39°55'54.1"N 4°05'03.8"E Son Blanc Farmhouse Menorca, Spain

Son Blanc Farmhouse hotel offers an immersive experience in a family country estate, forging a true connection with nature while staying in its beautiful rooms. The owners partnered with French architects Atelier du Pont and Menorquin practice Aru Arquitecturato to imbue the renovation with local knowledge and craft heritage, reviving its fields and buildings with meticulous care.

The hotel’s holistic focus on health and wellbeing starts from the ground up, with produce lovingly grown on the farm, supplemented by locally sourced organic ingredients. Simple menus crafted from the best of nature’s bounty focus on low-energy, zero-waste cuisine. Medicinal plants and fragrant herbs from the kitchen gardens feature in dishes and in drinks, prepared on the restaurant and bar’s lava-stone counters, as well as in the subtly scented products used in treatments given by a roster of visiting healers and creative visionaries.

Pared-back, but full of mindful detail, interiors showcase exquisite artisan pieces and natural materials – time-polished limestone, wild olive wood, hand-loomed textiles – soothing and perfectly blended with the surrounding landscape. Beyond the swimming pool and stone-circled gardens, blissful views stretch through field and forest towards the glittering sea.

Rooms Tranquil and romantic, each of the 14 hotel rooms and suites features unique details: headboards hewn from endemic olive wood or upholstered in Andalusian cotton; carved limestone bathtubs and clay sinks; spectacular views from a balcony or terrace with hot tub.

How far to the nearest…

• Resident Neigbour 1km
• Beach 8km (15 minutes)
• Restaurant 0.5km
• Shop 6km
• Café/Restaurant 2km
• Town Alaior 6km
• Airport Mahon Menorca 20km

Build Using the principles of bioclimatic architecture, the Son Blanc Farmhouse renovation focused on low-impact initiatives from its drawing-board days, factoring in every detail of the hotel’s construction and decor; zero waste and minimal energy use are in its DNA. Stone and cork are used for insulation; traditional finishes such as white-wash mitigate solar gain; and reclaimed beams partner Menorquin pine and oak in door frames and furnishings.

Energy A long-term goal of complete self-sufficiency by 2030 includes plans for energy, water and food; the farm uses photovoltaic solar panels and geothermal wells, and already provides 50% of the produce needed by the restaurant, with the rest sourced from local organic suppliers. Its on-site composter can process up to 30kg of waste each day.

Environment Regenerative farming and sustainable support of arable land are principles entrenched in Menorca’s nature; residents have long known that crop diversity and soil fertility are first and foremost in nurturing a symbiotic ecosystem. The fields around the finca occupy a Unesco-protected biosphere and slow-food paradise, and are irrigated by rainwater harvested from the farm’s rooftops and domestic water cleaned by an onsite wastewater treatment plant.

Community A passionate local team of agricultural engineers and farmers work the land according to the Keyline method and permaculture principles to optimise resources. Son Blanc also hosts regular residencies with artists, makers and healers to share their wisdom and bring guests together.

Digital detox WiFi available, but guests are encouraged to disconnect; rooms are blissfully TV-free.

Creature comforts Ceiling fans, thermal ceiling and underfloor heating keeps every room at the perfect temperature (heats and cools the rooms). The superimposition of this innovative system with the nine geothermal wells allows us to save more than 70% of the energy necessary for conventional heating or A/C systems, while offering an equal or even higher level of well-being. The temperature in the room is usually circa 25 degrees during the heat of the summer and the feeling is even cooler with the fan on. We believe that it is an ideal and healthy temperature.

On Menorca, the quietest of the Balearics, life turns slowly with the seasons. Spring sees green shoots and wildflowers romp across sun-baked earth, and crowd-free coves call for wild swimming. Summer’s blazing days bring fiestas to every village and life to the shoreline; come autumn, harvest fills the island’s fruit baskets and barrels.

Engage

Son Blanc’s calendar of activities and residencies encourages guests to engage with nature, with themselves, and with each other. Stretch energy back into your body in the yoga studio, or forest-bathe on a guided meditation walk through the grounds. Try a pottery or watercolour painting workshop. Follow in the footsteps of 13th-century knights on the Camí de Cavalls coast path – Son Blanc can arrange guided hikes. Ponder the enormity of time at prehistoric Talayotic settlements: the island hosts some 1,600 megalithic monuments.

Savour

Enjoy sharing plates of charcoal-grilled vegetables, wood-smoked and cured meats, pickles and more around the convivial curved dining table of the farmhouse restaurant. The cocktail bar also showcases home-grown ingredients in its ferments, shrubs, cordials and syrups. In the barn, harvested bounty is transformed into hardy treasures: olive and almond oil made from ingredients picked just metres from the presses.

Go slow

Explore Son Blanc’s beautifully tended gardens and fruit orchards. Read in the shade of a coconut-fibre canopy, listening to birdsong. Count constellations and roam the Milky Way after sunset: Menorca is a dream dark-sky destination and perfect for astronomical observation.