We've just come back from a week's holiday in Menorca, Harry's first proper holiday abroad, and we had a fabulous time. Unfortunately, going on holiday means you are going to end up spending much of your first and last day in an airport, one at home and one at your destination. We flew out from London Gatwick, a quite big and impressive airport that seeks to cater to every need of the passengers trapped within, and flew to Menorca airport, which is near the island's capital city Mahon. My parents took my brother and I to Menorca when we were 4 and 2, so over 20 years ago and my parents were really impressed with the change in the airport, and I thought the small island has done a great job with their only airport.

The airport is located in the far south east of the island, near the capital Mahon. It is a relatively small airport compared to Gatwick, but as it only serves the small island, it is plenty big enough. All flights departing went to Europe and arrivals only seemed to be from Europe and smaller aircraft too. We were staying in the south west of Menorca in Cala Blanca, but it only took us an hour's drive to get to/from the airport at the beginning and end of our holiday, so its very accesible. There is plenty of parking at the airport if you need it, and you can also get taxis and there is a dedicated bus route on the island for the airport too.

Arrivals
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When we arrived in Menorca, the airport looked very clean, with only one other aircraft on the tarmac and that had clearly unloaded a long while ago. The airport looked fresh and bright, probably helped by the gorgeous blue sky and hot sunshine, but were very impressed. You have to go through Spanish passport control, which seemed much more lax than British immigration, and straight through to baggage reclaim. This was slightly slower than bigger airports, but there are several collection carousels, although only ours was being used. One thing I did like was as we walked into the arrivals hall, there was a huge stand of free Menorca brochures for passengers to help themselves to, always a nice touch when you arrive in a new place!

The hall itself is fantastic, open and cool thanks to the air conditioning, and was covered in chrome and bright lights so was quite bright! Strangely the toilets were located at opposite ends of the hall, and passengers come through doors in the middle so you have to trek across if you need a loo break after your flight, and Harry had great fun running from one end to the other, his noisy footsteps echoing down the empty hall! After we collected our baggage, we had to collect our rental car from the windows located at the back of the hall behind the baggage carousels. This was quick, and the car parks containing the rental cars was about a 5 minute walk from the main airport terminal. There are several hire companies present so make sure you get the right floor. There are taxi ranks outside the terminal building too if you don't have car rental pre-booked, or you can book upon arrival in Menorca.

Departures
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At the end of our holiday, we returned our rental car to the appropriate place (quite a tight squeeze we have to say, make sure you have a careful driver!) and did a short walk to the terminal, which seemed much shorter than our previous journey! The terminal was very open and again very chrome, and spacious. We arrived at about 1pm, with our flight due to take off at 4.25pm. The check in desks didn't open until 2 hours before the flight, so there was a bit of a sit about waiting, with not many shops, just a cafeteria and small shop which wasn't cheap. After checking in, you go up to the departure lounge (once you've cleared security of course).

I was really impressed with the departure lounge. There wasn't a huge amount of seating, but there was a nice children's play area, I would say aimed at the under 3's as Harry was a bit too big to play in there. It's nice they recognise a lot of their visitors are young families! There is a nice size Duty Free shop selling all your usual alcohol, cigarettes, perfume and confectionary (you can choose to pay in GBP if you pay by card too!), a small fashion store, small newsagent type-shop, and several food outlets including a Burger King, always handy to have when travelling with young children/younger 23 year old brothers who eat like it's going out of fashion. Once we were called to the boarding gate, they strictly boarded us with 'speedy boarders' going first, followed by special assistance and those with children under 5, so we sneaked on with Harry. The flight took off on time and ended our good experience at Menorca airport.

Overall, we were really pleased with our experience at Menorca airport, and would happily use it again if we returned to the island. The staff were professional and pleasant, things ran according on time and passengers were fully updated along the way, and the airport seemed cool, clean and fresh throughout our trip. I think the Menorcans have done themselves proud with this airport, and it is a good place to begin and end your holiday on a great island. Yes, it is on the other side of the island from some of the more touristy resorts but because the island is so small, it only takes around an hour to drive across so isn't an issue. Signage is in both Spanish/Catalan and English and well laid out, so no complaints from us, we highly recommend Menorca airport!

Menorca Airport website: http://www.menorca-airport.com/

Thank you for reading.