Es Caragol

Es Caragol is the untouched beach at Mallorca's southern tip, beside Cap de Ses Salines: a long, curving stretch of fine white sand with not a single building in sight, scrub and low pines behind, very shallow water as clear as a swimming pool, and the island of Cabrera on the horizon. No road reaches it. You leave the car on the verges of the road to the Ses Salines lighthouse, which is free (watch out: there's a yellow line at the end), and walk round the right-hand side of the lighthouse fence, following the coast: some 20–35 minutes on a path of sand and small stones, easy but with no shade at all. Google Maps sometimes sends you down fenced farm tracks that go nowhere. Before the main beach there are little coves and rocks to swim from, with fewer people. What sets it apart: the calm even in August, the sunset over the sea, the rays half-buried in the sand that you'll spot with a mask, and a couple of Civil War bunkers. The downside, mentioned by almost everyone: posidonia, which in some years and weeks blankets the shoreline and smells, making it hard to get in; no bar, no toilets and no shade (what little there is swarms with ants and flies); and the wind, which flattens parasols. Naturists use the beach, and people bring dogs. It suits anyone happy to walk who comes loaded with water and shade, not small children or people with reduced mobility.

Reviewed in November 2026