Ses Salines Beach

The first thing is the colour: pale sand, then water that stays clear as it shelves gently away over a sandy bottom. The waves are small and the entry is flat, which makes for easy, unhurried swimming.

The salt pans that gave the beach its name lie just inland, and a walk along the water's edge takes in the whole length of the shore. The main entrance is where the crowd is thickest. Keep walking away from it and the sand opens into quieter, more private patches, with bars and a tavern playing music never far off. Nude bathing is part of the beach.

• The beach gets very crowded. The further you walk from the main entrance, the more space you find.
• Some stretches carry heavy banks of seaweed, and on some days there is none at all. Move along the shore if your patch is affected.
• The toilets near the beach charge a fee, and there is no public drinking water point nearby. Bring water or buy it at the bars.
• This is a nude beach. Expect nude bathing alongside everyone else.
• Beach vendors work the sand, usually without pressing.

Most visitors arrive by car. Two unpaved car parks lie about 165 and 180 m from the beach in a straight line; parking is paid, and part of it is covered, which keeps the car in the shade. The surface is unpaved, so after rain expect mud and standing water.

A bus stop sits about 190 m away in a straight line. Walking paths run along the beach, and they are the way to leave the busy main entrance behind for quieter sand further along.

Best: early morning or late afternoon, and outside July and August.

Avoid: the middle of the day in high summer.

The island fills up in summer and this beach draws very large crowds, while the open sand gives little shade at midday.