They were themes of the summer. Heavy traffic, full car parks and lots of people on beaches - so-called saturation, with unspoiled beaches the targets of beachgoer interest as much as others. This, at any rate, was the experience in Santanyi, where there were regular jams heading for s’Amarador, Cala s’Almunia and Cala Mondragó and cars parked where they shouldn't have been because the regular car parks were full.
The town hall is therefore interested in adopting a similar scheme to the one that was introduced in the summer for ferrying beachgoers to Es Trenc, i.e. a minibus shuttle service. It has in mind that there would be two services, one for Cala s’Almunia and the other for s’Amarador and Cala Mondragó. Mayor Llorenç Galmés has put the proposal to the regional government's director-general for transport, Jaume Mateu. The ministry is understood to be open to the idea and will study it. If it goes ahead, the service would contribute to reducing the heavy weight of traffic.
The Es Trenc service, which involves minibuses shuttling between Sa Rapita and Ses Covetes, has been deemed to have been something of a success. Over 24,000 people used the buses between 4 July and 11 September; the highest number of passengers on one day was 727 on 13 August. The most common users were tourist families.
Santanyi has not been the only municipality to experience problems. Arta and Pollensa have also had issues. In the latter case, the town hall is thinking about minibuses for Formentor because of problems with parking. Manacor has had the most publicised case, i.e. Cala Varques, but there the whole issue of parking, traffic and numbers of people has existed for some years; it wasn't anything new this summer.
In the case of Es Trenc, the problem was only partly the numbers of cars and people. The closure of car parks that had not been approved led to chaos in 2015 and continued to do so this year until the bus service was introduced.
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There is no car park at S'Almunia/Calo des Moro at all which is a shame (the latter being the most beautiful beach of the island). You either get a spot at the side of the road by accident ( approx 10-15 available) or you need to park at illegal places. All 'dirt' parking lots were cordoned off and the side of the road painted yellow all around the place.