July 11 Night Detailed Trip Report

skoo

Active Member
I always love reading these so thought I'd better pull my finger out and get our recent trip written up.


We had a Tuesday evening flight with EasyJet which arrived 20 minutes ahead of schedule at around 11pm local time. As we flew into Ibiza, I was staring out the window at the lights when all of a sudden we were over the Hard Rock hotel and Ushuaia Tower and I nearly poo'd my pants as both came out of nowhere!

As the plane, which was about 40% full, approached the runway, everyone started cheering and clapping. I think it put the pilot off his game because it was then a VERY hard landing!

Everyone was smiling behind their masks getting off the plane and we just couldn't believe we'd finally made it.

No queue for the taxis at that time, and a quick 10 minute cab journey to our hotel, the Grand Palladium Palace in Bossa - somewhere we've stayed now a couple of times and always enjoyed. It's all inclusive which I know is frowned upon round here, but we like being able to get drinks and food on demand and it doesn't stop us from eating out in other places too, it's just convenient, especially when you're hungover from the night before and need food inside your belly RIGHT NOW.

The first evening, we were knackered so we just went straight to bed as it was past midnight by then.

Day 1:

After unpacking (I can't relax until everything is tidy and in its place!) we kicked off the day with the hotel breakfast and decided to just lounge by the pool for a few hours and enjoy some breakfast cocktails.

I remember that first morning, a toddler fell into the big adult pool and I was super impressed and the speed with which the lifeguard threw himself into the water to save the child. The poor kid was so upset and the mother, who'd also jumped in, looked like she'd seen a ghost poor thing!

After lunch at the hotel, we decided to go and visit Ushuaia for some proper cocktails and vibes. Hired ourselves a couple of loungers for the afternoon, and had a blissful few hours. Made a few friends, had a naughty dance in the pool, and decided to get some oysters from their restaurant, which I highly recommend if you like that sort of thing!

We learned that some of our mates were also on the island so we made plan to go and see them at Good Life bar in Bossa where one of them was DJing that evening. Also took the opportunity to arrange some supplies for the days ahead.

Good Life is a nice bar but it's absolutely boiling in there which made it a bit uncomfortable. Nice interior and it started filling up nicely as the evening went on.

Called it a night at around midnight, and back to the hotel and bed. Very civilised!

Day 2:

This was the day we had Cova Santa booked for the evening so in the day time we just chilled around the hotel, reading our books, listening to podcasts etc. I actually indulged in the cheesy aqua aerobics just as an excuse to dance, and it did have the effect of ridding me of my slight hangover from the night before which was an unexpected bonus! I swore I'd do it every morning from then on, but of course I never did.

Our table for Cova Santa was booked for 8pm, so off we went in a cab. When we arrived it was pretty empty, and they sat us right in front of the stage. We had a €180 minimum spend, which we kicked off with a bottle of rosé wine, followed by some iberico ham and bread. It was at this point I decided to dip into my goodie bag.

Soon, a large group arrived on the table next to ours, and I immediately knew we were going to become friends with them, they just had nice faces! Sure enough, within an hour or so, we were all chatting and mingling, enjoying the music from Ben Westbeach. I have to say, I didn't massively rate his performance, he was very reserved, not interacting at all with the crowd which given the circumstances, seemed a bit off. It was like we weren't there tbh. Nonetheless, everyone was just so happy to be there that nobody cared, and he did play some good tunes. Ultra Nate's "Free" seemed to be the song of the trip, it was played all over the place.

Our new friends had a villa nearby so we went back to theirs for a couple of hours. They invited us to a party they were having the next day, so that leads us onto....

Day 3:

Today was a bit of a struggle after the night before. Pretty sure we slept through breakfast and had another lazy day around the pool snoozing in the shade. We planned to go back to our new friends' villa at around 8pm so we spent the day slowly recovering and getting ourselves in the mood to party again. After a wander into Bossa to grab some beers for the party, we hopped in a cab and off we went.

The villa party was excellent - not loads of people (maybe 40?) and it was all outside so reasonably covid-secure. They'd hired a DJ who is reasonably well known which was cool, and it was a night of cementing new friendships and making a few new ones. I managed to persuade the DJ to play a song I've produced but not yet released towards the end of the evening, and he offered to release it on his label which was a bit of a result!

We grabbed a cab at around 4am home.

Day 4:

This day was a total write off. I slept until about 4pm. I'm pretty sure this was also the day where there was a huge thunderstorm, so it was kind of good that this was the day we hibernated! Nothing to report here apart from that eating anything was a major struggle and we called it an early night.
 
Day 5:


We decided to check out Sa Trinxa. We'd overslept and so we didn't arrive until about 12pm, so naturally, there were no beds to hire. We'd never been before, so we were surprised by the long walk from the car park to the beach through the woods. It was cool though and the noise of all the crickets deafening! To be honest, we didn't really get the best vibe here. I think we arrived too late to get a good spot, so we could barely hear the music, and although they turned it up a little later, it wasn't really to our taste. We stuck it out for a few hours and explored the beach area but in the end agreed that we just weren't feeling it and not wishing to flog a dead horse, we decided to leave pretty early, arriving back at the hotel at around 6ish I think.

Feeling a bit deflated, as everyone on here raves about Sa Trinxa and so we were gutted that we hadn't enjoyed it, we took up a position near the pool and ended up making some new friends - a couple in their 50s or 60s who bloody love Ibiza and had come with their grandkids. Chatting to them cheered us up loads!

Day 6:

Bit of another nothing day, chilling, reading, bit of bedroom stuff. Usual holiday bits and pieces :)

Day 7:

Made a trip into Ibiza Town for a wander and dinner. It was so busy in the town, people everywhere - it felt pretty much normal. Stopped off at a random place for drinks and a long leisurely dinner, wandered around the old town - just a nice wholesome evening.

Day 8:

This was the evening we had a table booked at Mambo. As we got out the cab and started approaching it, we both got super emotional, as Mambo was the first place we visited when we first came to Ibiza in 2016, so it stirred up a lot of feelings. We've never eaten there before, but I have to say the food was delicious. I had the salmon poke bowl and my husband had the steak. We had a really good view of the sunset on the decking, and the DJ started the sunset emotional music very early on. I remember they used to only switch to that music in maybe the 20 minute build up, but he started about 45 mins out from it - really deep emotional stuff. Both of us were fighting back the tears, I had a right wobbly chin situation and it was all a bit embarrassing haha. But that place means a lot to us and it being our last night in the south part of the island, we were getting those "end of the holiday" feelings too.

After sunset, the music switched back up and whilst it was good, the not dancing was too difficult and we called it after an hour or two. Went for a stroll through San An and was pleased at the general busyness. Had a nice feel to it. Cab back to the hotel to pack :(

Day 9:

On this day we had to check out of the Palladium and make our way to the Hacienda Na Xamena in the north of the island, where we would be spending the last 3 nights of our trip. The pictures of the view simply don't do it justice, it really is like a paradise everywhere you look.

Coming from Bossa and an all inclusive hotel, getting to the Hacienda was a bit of a culture shock. Firstly it was so incredibly quiet - the pool area was noiseless. I think some quiet deep house could have really added to the vibe and made having conversations a little less intimidating, as you did feel overheard any time you spoke. It was all very hush hush.

The clientele were a very odd mixed bag. Some very ostentatious people with loads of bling and heavily branded swimwear flashing about their money. Then you had the sugar daddies and their MUCH younger girlfriends, some of which looked blatantly hired for the weekend - I overheard one such couple talking and it was clear they didn't know each other outside of this trip. He was old and ugly, she was young and gorgeous...so it was pretty obvious what was going on there! Then you had the classy folk who were clearly extremely wealthy but don't feel the need to shout about it with loads of bling etc. Then you had me and my husband wondering what on earth we were doing there, not fitting in at all!

The next surprise were the prices of the drinks. The hotel itself is obviously £££. However we weren't quite prepared for how expensive drinks at the hotel would be - the same as club prices basically. On the plus side, it meant we really dialled down the boozing on the last few days, which can't be a bad thing.

We made a massive error in not going via a supermarket on the way to the Hacienda to stock up on a few snacks and bottles of water as there was absolutely nothing nearby from a shops perspective, so they really have you as a captive audience. We couldn't be arsed to get a cab into San Miguel and back for this purpose, so we just accepted we were going to be spending a lot of money over the next 3 days.

We ate at their Michelin starred restaurant the first night, which I have to say was absolutely excellent. If you don't drink alcohol, the price ends up not being too bad.

We had a go on the in-room bubble jacuzzi and then an early night.

Day 10 and Day 11:

All we really did was chill around the pool, soak up the views, eat at their pool restaurant (which was more reasonably priced) and mess about. We tried the cascades experience where you go through several different pools overlooking the sea, with hydrotherapy jets and massagers under the water - this was a lovely experience.

On the last day, my other half decided it would be a good idea to finish off the supplies we had left, which made sense at the time. So we got a little bit drunk and silly and had some deep and meaningfuls overlooking the ocean. Classic Ibiza stuff.

We had to wake up at 6am next day to get to the airport for our 9:30am flight back.

We were definitely pleased to be going home as 11 nights is a long time in Ibiza, especially when you're drinking pretty much every day, with some partying mixed in - you do start to flag a bit.

I wouldn't stay at the Hacienda again I don't think - yes it's an amazing view but I didn't feel the facilities matched the price paid. You're paying for the view essentially. However I'd definitely do another stretch in that part of the island, just somewhere a little more down to earth!

I'm missing the island already and looking forward to hopefully returning in a few weeks!
 
Brilliant @skoo I really enjoyed reading your report 😀

One thing I have definitely missed on the forum is reading people’s holiday reports like this. Hearing what they did each day in Ibiza and the shenanigans they got up to 😄
 
It's worth mentioning that this was technically our honeymoon (postponed by a couple of years), hence the length of the trip and the move to the big fancy hotel. In some ways, the clubs all being shut helped keep us on the straight and narrow as this was never supposed to be a big party trip and more about a bit of romance ;) However once we were there we couldn't resist a couple of parties of course. It is Ibiza afterall!
 
Sounds like a great hol!

how much were beds at Ushuaia for the day? Any idea if hard rock do similar? Was contemplating staying at either of these next weekend but not sure worth it at the moment when I can pay a third elsewhere
 
Sounds like a great hol!

how much were beds at Ushuaia for the day? Any idea if hard rock do similar? Was contemplating staying at either of these next weekend but not sure worth it at the moment when I can pay a third elsewhere
I reckon hard rock will deffo do similar. The beds we hired were 90euros each min spend. We always go there without fail every trip.
 
Back
Top