Apologies for the length (never had to say that before!!)
Saturday
So we flew on time out of East Midlands on the Saturday without issues – was a pretty well behaved flight although I think Ryanair limited the amount of alcohol they took on board as they were out of Prosecco by our row (12). Considering some of the horror stories about flights to Ibiza this year I’m not surprised. We landed, grabbed our bags and were checking in at La Noria within an hour of landing. We were originally set to pick-up a car but as our flight time was pushed back 3 times leading up to the holiday we decided to collect a car Tuesday rather than incur the out of hours charge we’d have to pay picking up after 10pm. The hotel had a hot shower, cold air con and a comfortable bed so we were happy
After dumping our bags we popped in to The Sports Café in to catch up with friends and have a couple of drinks, then grabbed some food from Ciao Ciao – never eaten here before, nothing spectacular but a tasty pizza and portion of stuffed ravioli with a nice bottle of red was had and it was pretty cheap. Popper in to Déjà vu (on the Sankey’s strip) on the way back to the hotel as we know they guy that owns it, had a quick drink and then got an early first night.
Sunday
Was up for 9 on the Sunday morning which was a first for us, grabbed a quick breakfast from the bakery round the corner and down to the beach. We’re not used to being up at this time and I think we were just about the only people about who had actually been to bed so there were some right messy sights to be seen and early morning offers of supplies going around. We camped out near Ushuaia as opposed to Bora Bora as the sea is a bit better at that end but to be honest it was still a bit dirty and full of loads of seaweed. Enjoyed some sleep and then hit Ibiza Rocks Diner for lunch – cannot fault this place for good honest decent food at very good prices and HUGE portions. Grabbed some cans after lunch and then just walked the length of Bossa beach, from the far end past Coco’s down to nearly Figueretas and then back to the hotel to get ready for Rumours at Beach House. We’d booked a table for 6 and really enjoyed the food and thought the service was excellent, the bottles of Prosecco at €45 were a bargain in relation to the rest of the wine – so we got through 2! We were supposed to only have the table until 8 but were there until just after 9 and then moved closer to the DJ booth for a dance. I thought the music was ‘ok’ but the night as a whole was great, the drinks were reasonably prices and the crowd inside were fun. It was busy but you could still dance and get to the bar. The only gripe was the toilet queue, even with some mobile toilets the wait was 20mins plus!! The plan was to then go back to the hotel, change, grab some more money and go to Sankeys as we had guest list before 1am – however we made the stupid mistake and lying down (after a bit too much ‘fun’) and then woke up about 4am so decided to go back to sleep.
Monday
Woke up bright a breezy on the Monday so started off with breakfast at The Sports Café and then headed to Nassau for a day of pampering and relaxation. We took 2 of the individual beds and just spent the day chilling and enjoying cocktails – I advise anyone to try the Hendricks Cucumber Sorbet, amazing! We grabbed lunch inside and again thought the service was really good, we shared a Thai beef salad and Grilled Hake and both dishes were good. Spent the afternoon enjoying wine in the sun and then headed back to change and get cleaned up to meet friends in Ibiza Town. We had a table at S’Ametler booked for 9 and would advise anyone to try this place out. It’s off the beaten track but the food, wine parings and level of service is superb. They ran 2 menus, one 4 course with wine for €39 or a 3 course with a drink for €25 and they’d let you swap dishes about if you wanted. The guy running the place took the time to explain every dish (literally every one!) on the menu and we had a really relaxed meal before moving on to the Plaza del Parque for drinks and then a few other bars finishing up at about 5:30am grabbing a taxi back to the hotel.
Tuesday
The 9am alarm to go and pick the car up came around far too quickly. We’d used ‘OK’ car rental and got a taxi to their place near the airport. I have to say I’ve never had to wait so long to pick a car up before. The queue was huge and each person was dealt with so slowly. You were told to check the car yourself for scratches and mark them down and were charged for a full tank of petrol (€82 for a Nissan Micra!!) – and then you had to wait again as almost everyone made complaints when they found half tanks provided, meaning re-joining the queue to get refunds!! Anyway after an hour we got the car and headed to Salinas for the day. We were supposed to be meeting a friend for lunch and had planned to eat at The Jockey Club but just after 2 the heavens opened which meant the entire beach attempted to get a table at the same time. We waited around for 15 minutes and then decided to make a dash for the car and it’s a good job we just had our beach gear on as the storm lasted about an hour. Our friends who we were supposed to meet were having car trouble anyway so we decided to head to San Jose to Destino for lunch. I’d been here once about 8 years ago and kept meaning to go back to take the wife so this was a good excuse to do so. There’s no menu here, you just wait your turn to go up to the counter and have the range of tapas explained to you and choose your dishes that way. The food was as good as I remembered; the curried prawns and cod stuffed peppers being the highlight. Again, reasonably priced and a great way to spend time out of the rain. We popped back to Bossa and had a few drinks with our friend whose car was still not for moving and then went to get ready for our night at Pikes. This was the night I was most excited about and if the weather had been better we’d have headed over much earlier but in the end arrived just after 9. My Pikes experience had been limited to the Wham video but after the rave reviews from the parties over the last couple of years we wanted to try it out. There were only a few people milling around when we arrived so we grabbed a drink and then decided to grab some food and were seated at a table overlooking the pool which was brilliant. It was a limited menu (burgers, hot dogs, wraps) but was decent enough, but the service a bit sketchy. After midnight the music went in doors and we followed the crowd to see who the secret guest DJ was to see Fatboy Slim on the decks. Never seen him before but he played a really good set, upbeat party music with lots of Queen covers thrown in. Lots of hands in the air moments and smiles all round. Doorly followed and continued with the same vibe and kept the dance floor moving. Junior Sanchez was on last and again just continued where the others left. Lots of old school classics were being played and at one point he started passing run around the crowd at the front of the DJ booth. Left about half 6. For me this was the best night of the holiday, I loved the set-up at Pikes, much more intimate then some clubs, lots of nooks and little spots to find and get messy in. Also, the crowd was really good. A mixed age but just people who were up for a party. Will defo be back to Pikes next year (hopefully to see DJ Harvey)!
Saturday
So we flew on time out of East Midlands on the Saturday without issues – was a pretty well behaved flight although I think Ryanair limited the amount of alcohol they took on board as they were out of Prosecco by our row (12). Considering some of the horror stories about flights to Ibiza this year I’m not surprised. We landed, grabbed our bags and were checking in at La Noria within an hour of landing. We were originally set to pick-up a car but as our flight time was pushed back 3 times leading up to the holiday we decided to collect a car Tuesday rather than incur the out of hours charge we’d have to pay picking up after 10pm. The hotel had a hot shower, cold air con and a comfortable bed so we were happy
After dumping our bags we popped in to The Sports Café in to catch up with friends and have a couple of drinks, then grabbed some food from Ciao Ciao – never eaten here before, nothing spectacular but a tasty pizza and portion of stuffed ravioli with a nice bottle of red was had and it was pretty cheap. Popper in to Déjà vu (on the Sankey’s strip) on the way back to the hotel as we know they guy that owns it, had a quick drink and then got an early first night.
Sunday
Was up for 9 on the Sunday morning which was a first for us, grabbed a quick breakfast from the bakery round the corner and down to the beach. We’re not used to being up at this time and I think we were just about the only people about who had actually been to bed so there were some right messy sights to be seen and early morning offers of supplies going around. We camped out near Ushuaia as opposed to Bora Bora as the sea is a bit better at that end but to be honest it was still a bit dirty and full of loads of seaweed. Enjoyed some sleep and then hit Ibiza Rocks Diner for lunch – cannot fault this place for good honest decent food at very good prices and HUGE portions. Grabbed some cans after lunch and then just walked the length of Bossa beach, from the far end past Coco’s down to nearly Figueretas and then back to the hotel to get ready for Rumours at Beach House. We’d booked a table for 6 and really enjoyed the food and thought the service was excellent, the bottles of Prosecco at €45 were a bargain in relation to the rest of the wine – so we got through 2! We were supposed to only have the table until 8 but were there until just after 9 and then moved closer to the DJ booth for a dance. I thought the music was ‘ok’ but the night as a whole was great, the drinks were reasonably prices and the crowd inside were fun. It was busy but you could still dance and get to the bar. The only gripe was the toilet queue, even with some mobile toilets the wait was 20mins plus!! The plan was to then go back to the hotel, change, grab some more money and go to Sankeys as we had guest list before 1am – however we made the stupid mistake and lying down (after a bit too much ‘fun’) and then woke up about 4am so decided to go back to sleep.
Monday
Woke up bright a breezy on the Monday so started off with breakfast at The Sports Café and then headed to Nassau for a day of pampering and relaxation. We took 2 of the individual beds and just spent the day chilling and enjoying cocktails – I advise anyone to try the Hendricks Cucumber Sorbet, amazing! We grabbed lunch inside and again thought the service was really good, we shared a Thai beef salad and Grilled Hake and both dishes were good. Spent the afternoon enjoying wine in the sun and then headed back to change and get cleaned up to meet friends in Ibiza Town. We had a table at S’Ametler booked for 9 and would advise anyone to try this place out. It’s off the beaten track but the food, wine parings and level of service is superb. They ran 2 menus, one 4 course with wine for €39 or a 3 course with a drink for €25 and they’d let you swap dishes about if you wanted. The guy running the place took the time to explain every dish (literally every one!) on the menu and we had a really relaxed meal before moving on to the Plaza del Parque for drinks and then a few other bars finishing up at about 5:30am grabbing a taxi back to the hotel.
Tuesday
The 9am alarm to go and pick the car up came around far too quickly. We’d used ‘OK’ car rental and got a taxi to their place near the airport. I have to say I’ve never had to wait so long to pick a car up before. The queue was huge and each person was dealt with so slowly. You were told to check the car yourself for scratches and mark them down and were charged for a full tank of petrol (€82 for a Nissan Micra!!) – and then you had to wait again as almost everyone made complaints when they found half tanks provided, meaning re-joining the queue to get refunds!! Anyway after an hour we got the car and headed to Salinas for the day. We were supposed to be meeting a friend for lunch and had planned to eat at The Jockey Club but just after 2 the heavens opened which meant the entire beach attempted to get a table at the same time. We waited around for 15 minutes and then decided to make a dash for the car and it’s a good job we just had our beach gear on as the storm lasted about an hour. Our friends who we were supposed to meet were having car trouble anyway so we decided to head to San Jose to Destino for lunch. I’d been here once about 8 years ago and kept meaning to go back to take the wife so this was a good excuse to do so. There’s no menu here, you just wait your turn to go up to the counter and have the range of tapas explained to you and choose your dishes that way. The food was as good as I remembered; the curried prawns and cod stuffed peppers being the highlight. Again, reasonably priced and a great way to spend time out of the rain. We popped back to Bossa and had a few drinks with our friend whose car was still not for moving and then went to get ready for our night at Pikes. This was the night I was most excited about and if the weather had been better we’d have headed over much earlier but in the end arrived just after 9. My Pikes experience had been limited to the Wham video but after the rave reviews from the parties over the last couple of years we wanted to try it out. There were only a few people milling around when we arrived so we grabbed a drink and then decided to grab some food and were seated at a table overlooking the pool which was brilliant. It was a limited menu (burgers, hot dogs, wraps) but was decent enough, but the service a bit sketchy. After midnight the music went in doors and we followed the crowd to see who the secret guest DJ was to see Fatboy Slim on the decks. Never seen him before but he played a really good set, upbeat party music with lots of Queen covers thrown in. Lots of hands in the air moments and smiles all round. Doorly followed and continued with the same vibe and kept the dance floor moving. Junior Sanchez was on last and again just continued where the others left. Lots of old school classics were being played and at one point he started passing run around the crowd at the front of the DJ booth. Left about half 6. For me this was the best night of the holiday, I loved the set-up at Pikes, much more intimate then some clubs, lots of nooks and little spots to find and get messy in. Also, the crowd was really good. A mixed age but just people who were up for a party. Will defo be back to Pikes next year (hopefully to see DJ Harvey)!