Cala Dor and Cala Egos District

Cala d'Or and Cala Egos:

The smart resort of Cala d'Or is part of the municipal district of Santanyí, it lies on the southern half of the east coast of Majorca. As the crow flies the town is around 65km (40 miles) east of Palma and Palma Airport (the Son Sant Joan International airport) the road in recent years has undergone significant upgrade, so transfer from the airport now takes approximately 3/4 hour to 1 hour.

Transfer alternatives from the airport are generally by either hire car, or one of the many taxis available from the ranks outside the arrivals hall.

In theory at least, the taxis should all operate on a fixed price basis, typically charging around €50 to €70 for the journey to Cala d'Or, however this "fixed price" may vary slightly depending upon the number of suitcases, time of day or night, and of course number of passengers. An important consideration for families with small children, is these taxis do not as a rule have child seats fitted, therefore children may have to sit on their parent's knee 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.

If planning to transfer by hire car, it is a good idea to pre-book the car prior to travelling, ‘over the desk’ hire prices can be significantly higher than pre-booking by phone or Internet, similar savings can be made if you plan to hire in resort. Another consideration when considering hire cars is commonly in peak summer season is all rental cars are booked making it impossible to obtain a hire car at all, so the moral is: get your arrangements made well in advance.

The journey for those who have chosen to drive is fairly straightforward for the most part, although not especially scenic. Once you've left the airport grounds, you will normally join the main PM19 motorway heading east towards the towns of Llucmajor, Campos, and Santanyi. This is straight forward until reaching the village of S'Alqueria Blanca which is after Santanyi, here you have a choice of your final route: either take the junction signposted to Calogne and S'Horta, or straight ahead to Porto Petro, the choice depends on preference or whether you are heading for Cala d’Or or Cala Egos.

Cala d'Or today is a modern purpose built resort which grew from a small traditional Mallorcan fishing village. Over the years the resort has expanded, and now covers a large area encompassing several small sandy coves and creeks. Although in all fairness this growth has for the most part been controlled, and the town still has the feeling of a small village with few, if any, high rise buildings.

The largest of the local coves is called Cala Llonga, this has been developed into a large marina that effectively splits the resort in two, the two halves being named Cala d’Or and Cala Egos. Getting between the two involves either a fairly long walk around the marina (15 to 20 minutes), or you can catch a ride in the tourist mini road-train which runs regularly throughout the day.

The focal point of the town centre is a pedestrian zone around the area of Cala Gran, this has a varied selection of shops, bars and restaurants, the immediate locality lacks many of the other family attractions like water parks that many tourist expect to find in a holiday resort these days, these can however be easily reached by taxi or car.

The beach at Cala Gran is the largest in the town, but at 40m wide and 100m deep can never really be described as being large. Near here is Cala d'Or itself, from which the resort takes its name. This is a pine fringed cove with a small but crowded beach. Sun loungers, parasols and pedaloes can be hired at both of these beaches. In addition, there is also around 8 or 9 other smaller sandy coves in the area, although these can become crowded in high season.

If the beaches at Cala d'Or become too crowded, or if you wish to escape from Cala d'Or for the day, many visitors take the morning bus to Es Trenc. This beautiful beach of clear blue water and golden sand, backed by pine trees and dunes, stretches for almost 5km along the wild south eastern coast of the island. There's a small bar/restaurant here and you can hire sun umbrellas, but there are few other facilities. The beach rarely gets packed with bodies, but be warned though, Es Trenc is popular with nudists and the bodies you do see are likely to be bare.

Public transport around all of the east coast is not particularly good, so you may wish to consider car hire if you want to see more of the island. However, if you do have a good sense of adventure, the daily IB-33 bus runs into Palma several times each day, and information, along with further details, of this service can be found in pdf format on the Transunion Mallorca sl web site.

If you do have access to your own transport, and can get out of the resort, the Sunday morning market at Felanitx is recognised as being one of the best in Majorca, and is well worth a visit. This is a good place to pick up locally made pottery, but be prepared to haggle for the best bargains. Also certainly worth a mention are the fruit and produce markets which are held at nearby Santanyi every Wednesday and Saturday mornings.

Evening entertainment here is not rowdy, and is generally hotel based, although the resort does have an increasing number of lively bars that tend to be centred around the pedestrian zone. However, all things considered, and in keeping with much of the east coast, Cala d'Or is generally a quiet low key resort that is perhaps more suited to those looking for a relaxing holiday.

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