Best Things to Do in the Balearic Islands
“The Balearic Islands” is not one destination with four beaches. It is four separate islands with their own airports (three of them, anyway), their own character, and a ferry schedule between them that you need to plan around rather than ignore.
Mallorca: mountains, a cathedral, and a 1912 train
The biggest island by far, anchored by Palma and its Gothic La Seu Cathedral , with a 44-meter nave and a 12-meter rose window. The signature ride here is the 1912 wooden electric train from Palma to Sóller, rattling through citrus orchards and mountain tunnels before connecting to an open-air 1913 tram down to the port. Inland, the Cuevas del Drach in Porto Cristo run boat rides across an underground lake to live classical music. Mallorca is also where the region’s driving restrictions bite hardest: private cars have been banned from the access road to Cala Macarella and Cala Macarelleta since 2018, and from June or July through September those coves are reachable only by shuttle bus from Ciutadella or on foot along the coastal trail from Cala Galdana.
Menorca: the quiet one
A UNESCO Biosphere Reserve since 1993, encircled by the 185-kilometer Camí de Cavalls coastal path. This is where you go for turquoise coves without the crowds and for Talaiotic Menorca , the prehistoric megalithic sites inscribed as UNESCO World Heritage in 2023.
Ibiza: more than the clubs
Dalt Vila, the 16th-century fortified old town, is UNESCO-listed in its own right and worth the visit regardless of nightlife plans. At Cala d’Hort, crowds gather at sunset to watch the sun drop behind Es Vedrà, the 400-meter limestone monolith just offshore; Es Vedrà boat tours get you close to the base of it rather than just the clifftop view.
Formentera: the one with no airport
Reachable only by a 30-minute ferry from Ibiza , never by air. The reward is Ses Illetes, a sandbar with water on both sides kept clear by protected Posidonia seagrass meadows just offshore. The official Formentera tourism page has the current word on seasonal closures before you build a day around it.
Verdict: if you only have time for one island, Mallorca packs in the widest range in the smallest travel radius; if you want the quiet version of the same coastline, that’s Menorca, not a quieter corner of Mallorca.
Build ferry and flight time into your itinerary before you build in activities. Two to three and a half hours separates Mallorca from Ibiza by boat, so treat inter-island hopping as its own travel day, not a side trip. For a breakdown of exactly which sights pair into a single day, see the day trips guide .