According to a ranking by travel professionals, this tiny beach in Santanyi has been named one of Europe’s best beaches of 2025 despite being the site of a major protest in 2024
A small cove with crystal blue waters, and only a small stretch of sand, has been named among the 50 best beaches in the world.
A new report from The World’s 50 Best Beaches has named Mallorcan beach Es Caló des Moro, the ninth best beach in Europe as part of its 2025 list of Europe’s 50 Best Beaches. According to the company: “The ranking was voted on by over 1,000 travel professionals, including our judges, Beach Ambassadors and our own World’s 50 Beaches team.”
Es Caló des Moro, dubbed a hidden gem, is just 3.7-miles from the town of Santanyi in the southeast corner of Mallorca. Despite its relatively small size – only 40 metres in length – it is regularly praised for its fine sands and turquoise waters.
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One of the reasons the beach is so beloved by British holidaymakers is because of its relative seclusion. Es Caló des Moro sits deep inside a bay with white cliffs creating a sense of privacy for sunbathers.
That said, the beach’s seclusion also makes it somewhat difficult to access. To get down to the water you will need to walk around 100m on foot. But, it is possible to drive all the way down to the beach, if accessibility is a concern. The beach is also a regular haunt for locals who are fiercely protective of it, having put up signs saying that the road is private.
If you are able to take the flight of stairs down to the beach, you will pass the beach Cala s’Almunia on the way down. While Es Caló des Moro is considered the more picturesque of the two, Cala s’Alumunia offers a wonderful detour with its rocky outcroppings and pine tree surroundings. The water is just as clear as further below, though the shore is more gravel than sand at times.
The beach’s limited accessibility also means that modern conveniences like sunbed and parasol rental and beach bars and restaurants are not available. This is also likely because of its popularity with the locals, who wished to keep the beach under the radar for a while.
There are also no water sport activities at Es Caló des Moro. However, crystal-clear and calm conditions of the water mean that the beach is ideal for snorkelling. The water is relatively shallow though, but that makes it well-suited for children.
As Es Caló des Moro has gained greater attention and drawn the interest of foreign holidaymakers, locals have begun to increasingly avoid the area. Es Caló des Moro has become one of the four beaches most heavily avoided by locals, according to a recent research project.
The research project was conducted by Sergio Obrador of the Demographic and Tourism Studies Group at the University of the Balearic Islands and was designed to determine the effects of overcrowding on the mobility of local residents. Of the random sample of 404 residents that participated in a survey, 85% said they had stopped visiting certain places on the island due to overcrowding in the summer.
Mallorcan locals confirmed that the majority of the places they had begun to avoid due to overcrowding were beaches and coves. Four of these beaches locals named were: Es Caló des Moro, Es Trenc, Sa Calobra and Magaluf. Access in Es Caló des Moro became an increasingly heated issue. In fact, in the summer of 2024 the beach became the site of a major local-led protest against overcrowding.
Around 300 residents gathered on Es Caló des Moro cove in Santanyi protesting overcrowding on the Spanish island on June 16, 2024. The police were called after protesters began shouting “tourists go home” and officials called for the removal of protest banners from the beach.
On The World’s 50 Best Beaches list of Europe’s best for 2025, six beaches are in Spain. Playa de Rodas came in fourth on the ranking while Cala Macarelleta also cracked the top 20, taking fourteenth place.
