Menorca is an eastern Balearic island with their main city named Mahon. There is the biggest harbor after Pearl Harbor and it is also one of Europe’s biggest natural harbors.

They say that Menorca is not as exploited as it’s sister islands Majorca and Ibiza, as well as not so much party-life going on. I don’t know if that is still true – if you know, tell us.

One very interesting fact about Mahon is that it is said that the recipe of the mayonnaise (one of our favorites!) once were born in this town and brought back to France after Louis-François-Armand du Plessis de Richelieu’s victory over the British at Mahon’s port in 1756.

Menorca is an absolute must travel destination for horse lovers like us, because the amount of horses per square kilometer is the highest in Europe! They have an own horse called Caballo Menorquin – the islands pride – locally bred black horses, which plays a very important role in the islands traditions and festivities.

Photo by Roser Goula

We will definitely NOT miss the three days traditional summer fiesta, Festes de Sant Joan, in Ciutadella (I want to explore the old town, surrounded by the Contramurada and narrow streets), with sheep-bearing (!), parades, bonfires, riders, competitions and above all: it ends with fireworks.

Then we have the three B’s: Birds, Butterflies and Blooming flowers. Our favorite reasons for going to a special travel destination. To Menorca it would be ideal to go in April and May, to be able to see as many wild flowers (even Orchids) as possible.

I find it very interesting that some of the earliest culture on Menorca was influenced by – among other – the Minoans of ancient Crete (our honeymoon island). Early people of Menorca imitated inverted plastered timber columns at Knossos.

The Menorcan’s have a local favorite drink, the Pomada – Gin (influenced by the Brit’s) mixed with bitter lemon – that I would love to try out. I can imagine that it’s tasty when it’s hot temperatures.

I think I would like to go to Majorca once again and then from there take the ferry over to Menorca, exploring Menorca island as an (long) extension to the Majorca stay.

If you have been to Menorca, please feel free to leave any tips in the comments.

Lifecruiser ♥ Spanish Horses

We have hired cars in Spain, Scotland, France and Greece by now and never regretted it. It is an unbeatable way of doing sightseeing in your own pace, able to make stops along the way where ever you want to, for how long you want. A must for photo freaks like us!

One more road trip we know already that we want to do later is along the English coastline, but then we will probably use the latest car hire UK site we have found. Actually we would love to spend a long time driving around in all UK, we have seen so many photos that has enchanted us. Except for the weather maybe (lol).

Finding the best car rental prices can be quite time consuming and we really have saved a lot of money spending some time doing extensive comparison searches!

Just like in our article about where to find late holiday deals there are many car rental sites online too and it is so beneficial to use a comparison site with lots of car hire sites to compare between instead of going to each of them separate.

We like car hire sites which offer a lot of locations and have needed extras already included in the price, making sure that they do not add any hidden fees on our first given rental quotes, to avoid negative surprises.

Extras to check if it is included in the price are: GPS Navigator, AC, unlimited mileage or at least no mileage restrictions, additional driver/s (make sure they are added in the contract!), free fuel, child seats.

We really like when there are roadside assistance offered, if anything should happen to the rental car. It is more safe having instructions and phone number with you in the car in case of any emergency, especially when driving in uninhabited mountain areas perhaps even with wild animals.

We have noticed that the earlier to book the car rental the better, there are more to choose between and it is often cheaper when booking early.

Many car rental companies also advertise in local magazines, in hotel lobbies, shops and at other local boards – useful if you decide to rent a car in the last minute when you already have arrived at the destination.

Advice: Always check up in advance – before you leave home – if you need to get an international driving permit.

Sometimes it can be cheaper if you pick up your car already at the airport, sometimes not, you have to check around, maybe even calling the car hire company. The difference can be quite big!

When we hired a car in Majorca, Spain, we got 2 days extra for free if we picked up the car at the airport at Palma instead of Alcudia – and it was the car hire company that were service-minded enough to tell us about the cheaper deal.

Also, we are always checking that their office is open if having a late flight, otherwise we book the first accommodation very close to be able to easily come back the other day.

That close-to-the-airport accommodation could be a lifesaver even in other situations too. One time in Scotland we had trouble with our credit card and could not get our rental car, we had to come back the next day after calling our bank to fix it.

Another important thing to think about, is that it should be the drivers credit card you pay with and it should have cover for the deposit amount. We had problems with that last time we were in France and had not planned to use that card. Once again our bank had to be called, making us delayed to our blogger meeting.

Read all terms and conditions. Check the cancellation policy if there is a cancellation charge and how much in advance you must give notice if cancelling. Being prepared makes things go smoother.

I will not go into the question about if one should get a car insurance or not, it is too big subject to discuss here. Do check if your car insurance you have for your own car also covers rental cars, in that case it might be unnecessary. Some cards also provide insurance if you use them to pay for the rental car.

One lesson we have learned is: if hiring from an unknown car hire company and you have not checked up their reputation in advance, make sure you pick up the car together with someone from the car hire company.

Why? Because a couple of times we have not really been satisfied with the car, like the one below were I had to put back the side blinkers that kept falling off all the time!

It is always best to see the actual car. Inspect the car to make sure there is no scratches or damages already. If there is, make sure they are noted in the contract, so you will not be hold responsible afterward.

We have always been taken photos of the car both when picking it up and when leaving it, from all angles, just to be on the safe side. Nothing has happened so far though.

Be aware of that there can be some restrictions of where you can go with the car, you might not be allowed to drive over the borders to other countries. Luckily we did not know that when we used a car hire in Malaga, we did not check if we were allowed to drive into Gibraltar. Oops.

After being there I can understand their restrictions – there were very steep and narrow streets where the car owners all had folded their car mirrors into the cars side, to not get it torn away. Many of the cars were scratched and some had no mirrors left. Phew. I am glad we made it without scratches!

It is also great to do an estimate of how much you will drive around before you hire a car, so you know if it is beneficial for you or not to pay for a tank of gas in advance and bring the car back empty – or fill up the fuel yourself right before returning it. Save all gas receipts.

Cars with diesel as fuel can be really cheap to drive, since they do not use as much fuel as petrol driven cars. Several times we have almost wondered if the car were magic, we thought we never had to fill up any fuel!

Always check where to park your rental car without getting parking tickets or in worst case: had your car been removed and have to try to haggle with the local police about it… yes, happened to us once…. ehum…

One last advice: Do not drive on any private roads!

Of course, it can be a rather thrilling experience, but we do not recommend it…

Lifecruiser ♥ Roadtrips

Deia is a truly picturesque little town up in the Serra de Tramuntana mountain, which we fell in love with at first sight. It’s said to host many artists, painters and other celebrities. It’s also there the world famous La Residencia Hotel is, owned by Richard Branson once upon time.

Even Valldemossa has some celebrities, Michael Douglas own a house nearby and can be spotted in Valldemossa from time to time. Otherwise it’s known since Frederic Chopin and his lover, the writer George Sand lived there.

So did we see any celebrity? We’re not sure. We did see a very beautiful woman drive by in a cab in Deia, followed by a car filming her driving on the roads there, so we guess that had to be someone famous – or soon to become famous.

I’ll not say much more about those places, I’ll let the photos speak for themselves – even though photos never can show how it was to experience it live.

Those doors have seen many people coming and going. If they only could tell us their history…

Lifecruiser ♥ Deia & Valldemossa
 

It got white sand for as long as your eyes can see, you can stroll there for ever and dip your toes (or more) in the shallow turquoise water.

After taking that loooong walk at the beach, you get thirsty, right? That’s when you stop at the beach bar a bit further down the beach and get some refreshments…. another type of heaven.

Spotting some well known peeps or famous there…? No? I advise you to take a closer look then….

Would you mind terrible to have a romantic holiday there…?

Tips: See more of the beach and beach babes in Lifecruiser Majorca Photos.

Lifecruiser ♥ Alcudia Beach
 

I certainly love the welcome you get at the reception when arriving: Champagne! And for breakfast too! Yeah, totally my style wouldn’t you say? *giggles*

Hubbys daughter Jane was very surprised when we arrived there at our trip in the beginning of May this year, since she had no idea we were going to Alcudia until we got there and not to such a classy hotel. Her room were quite spacy – having a double room all to herself!

This hotel actually is a romantic selection, so that’s why we couldn’t share room, it were not allowed. There was wonderful atmosphere – romantic yes, but also relaxing because no kids are allowed at the hotel, giving the guest total peace.

You could rent those roof’ed beds together with a serving of Champagne, to have a romantic evening in the garden if you wanted to. For us it felt a bit strange since we were 3, but we seriously considered doing it anyway…

We really had a great stay at this hotel, with some live music in the evenings and some activities at the poolside handled very well by a very nice young man, Alberto, employed by the hotel to entertain the guests.

Hubby did beat him in dart (go, hubby go!) and they had a nice session at the grand piano later, since Alberto is a great singer. Unfortunately they had some problems finding songs they both knew, but never the less it was a nice session.

Jane really looked forward to get a sun tan. One day we did drive along the coast to maybe find another nice beach. We ended up: at home again! The best beach were right at the hotel!

Since Jane wanted it too, we had some relaxing nice days at the hotel pool, even though the pool were a bit cold in the mornings before the sun had heated it up.

What do you think, does Jane look like she is suffering? *giggles*

The only thing that made me disappointed were the dinner buffet. The breakfast buffets were better than the dinner buffet. At least the one we had there.

We did eat out most of the time though, so it might have been just that evening.

There will be more photos from the gorgeous Alcudia beach in the next post that will make you wanna go there!

Tips: See all Lifecruiser Hotel Vanity Golf Photos.

Lifecruiser ♥ Alcudia Beach
 

One afternoon/evening we took the car from Alcudia port up to Alcudia town and almost the first we did see after we had parked the car was the horses in the photo above.

Such a wonderful sight! So traditional and so Spanish. I always love to see those Flamenco dresses, don’t you?

Mr Lifecruiser and Jane stopped for a minute at the cafe where the riders with their horses were, because one of the horses were a bit scared of another person passing by and made quite a fuss, so they couldn’t pass.

There were also a very nice gathering with restaurants, along the cobbled stone streets. It must be totally filled with tourist in the high season, it were such a great place for dinner out.

I simply loved Alcudia towns old parts and were in heaven. I had problems to really be able to see everything, my head did spin.

We walked around for hours, admiring the whole atmosphere among those old and beautiful buildings. I did my best to catch some of it with my camera, but it was difficult – too narrow to get space enough to get all in the picture that I wanted.

As you can see, the sun begun to set and created that lovely and very romantic light… Though for once, we were not alone, we were three…

See all Lifecruiser Alcudia photos.

Lifecruiser ♥ Alcudia
 

Lifecruiser Travel Blog and Travel Experta have decided to host a new meme, where the 1st every month the party animals (you) makes a blog post, with text and/or photo of a drink from somewhere in the world.

Join the Drinks ‘Round the World Meme, don’t be shy. It will be like having a party – the more, the merrier the party will be!

You have to tell in your blog post that Lifecruiser Travel Blog and Travel Experta are the cohosts, so people can find all the other drinkers participants easier.

Everyone should make the rounds and leave comments at the other participants blogs – and friends: remember to have fun, keep the party dress and mood on!

Don’t forget to stumble and twitter each post to tell all your friends about it, spread the word around the world!

We count on you, that you’ll attend this giant international cocktail party the 1st every month and take all your friends with you!

More drinks to the people!

Lifecruiser ♥ Drinks ‘Round the World
 

When driving the road from Palma to Alcudia, in the Campanet region in Mallorca – maybe 3-4 km before reaching Alcudia – we could see the tower of Menestralia and decided to see if there were a restaurant where we could eat.

Yep! There it was, our saver in the need. A really nice restaurant with lots of free tables.

To our delight there were also a big and delicious buffet! We had come exactly to the right place without even plan too. There were so much food there, we didn’t even know what everything was… We sure did have a look around though!

We came at the right time too, because when arriving, there were only a few tables occupied, but after sitting there just a short while, the restaurant suddenly were full. Talk about right timing.

Since we were coming direct from the airport, just with the detour to pick up our rental car, we were very hungry at that time – as you also can see of Jane’s concentration on the food…

I love finding restaurants like this one, where the locals like to eat – I could tell that we were the only ones not speaking Spanish at least. It was nice sitting there among all the Majorca families.

Since it were the 1st of May, it were a holiday and I guess that’s why the glass making factory beside the restaurant were closed while we were there, arriving in the afternoon. Such a pity!

We had to be satisfied with admiring the wonderful old building it were situated in instead. Not so bad that either….

Remember that rainy weather I wrote about in my last post? Funny thing was: the closer we got to Alcudia, the better the weather turned out…

Lucky us!

See all Lifecruiser Menestralia photos.

Lifecruiser ♥ Menestralia
 

Our trip this time was a charter trip with one of Sweden’s biggest and well known charter company: Ving. This was our first time traveling with Ving actually.

The flight were with Thomas Cook Airlines on an Airbus A330-300, a quite comfortable and spacy airplane.

I really appreciate when you’re able to follow the whole flight route as well as some other facts of the flight on the flight monitor all the time – even the start and landing.

I’m not so sure you’ll appreciate it if you’re afraid of flying though – like Jane who thought it was a scary sight. I guess it can be different for different persons – what do you think?

The flight went extremely well, no bumps when flying over the mountains either thankfully. No annoying passengers, nice flight staff and service.

Actually this was the first time that we didn’t booked flight meal, because we always find them so poor. This was also the first time that we thought the flight meal sounded rather good, so we almost regretted it – but only almost! We had snacks with us.

What was annoying though, was that when landing in Palma the weather looked like this:

Oh, no! Here we’re going on a sun vacation with Jane since she really wanted to go to somewhere warm and sunny and we’re facing this horrible rainy and cold weather!

No, it was not me with my bad weather curse who brought the bad weather (this time), they had it before we arrived there, I swear.

So, how did it go with the rest of the trip and the weather? Stay tuned to read more…

Lifecruiser ♥ Flights
 

Our secret destination was Alcudia Beach, Mallorca island in Spain. A gorgeous paradise beach with the finest white sand and turquoise-blue water.

After being there the past week I’m certain that it’s Mallorca’s best beach – I’m sure you understand me when I tell you that I didn’t want to leave!!!

More about Alcudia and our photos comes in the following post, I just wanted to show you a small taste of it now.

Lifecruiser ♥ Alcudia Beach