Things to do in Ibiza

Ibiza has a reputation the size of a continent and a surface area of 572 square kilometres. Most of it is pine, farmland and dry-stone terraces. The part everyone has heard about runs for five months and then goes quiet.

Dalt Vila and the port

The old town sits on a hill above the harbour, behind sixteenth-century walls. They rise 25 metres and run five metres thick. UNESCO listed them in 1999 as military engineering rather than as scenery.

• The cathedral and castle. At the top, up a climb of ramps and gates that takes twenty minutes.
• Puig des Molins. A Punic burial hill below the walls, with thousands of tombs cut into the rock.
• La Marina and Sa Penya. The lanes between the walls and the water, market stalls by night.
• The port. Where the Formentera ferries and the day boats tie up.

Salt, sail and the west coast

The south end of the island is a salt pan, worked since Phoenician times and still harvested. It is a protected park, shared with Formentera.

• Formentera. Half an hour by fast ferry, with a sandbar beach at Illetes that people cross for the day.
• Es Vedrà. A limestone rock rising 413 metres out of the sea off the south-west corner.
• The calas. Comte and Salada on the west side for sunsets, Benirràs in the north for the drumming.
• Sailing days. Catamarans and yachts run eight-hour loops to Formentera with anchoring stops to swim.

Practical

• The season is short. Clubs and much of the restaurant trade open around May and close in October. Winter is a farming island with a small town on it.
• Boats. A place on a group sailing day costs roughly 120 to 140 euros with lunch. The same boat privately is several times that.
• Sun on the water. Eight hours on deck with no shade burns people who thought they were careful.
• The north needs wheels. Buses serve the resorts, not the coves. Buggies and small cars are rented for exactly this.
• Sunsets fill up. The west-coast bars want you there an hour early, and the road out is single file.
• Ferries. Formentera crossings run every half hour or so in summer, and thin out sharply off season.
• Water. The island runs short of it every summer. Hotels ask you not to waste it, and they mean it.