Send parcel to the Balearic Islands

Palma, Eivissa or Maó? How to write a Balearic address

The Balearics have two official languages, Castilian and Catalan, and town names exist in both: Ibiza is Eivissa, Mahón is Maó, Ciudadela is Ciutadella, and the capital is simply Palma, without "de Mallorca", since the name was officially changed. On the label, whichever form the recipient uses is fine, couriers know them all. Streets too often carry the Catalan name, "Carrer" instead of "Calle", "Avinguda" instead of "Avenida". The postcode is the five-digit Spanish one and starts with 07 across the whole archipelago, the house number follows the street, then floor and door. An example: "Juan Pérez García, Carrer de Sant Miquel 12, 3º A, 07002 Palma, Illes Balears, Spain, tel. +34 ...". The island name in the address is useful above all for small villages and for Formentera, where many houses sit on country roads with no number: there you write the name of the house or finca and the kilometre marker of the road, "Camí de Sa Pujada km 2, Sant Francesc Xavier, 07860 Formentera", and the recipient's phone number becomes essential.

Does a parcel to Formentera go via Ibiza?

Yes, always. Formentera has no airport and the only way in is the port of La Savina, linked to Ibiza by ferries that take half an hour. The parcel reaches Ibiza by air or sea and takes the ferry with the local courier, and this extra step needs to be factored in compared with the other islands. The rest of the archipelago is served directly: Mallorca has Palma airport, one of the busiest in Spain, and the port that receives ferries from Barcelona and Valencia, Menorca has Maó and Ciutadella, Ibiza has its own airport and port. There is no customs because the archipelago is part of the common customs territory, so parcels travel just as they do to the rest of Spain, with no invoice and no paperwork, food included. With Europacco you order online, print the transport document and the parcel is collected from your door anywhere in Italy. Delivery times for the Balearics vary from island to island and are provided on request, before you ship. For removals and larger supplies there is pallet shipping, which reaches the Balearics the same way, by sea from the mainland.

Why are there so many Italians in Formentera and Ibiza?

Because since the 1970s the two Pityusic Islands have been the favourite summer destination of Italians in Spain, and many of them stayed: in Formentera Italians are the largest foreign community on the island, and in Ibiza they run a good share of the restaurants, beach clubs and rental agencies. This produces a very recognisable seasonal pattern. Between April and May, as the season opens, boxes arrive from Italy with catering equipment, uniforms, printed menus, coffee machines and the first stocks of products that cannot be found on the island or cost twice as much. From June to September the parcels are mostly personal: whatever was left at home, documents, spare parts for rental scooters and boats. In October the direction reverses and the luggage of those closing up for the season heads back to Italy. In Mallorca the community is less concentrated but more settled, with Italian restaurants in Palma, Alcúdia and Cala d'Or ordering all year round.

Yachts, Menorcan shoes and Mallorcan pearls: what do Balearic businesses receive from Italy?

The first sector is yachting. Palma is one of Europe's centres for the maintenance and refit of large yachts, with the shipyards in the port working right through the winter, and from Italy come components, fabrics, marine hardware, paints and interior furnishings. The Palma International Boat Show at the end of April is the date for which Italian exhibitors ship their stand materials. The second is hospitality: the Balearics have thousands of hotels, and refurbishments take place between November and March, when the properties are closed and pallets of Italian furniture, lighting and wall and floor coverings travel more than at any other time of year. Then there is local manufacturing, which buys machinery and materials in Italy: the shoe factories of Menorca, between Ciutadella and Alaior, work with Italian leather and soles, the leather goods workshops of Inca in Mallorca do the same, and the pearl makers of Manacor receive small parts and accessories. Finally there is food and drink, with restaurants and wine shops importing wine, oil and cured meats, and the cheese makers of Maó and the sobrassada producers buying packaging and equipment.

When the Balearics close for winter

Formentera in winter is a different island: from November to March most restaurants, hotels and shops are closed, many seasonal residents are back in Italy and the ferries from Ibiza drop to a few crossings a day. A parcel sent to a business in those months may find nobody there, so it is worth checking first whether the recipient is on the island. Ibiza partly follows the same rhythm, while Palma and Mallorca work all year round. The holidays that bring the archipelago to a halt are 1 March, Dia de les Illes Balears, the Spanish national holidays and each town's patron saint festival, with Sant Joan in Ciutadella at the end of June paralysing Menorca for two days and Sant Sebastià in Palma in January. In August the islands do not close, quite the opposite, but couriers work at full stretch and deliveries in tourist areas can slip. The climate poses no packaging problems, apart from the humid summer heat for chocolate and anything that melts.