When the boat rounds the harbour mouth and the castle appears against the sky, the first thing you notice isn't what's there. It's what's missing. No roads. No hotels. No beach bars, no sunbeds, no music. Just rock, water and a kind of silence that has all but disappeared from the south coast of Mallorca. If you've landed here looking for information about Cabrera National Park, something has probably told you it's worth the trip. It is, though maybe not for the reasons you expect.
Cabrera Archipelago Maritime-Terrestrial National Park is made up of the island of Cabrera and the islets around it, 19 in all, lying off the south coast of Mallorca, about 18 kilometres from the main island. It was declared a national park in 1991 and is the only one in the Balearic Islands. The figure that changed everything came in February 2019, when the Spanish government approved its expansion from around 10,000 to around 90,800 hectares. Overnight, it became the largest marine national park in the western Mediterranean and the largest national park of any kind in Spain.
For visitors, those numbers boil down to three things: fewer boats than you'd expect, water clearer than in almost any cove on Mallorca, and a seabed that has been protected from fishing and careless anchoring for decades. None of it is staged. It's the result of more than thirty years of strict management of an ecosystem that, without that protection, would have gone the way of most of the Mediterranean coastline.
Administratively, Cabrera belongs to the municipality of Palma. Boats usually leave from Colònia de Sant Jordi, the harbour town where trips to Cabrera start, a fishing village that deserves a few hours of its own.
The first thing you see of Cabrera is always the castle. Built in the 14th century on a headland overlooking the harbour mouth, it comes into view before the boat has even finished coming in. The view from the top, with Mallorca on the horizon and the archipelago spread out below, doesn't translate well into a photo. What it does is put distances into perspective, and help you understand what this island meant to the men who lived here against their will.
Between 1809 and 1814, thousands of French soldiers captured after the Battle of Bailén were held on Cabrera with barely any supplies, no medical care and no way off the island. Thousands of them died. The monument to their memory stands by the harbour, and it's easy to walk past if you're in a hurry. Their story doesn't sink in from an information board; it sinks in when you look towards Mallorca from the castle and work out just how far away everything is.
That's the trap of a visit that's too short. The list of things to see on Cabrera is brief, which makes it easy to assume a few hours will do. They won't. What makes this place unique isn't what's here but what isn't, and that takes time to take in.
The Cova Blava, Cabrera's Blue Cave, is a sea cave whose interior glows an intense blue as sunlight filters in from below the waterline. The effect changes with the time of day and the conditions, so no two visits are quite the same. It's one of those places you've seen countless times in photos that still manages to surprise you in person.
Es Celler is the park's museum, housed in a historic building near the harbour. It tells the natural and human history of the archipelago, from its geology and wildlife to its shipwrecks and the story of the French prisoners, in far more depth than any sign outside. It's worth going in slowly, without one eye on the clock.
Both are the kind of place you only half see if you're on a schedule with the boat back in two hours.
There's one question everyone asks the first time they put their face in the water at Cabrera: why don't the fish swim away? The answer is the same one that explains the colour of the water: you can't just fish here. Recreational fishing has been banned for decades and commercial fishing is tightly restricted, so the fish have simply stopped seeing people as a threat.
Posidonia oceanica, the seagrass meadow that carpets much of the seabed around the archipelago, is the other half of the equation. It produces oxygen, filters the water, shelters dozens of species and is extremely vulnerable to anchors. That's why anchoring is only allowed on the designated mooring buoys: not to make anyone's life difficult, but because one anchor dropped on posidonia destroys in seconds what takes decades to grow back.
The daily cap of 50 recreational boats completes the picture. In any popular Mallorcan cove in August, that number is passed before lunchtime. In Cabrera, it's the maximum. Put the three measures together (limits on fishing, protection for the posidonia and a cap on boats) and you get exactly what visitors notice: clean water, wildlife you can actually see, and an underwater quiet that has become a rarity in the Mediterranean.
On land, the park is a refuge for the Balearic lizard, a species found only in these islands. Seabird colonies, including shearwaters, cormorants and Audouin's gulls, make the archipelago one of the best birdwatching spots in the western Mediterranean. It all works as one system, not as separate pieces.
There are three ways to reach Cabrera National Park, and none is best in the abstract. It depends on your group, your budget and what you're after.
The shared ferry leaves from Colònia de Sant Jordi on a fixed timetable, and its per-person price makes it by far the cheapest option. The boat sets the schedule, you share it with people you don't know, and your time in the park is limited. For a couple or a small family, it's the honest recommendation. It does exactly what it promises.
Your own boat requires a navigation permit, applied for online before you enter the park. Mooring buoys are limited and do run out, and in the afternoon the westerly wind can make the crossing back uncomfortable. If this is your plan, the boat route from Palma to Cabrera along the coves of Llucmajor goes into more detail about the passage.
A private skippered trip is the third option. The boat, the timing and the pace of the day belong to your group. More on that below.
Parking by the harbour in Colònia de Sant Jordi costs around €5 a day. From Palma, TIB bus 508 does the journey for about €5. If the trip leaves at 10:00 and you're coming from elsewhere on the island, it may be worth staying in Colònia de Sant Jordi the night before.
Every recreational boat entering the park needs a navigation permit, which you apply for online before setting off. It isn't optional, and it can't be sorted out on the day.
With the permit, boats up to 15 metres can use the daytime mooring buoys in three areas: Es Burrí, sa Coveta Roja and the harbour. The daily maximum is 50 recreational boats. Anchoring outside the buoys, recreational fishing and diving without the relevant permit are all prohibited.
To stay overnight in the park you also need to book a buoy in advance: up to two nights in July and August, and up to seven for the rest of the year.
Treating these rules as red tape to get past is the most common mistake in what gets written about Cabrera. They're the opposite. They're the reason the water is that colour, the reason fish swim calmly around you and the reason the seabed is still intact. What limits you is exactly what protects what you came to see.
With Redstar Tours, you reach Cabrera aboard a llaüt, the traditional Balearic fishing boat: a 12-metre Menorcan llaüt, slow and steady, that suits Cabrera's pace in a way no speedboat can. The one place on the south coast that is still the way it was before mass tourism is reached on the boat that has always sailed these waters.
It's a full-day private llaüt trip to Cabrera: the boat is for your group only, up to 11 people, with a professional skipper on board, from 10:00 to 18:00. Cabrera is added to the full-day trip for a €150 supplement, and prices start from €800 per trip, not per person. That's what changes the maths for a larger group: split between six, eight or ten people, the cost per head looks very different.
The price includes Mallorcan snacks, soft drinks, water, D.O. wine, snorkelling gear, fuel, an air-conditioned indoor lounge and access to the marina facilities: toilets, showers, restaurant, supermarket and café. Towels, sunscreen and personal belongings are not included.
For a couple or a small family, the numbers don't add up, and our recommendation is the shared ferry, no question. A private llaüt trip makes sense when the cost is shared by a group that wants the whole day, without sharing the boat with strangers or working around someone else's timetable.
If you'd like to know what you can see and how much time you can spend at each spot in the park, tell us what you have in mind when you request availability and we'll confirm the plan for the day.
A Menorcan llaüt with a skipper from Colònia de Sant Jordi, 10:00 to 18:00, for groups of up to 11. Mallorcan snacks, drinks and snorkelling gear on board.
Tell us what you’d like to see and we’ll confirm the plan for the day.
The trip doesn't include towels or sunscreen, so bring comfortable non-slip shoes, a hat and more sun protection than you think you'll need. The glare off the water adds up.
The best months to visit Cabrera National Park are May, June, September and October. The sea is usually calm, the park is at its quietest and the mid-morning light is ideal for snorkelling. July and August are still good, but everything, from the buoys to parking in Colònia de Sant Jordi, gets tighter.
At sea, the weather has the final say. Our policy is simple: if conditions aren't safe, the skipper cancels the trip, and you're offered another date or a full refund. It's a real guarantee, not a footnote.
If you have a group but not a full day, there's another option from Colònia de Sant Jordi: a half-day llaüt trip. The morning trip takes in Es Trenc and the beaches around Colònia de Sant Jordi, as far as Es Carbó and Cap de ses Salines, while the afternoon trip heads to Cala en Tugores and Es Caragol. It doesn't reach the park, but it's another way to see this coastline from the water. And for when you're back, here's where to eat in Colònia de Sant Jordi.
Almost everything written about Cabrera ends up as a short list: the castle, the monument, the Cova Blava, Es Celler. And a short list makes it easy to think a few hours will cover it. They won't. What makes Cabrera worth it can't be listed: it's the absence of everything you'll find elsewhere on this coast. You won't get that with one eye on your watch or a boat back in two hours.
Cabrera asks for time. A whole day isn't a luxury; it's the right way to see it.
A private llaüt trip from Colònia de Sant Jordi for groups of up to 11. Short on time? There are also morning and afternoon trips along the Ses Salines coast.
Choose the option that suits your group.
Yes. Every recreational boat needs a navigation permit, applied for online before departure. Without it, you can't enter the park.
The usual departure point is Colònia de Sant Jordi, in the municipality of Ses Salines, about 18 kilometres from the archipelago. Most trips, both shared and private, leave from there.
Yes, snorkelling is one of the main things to do in the park. The protected waters, the limits on fishing and the healthy posidonia meadows make for exceptional visibility and plenty of marine life. It's scuba diving that needs a specific permit.
Yes, with conditions. To spend the night in the park you need to book a mooring buoy in advance. The limit is two nights in July and August and seven nights the rest of the year. There are no hotels or other accommodation on land within the park.
Regular trips run from spring to autumn. Conditions are usually best in May, June, September and October, when the sea is calm and there are fewer boats around.
