This was part of this last weekend's Travel section of the NYTimes. Excellent PR for the island - a very well-researched and thoughtful article! 
http://travel2.nytimes.com/2006/08/06/travel/06nextstop.html
August 6, 2006
Ibiza Gets in Touch With Its Hippie-Chic Roots
By JULIA CHAPLIN
AT 3 a.m. a battle was under way on the dance floor at Aura, a small open-air nightclub on the Spanish party isle of Ibiza. It wasn’t a rap competition or a dance-off, but rather a kind of one-upmanship, where the person who returned from the most exotic, far-flung destination wins.
“I just got back from the Congo,” said a Briton, who had quit his job at Morgan Stanley a few years ago and was now grooving to house music in flip-flops and a salt-and-pepper ponytail.
“Yeah,” countered a guy next to him in a djellaba and sunglasses. “I was in Southern Turkey for the eclipse. We had to ride camels to get there.”
Then a woman, nondescript except for the large tribal-looking medallion around her neck, opened her hand to reveal a few purple-tinted marijuana buds. “It’s from Zimbabwe,” she said, as the others conceded defeat. “Wanna smoke some?”
The scene, which took place in the relatively undeveloped northern area of Ibiza, unofficially known as “the hippie part,” felt like something from 1972 or thereabouts. And for many people at the small gathering last June, that was exactly the point. Ibiza, about 50 miles from the Spanish mainland, has long attracted wealthy eccentrics like members of the band Pink Floyd and Roman Polanski, who still owns a villa there. But the island fell out of favor during the 1980’s and 90’s as a 24-hour party scene with techno-blaring mega-clubs and high-rise hotel package tours took over, earning it the nickname “Gomorrah by the Sea.”
But now, a new breed of visitors is trekking to Ibiza not to rave, but to resurrect a bohemian heyday when foreign-accented hippies lived in old farmhouses known as fincas, lazed under the sun and danced the night away barefoot at full-moon parties.
Jade Jagger, the daughter of Mick Jagger, keeps an 18th-century finca in the quiet village of Sant Joan, and counts Kate Moss and the designer Matthew Williamson as frequent guests. Carine Roitfeld, the editor of French Vogue; Jean Paul Gaultier;Bono; and Phoebe Philo are often seen behind dark sunglasses, perusing the secondhand shops in the labyrinthine streets of Eivissa and the famed hippie market in Sant Carles.
Ibiza, it seems, is returning to its hippie-chic roots. “We were able to hide behind the negative nightclub hype for a while,” said Serena Cook, who worked as Ms. Jagger’s private chef before starting her own company, Deliciously Sorted, which helps clients “sort out” villa rentals, party invitations and other high-life essentials. “But now the word is out.”
Not that fashion insiders were trying very hard to keep the island under wraps. You can see the sun-bleached Ibiza landscape behind the wispy models in recent fashion ads for Missoni, Gucci, Louis Vuitton and Roberto Cavalli. Last fall, Ms. Moss, fresh out of a rehabilitation clinic, modeled Mr. Cavalli’s collection on a weathered tree on the island’s west coast. The British fashion photographers Mert Alas and Marcus Piggott shot many of the ad campaigns on the island, giving them an excuse to hang out in the 10-bedroom Moorish villa that they bought three years ago. “We have house parties and go boating in the moonlight,” they said in an e-mail message from Ibiza. “The energy from the island is so calming.”
But just as the island’s hippie roots are being rediscovered, the conservative local government has been pushing forward a controversial plan to develop new golf courses, condominiums and highways. Many of the roads have already been torn up, causing traffic jams and vocal protests. Last summer 17,000 people took to the streets to protest, and celebrities like Mr. Polanski lent their names to a local newspaper ad denouncing “the construction madness, which threatens to turn this beautiful island into a concrete jungle.”
To many, Ibiza is a rare gem that needs to be appreciated, not developed. The island was a sleepy peasant farming community for hundreds of years before the hippies showed up en masse in the 1960’s. Draft resisters, Vietnam veterans, rock stars and dropouts came for the low cost of living, natural beauty and tolerant local population. Even today, in keeping with the island’s countercultural heritage, there are few luxury-brand chain stores.
The hippies formed a roaming international tribe back then that spent summers in Ibiza and pushed off in the cooler months for places like Goa and Katmandu and Kabul. (Many say that Goa’s trance parties grew out of Ibiza’s full-moon celebrations.) In the 1970’s, at the height of Ibiza’s hippie-chic notoriety, the designer Yves Saint Laurent based an entire collection on the island. (Anyone who wants a glimpse of Ibiza at that time should rent Orson Welles’s “F for Fake.” Filmed partly on the island in the early 70’s, it features footage of sidewalk cafes filled with sun-kissed foreigners puffing on cigarettes and wearing chunky leather belts and ascots.)
But the decadent club culture took a different turn in the 1980’s, when D.J.’s and drugs like Ecstasy began to trickle over from Europe. “The height of the wrong crowd was in the late 90’s,” said Danny Whittle, the British-born brand director for Pacha, the nightclub chain, who has been coming to Ibiza for 20 years. Planeloads of drunk and drug-addled teenagers took over, especially in the touristy west end of Sant Antoni.
Eventually, though, the tour companies moved on to places like Greece. And within the last few years, a more affluent crowd began to trickle in. “Now it’s an older and richer crowd,” said Mr. Whittle. “But they still want to be decadent and have a good time. They rent a great villa, and at 5 a.m. they head to the V.I.P. section of a nightclub.”
Photogenic boutique hotels like Cas Gasi and Atzaró have begun popping up in restored fincas, complete with oversize fireplaces, sleek swimming pools and organic gardens, charging upward of $400 a night. Compared with the beaches of Las Salinas and Playa d’en Bossa with their spring-break scene, the middle of the island became more fashionable, in villages like Santa Gertrudis de Fruitera — known for its 17th-century church, old Spanish women wrapped in black scarves and outdoor cafes that serve fresh salads. (A cheaper alternative for style-conscious visitors is to stay in one of the tepees or guesthouses that many refugees from the fashion industry rent out on their property.)
The idea that Ibiza is a giant 18-by-12-mile nightclub is a misconception. In truth, clubs like Amnesia, Space and Privilege — the latter, with a capacity of 10,000 people, is billed as the “largest club in the world” — are clustered in the south. This is where tens of thousands of clubgoers spill out into the midday sun, shielded by bug-eyed sunglasses and cowboy hats, after a long night of partying.
Among the oldest but still popular clubs is Pacha, opened in 1973 by a Spanish hippie. The kitchen of the old finca still serves as the entrance to the V.I.P. rooms, which in August are wall-to-wall with rock stars like Mick Jagger and Bono, European aristocrats and Arab princes. When the action peaks around 5 a.m., it feels like a supersized Studio 54.
But the northern part of the island, where the hippies and bohemian fashion types hide out, has rolling farmlands covered with whitewashed houses, citrus trees and a few grazing sheep. At Benirras, a beach lined with tall pines, there are still drum circles at sunset.
Narrow dirt roads lead to rocky coves and secluded beaches. My favorite was Aguas Blancas, a beach of soft sand tucked into shade-throwing cliffs. It felt like the jet set’s lost tribe, with young East Berliners sporting perfectly styled mullet-hawks, lounging on towels alongside nude and tanned sunbathers. At a nearby shack, beachgoers sat under thatched umbrellas while the Uruguayan owner, Oscar, served up panini, carrot cake and fresh lime caipirinhas. It was subversively off-the-radar, a noncommercial refuge from the built-up Mediterranean beaches.
Likewise, sunset at the Sunset Ashram, a bar overlooking the sea on the west side of the island, suggested a 1960’s Peter Sellers hippie-exploitation movie. The owner, a former male model who used to dwell in a cave, was wearing a floor-length caftan and, after a few glasses of sangria, ordered the Indian cook to come out and perform a didgeridoo solo. Around midnight, the crowd moved to Las Dalias, the mother lode of the neo-hippie scene. The sprawling “chakra garden” looked like an upscale version of Goa with red streamers and trees wrapped in pink fabric. A few hundred people had gathered on colorful floor cushions, sipping chai tea and an anise liqueur, as flute players and bongo drummers performed a hypnotic tune.
It was so over the top and hokey that it was somehow cool. After all, where else can stylists, fashion designers and celebrities get in touch with their inner hippie, with a sort of unironic naïveté? Vintage Ibiza, it turns out, is still alive and well.
VISITOR INFORMATION
WHERE TO STAY
Skip the sterile concrete high-rise hotels and check into a boutique finca, a converted farmhouse in the middle of the island.
Hidden among olive groves and cherry orchards, Cas Gasi, Cami Vell a Sant Mateu s/n, (34-971) 197 700, www.casgasi.com, has the relaxed feeling of being at home, although it has two swimming pools and 12 rooms. Doubles start at 228 euros, about $295 at $1.29 to the euro.
On the flashier side is the full-service Atzaró, Carretera San Juan Km. 15, (34-971) 338 838, www.atzaro.com, with a holistic spa, a gym and a patio restaurant. Doubles start at 240 euros.
Those with deep pockets and an entourage should rent a villa; prices average about 15,000 euros a week for a luxury five-bedroom villa with pool. Try Owners Direct, www.ownersdirect.co.uk/Balearic-Islands.htm, or Deliciously Sorted, (34-971) 197 867, www.deliciouslysortedibiza.com, a full-service concierge company with tasteful listings Rich hippies who are feeling poor can rent one of the three vine-covered guesthouses on the grounds of the stylish finca belonging to Alessandra Castelbarco, (34- 685) 364 493 or (34- 971) 344 537, an Italian marquesa. Doubles start at around 100 euros.
WHERE TO EAT
Ibiza has world-class restaurants made all the tastier by the abundance of local produce. For a lazy afternoon lunch, Casi Todo Cafe, Santa Gertrudis, (34-971) 197 523, serves fresh salads and seafood at outdoor tables. Lunch for two with coffee is about 35 euros.
For a late dinner, between 11 p.m. and 2 a.m., before a night of partying, Trattoria Del Sole, Carretera San Jose Km. 7.5, (34-971) 800 006, an Italian restaurant with chandeliers and long wooden tables, specializes in local seafood with Mediterranean flair such as fish stew with crostini and fresh prawns. Dinner for two with wine is about 100 euros.
Las Dos Lunas, Carretera Eivissa-Sant Antoni Km 5.4, (34-971) 198 102, has a tranquil dining patio overgrown with bougainvillea that attracts the wealthy fashion crowd and aging rock stars. Dinner for two with wine is 130 euros.
Origins, in the center of Santa Gertrudis (34-971) 197 228, has a rich selection of beaded gypsy belts from Afghanistan and Turkish caftans. But the Valhalla of style is the hippie market, held on Saturdays under the big, brightly colored caravan tents at Las Dalias. You can troll for baubles imported from all corners of the hippie trail including Mali, Borneo and Bali.
NIGHT LIFE
The south end of the island is teaming with all-night megaclubs, but Pacha, Avenida 8 d’Agost, Eivissa, (34-971) 313 600, www.pacha.com, which opened in 1973 in an old farmhouse, feels less touristy and more classically decadent.
DC 10, Carretera de Salinas Km. 1, in an old finca at the end of a grass airplane runway, is known for its hard-core vibe. After a weekend bender, revelers show up on Monday morning for a “minimal tech house” party promoted by the Italian D.J. collective Circo Loco.
Wednesday and Friday nights are when the hippies and curiosity seekers head to Las Dalias, Carretera de San Carlos Km. 12, in Santa Eulària, (34-971) 335 156, www.lasdalias.com, for a bohemian party with flute players, Indian floor cushions and hookah pipes.
A resurgent neo-hippie milieu is flourishing on Ibiza in clubs like Las Dalias.
Boutique hotels like Atzaró in Santa Gertrudis cater to wealthy eccentrics and bohemians in central and northern Ibiza.
Atzaró, a boutique hotel, is in a restored finca, or farmhouse.
http://travel2.nytimes.com/2006/08/06/travel/06nextstop.html
August 6, 2006
Ibiza Gets in Touch With Its Hippie-Chic Roots
By JULIA CHAPLIN
AT 3 a.m. a battle was under way on the dance floor at Aura, a small open-air nightclub on the Spanish party isle of Ibiza. It wasn’t a rap competition or a dance-off, but rather a kind of one-upmanship, where the person who returned from the most exotic, far-flung destination wins.
“I just got back from the Congo,” said a Briton, who had quit his job at Morgan Stanley a few years ago and was now grooving to house music in flip-flops and a salt-and-pepper ponytail.
“Yeah,” countered a guy next to him in a djellaba and sunglasses. “I was in Southern Turkey for the eclipse. We had to ride camels to get there.”
Then a woman, nondescript except for the large tribal-looking medallion around her neck, opened her hand to reveal a few purple-tinted marijuana buds. “It’s from Zimbabwe,” she said, as the others conceded defeat. “Wanna smoke some?”
The scene, which took place in the relatively undeveloped northern area of Ibiza, unofficially known as “the hippie part,” felt like something from 1972 or thereabouts. And for many people at the small gathering last June, that was exactly the point. Ibiza, about 50 miles from the Spanish mainland, has long attracted wealthy eccentrics like members of the band Pink Floyd and Roman Polanski, who still owns a villa there. But the island fell out of favor during the 1980’s and 90’s as a 24-hour party scene with techno-blaring mega-clubs and high-rise hotel package tours took over, earning it the nickname “Gomorrah by the Sea.”
But now, a new breed of visitors is trekking to Ibiza not to rave, but to resurrect a bohemian heyday when foreign-accented hippies lived in old farmhouses known as fincas, lazed under the sun and danced the night away barefoot at full-moon parties.
Jade Jagger, the daughter of Mick Jagger, keeps an 18th-century finca in the quiet village of Sant Joan, and counts Kate Moss and the designer Matthew Williamson as frequent guests. Carine Roitfeld, the editor of French Vogue; Jean Paul Gaultier;Bono; and Phoebe Philo are often seen behind dark sunglasses, perusing the secondhand shops in the labyrinthine streets of Eivissa and the famed hippie market in Sant Carles.
Ibiza, it seems, is returning to its hippie-chic roots. “We were able to hide behind the negative nightclub hype for a while,” said Serena Cook, who worked as Ms. Jagger’s private chef before starting her own company, Deliciously Sorted, which helps clients “sort out” villa rentals, party invitations and other high-life essentials. “But now the word is out.”
Not that fashion insiders were trying very hard to keep the island under wraps. You can see the sun-bleached Ibiza landscape behind the wispy models in recent fashion ads for Missoni, Gucci, Louis Vuitton and Roberto Cavalli. Last fall, Ms. Moss, fresh out of a rehabilitation clinic, modeled Mr. Cavalli’s collection on a weathered tree on the island’s west coast. The British fashion photographers Mert Alas and Marcus Piggott shot many of the ad campaigns on the island, giving them an excuse to hang out in the 10-bedroom Moorish villa that they bought three years ago. “We have house parties and go boating in the moonlight,” they said in an e-mail message from Ibiza. “The energy from the island is so calming.”
But just as the island’s hippie roots are being rediscovered, the conservative local government has been pushing forward a controversial plan to develop new golf courses, condominiums and highways. Many of the roads have already been torn up, causing traffic jams and vocal protests. Last summer 17,000 people took to the streets to protest, and celebrities like Mr. Polanski lent their names to a local newspaper ad denouncing “the construction madness, which threatens to turn this beautiful island into a concrete jungle.”
To many, Ibiza is a rare gem that needs to be appreciated, not developed. The island was a sleepy peasant farming community for hundreds of years before the hippies showed up en masse in the 1960’s. Draft resisters, Vietnam veterans, rock stars and dropouts came for the low cost of living, natural beauty and tolerant local population. Even today, in keeping with the island’s countercultural heritage, there are few luxury-brand chain stores.
The hippies formed a roaming international tribe back then that spent summers in Ibiza and pushed off in the cooler months for places like Goa and Katmandu and Kabul. (Many say that Goa’s trance parties grew out of Ibiza’s full-moon celebrations.) In the 1970’s, at the height of Ibiza’s hippie-chic notoriety, the designer Yves Saint Laurent based an entire collection on the island. (Anyone who wants a glimpse of Ibiza at that time should rent Orson Welles’s “F for Fake.” Filmed partly on the island in the early 70’s, it features footage of sidewalk cafes filled with sun-kissed foreigners puffing on cigarettes and wearing chunky leather belts and ascots.)
But the decadent club culture took a different turn in the 1980’s, when D.J.’s and drugs like Ecstasy began to trickle over from Europe. “The height of the wrong crowd was in the late 90’s,” said Danny Whittle, the British-born brand director for Pacha, the nightclub chain, who has been coming to Ibiza for 20 years. Planeloads of drunk and drug-addled teenagers took over, especially in the touristy west end of Sant Antoni.
Eventually, though, the tour companies moved on to places like Greece. And within the last few years, a more affluent crowd began to trickle in. “Now it’s an older and richer crowd,” said Mr. Whittle. “But they still want to be decadent and have a good time. They rent a great villa, and at 5 a.m. they head to the V.I.P. section of a nightclub.”
Photogenic boutique hotels like Cas Gasi and Atzaró have begun popping up in restored fincas, complete with oversize fireplaces, sleek swimming pools and organic gardens, charging upward of $400 a night. Compared with the beaches of Las Salinas and Playa d’en Bossa with their spring-break scene, the middle of the island became more fashionable, in villages like Santa Gertrudis de Fruitera — known for its 17th-century church, old Spanish women wrapped in black scarves and outdoor cafes that serve fresh salads. (A cheaper alternative for style-conscious visitors is to stay in one of the tepees or guesthouses that many refugees from the fashion industry rent out on their property.)
The idea that Ibiza is a giant 18-by-12-mile nightclub is a misconception. In truth, clubs like Amnesia, Space and Privilege — the latter, with a capacity of 10,000 people, is billed as the “largest club in the world” — are clustered in the south. This is where tens of thousands of clubgoers spill out into the midday sun, shielded by bug-eyed sunglasses and cowboy hats, after a long night of partying.
Among the oldest but still popular clubs is Pacha, opened in 1973 by a Spanish hippie. The kitchen of the old finca still serves as the entrance to the V.I.P. rooms, which in August are wall-to-wall with rock stars like Mick Jagger and Bono, European aristocrats and Arab princes. When the action peaks around 5 a.m., it feels like a supersized Studio 54.
But the northern part of the island, where the hippies and bohemian fashion types hide out, has rolling farmlands covered with whitewashed houses, citrus trees and a few grazing sheep. At Benirras, a beach lined with tall pines, there are still drum circles at sunset.
Narrow dirt roads lead to rocky coves and secluded beaches. My favorite was Aguas Blancas, a beach of soft sand tucked into shade-throwing cliffs. It felt like the jet set’s lost tribe, with young East Berliners sporting perfectly styled mullet-hawks, lounging on towels alongside nude and tanned sunbathers. At a nearby shack, beachgoers sat under thatched umbrellas while the Uruguayan owner, Oscar, served up panini, carrot cake and fresh lime caipirinhas. It was subversively off-the-radar, a noncommercial refuge from the built-up Mediterranean beaches.
Likewise, sunset at the Sunset Ashram, a bar overlooking the sea on the west side of the island, suggested a 1960’s Peter Sellers hippie-exploitation movie. The owner, a former male model who used to dwell in a cave, was wearing a floor-length caftan and, after a few glasses of sangria, ordered the Indian cook to come out and perform a didgeridoo solo. Around midnight, the crowd moved to Las Dalias, the mother lode of the neo-hippie scene. The sprawling “chakra garden” looked like an upscale version of Goa with red streamers and trees wrapped in pink fabric. A few hundred people had gathered on colorful floor cushions, sipping chai tea and an anise liqueur, as flute players and bongo drummers performed a hypnotic tune.
It was so over the top and hokey that it was somehow cool. After all, where else can stylists, fashion designers and celebrities get in touch with their inner hippie, with a sort of unironic naïveté? Vintage Ibiza, it turns out, is still alive and well.
VISITOR INFORMATION
WHERE TO STAY
Skip the sterile concrete high-rise hotels and check into a boutique finca, a converted farmhouse in the middle of the island.
Hidden among olive groves and cherry orchards, Cas Gasi, Cami Vell a Sant Mateu s/n, (34-971) 197 700, www.casgasi.com, has the relaxed feeling of being at home, although it has two swimming pools and 12 rooms. Doubles start at 228 euros, about $295 at $1.29 to the euro.
On the flashier side is the full-service Atzaró, Carretera San Juan Km. 15, (34-971) 338 838, www.atzaro.com, with a holistic spa, a gym and a patio restaurant. Doubles start at 240 euros.
Those with deep pockets and an entourage should rent a villa; prices average about 15,000 euros a week for a luxury five-bedroom villa with pool. Try Owners Direct, www.ownersdirect.co.uk/Balearic-Islands.htm, or Deliciously Sorted, (34-971) 197 867, www.deliciouslysortedibiza.com, a full-service concierge company with tasteful listings Rich hippies who are feeling poor can rent one of the three vine-covered guesthouses on the grounds of the stylish finca belonging to Alessandra Castelbarco, (34- 685) 364 493 or (34- 971) 344 537, an Italian marquesa. Doubles start at around 100 euros.
WHERE TO EAT
Ibiza has world-class restaurants made all the tastier by the abundance of local produce. For a lazy afternoon lunch, Casi Todo Cafe, Santa Gertrudis, (34-971) 197 523, serves fresh salads and seafood at outdoor tables. Lunch for two with coffee is about 35 euros.
For a late dinner, between 11 p.m. and 2 a.m., before a night of partying, Trattoria Del Sole, Carretera San Jose Km. 7.5, (34-971) 800 006, an Italian restaurant with chandeliers and long wooden tables, specializes in local seafood with Mediterranean flair such as fish stew with crostini and fresh prawns. Dinner for two with wine is about 100 euros.
Las Dos Lunas, Carretera Eivissa-Sant Antoni Km 5.4, (34-971) 198 102, has a tranquil dining patio overgrown with bougainvillea that attracts the wealthy fashion crowd and aging rock stars. Dinner for two with wine is 130 euros.
Origins, in the center of Santa Gertrudis (34-971) 197 228, has a rich selection of beaded gypsy belts from Afghanistan and Turkish caftans. But the Valhalla of style is the hippie market, held on Saturdays under the big, brightly colored caravan tents at Las Dalias. You can troll for baubles imported from all corners of the hippie trail including Mali, Borneo and Bali.
NIGHT LIFE
The south end of the island is teaming with all-night megaclubs, but Pacha, Avenida 8 d’Agost, Eivissa, (34-971) 313 600, www.pacha.com, which opened in 1973 in an old farmhouse, feels less touristy and more classically decadent.
DC 10, Carretera de Salinas Km. 1, in an old finca at the end of a grass airplane runway, is known for its hard-core vibe. After a weekend bender, revelers show up on Monday morning for a “minimal tech house” party promoted by the Italian D.J. collective Circo Loco.
Wednesday and Friday nights are when the hippies and curiosity seekers head to Las Dalias, Carretera de San Carlos Km. 12, in Santa Eulària, (34-971) 335 156, www.lasdalias.com, for a bohemian party with flute players, Indian floor cushions and hookah pipes.
A resurgent neo-hippie milieu is flourishing on Ibiza in clubs like Las Dalias.
Boutique hotels like Atzaró in Santa Gertrudis cater to wealthy eccentrics and bohemians in central and northern Ibiza.
Atzaró, a boutique hotel, is in a restored finca, or farmhouse.
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