stivi
Well-Known Member
alright, if you really want to read my review, then i recommend you the following: take a cup of coffee and a brownie (or a beer and a sandwich or whatever) and just take a break, sit back relax and enjoy what i experienced on my first ibiza holiday... 8) 8) 8)
okay, i was an ibiza-virgin, but thanks to this forum and a lot of hot tips of a lot of friends i was well-informed (i work in the travel industry and i travel a lot and so i also have many friends who already went to ibiza). natascha had been to ibiza once before, but she was only clubbing then (4 yrs ago) and hasn't seen much of ibiza apart of playa d'en bossa. just to explain you: natascha is neither my girlfriend, nor just a f....ing good friend...it's something in between and i guess that's just why it stays so special between us two.
enough intro, here we go:
thu, 15th july - arrival & cream@amnesia
met natascha at zurich airport at 4pm. when we checked in, we had a sweet surprise: natascha knows the chief dispatcher of the airline we flew with and he organised an upgrade for us! means we flew business class and had some good champagne for free...what a perfect way to start our 10-day-vacation!
when we arrived on ibiza, we picked up our car which we hired for the whole duration of our holiday (centauro). we got a nice ford fiesta with aircondition and the car was clean then
we drove up to playa d'en bossa and checked in at hotel garbi. perfectly located in pdb - just a few steps to cocos bar (good for tickets), jet apts, bora bora, tantra bar (even better for tickets) and of course space...all within walking distance!!! the room we got was absolutely okay, very clean, quite spacious, nice balcony and of course aircondition. in another post on this forum i've read that there are many germans...not true! of course there were germans, but in fact the nationalities were mixed up well: british, many italians, some germans and austrian people and some swiss and french guys...
we went to cocos bar to get our tickets for cream and we got them for 35€. i absolutely looked forward to go to amnesia - apart of house and techno music, i love trance and finally wanted to see tiësto again! after getting them, we went to bora bora to warm up our legs a bit! bora bora was at full swing and after a drink also we were
when we arrived at amnesia sometime after midnight, there were already quite a lot of people inside (door price was 50€ first and later even 55€) and amnesia filled up very very fast and when tiësto turned up at 2:30am it was rammed full!!! tiësto began his set with "adagio for strings", originally an old song, which had already been remaked many times, but this song is just amazing...i had gooseflesh all over within seconds and then the party began! his set was very good, he played some melodic stuff (ok, for some of you just cheese - but i loved it), then some more progressive tunes and he even played some hard-house tunes. a very varied set and i loved it. he played till 5am and then paul kerkshaw or adam sheridan (i don't know which one of them) continued. we stayed till 6am and then we left. ooooooh what a night to start!!! after 12 hours on the white isle i already loved it!
fri, 16th july - southern beaches & defected@el divino
after only 3 hours of sleep we got up again, had breakfast at the hotel (you know, we swiss guys always eat...no matter in what condition we are ) and then had the first hours of sun on what we called "our beach" --> playa d'en bossa-beach. later in the afternoon we drove southwards to see es cavallet (very quiet, very natural beach and i didn't bother about the nudists there) and ses salines. ses salines is very beautiful and so are the beach restaurants/bars there (jockey club, malibu bar, sa trinxa), but there were too many folks. behind sa trinxa, where the rocks began, were less people and it was quiet again, so we stayed there for a while...
we went back to the hotel for dinner and afterwards drove up to ibiza town. we walked through sa penya district, had some drinks and decided to go to el divino for defected in the house. we got the tickets for 25€ and the door price was 35€ i think. i must say that el divino is a very nicely built club and especially the restaurant and terrace with the great view over the harbour and ibiza town is perfect...!!! but: although sandy rivera and andy daniell are really skilled dj's, we didn't like that style of house music that was played there that night...i don't know...when it comes to house music i like it either melodic and uplifting or then really deep and dark...and in a way it was just "average" house tunes that were played then. and the atmosphere was okay...but just okay, not more. but again, el divino as a club is very nice. left there about 4am.
sat, 17th july - southern beaches, san antonio and kumharas
we got up early again and saw that the weather wasn't that good...cloudy/overcast. so we just had breakfast (i'm always hungry ) and took another nap. when we got up again at noon the weather was great again and we started with some sun at our beach (pdb). then we got in our car again (it was always f.....ing hot inside when we got into the car, but after 5 minutes everything was just fine) and started to discover the island again...we searched for atlantis and found it (thanx to ...., member on this forum, good guy). this place is just amazing!!!! wow!!! it takes some great effort to get there, but it is definitely worth it!!! maybe you've already seen the cover of the new café del mar vol. 11 with the buddha on it. i saw it live there. absolutely stunning. this place is far the best i've seen for ages! i'm happy that there is no official guide (or any direction advisory on the streets) that leads you there. it must be kept like this! there were only 3 ibizan guys and another couple there. when we got to our car back again, natascha was quite tired (walking and climbing...it's not only a two-minutes walk on an asphalted street) and we decided to go to cala d'hort. ooh, we loved this beach! it's not that small and sometimes i guess it gets quite crowded, but the water was very clear there and the view on es vedrà and es vedranell is just GRRREAT!!! after a good rest there we drove up to san antonio. i'm glad i've seen both, playa d'en bossa and san antonio and i'm sure i will never stay in san antonio. okay, the bay is nice and it is on the sunset-side of the island...but: the west-end (we walked through), all these bars and pubs, this is just too touristic and too large for me (in my opinion, playa d'en bossa is just a small and cosy village compared to san an). if you like going to bars and pubs and just drink and hang around with many young people (mostly british, but hey don't misunderstand me, i'm absolutely not offending to anyone!), then go to san an. but we will choose pdb again. although, i must admit that bar m, the orange corner and all these bars on the sunset strip looked very nice. yes. and then we wanted to see the sunset at café del mar. what a disappointment. if you're sitting in café del mar on ir savannah café or in whatever café there, you still hear the music of the other café on your left and on the right...oh no!!!
coastline café looked very nice - but it was EMPTY! so we decided to drive to kumharas, which we found easily. and kumharas is just perfect! first of all, you get only "your" sound - no other noises from bars around you. then it's really cosy to sit there and it wasn't that crowded there. yes, right, someone wrote that you have to wait for eterneties until you get your drink. that's true. service on the bar was very slow, but i loved the cocktail. and we saw a really brilliant sunset. after sunset we went to the restaurant (still kumharas), were sitting/lying inside that tent or whatever you want to call it and had a delicious dinner with a bottle of good spanish vino tinto from valdepeñas. and the service at the restaurant was very good! no waiting time and the waiters there were very friendly!!! after dinner we were absolutely tired (well, we had a long day with three great things: atlantis, cala d' hort and kumharas) so we called it a day and drove home to pdb and went sleeping...
sun, 18th july - some sun and then we love sundays@space
we spent the morning and noon time on pdb-beach. and on the beach we did a mistake: we bought tickets for carl cox@space (that's not a mistake) but in a package together with a pre-party at bar tantra on monday night (the night before the carl cox-party) and those tickets cost 45€. i'll get back to this story later... then, something after 2pm we went to space. i had bought the tickets for WLS on the internet (35€, same price that you would have payed at bar tantra) and the guestlist-thing worked absolutely well, no problem! door-price by the way was 45€ i think. when we arrived, the terrace wasn't full, but already in full swing! very nice house music was played all through the afternoon and i loved it! (the discoteca was empty but i think that's normal throughout the afternoon). steve lawler turned up at 5pm and when he played erick prydz "call on me" the terrace went nuts". i know, it's a very melodic song and repetitive and maybe, after having heard it 20 times you cannot hear it anymore, but at that time, it fitted in very well and the crew loved it! i met scottiedog from the forum there in the afternoon - top guy!!! hope you enjoyed all of your holiday! by the way: the volume on the terrace was absolutely okay, it wasn't neither too low nor too high for an afternoon-party. we got wristbands for the carl cox-night (first 100 free with wristband, then 10€ till 10pm, 15€ from 10pm till 12pm with this wristband and after midnight you get 5€ discount with this wristband...so we already knew we had payed far too much for these tickets we bought saturday on the beach...) at 6.30pm we left to hotel garbi to get some food, fill up our bodies with water and take a shower. we got back to space just before 9pm and then the terrace was packed full! erick morillo played a stunning set and when he played nirvanas "smells like teen spirit" just after midnight, the roof went off. i would never have thought i would hear this song in space!!!! then we had a short break on the terrace, natascha was tired and decided to go back to the hotel to get some sleep. i stayed and got into the discoteca something past 1am. inside (this time it was full of course) the sound was quite hard: very deep, dark and progressive tunes, sometimes even some detroit-sounds. but it was great, steve lawler and erick morillo played back to back and i was shaking my ass off till 4am. then i was tired as well and walked back to the hotel...WLS is just perfect, everyone should experience it at least once! of course, in a way i would have loved to go to eden that night because i wanted to see ferry corsten (this guy rocks), but tickets were offered me for 45€ and i decided that it wasn't worth it. on another occasion i would also love to go to las dalias on a sunday night - tribe of the frog! must be great! but, all in all i was absolutely happy we had gone to space!
mon, 19th july - northern beaches and cocoon@amnesia
natascha woke me up something past 9am and i was still a bit tired...just a bit so, after our breakfast and standard warm-up on pdb-beach, we drove northwards. this afternoon we saw benirras (i have to go there again, i am an experienced cliff-diver and i want to jump off that rock, but that afternoon, i was too tired) which is very beautiful, got to cala xarraca (also very nice) and then we found a small cala which we absolutely loved: cala d'en serra, near of portinatx! it's a very small beach and if there would be 20 people, the beach would be full. but like this, it stays absolutely calm! you cannot drive down, you have to park the car and walk down. that's also a reason the beach is very quiet and you get no noise. we fell asleep on this beach. it's just perfect!!! in the evening we drove back to pdb an had dinner in the hotel. then we went to this pre-party of carl cox at tantra bar. there were some dj's and the sound was okay, but the bar wasn't full and you couldn't call it a party...just hanging around and getting some free drinks (well, as much as you want, but i didn't want to go to amnesia drunk). and we didn't get the tickets for tuesday then, they told us we have to come again tuesday night.....arrrgh! 
then it was time to go to amnesia again! cocon! i had gread expectations on that night and had bought the tickets on cocoon.net (30€) and we got these vip-wristbands. but...it was a strange night: first of all, amnesia didn't get full (didn't check the door-price that night) and till 3am there was absolutely no atmosphere (marco carola played from 2-3am). and: the damn air condition and ventilation was put up full throttle and it was in fact winding inside amnesia. natascha had already a cough at that time and i think i got mine from that night. then, at 3am alexander kowalski played his live-set. at that point, some atmosphere was created and his liveact was very good. very rough techno, but boosting! afterwards, marco carola continued playing til 7am. hmm...what shall i say? it wasn't the best party. the atmosphere wasn't that great, amnesia was not full enough (it doesn't have to be rammed full to float my boat but a bit more would have been good) and marco carolas' set was not very varied...in a way a bit boring. only for absolute techno lovers. but it was cool to see the vip-balcony of amnesia which is very nice. when we got out of amnesia, sun had already risen and we went straight to bed....
tue, 20th july - relaxing on the beach and carl cox@space
natascha woke me up at 2pm and we spent all the afternoon on the beach of playa d'en bossa. i walked up and down the whole beach and went to bora bora for some tunes. great place to be!!!
in the evening we had dinner at restaurant moorea near jet apts. very tasty! then we went to tantra bar to finally get our tickets for carl cox. we got to space just before 11pm (so, we could have gone in with no problems for 15€....
normal admission-price was 35€ by the way). the terrace was full again and when carl cox turned up short after 11pm, the roof went off again. he played a set on the terrace until short after midnight, began very housy (call on me from erick prydz again - was surprised to her that tune from king carl) and then changed to more progressive house sound.
then after midnight the fiesta continued inside the discoteca. we first went up to the roof terrace for a short hangout in that yellow submarine. i love it there! nice!
when we got back into the discoteca the party was in full swing: dj vibe from portugal played an absolutely awesome techno set! i never heard such a good and well-varied techno set before! and the atmosphere was absolutely great! couldn't compare it to cocoon on the night before, this was another world!!! fast, hard banging techno music
this guy just rocks!!! dj vibe!!! whenever you get a chance to see him, go there - you won't be disappointed!!! he was the absolute surprise for me!! then carl cox turned up at 3am and i think dj vibe's set was better than king carl's...but still, it was very good and banging. carl cox was in a perfect mood and you could really see that he's having great fun doin' his job!
we left something after 4am....and walked back to hotel garbi. i would definitely recommend carl cox-party over cocoon, though i might have had just a bad cocoon-party and all other cocoon-nights might be absolutely stunning...
wed, 21st july - knackered off-day
we got up too early and i felt like dead. my cough was arriving and i was just deadly tired. so we slept on our beach till 2pm and we both felt a little better then. we decided to get our discover-ibiza-socks on again an drove to the north-easten coast where we went to cala san vicente (very touristic, but still very nice), saw cala boix (rest. la noria has a stunning view and the beach is very nice - but it was too full when we were there) and we also were to cala llenya (nice as well, many families). after this tour we (especially me) got exxxtremely tired again and we drove back to the hotel where i took a nap. in the evening we discussed about going to privilege (meganite) or pacha (subliminal) or if we should just have a rest. in a way i badly wanted to go to meganite (yes, it was advertised everywhere on the island) and on the other hand i wanted to go to subliminal because i loved erick morillos' sets on WLS. and at the end we took the right decision an had a rest. we were reeeeeeaaaalllyyy tired and needed some bonus hours of sleep. so, we just went buying our tickets for cream (35€ again) and then slept like stones (that's how we say in switzerland...)
thu, 22nd july - more beaches and cream again!
yes, it had been the right decision not going clubbing wed night. we were still tired but felt a lot better. in the morning we drove up to santa eularia, went to cala llonga (okay), sol d'en serra (nice restaurant) and cala d'estanyol (our car wasn't clean anymore for those who know the way to that beach). but in a way, none of those beaches could really make up with other ones we had seen. so we drove back southwards and ended up at sa caleta, west of ses salines. a small and very nice beach! we loved it there! and something funny: you see the planes there, but you don't get the same noise compared to other beaches in the south-eastern end of the island!
the night was cream@amnesia again...what a blast (door-price 55€)!!!! first, tiesto played from 1am till 4am (his set was even better than the week before) and then paul van dyk from 4am till 7am. his set was also very good and he also played some classics (for example he played bbe's 7 days and 1 week at 6am in the morning - the club went nuts), but i had to care for natascha, she had a blackout between 4-6am... but after 6am she was quite okay again and then we saw scottiedog again (hey guy, did you like it???) it was just perfect! and one thing surprised me: it was a bitt less rammed than the week before, although it was with tiësto AND pvd!!!?? but i didn't bother! stayed till the end, 7am, and then drove back to the hotel. first we discussed if we sould go to the beach and then decided to sleep in our beds instead on the sand.
fri, 23rd july - relax and ibiza town
we woke up at 3pm....ahhh sleeping sometimes is so good 8) then we layed on the beach (pdb) till about 7pm. then we drove to ibiza town and finally went up to dalt villa. it is sooo nice!! everyone, go there and see it!! i loved it! then we took another walk through sa penya district and then searched for a nice place to eat...and we found a perfect place: restaurant la brasa! i had already heard of this restaurant, but we were not searching for it when we passed by there! we had an excellent fish meal and the garden there is beautiful! top place! again we were unsure about clubbing or saving some energy for saturday night, our last one...at the end we called it a day after that nice dinner (with some tasty wine) and went back to pdb.
sat, 24th july - cala d'hort - kumharas - privilege
got up early and felt very good! drove down to cala d'hort again. we love this beach and spent all day there. had a delicious lunch at restaurante cala d'hort (WLS = we love shrimps ). in the evening, we badly wanted to have dinner at km5 but when i called for reservation, everything was fully booked so we changed plans, called kumharas again for a reservation and then went to ibiza town for some shopping. natascha bought one of these nice white ibiza-stylee dresses and i found something for the streetparade (which is held soon here in zurich). then we drove to kumharas for another excellent meal...i just love it there! nice atmosphere inside the restaurant! then we went to privilege for balearic people. we had bought the tickets in ibiza town for 15€ and the door-price was 25€. i loved to finally see privilege from the inside and i liked the sound, but the club just didn't get full and the atmosphere was quite poor...at 3:30am we didn't want to "wait" anymore for the atmosphere to arrive, so we left...
sun, 25th july - last day, last sun and a perfect flight home
after breakfast we had to check out from the hotel and we just layed on the beach all afternoon. of course in a way, we wanted to go to WLS again, but our plane left at 8pm and so we would only have missed the great names (the line-up for this sunday was awesome: tom novy, steve lawler, josh wink, groove armada, umek, jeff mills!!!). so we decided to have a cosy end of our holidays and just stayed on the beach in pdb. at about 6pm we drove to the airport, dropped-off our ford fiesta (as dirty as hell ), and checked in. no business class this time, but natascha's friend had done his homework as well: we got offered a bottle of champagne on the plane!!! we hat an awesome sunset-flight, and we were both drinking champagne, having tears in our eyes and thinking about these wonderful days we had on ibiza....
well, if you really read it all (thank you!!!), then i guess your coffee mug or pint of beer is empty now - time to refill, here are some more things i'd like you to know:
critical thoughts
first of all...it's just a detail - but i was surprised how many dj's (also carl cox for example) use cd's!!!!! what happened to the good old vinyl??? of course the also used yinyl discs but i was really shocked to see they're using cd's...have i missed something???
then we were surprised that the island was far away from full!!! of course, the clubs were mostly full...but when we were walking through pdb and ibiza town and saw that most of the bars were less than half-full, it had almost a "ghosty" touch...if you understand what i mean...and hey, i mean it's mid-july!!!??? we've spoken to many locals and of course also to some party promoters and they all said the same: ibiza is facing hard times! as i said in the beginning, i am working in the travel industry and yes, all the industry is facing hard times, but although i would have expected ibiza to be much more crowded!! so i'm curious about what will happen in the future??? it's a fact that since 9/11/2001 people are travelling less and quite all clients (not all but many many) are very price-sensitive...so what will happen to ibiza? will it get less and less crowded oder will the island get a bit cheaper to attract more??? i don't know!
when i was on the island, i could understand some guys on the forum (vienna for example) who had seen this island many years ago are unhappy with the shape the island is now...because i think i can imagine now how it must have been maybe 10-15 years ago. but, if you go outside of the big centres and search for small beaches and hidden places like atlantis, i think you can feel the "old" vibe again. and i loved this!
some hot tips
- hire a car!!! see the island!!! and: it's perfect to go clubbing, you can take loads of water with you and you can go out and in again and drink and safe some money!!!
- most loved beaches: cala d'en serra, no1! cala d'hort, no2! sa caleta, no3!
- other loved places: dalt villa, rest. la brasa and of course kumharas!
- clubs: loved amnesia and space! ...don't forget bora bora!!!
regrets?
- not having made it to formentera, must be beautiful
- not having made it to dc10 and pacha
- not having made it to km5 and bambuddha grove
- not having made it to las dalias on sun or wed night
...but hey, at least i have already a lot of things that i want to to next time!
epilogue
i fell in love with this island. i had my best holiday ever (and trust me, i've already been to many places on the globe), it was an absolute perfect combination between clubbing, beach-holidays and travelling around on a beautiful island. especially the north is very nice, it's very green and rural there! oooh i could continue for hours but i think i should stop now. i hope you enjoyed reading my review and you can now understand how i loved it there. i'm definitely going back there...peace.
okay, i was an ibiza-virgin, but thanks to this forum and a lot of hot tips of a lot of friends i was well-informed (i work in the travel industry and i travel a lot and so i also have many friends who already went to ibiza). natascha had been to ibiza once before, but she was only clubbing then (4 yrs ago) and hasn't seen much of ibiza apart of playa d'en bossa. just to explain you: natascha is neither my girlfriend, nor just a f....ing good friend...it's something in between and i guess that's just why it stays so special between us two.
enough intro, here we go:
thu, 15th july - arrival & cream@amnesia
met natascha at zurich airport at 4pm. when we checked in, we had a sweet surprise: natascha knows the chief dispatcher of the airline we flew with and he organised an upgrade for us! means we flew business class and had some good champagne for free...what a perfect way to start our 10-day-vacation!
when we arrived on ibiza, we picked up our car which we hired for the whole duration of our holiday (centauro). we got a nice ford fiesta with aircondition and the car was clean then
we drove up to playa d'en bossa and checked in at hotel garbi. perfectly located in pdb - just a few steps to cocos bar (good for tickets), jet apts, bora bora, tantra bar (even better for tickets) and of course space...all within walking distance!!! the room we got was absolutely okay, very clean, quite spacious, nice balcony and of course aircondition. in another post on this forum i've read that there are many germans...not true! of course there were germans, but in fact the nationalities were mixed up well: british, many italians, some germans and austrian people and some swiss and french guys...
we went to cocos bar to get our tickets for cream and we got them for 35€. i absolutely looked forward to go to amnesia - apart of house and techno music, i love trance and finally wanted to see tiësto again! after getting them, we went to bora bora to warm up our legs a bit! bora bora was at full swing and after a drink also we were
when we arrived at amnesia sometime after midnight, there were already quite a lot of people inside (door price was 50€ first and later even 55€) and amnesia filled up very very fast and when tiësto turned up at 2:30am it was rammed full!!! tiësto began his set with "adagio for strings", originally an old song, which had already been remaked many times, but this song is just amazing...i had gooseflesh all over within seconds and then the party began! his set was very good, he played some melodic stuff (ok, for some of you just cheese - but i loved it), then some more progressive tunes and he even played some hard-house tunes. a very varied set and i loved it. he played till 5am and then paul kerkshaw or adam sheridan (i don't know which one of them) continued. we stayed till 6am and then we left. ooooooh what a night to start!!! after 12 hours on the white isle i already loved it!
fri, 16th july - southern beaches & defected@el divino
after only 3 hours of sleep we got up again, had breakfast at the hotel (you know, we swiss guys always eat...no matter in what condition we are
) and then had the first hours of sun on what we called "our beach" --> playa d'en bossa-beach. later in the afternoon we drove southwards to see es cavallet (very quiet, very natural beach and i didn't bother about the nudists there) and ses salines. ses salines is very beautiful and so are the beach restaurants/bars there (jockey club, malibu bar, sa trinxa), but there were too many folks. behind sa trinxa, where the rocks began, were less people and it was quiet again, so we stayed there for a while...we went back to the hotel for dinner and afterwards drove up to ibiza town. we walked through sa penya district, had some drinks and decided to go to el divino for defected in the house. we got the tickets for 25€ and the door price was 35€ i think. i must say that el divino is a very nicely built club and especially the restaurant and terrace with the great view over the harbour and ibiza town is perfect...!!! but: although sandy rivera and andy daniell are really skilled dj's, we didn't like that style of house music that was played there that night...i don't know...when it comes to house music i like it either melodic and uplifting or then really deep and dark...and in a way it was just "average" house tunes that were played then. and the atmosphere was okay...but just okay, not more. but again, el divino as a club is very nice. left there about 4am.
sat, 17th july - southern beaches, san antonio and kumharas
we got up early again and saw that the weather wasn't that good...cloudy/overcast. so we just had breakfast (i'm always hungry
) and took another nap. when we got up again at noon the weather was great again and we started with some sun at our beach (pdb). then we got in our car again (it was always f.....ing hot inside when we got into the car, but after 5 minutes everything was just fine) and started to discover the island again...we searched for atlantis and found it (thanx to ...., member on this forum, good guy). this place is just amazing!!!! wow!!! it takes some great effort to get there, but it is definitely worth it!!! maybe you've already seen the cover of the new café del mar vol. 11 with the buddha on it. i saw it live there. absolutely stunning. this place is far the best i've seen for ages! i'm happy that there is no official guide (or any direction advisory on the streets) that leads you there. it must be kept like this! there were only 3 ibizan guys and another couple there. when we got to our car back again, natascha was quite tired (walking and climbing...it's not only a two-minutes walk on an asphalted street) and we decided to go to cala d'hort. ooh, we loved this beach! it's not that small and sometimes i guess it gets quite crowded, but the water was very clear there and the view on es vedrà and es vedranell is just GRRREAT!!! after a good rest there we drove up to san antonio. i'm glad i've seen both, playa d'en bossa and san antonio and i'm sure i will never stay in san antonio. okay, the bay is nice and it is on the sunset-side of the island...but: the west-end (we walked through), all these bars and pubs, this is just too touristic and too large for me (in my opinion, playa d'en bossa is just a small and cosy village compared to san an). if you like going to bars and pubs and just drink and hang around with many young people (mostly british, but hey don't misunderstand me, i'm absolutely not offending to anyone!), then go to san an. but we will choose pdb again. although, i must admit that bar m, the orange corner and all these bars on the sunset strip looked very nice. yes. and then we wanted to see the sunset at café del mar. what a disappointment. if you're sitting in café del mar on ir savannah café or in whatever café there, you still hear the music of the other café on your left and on the right...oh no!!! coastline café looked very nice - but it was EMPTY! so we decided to drive to kumharas, which we found easily. and kumharas is just perfect! first of all, you get only "your" sound - no other noises from bars around you. then it's really cosy to sit there and it wasn't that crowded there. yes, right, someone wrote that you have to wait for eterneties until you get your drink. that's true. service on the bar was very slow, but i loved the cocktail. and we saw a really brilliant sunset. after sunset we went to the restaurant (still kumharas), were sitting/lying inside that tent or whatever you want to call it and had a delicious dinner with a bottle of good spanish vino tinto from valdepeñas. and the service at the restaurant was very good! no waiting time and the waiters there were very friendly!!! after dinner we were absolutely tired (well, we had a long day with three great things: atlantis, cala d' hort and kumharas) so we called it a day and drove home to pdb and went sleeping...
sun, 18th july - some sun and then we love sundays@space
we spent the morning and noon time on pdb-beach. and on the beach we did a mistake: we bought tickets for carl cox@space (that's not a mistake) but in a package together with a pre-party at bar tantra on monday night (the night before the carl cox-party) and those tickets cost 45€. i'll get back to this story later... then, something after 2pm we went to space. i had bought the tickets for WLS on the internet (35€, same price that you would have payed at bar tantra) and the guestlist-thing worked absolutely well, no problem! door-price by the way was 45€ i think. when we arrived, the terrace wasn't full, but already in full swing! very nice house music was played all through the afternoon and i loved it! (the discoteca was empty but i think that's normal throughout the afternoon). steve lawler turned up at 5pm and when he played erick prydz "call on me" the terrace went nuts". i know, it's a very melodic song and repetitive and maybe, after having heard it 20 times you cannot hear it anymore, but at that time, it fitted in very well and the crew loved it! i met scottiedog from the forum there in the afternoon - top guy!!! hope you enjoyed all of your holiday! by the way: the volume on the terrace was absolutely okay, it wasn't neither too low nor too high for an afternoon-party. we got wristbands for the carl cox-night (first 100 free with wristband, then 10€ till 10pm, 15€ from 10pm till 12pm with this wristband and after midnight you get 5€ discount with this wristband...so we already knew we had payed far too much for these tickets we bought saturday on the beach...) at 6.30pm we left to hotel garbi to get some food, fill up our bodies with water and take a shower. we got back to space just before 9pm and then the terrace was packed full! erick morillo played a stunning set and when he played nirvanas "smells like teen spirit" just after midnight, the roof went off. i would never have thought i would hear this song in space!!!!
then we had a short break on the terrace, natascha was tired and decided to go back to the hotel to get some sleep. i stayed and got into the discoteca something past 1am. inside (this time it was full of course) the sound was quite hard: very deep, dark and progressive tunes, sometimes even some detroit-sounds. but it was great, steve lawler and erick morillo played back to back and i was shaking my ass off till 4am. then i was tired as well and walked back to the hotel...WLS is just perfect, everyone should experience it at least once! of course, in a way i would have loved to go to eden that night because i wanted to see ferry corsten (this guy rocks), but tickets were offered me for 45€ and i decided that it wasn't worth it. on another occasion i would also love to go to las dalias on a sunday night - tribe of the frog! must be great! but, all in all i was absolutely happy we had gone to space! mon, 19th july - northern beaches and cocoon@amnesia
natascha woke me up something past 9am and i was still a bit tired...just a bit
so, after our breakfast and standard warm-up on pdb-beach, we drove northwards. this afternoon we saw benirras (i have to go there again, i am an experienced cliff-diver and i want to jump off that rock, but that afternoon, i was too tired) which is very beautiful, got to cala xarraca (also very nice) and then we found a small cala which we absolutely loved: cala d'en serra, near of portinatx! it's a very small beach and if there would be 20 people, the beach would be full. but like this, it stays absolutely calm! you cannot drive down, you have to park the car and walk down. that's also a reason the beach is very quiet and you get no noise. we fell asleep on this beach. it's just perfect!!! in the evening we drove back to pdb an had dinner in the hotel. then we went to this pre-party of carl cox at tantra bar. there were some dj's and the sound was okay, but the bar wasn't full and you couldn't call it a party...just hanging around and getting some free drinks (well, as much as you want, but i didn't want to go to amnesia drunk). and we didn't get the tickets for tuesday then, they told us we have to come again tuesday night.....arrrgh! then it was time to go to amnesia again! cocon! i had gread expectations on that night and had bought the tickets on cocoon.net (30€) and we got these vip-wristbands. but...it was a strange night: first of all, amnesia didn't get full (didn't check the door-price that night) and till 3am there was absolutely no atmosphere (marco carola played from 2-3am). and: the damn air condition and ventilation was put up full throttle and it was in fact winding inside amnesia. natascha had already a cough at that time and i think i got mine from that night. then, at 3am alexander kowalski played his live-set. at that point, some atmosphere was created and his liveact was very good. very rough techno, but boosting! afterwards, marco carola continued playing til 7am. hmm...what shall i say? it wasn't the best party. the atmosphere wasn't that great, amnesia was not full enough (it doesn't have to be rammed full to float my boat but a bit more would have been good) and marco carolas' set was not very varied...in a way a bit boring. only for absolute techno lovers. but it was cool to see the vip-balcony of amnesia which is very nice. when we got out of amnesia, sun had already risen and we went straight to bed....
tue, 20th july - relaxing on the beach and carl cox@space
natascha woke me up at 2pm and we spent all the afternoon on the beach of playa d'en bossa. i walked up and down the whole beach and went to bora bora for some tunes. great place to be!!!
in the evening we had dinner at restaurant moorea near jet apts. very tasty! then we went to tantra bar to finally get our tickets for carl cox. we got to space just before 11pm (so, we could have gone in with no problems for 15€....
normal admission-price was 35€ by the way). the terrace was full again and when carl cox turned up short after 11pm, the roof went off again. he played a set on the terrace until short after midnight, began very housy (call on me from erick prydz again - was surprised to her that tune from king carl) and then changed to more progressive house sound. then after midnight the fiesta continued inside the discoteca. we first went up to the roof terrace for a short hangout in that yellow submarine. i love it there! nice!
when we got back into the discoteca the party was in full swing: dj vibe from portugal played an absolutely awesome techno set! i never heard such a good and well-varied techno set before! and the atmosphere was absolutely great! couldn't compare it to cocoon on the night before, this was another world!!! fast, hard banging techno music
this guy just rocks!!! dj vibe!!! whenever you get a chance to see him, go there - you won't be disappointed!!! he was the absolute surprise for me!! then carl cox turned up at 3am and i think dj vibe's set was better than king carl's...but still, it was very good and banging. carl cox was in a perfect mood and you could really see that he's having great fun doin' his job!
we left something after 4am....and walked back to hotel garbi. i would definitely recommend carl cox-party over cocoon, though i might have had just a bad cocoon-party and all other cocoon-nights might be absolutely stunning...
wed, 21st july - knackered off-day
we got up too early and i felt like dead. my cough was arriving and i was just deadly tired. so we slept on our beach till 2pm and we both felt a little better then. we decided to get our discover-ibiza-socks on again an drove to the north-easten coast where we went to cala san vicente (very touristic, but still very nice), saw cala boix (rest. la noria has a stunning view and the beach is very nice - but it was too full when we were there) and we also were to cala llenya (nice as well, many families). after this tour we (especially me) got exxxtremely tired again and we drove back to the hotel where i took a nap. in the evening we discussed about going to privilege (meganite) or pacha (subliminal) or if we should just have a rest. in a way i badly wanted to go to meganite (yes, it was advertised everywhere on the island) and on the other hand i wanted to go to subliminal because i loved erick morillos' sets on WLS. and at the end we took the right decision an had a rest. we were reeeeeeaaaalllyyy tired and needed some bonus hours of sleep. so, we just went buying our tickets for cream (35€ again) and then slept like stones (that's how we say in switzerland...)
thu, 22nd july - more beaches and cream again!
yes, it had been the right decision not going clubbing wed night. we were still tired but felt a lot better. in the morning we drove up to santa eularia, went to cala llonga (okay), sol d'en serra (nice restaurant) and cala d'estanyol (our car wasn't clean anymore
for those who know the way to that beach). but in a way, none of those beaches could really make up with other ones we had seen. so we drove back southwards and ended up at sa caleta, west of ses salines. a small and very nice beach! we loved it there! and something funny: you see the planes there, but you don't get the same noise compared to other beaches in the south-eastern end of the island! the night was cream@amnesia again...what a blast (door-price 55€)!!!! first, tiesto played from 1am till 4am (his set was even better than the week before) and then paul van dyk from 4am till 7am. his set was also very good and he also played some classics (for example he played bbe's 7 days and 1 week at 6am in the morning - the club went nuts), but i had to care for natascha, she had a blackout between 4-6am...
but after 6am she was quite okay again and then we saw scottiedog again (hey guy, did you like it???) it was just perfect! and one thing surprised me: it was a bitt less rammed than the week before, although it was with tiësto AND pvd!!!?? but i didn't bother! stayed till the end, 7am, and then drove back to the hotel. first we discussed if we sould go to the beach and then decided to sleep in our beds instead on the sand. fri, 23rd july - relax and ibiza town
we woke up at 3pm....ahhh sleeping sometimes is so good 8) then we layed on the beach (pdb) till about 7pm. then we drove to ibiza town and finally went up to dalt villa. it is sooo nice!! everyone, go there and see it!! i loved it! then we took another walk through sa penya district and then searched for a nice place to eat...and we found a perfect place: restaurant la brasa! i had already heard of this restaurant, but we were not searching for it when we passed by there! we had an excellent fish meal and the garden there is beautiful! top place! again we were unsure about clubbing or saving some energy for saturday night, our last one...at the end we called it a day after that nice dinner (with some tasty wine) and went back to pdb.
sat, 24th july - cala d'hort - kumharas - privilege
got up early and felt very good! drove down to cala d'hort again. we love this beach and spent all day there. had a delicious lunch at restaurante cala d'hort (WLS = we love shrimps
). in the evening, we badly wanted to have dinner at km5 but when i called for reservation, everything was fully booked so we changed plans, called kumharas again for a reservation and then went to ibiza town for some shopping. natascha bought one of these nice white ibiza-stylee dresses and i found something for the streetparade (which is held soon here in zurich). then we drove to kumharas for another excellent meal...i just love it there! nice atmosphere inside the restaurant! then we went to privilege for balearic people. we had bought the tickets in ibiza town for 15€ and the door-price was 25€. i loved to finally see privilege from the inside and i liked the sound, but the club just didn't get full and the atmosphere was quite poor...at 3:30am we didn't want to "wait" anymore for the atmosphere to arrive, so we left...sun, 25th july - last day, last sun and a perfect flight home
after breakfast we had to check out from the hotel and we just layed on the beach all afternoon. of course in a way, we wanted to go to WLS again, but our plane left at 8pm and so we would only have missed the great names (the line-up for this sunday was awesome: tom novy, steve lawler, josh wink, groove armada, umek, jeff mills!!!). so we decided to have a cosy end of our holidays and just stayed on the beach in pdb. at about 6pm we drove to the airport, dropped-off our ford fiesta (as dirty as hell
), and checked in. no business class this time, but natascha's friend had done his homework as well: we got offered a bottle of champagne on the plane!!! we hat an awesome sunset-flight, and we were both drinking champagne, having tears in our eyes and thinking about these wonderful days we had on ibiza....well, if you really read it all (thank you!!!), then i guess your coffee mug or pint of beer is empty now - time to refill, here are some more things i'd like you to know:
critical thoughts
first of all...it's just a detail - but i was surprised how many dj's (also carl cox for example) use cd's!!!!! what happened to the good old vinyl??? of course the also used yinyl discs but i was really shocked to see they're using cd's...have i missed something???
then we were surprised that the island was far away from full!!! of course, the clubs were mostly full...but when we were walking through pdb and ibiza town and saw that most of the bars were less than half-full, it had almost a "ghosty" touch...if you understand what i mean...and hey, i mean it's mid-july!!!??? we've spoken to many locals and of course also to some party promoters and they all said the same: ibiza is facing hard times! as i said in the beginning, i am working in the travel industry and yes, all the industry is facing hard times, but although i would have expected ibiza to be much more crowded!! so i'm curious about what will happen in the future??? it's a fact that since 9/11/2001 people are travelling less and quite all clients (not all but many many) are very price-sensitive...so what will happen to ibiza? will it get less and less crowded oder will the island get a bit cheaper to attract more??? i don't know!
when i was on the island, i could understand some guys on the forum (vienna for example) who had seen this island many years ago are unhappy with the shape the island is now...because i think i can imagine now how it must have been maybe 10-15 years ago. but, if you go outside of the big centres and search for small beaches and hidden places like atlantis, i think you can feel the "old" vibe again. and i loved this!
some hot tips
- hire a car!!! see the island!!! and: it's perfect to go clubbing, you can take loads of water with you and you can go out and in again and drink and safe some money!!!
- most loved beaches: cala d'en serra, no1! cala d'hort, no2! sa caleta, no3!
- other loved places: dalt villa, rest. la brasa and of course kumharas!
- clubs: loved amnesia and space! ...don't forget bora bora!!!
regrets?
- not having made it to formentera, must be beautiful
- not having made it to dc10 and pacha
- not having made it to km5 and bambuddha grove
- not having made it to las dalias on sun or wed night
...but hey, at least i have already a lot of things that i want to to next time!
epilogue
i fell in love with this island. i had my best holiday ever (and trust me, i've already been to many places on the globe), it was an absolute perfect combination between clubbing, beach-holidays and travelling around on a beautiful island. especially the north is very nice, it's very green and rural there! oooh i could continue for hours but i think i should stop now. i hope you enjoyed reading my review and you can now understand how i loved it there. i'm definitely going back there...peace.
