UKC

Cala Barques

Just arrived at the access road, and there were cars parked on the main road, loads of people walking up and "no parking" signs half way down the road.

There are a handful of cars parked right at the far end... anyone been recently and know what the score is? Are the police turning up and fining people, or is it a generally ignored signage like the ones banning falling off the cliffs that were here before?

In reply to Ciro:

I went down and spoke to a couple of the beach "residents", so to answer my own question for anyone else who might be headed this direction - apparently they hadn't been around for a while, but the police were here today and handed out a lot of fines, so the guys expect them to be back daily for a while.

In reply to Ciro:
Loads of people got tickets last time parking down there. People were also getting tickets if wheels were on the tarmac parking back at the main road. get all your wheels onto the dirt. the police were not particularly accommodating there.

In reply to Ciro:

Not directly related, but last time I was there, parking was down the back road near to the beach. My car got broken into while we were climbing and my GPS and MP3 player got stolen. About 10 other cars there, and all of them seemed unaffected.

In reply to Ed Booth:

Thanks, good to know

I'm here in my UK registered van, so the fines probably wouldn't find their way back to me anyway, but I'll be here for a few weeks so no sense in antagonising them into taking more drastic action.

In reply to humptydumpty:

Aye, sadly always a risk when you're climbing near tourist hotspots... lost a lot of electronic gear in Finale a couple of years ago myself. Fingers crossed it doesn't happen again.

In reply to Ciro:

Yep, annoying parking on the main road at the moment.

6 cops, 2 bikes and 4 patrol cars.... mental

In reply to Ciro:

Our group also got an on the spot fine for doing a u turn in that main road. We had been parked off the tarmac, and whilst they were putting tickets on other cars my brother did a u turn to get out and they started blowing the whistle and fined us €100 i think on the spot. They weren't very friendly about it all. Another thing to watch for.

In reply to Ed Booth:

fined for doing a U turn? bloody hell

In reply to Ciro:

The girl on the beach last night told me to park on a spot along the road a bit - off the first corner of the main road in the Porto Christo direction, there's a loop of old road, with a few fig trees in between.

This morning I woke up to the sound of a guy directing parking tourists - he claimed to live with his young family in the house behind the parking area and was taking two euros per vehicle per day. I'm guessing he probably doesn't actually live there, but whatever... he was running around with bin bags picking up the rubbish that ignorant tourists were leaving behind so at least he was providing a service. Didn't ask me for any money, and said it was no problem to sleep here.

A bit noisier for sleeping than down the access road, but when I went down this afternoon, sure enough they'd been round again and issued 200€ fines (100 if paid promptly) to every car on the road... and since that fella's got a decent little earner here, I'd imagine he'll keep anyone breaking into cars away during the day, as the first finger of suspicion would be pointed in his direction.

In reply to Ciro:

In even worse news, I was speaking to a local guy at the crag today who said some Russian guy is trying to buy the beach and the surrounding area

In reply to Ciro:

Excellent info, thanks. I'm heading out in a month so please do keep updating with any developments

In reply to Ciro:

When i went there, me and friends stayed in the van in cala romantica on a side road.

We then walked 40-45 minutes across the headland to barques. The path is fairly obvious and very picturesque!

In reply to Ciro:

I'm hoping to pay a visit sometime this week. Really not keen for a ticket. Is anybody able to post a Google link showing exactly where and how I need park to avoid trouble?!

In reply to Will Hunt:

The parking is marked on Google maps, it's about 40m from the turnoff to the access road, at the first corner heading north towards Porto Cristo. Just make sure you park under the fig trees and off the tarmac... although there will be hardly any tourists left now so if be surprised if the police were bothering. I parked down the access road for a couple of days at the end of September and didn't get a ticket.

In reply to Ciro:

Ta mate

In reply to Ciro:

Just in case anybody is googling this in the future. We visited twice in early October. First occasion we parked at the "overflow parking" in the little crescent shaped road about 200m towards Porto Cristo from the access road. This added a considerable distance to the walk in time (about 40 mins total to the beach and DWS). On walking out there were about 30-40 cars parked on the access track. No sign of any police.

Second visit was a much sunnier day. Parked on the access track. On leaving there were 70 cars parked on the access track (that's not a guess, I counted!). No sign of any police.

Seeing as they can presumably give all of these cars a 100 Euro fine, then it would definitely be "cost beneficial" to send a copper with a ticket book down there. If they did it every day then I'm sure people would soon get the message and stop parking there.

As it stands it seems that the policing is entirely random, but that you're more likely to be booked in the high season.