Ibiza pool party
Rave on if you want, but you can find peace and quiet and idyllic settings too on this gorgeous Balearic Island
IBIZA 2008. A hedonistic holiday with my girlfriends from university that in hindsight (blinded by our youth) seemed like the perfect way to wind down after graduating. I don’t remember much about the trip except we partied too much, slept too little and we didn’t see nearly enough sunshine.
San Antonio – the island’s densely populated British resort where we rather unluckily ended up staying was, back then, a Mecca for
twentysomethings – and we did fall into the trap like every other tourist and spent every day drinking cheap bottles of beer on the beach.
Memory lane is, I admit, hazy but I do recall blurry taxi rides to the island’s iconic clubs Pacha and Amnesia, a disastrous boat trip where a fellow passenger fell over board and those heavenly sunset’s at Café Del Mar – where blissful nights on the sand collided into the early morning.
Don’t we all - have some wild, millennial tales of a post- exam vacation?
Fast forward almost ten years. Friends and family have all visited and came home recounting a breathtakingly beautiful, calm and serene Ibiza.
Many of my yoga friends have travelled for spiritual retreats.
Fitness friends for wellness boot-camps and honeymooners for romantic holidays after they got married.
A close friend has been for several wedding’s and she still croons about the Island’s, quaint villages and leafy country-side – ‘real’ Ibiza as she calls it. There is life outside of San Antonio and a very different island experience– If only I could have told my 21-yearold self. Nicknamed the White Isle, Ibiza is known for its dance scene – a culture that has easily swallowed up the island’s population attracting over six million tourists yearly.
Outside of its built-up resorts Playa De Bossa and San Antonio though is Ibiza town and villages Santa Eulalia, San Juan and Sant Charles that offer so much more than your average lager lout and groups of rowdy ravers.
Museums, galleries, historic churches and buildings scatter the town’s narrow winding cobbled streets and a bustling shopping strip overlooks the main harbour where Justin Bieber, Puff Daddy and J-Lo all dock regularly to party. Worth visiting is Dalt Villa’s – ‘upper town’ where you’ll find local artists, musicians and bohemians hanging out and most of the town’s biggest markets. Villa, although modernised in the last few years still hasn’t lost its hippie soul and mostly attracts backpackers navigated by the lonely planet and alternative holidaymakers – looking for a more tranquil slice of Ibiza.
The area from the southeast to the north of the island is where you retreat to the hills by car or Jeep. It spans hundreds of miles of majestic beauty, dense green countryside and white sandy beaches – many of the retreats nestled in the mountains offer luxury isolation and a more peaceful charm – what most refer to as ‘the flip side of Ibiza’.
We headed for Saint Charles first – where the island’s best-known market Las Dalias operates and sells everything from arts, crafts, old vintage clothes, furniture and handmade jewellery.
Sant Charles, along with San Juan, Sant Miquel and Santa Eulalia remain a hub for alternative living driven by locals and bohemian blow-ins who came 20 years ago, fell in love and never left.
Most of them depend on tourism to make a living but they sell to each other. You’ll often meet the same artisans, painters and designers flogging their pieces in various different villages.
Further south of the island is Santa Eulalia, known for a palm-lined promenade and turquoise beach. It’s a breath of fresh air, bustling but not too crowded and popular for water sports and snorkelling.
Into Eulalia’s countryside where the views are some of the best on the island, you’ll find the more, peaceful Zen spots away from any roads, cars and noise.
Here we ate at Can Domo, a rural 17th century farm and house re- designed into a luxury hotel retreat surrounded by olive groves where the hotel offers kitsch homemade rooms, each of them tailored for honeymooners and couples.
Domo offer no television for guests – you can’t connect to wifi – so expect complete disconnection from the world with, leisurely strolls and long afternoons lounging in a hammock. Further north, San Joan (Bianca Jagger and Kate Moss both have homes here) and Saint Miquel offer more tranquil, rustic Ibizan charm. We took a Jeep excursion along the long, windy rural roads stopping
ping in the Ses roques – a beachside restaurant and bar along Platges de Compte for lunch – worth a visit for the food and culinary delights alone. If you love tapas and seafood, then this is a must, but expect to be surprised. The staff generally serve you platters with juicy salads, meats, mixed rice, paella and seafood – whatever the chef has prepared that day unless, of course, you ask for A La carte menu. The following day – a coach took us to Hotel Hacienda Na Xamena, – a five-star luxury wellness retreat, nestled high in tje hills of Sant Miquel, with the breathtaking cliff- side views. This is heavenly. The hotel is secluded by a forest of pine trees and is one of the most romantic spots on the island.
Its showpiece The Cascades – a series of heated outdoor thalassotherapy pools that overlook the sea are sheer indulgence.
If you can nab yourself an hour, for their thalassotherapy experience then, it’s a worthwhile trip.
If you can’t (they are famously busy) then their outdoor pools are just as special – they are enclosed by a leafy courtyard that runs through the hotel and a sun- drenched terrace that make sunbathing all the more memorable.
For those who get tired of lying around the pool drinking cocktails, the hotel offers a gym and a floorto-ceiling glass yoga/fitness room that overlooks the mountains.
On the trek back down, a trip to Aubergine restaurant for a taste of authentic Mediterranean cuisine with a Spanish twist is a must do. It is set in an idealistic garden that spans acres and acres of picturesque countryside, with fresh locally picked food that makes for a wholesome feed in dreamy surroundings - a memorable last stop before