Alcudia Beach And The Bay It Sits On

What Kind Of Beach Is Alcudia And Why Do Families Choose It?

Alcudia is a long, wide stretch of fine sand and shallow water along the north-eastern shore of the Badia d'Alcudia, the broad bay between the Pollensa peninsula and the Cap de Pinar headland. Families choose it because the water stays shallow a long way out, the sand is soft rather than pebbly, and the bay is sheltered from open-sea swell.

That combination is unusual in Mallorca. Many of the island's famous beaches, Es Trenc on the south coast for instance, are beautiful but sit far from any boarding point for a scheduled boat trip. At Alcudia the beach and the port share the same curve of shoreline, so a morning on the sand and an afternoon on the water can be planned without a transfer in between. The port itself runs along the Passeig Maritim, where the catamaran operator Transports Maritims BRISA boards passengers near the promenade.

The bay has a second practical advantage. Because it opens to the north-east but is partly enclosed, the water near the beach is usually calmer than the exposed coves on the island's north-west face, the kind you reach from Port de Soller. That matters if part of your group is nervous about boats. If calm-water confidence is the question, the article on catamaran stability in rough seas explains why twin-hulled boats are the steadier choice for first-time passengers.

The geography sets up one honest caution. The Bay of Alcudia is a big, open bay, not a lake, and conditions change with the wind like anywhere else on the island. Weather can cancel trips, and the cancellation terms are on the live listing. On a beach day the same wind that ruffles the water near shore is worth reading before you walk to the pier, and the general beach flag system applies: green means swimming is fine, yellow means caution, red means no swimming. A white flag with a jellyfish icon signals jellyfish, and if someone is stung, rinse with seawater only.

For planning purposes, think of the bay in three layers. The beach itself, the promenade and town of Port d'Alcudia behind it, and the water beyond, where the swimming zones, the moorings and the boat routes out toward Formentor begin. Boats keep under 3 knots within 200 metres of beaches and 50 metres of the coast, so the water close to bathers stays slow and predictable.

Which Catamaran Trips Leave From Port D'Alcudia?

Three catamaran trips depart from Port d'Alcudia: a five-hour cruise with lunch and a swim stop from $82 per person, rated 4.0 from 82 reviews, a five-hour cruise with scenic views and a BBQ lunch from $85 per person, rated 4.1 from 130 reviews, and a half-day Formentor beach trip from $45.55 per person. A fourth option boards at Port de Pollenca instead, from $78 per person.

The first of the two Alcudia cruises is operated by Tour2b and boards at the Transports Maritims BRISA pier on the promenade. It runs about five hours and includes lunch of chicken, sausage, salad, pasta and fruit, with water, soft drinks, beer and sangria served during the meal. The listed stops are Platja Des Coll Baix, the sandy beach beneath the Cap de Pinar cliffs, and Playa del Puerto de Pollensa on the opposite side of the bay. A swim stop is included, and lunch is served on board. Free cancellation is listed.

The second Alcudia cruise, run by Transports Maritims BRISA itself from Passeig Maritim 18, also runs about five hours and covers more coast: the listing names Platja des Coll Baix, Cala Murta and Aucanada beach as its stops, while the Formentor Peninsula is passed along the way. The meal is a BBQ of chicken, pork and sausages with pasta salad, bread and seasonal fruit, and two drinks come with it. Inclusions are the trip itself, a BBQ lunch or dinner and two drinks, with no gear listed. The full comparison of every northern departure is in the Alcudia catamaran tours guide.

Across the bay at Port de Pollenca, Nofrills Excursions runs a four-and-a-half-hour catamaran tour in the Bay of Pollensa, from $78 per person, rated 4.6 from 112 reviews. This is the one northern listing that sails the Bay of Pollensa, and it runs 4.5 hours of pasta salad, chicken, salami, cheese, Mallorcan bread and fruit, drinks with the meal, snorkeling equipment and stand-up paddle. Its named stops are Port de Pollenca and Ses Caletes. Note that free cancellation is not listed on this one, so check the live listing before booking. The four northern listings compared:

A Palma comparison is fair to make here, because many visitors stay in the capital and weigh a day trip north against sailing from the city. The listings covered here depart from Palma, Port d'Alcudia, Port de Pollenca and Cala Ratjada, and nothing departs from Port de Soller, Cala d'Or, Santa Ponsa, Magaluf, Cala Millor or Peguera. The Palma catamaran guide covers the southern options in full.

Is Formentor Beach Worth The Boat Trip From Alcudia?

Formentor is the long, pale-sand beach at the tip of the Formentor peninsula, and reaching it by catamaran from Port d'Alcudia takes four and a half hours round trip, from $45.55 per person with 14 reviews on the listing. The beach is the classic north-coast postcard, a strip of sand backed by pines under high cliffs, and arriving by boat gives you beach time without the winding drive over the peninsula.

The half-day trip, run by Tour2b from the Port d'Alcudia promenade, lists its stops as Playa de Formentor and Cap de Formentor, and its inclusions are plain: the catamaran cruise and beach visit time. No meal or drinks are stated on the listing, so pack accordingly. The boat carries up to 300 guests, which makes it a different animal from the twelve-passenger small-group sails in Palma, more ferry-with-a-view than boutique charter, and at four and a half hours it fits a morning on Alcudia beach and an afternoon on the water into one day. Free cancellation is listed. You can read the operator's live listing through the tour page for the Formentor beach catamaran or Check availability.

Is it worth it? The honest answer splits by what you want. If Formentor beach is the goal and you would otherwise not visit it at all, the catamaran is a calm, swim-stop-included way to get there, and the peninsula cliffs from the water are the part a beach visitor by land never sees. If you want lunch, drinks and water toys included, the five-hour Alcudia cruises above, of which only the BRISA cruise passes the Formentor Peninsula, bundle more for a higher from-price. Families weighing the timing question may find the guide on half-day versus full-day boat tours useful.

One environmental note that matters on this stretch of coast. Anchoring on Posidonia seagrass meadows is banned in the Balearic Islands under Decret 25/2018, a rule reinforced nationally in 2026, and authorised buoy fields are the legal alternative. Formentor has a buoy field for low-impact mooring, booked through Ports IB. The official Balearic decree sets this out. For a passenger it means one simple thing: swim stops happen in sandy spots or at buoys, not dropped over the meadows, which is partly why the Posidonia, visible in places while snorkeling, still looks the way it does.

Can You Swim And Snorkel From The Boats In The Bay?

Yes, the Tour2b Alcudia cruise lists a swim stop, and snorkeling equipment comes with three northern options: that same Tour2b cruise, the BRISA scenic cruise and the Port de Pollenca tour. Only the half-day Formentor trip does not state snorkel gear on its listing, so bring your own or plan to swim rather than snorkel there. Water clarity in the bay is generally good, and the swim stops sit at named beaches rather than open water.

The swim-stop geography is worth knowing in advance. The Tour2b cruise stops at Platja Des Coll Baix, a sand-and-pebble beach at the foot of the Cap de Pinar cliffs that is awkward to reach by land, which is exactly why arriving by boat works. The BRISA cruise adds Es Coll Baix and the Bay of Pollensa. The Port de Pollenca tour stops at Ses Caletes, a string of small coves on the peninsula's bay side. At each one the boat anchors or moors, the platform or steps go down, and you swim in the shallows beside the boat. The rest of the planning pages sit on Mallorca Katamaran Tours.

What you see underwater near the bay is mostly sand, light rock and, where the listing stops allow, the edges of Posidonia meadows with small fish around them. Fish are commonly reported on these coasts, and passengers on other Mallorca boat trips have reported occasional seahorses on the east coast, but no listing here promises any sighting, and no honest guide should either. If marine life is the main draw, the snorkel stops guide compares what each sailing actually includes in the water.

Two rules shape a swim stop. Boats keep under 3 knots within 200 metres of beaches and 50 metres of the coast, so the approach to a beach stop is slow. And Spain's Real Decreto 1727/2007 sets a protection cylinder around cetaceans, with an exclusion zone out to 60 metres, so any dolphin encounter from a scheduled catamaran is a distant, brief one by law. The text of the decree is public. Passengers do report bottlenose dolphins off Mallorca's south-west, on the Santa Ponsa and Paguera routes, but no listing covered here departs from there, so treat dolphins as a happy accident on the north coast, never a promise.

For a Palma-based alternative with snorkeling built in, the Deluxe Catamaran with Snacks, Drink, SUP and Snorkeling runs about four hours from the Muelle de Golondrinas, rated 4.6 from 1,085 reviews.

When Is The Water Warm Enough For Swimming In Alcudia?

Average sea temperature near Palma runs from 13.9 degrees Celsius in February, the coolest month, to 26.0 degrees in August, the warmest, with June at 22.5 and October at 22.7 on average. For most swimmers the water feels comfortable from June through September, when the averages sit above 22 degrees, while March and April averages in the mid-teens make a swim stop bracing rather than pleasant.

These are monthly averages for the water near Palma, not daily readings, and the north coast sits in the same general band. A swim stop in May, at an average of 18.9 degrees, is swimmable for some and cold for others, which is worth knowing before booking a trip whose main draw is the water. The averages month by month:

Daylight matters as much as warmth for a swim-stop itinerary. Sunset in Palma on 15 June is 9:18 pm and on 15 December 5:26 pm, so a four-and-a-half-hour afternoon trip in midsummer ends in full daylight while the same trip in December finishes after dark. The full table is in the guide to Mallorca sunset times by month, and the broader seasonal picture, including which months suit which kind of trip, is in the best time for a catamaran tour.

Weather remains the wildcard. Weather can cancel trips, and the cancellation terms are on the live listing. The practical habit is to check the forecast for the bay the evening before, and to note which of your chosen dates have flexibility built in.

What Should You Know Before Booking A Beach-And-Boat Day?

Pack for two environments in one day: sand, sun and sea, plus a boat with shade limited to its deck area. Bring swimwear worn under clothes, a towel, sun protection applied before boarding, a hat, and a card or cash for anything not in the inclusions, because extra drinks, and on some listings snorkel gear itself, are sold separately. Arrive at the pier early, since none of the northern listings except the Port de Pollenca tour states hotel pickup.

The inclusions differ enough between the four northern listings that a packing list should follow the trip, not the reverse. On the Formentor half-day, nothing beyond the cruise and beach time is stated, so bring water and food. On the two five-hour cruises, lunch and drinks with the meal are included, but extra drinks are either not stated or listed as excluded. A fuller checklist is in what to bring on a catamaran tour.

The side-by-side of what is actually included makes the differences concrete:

Group size is the other honest variable. The Formentor trip carries up to 300 guests, while the two Alcudia cruises and the Pollensa tour do not state a group size. If a small, quiet deck matters to you, the comparison to look at is not among the northern trips at all but the small-group sails from Palma, such as the Luxury Catamaran Tour with Tapas and Welcome Drink from Sailpalma, from $110.92 per person, which carries up to 10 to 12 guests with a skipper and host, welcome drink, freshly made tapas and water toys included. The trade-offs are laid out in the guide on private versus shared catamarans, and the full price picture across categories is in Mallorca boat tour prices. If you are still deciding where to base yourself, an honest verdict on Alcudia as a place to stay weighs the old town and the bay against the busier tourist strips.

For visitors pairing the beach with a first boat trip, motion sickness is a real question, and the calm of a catamaran's twin hulls in a sheltered bay is the standard answer. The seasickness and sea conditions guide covers the practical steps, including where to sit and what to take.

Common Questions About Alcudia Beach