect place for swimming.

I remember when we were here last time thinking the bay, which is split into two coves by a rocky peninsula was beautiful and that I should return. It wasn't until I got there that I remembered that the rocks that jut out between the two crescents are popular with sunbathers who like to leave no tan lines. Trying not to stare at the collection of nude sun worshippers I went for a swim.

The water is beautiful and the view of the high cliffs and trees on the right is very calming and for the more enthusiastic than myself a good place to go for a walk. Portals Vells also has a restaurant that offers a selection of fish and seafood dishes as well as drinks if you want lunch down at the beach. It is a beautiful a bay and even this late in the year it's still warm enough to go for a swim in the sheltered waters. Definitely a beach I'd recommend visiting.

You can read more about Portals Vells Beach here.