There are an extraordinary amount of restaurants on Ibiza, considering its size, in order to cater for the massive influx of summer tourists. However, even during the winter, when the majority of those in the tourist resorts are closed, there are a wide selection from which to choose both in the main towns and out in the countryside.
Similarly, as a result of the multinational make-up of the indigenous population, restaurants catering for all types of cuisine and representing every nationality prepare food to a high standard in an attempt to meet the expectations of their respective countrymen and to lure in other curious visitors.
The backdrop of Ibiza obviously offers a variety of options too, from toes in the sand fish restaurants to candlelit luxury alongside one of the fortress churches high up in the centre of the island, with starry skies complementing the distant twinkle of isolated farmhouses and fishing boats far out to sea.
One of the hardest problems on Ibiza is drawing a line between bars and restaurants as almost all bars have a kitchen too. Their offerings are invariably cheaper than you could possibly prepare the same dish yourself for.
The most obvious example of this phenomenon is the ‘menu del dia’. This is a three course meal, often with wine thrown in, generally for about ten euros. Simply buying the ingredients here would cost significantly more and that’s before you even enter your kitchen and turn the oven on!
Eating out on Ibiza can be very cheap, but if you look hard enough you can still find some very expensive eateries…
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Shopping on Ibiza has seen something of a transformation since the arrival of tourism forty or so years ago. In those days the term shopping meant a day trip by horse and cart to the ‘ferreteria’ in the village to pick up essential tools for the smallholding. This would be followed by a chance meeting at a nearby bar with a few rarely seen friends to compare farming tips and quench the thirst.
Meanwhile the good lady would labour her way across the valley to the nearest grocers and back again with the few essentials you didn’t grow yourself.
Read moreMost people who haven’t been to Ibiza before are amazed by how the small the island actually is, given its international fame.
It’s fair to say that you can’t drive in the same direction for much more than half an hour before running out of road and reaching the sea again.
This doesn’t leave much room for cities and towns and in fact there is only one city, the island’s capital Eivissa on the south coast, with a population of well below 100,000.
The two large villages that locals refer to as towns are Santa Eulalia on the east coast and San Antonio on the west.
In between those there are a few dozen other villages, some of which comprise little more than a church, a shop and a bar surrounded by a handful of houses. These and the surrounding countryside are beautiful and well worthy of exploration, so hiring wheels is a must if you intend to do more than just laze around the hotel pool.
Read moreMany people like to partake of a drink whilst enjoying time off from work on their holidays, especially somewhere hot like Ibiza. It is also a major element of Spanish life to pause at lunchtime for a big meal with the family, washed down with lashings of wine, followed by a lengthy siesta.
To a degree this explains the proliferation of drinking establishments on Ibiza. There are literally thousands of them and they come in every conceivable format, from world famous venues like Café del Mar to a table on the terrace of the tiny ‘tienda’ in the middle of nowhere.
Ironically, if you fancy trying some of the fine indigenous alcoholic heritage of Ibiza – ‘vino payes’, ‘hierbas’, ‘palo’ etc. – the best places to find the authentic homemade versions are at these unlikely country bars where the elderly landlord has probably been making his own authentic brew with recipes handed down over generations.
When sampling these wares we recommend employing the services of a ‘designated driver’…
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One of the great advantages of an island is that it is surrounded by sea. By definition, this increases the possibility of finding a beach nearby. This is certainly the case with Ibiza which, with its tiny sister island of Formentera, boasts over a hundred beaches.
These come in all shapes and sizes and each has its own individual character. One of the most well known is also the longest – Playa d’en Bossa.
This beach is lined with beach clubs and hotels and serves as the chill-out area for the nearby Space nightclub. It is loud and lively and generally heaving with young tourists recovering from the previous night’s clubbing.
At the other end of the spectrum are the totally untouched beaches only accessible by boat, for those who resent sharing their beach with anyone else.
An added bonus thrown in by the size of Ibiza is the fact that it never takes much more than half an hour to reach any of the other beaches, if you get bored with the beach you’re at.
This is particularly handy when the wind is blowing, because if the wind is creating waves on one side of the island the other side will be calm and flat.
Your most difficult decision then is whether you feel like surfing or a more tranquilo spot of surfing…
Read moreDespite Ibiza’s fabulous natural assets – its spectacular scenery, miriad beaches and cultural legacy – the island achieved its global fame through the handful of superclubs that sprang up here throughout the 1970s.
Names like Pacha, Space, Amnesia and Ku (now Privilege) became famous for providing a huge stage for top ranking artists of the moment year after year, genre after genre.
Over the last couple of decades, with the advent of globally renowned DJs and dance music, Ibiza has become the global headquarters of the new musical movement. The place where the world’s biggest names had to find their annual residency for the summer. Some of the biggest, including Pete Tong and Sasha, have even upped sticks and made Ibiza their home.
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