Country shortlist
The Double Fathom shortlist for Spain, ranked — 2 catalog destinations. The grouping is ours; every rank and tagline is the catalog’s own.
Spain is two very different island groups in one country. The Balearics are Mediterranean — Menorca's protected coves, the Cabrera archipelago national park south of Mallorca, Formentera's UNESCO-listed posidonia meadows and the Illes Malgrats reserve off Calvià — and there the rule at every site is the same: protect the seagrass and use the moorings; the destination name points at an archipelago, and the sites sit across three of its islands. Then there is the Canary Islands: the same country, a sea away and a climate apart — a chain of volcanic islands in the eastern Atlantic off the Moroccan coast, Macaronesia rather than the Mediterranean, with rock and shallow reef instead of coral, a marine reserve over a volcanic seabed off El Hierro, resident turtles in Tenerife's south-west coves, and water cool enough that exposure protection is normal all year. Read together, the two halves of this page are a reminder that Spain snorkels in two oceans' worth of conditions.
What we cover — and what we don’t
Where we cover Spain: two island destinations a sea apart — the Balearic Islands, with four Mediterranean sites across Mallorca, Menorca and Formentera, and the Canary Islands, where our five sites sit on Lanzarote, Tenerife, El Hierro and Gran Canaria in the eastern Atlantic off the Moroccan coast. One of those Canary sites, the Museo Atlántico, is a dive-depth installation we label as such and not as a snorkel site. The Costa Brava, the Spanish mainland coast and the Canaries' other islands are not in this catalog.
In catalog rank order. Rank, taglines and “best for” notes are the catalog’s own; each destination page and guide goes deeper.
Western Med favourite
Protected coves, clear shallows and posidonia meadows around Mallorca, Menorca and Ibiza.
Accessible Mediterranean clear water, especially Menorca's protected coves and the UNESCO-listed posidonia seagrass meadows — great for a relaxed, easily-served cove-hopping trip.
The Atlantic outlier
Warm eastern-Atlantic volcanic water — not the Caribbean, not the Med.
The Canary Islands sit in the eastern Atlantic off the Moroccan coast — Macaronesia, not the Caribbean and not the Mediterranean. What they offer a snorkeler is different from a coral trip: volcanic rock and shallow reef, a handful of genuinely comfortable shore entries, resident turtles in the sheltered south-west coves, a marine reserve over a volcanic seabed, and water cool enough year-round that a thin wetsuit is normal rather than optional.
Geography note — the Canary Islands are Spanish and European Union territory in the eastern Atlantic off Morocco: Macaronesia, not the Caribbean and not the Mediterranean. Our catalog groups them under Caribbean & Atlantic only because it has no Macaronesia region, and their sites are volcanic coast rather than coral reef.
This country sits inside the Mediterranean and the Caribbean & Atlantic — the wider grouping the ranked catalog uses.
Each country page groups the ranked catalog by country and states plainly what this catalog covers — and what it does not.
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