Caca83
Active Member
Hi everyone,
Well, just returned from Ibiza last Friday. This is my 3rd time on the White Isle. Usually I just do a Friday til Tue but this time we decided to make it a whole week.
Firstly, the weather is absolutely amazing! Clear skies and baking hot every single day we were there. You just can't fault it! So, no worries on that front!
Along with another couple we stayed at the Catalina Apartments in San An where I've stayed before. Very basic but a mint location just next to Savannah's and Mambo. We decided to pay extra this time for a "sea view" apartment but due to a mix up they couldn't give us this so we ended up spending 2 nights in a room which definitely did not have any kind of view! My advice is to not bother paying extra. At the end of the day, you may as well just sit outside and enjoy the sunset with a bit of atmosphere to boot.
I can't even tell you all how excited I have been to return to Ibiza. Every time I have had an amazing time and I have come back wishing that it could have gone on longer. However, this holiday has been met with some really mixed feelings unfortuntely....
We decided to take the first 2 nights easy and get ourselves revved up for our first night out at Hed Kandi (El Divino). These first 2 nights were bliss. The sunset is still as brilliant as ever, the fire dancers were great and we enjoyed a wonderful meal at Karma Sushi which is next to Savannah's. So far so good. I have to point out that one of the main reasons we enjoyed Karma Sushi was because the service was great. A lovely scouse girl and a friendly Austrailian guy really made us feel welcome.
As the Catalina doesn't have a pool, we decided to go to the Sun Sea Bar each day. This is where our trouble with Ibiza began. I really don't mind paying 4 Euro each for a sunlounger all day but I do resent not being able to take a sip from my own bottled water when we all spent 50Euro on sandwiches at the Sun Sea Bar already. I asked for a Diet Coke and was astonished when the bill was 6.50 Euro for a paper cup of coke that wasn't even full to the top!!! Unbelievable.
Of course Ibiza was going to be more expensive this year, we all expected it with the poor exchange rate etc but at times, it felt like the island was a massive rip off at our expense. I thought on a few occasions that they were blatantly taking the p*** out of the tourists! I am not just referring to clubs here, it was everything. Even a small local shop was selling a big packet of Malteasers for 4.50 Euro!
What shocked me the most this year was just how much the Spanish detest us. It was evident in practically every shop, bar, restaurant and club we visited. I know they have to deal with idiots on practically a daily basis but why tar us all with the same brush? All of us were polite and said please and thankyou for it to hardly ever be reciprocated! In fact, we got a lot of sighs, rolled eyes and at one point, my friend and I were too scared to go into a toilet in Playa Den Bossa thanks to a scary Spanish girl who kept eyeballing us and muttering at us threateningly. The two guys we were with found it hard not to kick off on several ocassions like when my friend got shooed away from the toilet on Bora Bora beach (complete with handclaps) when she asked if she could buy a drink and go to the toilet? Even when we'd spent a small fortune in Savannah's and we asked for the bill, all the guy said was "er, you're leaving?" (rolls eyes)..how about "thanks for your custom?" Either way, we're probably mugs as we tipped plenty of times when we really shouldn't have.
Of course there are cultural differences but there is surely a fine line! While we are paying through the nose for an Ibiza experience, they should bear in mind that if they continue to provide poor service, the place is going to go down the plughole fast. My honest view is that the Spanish have ripped the a*se out of the place so much with prices and services so much that it's not sustainable. We noticed just how much quieter it was this year. I mean, it was hard NOT to notice. Plenty of people we chatted to were raving about Pag in Croatia...interesting...
Anyway..El Div:
Bloody good value. Buy one get one free on the tickets and because there were 4 of us, we split the cost and it worked out as less than 20 Euro each! We also got a free Hed Kandi CD which has turned out to be pretty good! We were disappointed that the free bus didn't pick us up til 1.30am however. I'm sure they had one every hour from 11pm last year? Hmmmm... El Div is soooooo good. I just love the views of the marina. I had forgotton how beautiful it was. When I was there last September, the place was uncomfortably rammed but fortunately this wasn't the case this time. It was full enough to have a great atmosphere but you could still breathe. fab! The dancers were on top form this year and there were a couple of girls on stilts which was pretty cool. My friend and I just ADORED the lovely laura on sax. She is so friendly and you can tell she just loves her job! She was happy to pose for pictures and took compliments really modestly. She's so talented! She played Axwell's I found U and it sounded soooooo great on sax! Hed Kandi music (love it or hate it) always has a feel good factor and that feeling pretty much runs through the whole of the night from ticker paper streaming around the room, dancers, lights and happy people. A real positive vibe. The only down side of the night was when my friend and I went to the toilet before leaving. OMG! The Spanish cleaner was awful. She shouted at us "you hurry up because I want to go home" and then as soon as I sat down in the cubicle she was banging on the door yelling "you get out now, NOW!!! F***** move!" We were washing our hands when she continues to abuse other people who are trying to come in and even uses her brush to shoo a girl out of the way! She was going mental, I've never seen anything like it. I think she assumes that everyone must be soooo drunk/pilled that they won't remember but I wasn't that far gone to realise that she was awful and neither was my friend! Anyway, apart from that, top night!
Sunday was obviously We Love..@ Space. We had an Ibiza virgin with us so this was a must see. We got a couple of flyers from a PR by cafe del mar who told us that with the flyer, we could get in for 20 Euro if we went before 6. Fab, that meant we could get in cheap, get a passout and go to Bora Bora until 11 ish before going to Space for the rest of the night! Or so we thought.
When we got there, at 5pm, we were told that the 20Euro flyer didn't include a passout. We had to pay 40 Euro for a passout. We were keen to make Bora Bora so we stumped up the cash. Not happy about that, what a con! Anyway, we went in for a quick drink and we were just loving the fans that were blowing out water as we listened to some great tunes! We then headed to the beach and chilled out there for a bit. We were not impressed when a Spanish guy came up to us and tried to sell us pills. Not happy about that at all, my boyfriend said that we were fine thanks but he was SO persistent and got agitated when my boyfriend asked him to please leave as we were NOT interested! Grrrr...anyway, the beach was great for people watching and listening to some cool tunes. Some of the posers on that beach were frickin' hilarious, including one old guy who actually thought it was Ok to go swimming in white cotton y-fronts?! Blimey. Anyway, after the beach we watched a bit of the world cup final in a bar and then headed off to Space to have a good time with the astronaughts. Yay!
The atmosphere at Space (I think) is quite dark and a lot more intimidating/weirder than other clubs, mostly because people have been hitting it hard all day. When we arrived at about midnight, this was pretty evident. The place was half full and it stayed this way for the rest of the night. It had definitely lost the magic touch I experienced in previous years as it has lost it's big selling point: the 24 hour party. There is also an undeniable stench (apart from in the main room) that is truly disgusting. A really rancid sewer smell!
We were in the main room (great minimalist tracks...dopplewhipper!) when we saw the guy who was trying to sell us pills on the beach. He approached us again. He was clearly spangled and completely mental. My boyfriend told him no thanks again and my lady pal said the same. She did a cut throat and mouthed "no thanks, we're OK" but this turned him CRAZY. He then tried to grab her, her bf had to stand in the middle while the guy tried to point in her face, was screaming at her "what do you mean?? WHAT DO YOU MEAN?? You disrespect me!!" My lady pal was getting pretty upset as she was saying "I didn't mean anything bad, i just don't want anything from you, I'm sorry you've got it wrong" but he didn't understand and just kept trying to move around her bf to get to her calling her "English sl**". This put her bf and my bf in a horrible situation. In the UK, they'd probably pull the little s*** up over and then some for daring to do such a thing but in a different country, you just don't know what they've got on them or who is watching their back. The 2 guys we were with decided to bite their lips and try and keep the peace, apologising and trying to usher us away. He kept following us to each room so in the end we had to leave. The bouncers don't give a toss, incidentally.
We sat on Bora Bora for the rest of Monday morn and we met a cool Canadian couple who we chatted nonsense to for a good few hours. This was probably the only highlight of going to Space this year. Waste of time! Bora Bora was fine but the people were incredibly rude. My bf bought a round of drinks for 60 Euro and asked the bar staff for a pen and paper to swap email addresses with the Canadian couple. The bar person said "what? what?" (really aggressively) and then flicked her hand and said "no pen and paper". Cow!
Anyway, we were meant to head to Release Yourself @ Pacha on Monday but we were all waaaayyyy to poorly. This was unfortunate as I had to cancel a table I had booked for us to eat there. We decided to postpone Pacha until Wednesday instead. Monday night was a bit of a write off and we spent the night in bed from about 7pm! Tuesday was spent on the beach and a nice meal at David's (the grub there is great as always)and an early night.
Wednesday was bad for me. I woke up feeling very sick. I couldn't stand the heat. I went to Bar M to chill out there (love those water fans!) and waited for my boyfriend to do a short scuba diving trip (which he told me was AWFUL...they messed around and weren't safe). On the walk back to our apartments, I was violently sick about 5 times which wasn't good at all. We met for sunset and while the others had a meal in Mambo, I decided to sleep for a couple of hours to TRY and get better for Pacha. I was desperate to! My bf woke me up at 11pm and while I felt better for the sleep, it was his turn to feel pants. It was a tough decision but we decided to pass on Pacha. The other couple went though...
Pacha turned out to be the biggest rip off of all and although it is an amazing club, this realy did take the p*ss. We had seen the tickets for Subliminal Sessions listed at 37 Euro everywhere we looked, with a free bus. When the couple we were with went to but their tickets, they had mysteriously all been put up to 47 Euro. When they asked different places why this was the case, they were told "inflation". Whaaatt?? The free bus was also at 1.30pm. So, at midnight, they decided to get a taxi to Pacha. So, 62 Euro each before they've even started on drinks. That works out at approximately 10Euro an hour for a club. Plus they still have to get a taxi home!! It was laughable. They told us that while it was a fab night and Morillo was on top form, it was hard not to feel that Pacha were taking the p*ss out of them. fair point!
Overall I had fun in Ibiza but the rudeness and priciness of the whole place really put a dampener on our experience. I can't deny that. It's pretty unlikely that'll I go back if I'm to be brutally honest. It seems the only language the Spanish seem to understand is money. Forget the once chilled out, happy go lucky hippie side of Ibiza, it has all succumbed to big fat Euro signs.....I'll store my Ibiza memories quite happily and leave it there, I think!
Well, just returned from Ibiza last Friday. This is my 3rd time on the White Isle. Usually I just do a Friday til Tue but this time we decided to make it a whole week.
Firstly, the weather is absolutely amazing! Clear skies and baking hot every single day we were there. You just can't fault it! So, no worries on that front!
Along with another couple we stayed at the Catalina Apartments in San An where I've stayed before. Very basic but a mint location just next to Savannah's and Mambo. We decided to pay extra this time for a "sea view" apartment but due to a mix up they couldn't give us this so we ended up spending 2 nights in a room which definitely did not have any kind of view! My advice is to not bother paying extra. At the end of the day, you may as well just sit outside and enjoy the sunset with a bit of atmosphere to boot.
I can't even tell you all how excited I have been to return to Ibiza. Every time I have had an amazing time and I have come back wishing that it could have gone on longer. However, this holiday has been met with some really mixed feelings unfortuntely....
We decided to take the first 2 nights easy and get ourselves revved up for our first night out at Hed Kandi (El Divino). These first 2 nights were bliss. The sunset is still as brilliant as ever, the fire dancers were great and we enjoyed a wonderful meal at Karma Sushi which is next to Savannah's. So far so good. I have to point out that one of the main reasons we enjoyed Karma Sushi was because the service was great. A lovely scouse girl and a friendly Austrailian guy really made us feel welcome.
As the Catalina doesn't have a pool, we decided to go to the Sun Sea Bar each day. This is where our trouble with Ibiza began. I really don't mind paying 4 Euro each for a sunlounger all day but I do resent not being able to take a sip from my own bottled water when we all spent 50Euro on sandwiches at the Sun Sea Bar already. I asked for a Diet Coke and was astonished when the bill was 6.50 Euro for a paper cup of coke that wasn't even full to the top!!! Unbelievable.
Of course Ibiza was going to be more expensive this year, we all expected it with the poor exchange rate etc but at times, it felt like the island was a massive rip off at our expense. I thought on a few occasions that they were blatantly taking the p*** out of the tourists! I am not just referring to clubs here, it was everything. Even a small local shop was selling a big packet of Malteasers for 4.50 Euro!
What shocked me the most this year was just how much the Spanish detest us. It was evident in practically every shop, bar, restaurant and club we visited. I know they have to deal with idiots on practically a daily basis but why tar us all with the same brush? All of us were polite and said please and thankyou for it to hardly ever be reciprocated! In fact, we got a lot of sighs, rolled eyes and at one point, my friend and I were too scared to go into a toilet in Playa Den Bossa thanks to a scary Spanish girl who kept eyeballing us and muttering at us threateningly. The two guys we were with found it hard not to kick off on several ocassions like when my friend got shooed away from the toilet on Bora Bora beach (complete with handclaps) when she asked if she could buy a drink and go to the toilet? Even when we'd spent a small fortune in Savannah's and we asked for the bill, all the guy said was "er, you're leaving?" (rolls eyes)..how about "thanks for your custom?" Either way, we're probably mugs as we tipped plenty of times when we really shouldn't have.
Of course there are cultural differences but there is surely a fine line! While we are paying through the nose for an Ibiza experience, they should bear in mind that if they continue to provide poor service, the place is going to go down the plughole fast. My honest view is that the Spanish have ripped the a*se out of the place so much with prices and services so much that it's not sustainable. We noticed just how much quieter it was this year. I mean, it was hard NOT to notice. Plenty of people we chatted to were raving about Pag in Croatia...interesting...
Anyway..El Div:
Bloody good value. Buy one get one free on the tickets and because there were 4 of us, we split the cost and it worked out as less than 20 Euro each! We also got a free Hed Kandi CD which has turned out to be pretty good! We were disappointed that the free bus didn't pick us up til 1.30am however. I'm sure they had one every hour from 11pm last year? Hmmmm... El Div is soooooo good. I just love the views of the marina. I had forgotton how beautiful it was. When I was there last September, the place was uncomfortably rammed but fortunately this wasn't the case this time. It was full enough to have a great atmosphere but you could still breathe. fab! The dancers were on top form this year and there were a couple of girls on stilts which was pretty cool. My friend and I just ADORED the lovely laura on sax. She is so friendly and you can tell she just loves her job! She was happy to pose for pictures and took compliments really modestly. She's so talented! She played Axwell's I found U and it sounded soooooo great on sax! Hed Kandi music (love it or hate it) always has a feel good factor and that feeling pretty much runs through the whole of the night from ticker paper streaming around the room, dancers, lights and happy people. A real positive vibe. The only down side of the night was when my friend and I went to the toilet before leaving. OMG! The Spanish cleaner was awful. She shouted at us "you hurry up because I want to go home" and then as soon as I sat down in the cubicle she was banging on the door yelling "you get out now, NOW!!! F***** move!" We were washing our hands when she continues to abuse other people who are trying to come in and even uses her brush to shoo a girl out of the way! She was going mental, I've never seen anything like it. I think she assumes that everyone must be soooo drunk/pilled that they won't remember but I wasn't that far gone to realise that she was awful and neither was my friend! Anyway, apart from that, top night!
Sunday was obviously We Love..@ Space. We had an Ibiza virgin with us so this was a must see. We got a couple of flyers from a PR by cafe del mar who told us that with the flyer, we could get in for 20 Euro if we went before 6. Fab, that meant we could get in cheap, get a passout and go to Bora Bora until 11 ish before going to Space for the rest of the night! Or so we thought.
When we got there, at 5pm, we were told that the 20Euro flyer didn't include a passout. We had to pay 40 Euro for a passout. We were keen to make Bora Bora so we stumped up the cash. Not happy about that, what a con! Anyway, we went in for a quick drink and we were just loving the fans that were blowing out water as we listened to some great tunes! We then headed to the beach and chilled out there for a bit. We were not impressed when a Spanish guy came up to us and tried to sell us pills. Not happy about that at all, my boyfriend said that we were fine thanks but he was SO persistent and got agitated when my boyfriend asked him to please leave as we were NOT interested! Grrrr...anyway, the beach was great for people watching and listening to some cool tunes. Some of the posers on that beach were frickin' hilarious, including one old guy who actually thought it was Ok to go swimming in white cotton y-fronts?! Blimey. Anyway, after the beach we watched a bit of the world cup final in a bar and then headed off to Space to have a good time with the astronaughts. Yay!
The atmosphere at Space (I think) is quite dark and a lot more intimidating/weirder than other clubs, mostly because people have been hitting it hard all day. When we arrived at about midnight, this was pretty evident. The place was half full and it stayed this way for the rest of the night. It had definitely lost the magic touch I experienced in previous years as it has lost it's big selling point: the 24 hour party. There is also an undeniable stench (apart from in the main room) that is truly disgusting. A really rancid sewer smell!
We were in the main room (great minimalist tracks...dopplewhipper!) when we saw the guy who was trying to sell us pills on the beach. He approached us again. He was clearly spangled and completely mental. My boyfriend told him no thanks again and my lady pal said the same. She did a cut throat and mouthed "no thanks, we're OK" but this turned him CRAZY. He then tried to grab her, her bf had to stand in the middle while the guy tried to point in her face, was screaming at her "what do you mean?? WHAT DO YOU MEAN?? You disrespect me!!" My lady pal was getting pretty upset as she was saying "I didn't mean anything bad, i just don't want anything from you, I'm sorry you've got it wrong" but he didn't understand and just kept trying to move around her bf to get to her calling her "English sl**". This put her bf and my bf in a horrible situation. In the UK, they'd probably pull the little s*** up over and then some for daring to do such a thing but in a different country, you just don't know what they've got on them or who is watching their back. The 2 guys we were with decided to bite their lips and try and keep the peace, apologising and trying to usher us away. He kept following us to each room so in the end we had to leave. The bouncers don't give a toss, incidentally.
We sat on Bora Bora for the rest of Monday morn and we met a cool Canadian couple who we chatted nonsense to for a good few hours. This was probably the only highlight of going to Space this year. Waste of time! Bora Bora was fine but the people were incredibly rude. My bf bought a round of drinks for 60 Euro and asked the bar staff for a pen and paper to swap email addresses with the Canadian couple. The bar person said "what? what?" (really aggressively) and then flicked her hand and said "no pen and paper". Cow!
Anyway, we were meant to head to Release Yourself @ Pacha on Monday but we were all waaaayyyy to poorly. This was unfortunate as I had to cancel a table I had booked for us to eat there. We decided to postpone Pacha until Wednesday instead. Monday night was a bit of a write off and we spent the night in bed from about 7pm! Tuesday was spent on the beach and a nice meal at David's (the grub there is great as always)and an early night.
Wednesday was bad for me. I woke up feeling very sick. I couldn't stand the heat. I went to Bar M to chill out there (love those water fans!) and waited for my boyfriend to do a short scuba diving trip (which he told me was AWFUL...they messed around and weren't safe). On the walk back to our apartments, I was violently sick about 5 times which wasn't good at all. We met for sunset and while the others had a meal in Mambo, I decided to sleep for a couple of hours to TRY and get better for Pacha. I was desperate to! My bf woke me up at 11pm and while I felt better for the sleep, it was his turn to feel pants. It was a tough decision but we decided to pass on Pacha. The other couple went though...
Pacha turned out to be the biggest rip off of all and although it is an amazing club, this realy did take the p*ss. We had seen the tickets for Subliminal Sessions listed at 37 Euro everywhere we looked, with a free bus. When the couple we were with went to but their tickets, they had mysteriously all been put up to 47 Euro. When they asked different places why this was the case, they were told "inflation". Whaaatt?? The free bus was also at 1.30pm. So, at midnight, they decided to get a taxi to Pacha. So, 62 Euro each before they've even started on drinks. That works out at approximately 10Euro an hour for a club. Plus they still have to get a taxi home!! It was laughable. They told us that while it was a fab night and Morillo was on top form, it was hard not to feel that Pacha were taking the p*ss out of them. fair point!
Overall I had fun in Ibiza but the rudeness and priciness of the whole place really put a dampener on our experience. I can't deny that. It's pretty unlikely that'll I go back if I'm to be brutally honest. It seems the only language the Spanish seem to understand is money. Forget the once chilled out, happy go lucky hippie side of Ibiza, it has all succumbed to big fat Euro signs.....I'll store my Ibiza memories quite happily and leave it there, I think!
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