Menorca is the quieter of the Balearic islands, and Maó, at the eastern end, is its capital and main port. It sits on one of the longest natural harbours in the Mediterranean, a deep inlet that has been fought over by Britons, French and Spanish and that has left the town with Georgian sash windows next to Catalan balconies. The island itself is a UNESCO biosphere reserve, and the south-east, around Maó and Sant Lluís, is where its prehistoric remains are most thickly spread.
Menorca's prehistoric builders left behind talayots, large stone towers, and taulas, T-shaped standing stones, which are found nowhere else in quite this form. The monuments belong to a culture that lasted from the Bronze Age through to Roman times, and they are scattered through fields and scrub, often with a stone wall running round them. Trepucó, close to Maó, is among the most accessible of the sites, and Torre d'en Galmés, a little farther west, is the largest. This stretch of the south-east is dotted with them.
The riding is gentle and unhurried. The main road across the island, the Me-1, runs from Maó through Alaior and Ferreries to Ciutadella, and the side roads from it to the south coast are narrow, bordered by drystone walls and low pines, with sharp little bends where they meet the cala beaches. Speed limits are low and enforced, and in July and August the roads fill with hire cars and scooters. The pleasant months are May, June and late September, when the island is warm and quiet.
Maó, with around twenty-nine thousand people, has all the fuel and shops you could need, and Sant Lluís is a pretty whitewashed town with a few good bars. Locals will tell you that mayonnaise was born here, as mahonesa, and that the island's gin, flavoured with juniper and distilled in old copper stills, is a good drink in the evening. Whether or not the mayonnaise story is true, both are on the table at lunch in the harbour.