Why sail Ibiza
Ibiza is the closest of the Balearics to the mainland, 50 miles east of Dénia, and the most varied to sail round: 170 km of coastline with a cove or islet every mile or two, a mountainous green north, a low sandy south, and one of the best-protected harbours in the western Mediterranean at Ibiza Town. Carthaginians founded that town as Ibosim; Romans, Moors and Catalans followed; and since the 1960s the island has been a byword for a very particular kind of summer. What matters for a sailor is that both Ibizas are here: the clubs and beach restaurants on the south and east, and the quiet north-west coast of Benirràs and Cala Salada where the party never reached.
Harbours and marinas
Anchorages, coast by coast
West. Cala Bassa and Cala Conta (Comte) have the clearest water on the island and sand to anchor on, busy by noon in summer, empty by six. Cala Salada, north of Sant Antoni, is smaller, deeper and better sheltered, and the pine-backed cove most crews remember. Cala d’Hort faces Es Vedrà across a mile of water; a sunset anchorage in settled weather, not an overnight in anything from the west.
North. Benirràs is the drum-circle sunset beach and a good anchorage in easterlies. Round the corner, Port de Sant Miquel and then Portinatx, the best all-weather shelter on the north coast with three beaches to choose from. Cala Xarraca, between them, is the quiet one. The north coast is exposed to a Tramuntana; when one is forecast, go south.
East. Cala Sant Vicent under the cliffs, then the islet of Tagomago, a private island with a superb anchorage in its lee and nothing ashore but a lighthouse. Cala Llonga and Santa Eulària for shelter and supplies.
South. Cala Jondal for Blue Marlin and a long pebbly beach; Sa Caleta for the red cliffs and the fish restaurant; Ses Salines and Es Cavallet inside the natural park, the last stops before Es Freus and Formentera.
Buoys and the reserves
Two protected areas shape where you can drop anchor. Ses Salines, a natural park covering the south of Ibiza, the Es Freus strait and the north of Formentera, is a UNESCO site since 1999 for its posidonia meadows; inside it you use the regulated buoy fields or the marked sand patches, nothing else. Es Vedrà, Es Vedranell and the western islets are a marine reserve: sail round them, do not land, do not anchor on the weed. The Balearic government’s buoy fields are booked online by the night and by boat length; in August, book them when you book the charter. Everywhere else, anchor on sand, and if the water under you is dark, move.
Wind and weather
Summer winds are light and mostly easterly, with an afternoon sea breeze that rarely exceeds 15 knots on this side of the islands and dies at dusk. Rain is all but absent from June to September; April and October carry the year’s heaviest showers. Ibiza is hillier and greener than Formentera and its coast far more indented, so there is always a lee within an hour’s sail. The one wind to respect is a winter or shoulder-season Tramuntana on the north coast. See our month-by-month guide for the season in detail.
Eating and going ashore
Ibizan cooking is fish stew (guisat de peix, with allioli), sun-dried fish in salads, skate in almond sauce (borrida de rajada), and for the hungry, sofrit pagès, the inland dish of lamb, chicken, sobrassada and potatoes. Desserts are flaó, a mint-scented cheesecake, and orelletes. Places we send guests: Ca n’Alfredo in Ibiza Town, paella and fish since 1934; Sa Brisa, tapas in the centre; Sa Punta at Talamanca, reachable by tender from the anchorage; Las Dos Lunas near Sant Rafel, Italian under the vines since 1981; Blue Marlin at Cala Jondal, the beach club with a proper kitchen; and Es Mirador in Dalt Vila for the view.
The clubs are the other Ibiza: Pacha in town, Amnesia and Ushüaia and Hï on the Playa d’en Bossa road, and the beach parties that start in the afternoon. From a yacht the trick is to anchor at Talamanca, go in by tender and come back to a quiet boat. Away from that, the whole island keeps its festes: Ibiza Town’s Festes de la Terra in the first week of August with fireworks over the harbour, Santa Eulària’s flower-cart parade on the first Sunday of May, Sant Antoni’s Romans-and-Carthaginians in early September, and the medieval market in Dalt Vila on the second weekend of May.
A week from Ibiza Town
- Day 1: handover, out to Talamanca or Cala Jondal.
- Day 2: south round Ses Salines and across Es Freus to Formentera: Espalmador, Illetes. See the Formentera crossing guide.
- Day 3: Cala Saona, then back north past Es Vedrà to Cala d’Hort for sunset and on to Cala Bassa or Cala Conta.
- Day 4: Cala Salada, Benirràs for the drums.
- Day 5: Portinatx, Cala Xarraca.
- Day 6: Tagomago, Santa Eulària.
- Day 7: Cala Llonga, back to Ibiza Town for a last dinner in Dalt Vila.
That is 110 miles or so, sailed anticlockwise so the afternoon breeze helps on the long legs. Reverse it if a Tramuntana is due mid-week.
