Things To Do In Alcudia, With A Boat Day Included

Alcudia sits on a neck of land between two bays: the long crescent of sand that runs from Can Picada toward Port d'Alcudia on one side, and the steeper, rockier shoreline of the Bay of Pollensa on the other. That geography is the reason the town works so well as a base. The walled old town, the Roman ruins at the edge of it and the market square are all within a short walk of each other, and the port, where the catamarans leave from, is a flat stroll down the road. If you're still weighing up whether this stretch of the coast is right for your trip, This honest verdict on Alcudia as a place to stay covers everything from the old town to the boat trips.

Most visitors plan Alcudia around the beach, and the beach is genuinely the main event, but the boats change what is reachable. The beaches north of the port, Es Coll Baix among them, sit below the Formentor Peninsula where road access is limited and parking in summer is a known frustration. A catamaran approaches the same shoreline from the water and turns the transfer into part of the day. The listings covered here do exactly that, with lunch, drinks and swim stops built into the fare.

This guide walks through the practical questions: what the town itself offers, which trips leave from which pier, what a Formentor day by boat looks like, what the Bay of Pollensa trips show you and how to plan around seasons and weather. The boat facts, prices, stops and inclusions all come from the live listings.

What Are The Best Things To Do In Alcudia?

Alcudia's core attractions are the walled old town with its market, the Roman ruins of Pollentia at its edge, the long beach curve running toward Port d'Alcudia, and the boat trips that leave from the port. The listings covered here turn the last of those into a full half-day, with catamarans from $45.55 to $85 per person reaching Es Coll Baix, Formentor and the Bay of Pollensa by sea. For everything on the sand itself, the guide to Alcudia beach and its bay covers the shoreline and how to pair a beach day with your boat day.

The old town is a compact rectangle of walls, gates and narrow streets, with the Porta de Xara and Porta de Sant Sebastia as the two main entrances. Inside, the church of Sant Jaume anchors one end and the Plaça de Carles V the other, and the Tuesday and Sunday market spreads across most of the streets between them. It is a morning place: by early afternoon the stalls pack up and the streets settle back into café-and-shade rhythm. The walk around the top of the walls takes in rooftops and the wetlands of s'Albufera behind the town.

The Roman site of Pollentia sits almost unnoticed between the old town and the road to the port. It was the Roman capital of the island, and the excavated forum, theatre and a stretch of decumanus street are open to visitors. It is small enough that an hour covers it, and it explains why the town exists at this pinch of land at all. From there the route to the port passes through the modern suburbs and arrives at the Passeig Marítim, the promenade where the excursion boats tie up.

The beach is the third piece. It runs for kilometers along the bay, shallow and calm, which is why families settle here in numbers. But the same shallow bay, viewed from a boat, is a different thing: the water fades from sand-flat turquoise to deeper blue as the seabed drops away, and the Tramuntana mountains rise at the far end of the Bay of Pollensa. Two of the trips covered here, the Alcudia catamaran tours compared elsewhere on this site, both pair a five-hour sail with lunch on board.

The honest summary is that Alcudia's land attractions fill a morning and a half, and the rest of a week is beach time. A boat day breaks that pattern. It changes the coastline you look at, puts a swim stop at a beach with no road queue and feeds you lunch on the water. For a fuller comparison of boat types before committing, see catamaran versus sailboat versus speedboat.

Which Catamaran Trips Leave From Port D'Alcudia?

Two listings covered here depart Port d'Alcudia: a 5-hour scenic cruise with BBQ lunch from $85 per person, and a 5-hour lunch and swim-stop cruise from $82 per person. Both stop at Es Coll Baix, both include drinks with the meal, and both carry snorkel gear. A third, the Formentor beach trip, also leaves from the Port d'Alcudia promenade at $45.55 per person.

The piers sit along the Passeig Marítim at Port d'Alcudia, within walking distance of most of the port's hotels. The Transports Maritims BRISA departure point serves the scenic BBQ cruise, and the Tour2b cruises leave from the promenade near the Mango store. All three sail out of the north coast, which removes the transfer question that Palma-based trips carry.

The differences between the two lunch cruises are real but narrow:

The scenic cruise run by Transports Maritims BRISA is the related tour for this page, and it earns the spot on its stop list: Platja Des Coll Baix, Cala Murta and Aucanada Beach are named stops, while the Formentor Peninsula only passes by on the route. It carries a 4.1 rating from 130 reviews, includes a BBQ lunch or dinner with two drinks, and lists the trip, a BBQ lunch or dinner and two drinks among the inclusions. The BBQ lunch cruise runs about 5 hours, and hotel pickup is not mentioned in the listing, so plan to reach the pier on your own.

The Tour2b lunch cruise is the closer comparison: a 4.0 rating from 82 reviews, from $82 per person, with chicken, sausage, salad pasta and fruit for lunch and water, soft drinks, beer and sangria served during it. Its stops are Platja Des Coll Baix and Playa del Puerto de Pollensa, and it lists both snorkel equipment and kayaks. At three dollars apart in the from-price, the choice between them comes down to the route and the meal style rather than the budget line.

It carries 14 reviews, too few for a star claim, and the listing states no meal, so it is a beach-transfer-and-cruise product rather than a dining one. What it buys is time at Playa de Formentor and a sail past Cap de Formentor, with up to 300 guests aboard.

Is A Formentor Beach Day Worth The Boat Trip?

The Formentor beach catamaran, from $45.55 per person for 4 hours 30 minutes, sails from Port d'Alcudia to Playa de Formentor and Cap de Formentor with beach visit time included. It lists no meal, and it is the only listing here whose stop list names both the beach and the cape, which the road serves through a single winding cliff drive.

Playa de Formentor is the beach at the end of the Formentor Peninsula, a strip of pale sand under pines with the mountains rising straight behind it. Reaching it by land means a single winding cliff road with famous views and famous parking pressure, and in the height of the season access by private car is restricted on peak days. Approaching by boat removes all of that: the catamaran calls at Cap de Formentor on the headland, the beach visit at Playa de Formentor is part of the itinerary, and the stated time at the sand happens without a single parking decision.

The listing is honest about what it is: catamaran cruise and beach visit time, up to 300 guests, no meal stated. With 14 reviews it is thinly reviewed, so treat it as a transport-plus-scenery product and plan food around it. What the fare clearly buys is the approach, which is the part of a Formentor day that a car cannot replicate: the beach seen from the water, the cape from below, and the Bay of Pollensa opening out on the return leg.

Formentor also carries a specific environmental rule worth knowing. The beach sits in an area where anchoring on Posidonia seagrass meadows is banned under Balearic decree, with authorised mooring buoys as the legal alternative, a protection reinforced nationally by Spain's Real Decreto 191/2026. Mooring and anchoring are handled by the commercial skippers, not passengers. Around Mallorca, posidonia meadows are visible on boat trips, especially at snorkel stops and on glass-bottom outings, so they can be part of the view when the boat pauses to swim.

If Formentor is the goal but the big-boat format does not appeal, the scenic BBQ cruise listed above also sails past the Formentor Peninsula on its longer route, so the cape can be seen from the water on a meal-included day instead of a standalone beach transfer.

What Do You Actually See In The Bay Of Pollensa?

The Bay of Pollensa is the stretch of water between Port de Pollenca and Cap de Formentor, backed by the Tramuntana mountains, and the listings here cross it toward Es Coll Baix and the peninsula. One dedicated trip, from $78 per person for 4 hours 30 minutes, departs Port de Pollenca itself with hotel pickup listed and lunch and drinks included.

The dedicated Bay of Pollensa listing, run by Nofrills Excursions from in front of Restaurant Stay on the Muelle Nuevo at Port de Pollenca, carries a 4.6 rating from 112 reviews. It includes lunch of pasta salad, chicken, salami, cheese, Mallorcan bread and fruit, drinks during lunch, snorkelling equipment and stand-up paddle, with an expert local captain and crew. None of the Port d'Alcudia trips state hotel pickup, so check the meeting point before you book. 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's terms before booking.

What the bay shows you is scale. From the water the Tramuntana runs the full northern horizon, and the shoreline shifts from the flat sand of Port de Pollenca to the coves of Ses Caletes and the cliffs under the peninsula. The other listings pass through the same water as part of their routes: the BRISA scenic cruise names the Bay of Pollensa and the Formentor Peninsula as stops, and the Tour2b lunch cruise ends its stop list at Playa del Puerto de Pollensa.

For anyone staying in Port de Pollenca rather than Alcudia, this is the departure that avoids the transfer entirely. For anyone in Alcudia, it is the option with the smaller stop list, a quieter day in exchange for a shorter one.

Where Can You Swim And Snorkel From An Alcudia Catamaran?

The Port d'Alcudia cruise names a swim stop in its own title. For snorkel gear, check the live booking page. Es Coll Baix is the signature stop, a beach below the peninsula that appears on both Port d'Alcudia lunch cruises. Neither of those listings mentions kayaks, paddleboards or snorkel gear; the Bay of Pollensa trip is the one that lists snorkelling gear and SUP.

Es Coll Baix deserves its reputation. It is a crescent of coarse sand under the cliffs of the peninsula's eastern flank, reached by land only via a dirt track and a walk, which keeps it quieter than the main bay beaches. By boat it is a straightforward anchorage, and the two lunch cruises both name it, so most of a boat day's swimming happens in water that the road-going crowd has to work much harder to reach.

The gear picture by listing:

Snorkelling in this water is mostly about clarity and light. The bays are shallow enough that the seabed stays visible, and where Posidonia meadows grow the grass is part of the view. The rules that protect those meadows, anchored in the Balearic decree that bans anchoring on them, are the reason the underwater scenery stays there. More on where the masks go in is in the guide to snorkel stops on Mallorca catamarans.

Swimming from a boat also runs under rules of its own. Boats keep to low speed near swimmers and shorelines, and the crew decide when conditions allow a stop. Weather can cancel trips, and the cancellation terms are on the live listing. On the wildlife side, Spanish law keeps boats at least 60 metres from cetaceans under Real Decreto 1727/2007, and none of the listings here is a dolphin-watching product, so treat any sighting as a bonus rather than a plan.

How Do You Plan An Alcudia Boat Day Around The Seasons?

The listings here are bookable into late October, and the practical planning variables are sea temperature, sunset time and departure timing. Average sea temperature near Palma runs from 13.9 degrees in February to 26.0 in August, and June sunsets fall at 9:18 pm on the 15th against 5:26 pm in December, which shapes whether a 5-hour trip ends in daylight.

The monthly picture, using the safe averages:

A 5-hour trip that leaves late morning returns mid-afternoon in any month, so sunset rarely constrains the Port d'Alcudia lunch cruises themselves. It matters more for the shape of the whole day: in June there is daylight for the old town walls after the boat returns, while in October the evening closes in soon after docking. The deeper seasonal guide, including what the water temperatures mean for swimming comfort, is covered in the best time for a catamaran tour.

Two practical notes finish the plan. First, beach flags on any beach stop follow the standard Spanish system: green for swim freely, yellow for caution, red for no swimming, and a white flag with a jellyfish icon signals jellyfish, with lifeguard signage applying locally. Second, this site, Mallorca Katamaran Tours, covers the Palma Bay and east-coast options too, but from Alcudia the north-coast departures are the ones without a long transfer: the port is the pier, the beach is the bay, and the boat day starts a short walk from most beds.

The final choice, restated simply: the BBQ scenic cruise for the longest named route and the meal, the Tour2b lunch cruise for a near-identical day at a near-identical price, the Bay of Pollensa tour if pickup matters, or the Formentor half-day for the beach itself at the lowest from-price.

Common Questions About Things To Do In Alcudia