I don't know why my b/f had never been to Ibiza, seeing as he's been into dance music since back in the day, but I didn't properly start getting into dance until about 10 years ago. Was more urban for a long time, and started getting properly into house, electrohouse and trance about 3 years ago.
Anyway, we're probably a bit older than most of you Pretty Young Things, so we wanted a mix of clubbing and tranquility. (I'm 43, b/f is 38,) We'd been advised by some seasoned veterans to avoid San An at all costs and to stay in Ibiza town. However, there aren't any beaches actually in the town, so b/f decided we should go to Santa Eulalia (or Santa Euchelele as I call it! ;-) )
Did my own research and discovered that it was a family resort and not at all convenient for any kind of high living or clubbing. We looked into PdB (too noisy) and Figueretas (just didn't feel quite right), and he wanted us to stay up the north of the island at Portinatx for a few days as well. For some reason he has this obsession with staying in multiple locations, where I'm like a little blackbird in my nest - I just want to get cosy and comfie and stay where I am - I hate shifting about.
So, after much research and about 100 arguments, I finally found Talamanca, and he booked us for a couple of nights out west at Cala Tarida. Talamanca couldn't have been more perfect for us - got a bit of its own night life, beach not too rammed and walking distance to IT. B/f doesn't do much drinking etc, so we hired a car a few times, and it didn't take long at all to get Amnesia or San An or PdB.
First club night was Cream at Amnesia. Like a couple of complete numpties we decided to go without buying tickets in advance (last minute decision). DON'T EVER DO THIS. It cost us E55 each to get in, which meant we didn't have much cash left over for drinks and there's no cash machine in there that I found. I then misheard the girl at the bar thinking that she'd said the drinks were E20 each at which point I fell into a deep pit of despair as we only had about E70 between us to keep going for 6 hours? Worse than that, it was obvious it was a very "mood enhanced" crowd, which pissed me off even more as we hadn't found anything at that point. To get an idea of how I was feeling see Stonebridge Mix of Sia - lol. Anyway, music was pretty good and b/f enjoyed himself. Staff were pretty horrible - disdainful.
Next trip out was to Eden for Wonderland - wanted to see Prydz and Tongy. Again, hadn't found any little fellas, so was relieved in a way to find that it seemed to be more of a drinking crowd. Nearly got thrown out cos I had a bit of a snooze in a sofa on b/f's shoulder for about 45 minutes - most of EP's set - oh well. Tiredness catching up. Overall good night, but not in a hurry to return. Club seems to be run by Brits, and not dissimilar to Ministry in London.
Things got considerably better when we went to WLS. Had found some stuff by then and absolutely loved the club itself. We went pretty mad to James Zabiela's set - b/f knows him from Southampton. Loved that it had so many different rooms. Bit disappointed that there wasn't any truly outdoors terrace, but we had realised that Ibiza has obviously been cracking down on sound pollution etc anyways. Loved the upstairs terrace and the pod thingies. Love the atmosphere in PdB at night and all the little bars and so on.
Next outing was the following Thursday to Be@Space with Wally Lopez and Danny Tenaglia. Didn't enjoy this as much as WLS, but still had an overall good night. Only 2 rooms open and a lot emptier, even though it was an opening night, which surprised us.
At that point, I felt my holiday was over because b/f didn't want to do any more clubbing nights, even though we still had more than one week to go! We'd planned to go to Meganite at Privilege (more for himself than me - he's the techno freak!), but b/f was too tired to cope. Honestly - these youngsters ...
On the weekend we moved over to Cala Tarida in the west, and did the sunset strip a couple of times. I noticed another poster felt disappointed by it being a tourist trap and overly commercialised, but I think that's true everywhere these days.
I loved it, although Cafe Del Mar was pretty crap and only for the stamp collection. Cafe Mambo much better and at least we could get some dinner there. We then bumped into our new found friend (Roberto - we met him in Space), and had cocktails at the bar where he worked further up the road from the sunset strip. When he knocked off, he took us to this bizarre supermarket/milk bar kind of thing in the middle of town where you could buy a bottle of San Miguel at supermarket price and sit at their tables outside and drink it. He knew some "looky looky" guys and got some stuff. Weirdest stuff I've ever had - even managed to go to sleep on it! Anyway, we went to Bar M after that, which was a bit rubbish really.
The following day we went to Cala Comte - has to be seen to be believed. Water almost as clear as it is on the islands off Queensland. Loved it. Noticed some ticket touts wandering around handing out tickets for Amnesia Foam Party. Wonder why they didn't approach two old farts like us? Anyway, we managed to get a couple of tickets despite not being PYTs! In the evening, we went down to Cala d'Horte for dinner overlooking Es Vedra. Kinda spooky - it's supposed to have mystical powers and it was windy and a bit like something out of the beginning of an Amityville film.
After dinner we headed for Amnesia. B/f suggested we stop off at KM5 when we went past, but I thought we needed to press on. Wish we'd stopped! Amnesia was empty, and they were playing really cheesy house and pop in the main room. In the end it became a sort of challenge to stay until the foam came out. But we had to get up earlyish the following day, so by 4:30am we decided to call it a day because we concluded that the foam wouldn't happen until about five minutes to 6, and we just couldn't stay out that late.
On the Monday we went to Formentera. Whilst this is a lovely island in it's own right, and we even found a beach with fairly fierce surf, which I wasn't expecting in the med, I was already pining for Ibiza. One of the other posters said that once you've been to Ibiza 3 or 4 times you struggle to hold back the tears when you leave. Well, I was already crying and we were only 10 miles away!
After 3 days in Formentera, we'd planned to go straight to the airport and go home. However, I managed to persuade b/f to have one last night in Ibiza - I just couldn't leave without doing that. We had one last night where I was determined to go to Pacha, but we tried to get cheap/free tickets and failed. If you hang around the bar strip in IT long enough, you can sometimes get bargains into the clubs (so we're reliably told by some expats), and we'd even heard that on some nights they were bussing people up to Privilege and Amnesia free. But not for Pacha - it was after all David Guetta's F*** me I'm famous night, and they just won't budge on the price. Lesson learnt - there are deals to be done on the less popular nights, but probably not on the big nights.
What do I think of Ibiza after my first time there? Gorgeous, stunning and love the lifestyle. Everything I've been looking for in a holiday for a long time (try finding that amount of bars/restaurants/clubs/colour etc in Australia - you'll be lucky!) Clubbing? OK - it wasn't quite as free and easy as we'd expected, but once I got over that, I loved it. Food - surprisingly unhealthy and greasy - had expected it to be more like Algarvian food - fresh, hearty and tasty. But you can't have everything.
I know this has ended up being a bit of a long rambling essay, but remember how I said at the beginning that the b/f wanted to stay up at Portinatx? Well, we went up there one night and it was alive! Alive with mozzies that had a great time biting us, and alive with tacky bingo and karaoke bars. Avoid at all costs if you have any taste whatsoever.
We should be booking today for our next adventure in Ibiza in about a month - WOO HOO!. You'll be pleased to know that I've managed to gain some leverage with the b/f, so we should be doing a lot more clubbing. This time should be easier now that we know where everything is and what we want to do - doing some old favourites (Zabiela at WLS) and some new stuff too - Carl Cox, Zoo Project, Privilege. Also looking to do some of the smaller, less expensive bars/clubs and even DC10 if the bally place can avoid being shut down by the authorities long enough!
Can't wait!! 8)
LTTP
Anyway, we're probably a bit older than most of you Pretty Young Things, so we wanted a mix of clubbing and tranquility. (I'm 43, b/f is 38,) We'd been advised by some seasoned veterans to avoid San An at all costs and to stay in Ibiza town. However, there aren't any beaches actually in the town, so b/f decided we should go to Santa Eulalia (or Santa Euchelele as I call it! ;-) )
Did my own research and discovered that it was a family resort and not at all convenient for any kind of high living or clubbing. We looked into PdB (too noisy) and Figueretas (just didn't feel quite right), and he wanted us to stay up the north of the island at Portinatx for a few days as well. For some reason he has this obsession with staying in multiple locations, where I'm like a little blackbird in my nest - I just want to get cosy and comfie and stay where I am - I hate shifting about.
So, after much research and about 100 arguments, I finally found Talamanca, and he booked us for a couple of nights out west at Cala Tarida. Talamanca couldn't have been more perfect for us - got a bit of its own night life, beach not too rammed and walking distance to IT. B/f doesn't do much drinking etc, so we hired a car a few times, and it didn't take long at all to get Amnesia or San An or PdB.
First club night was Cream at Amnesia. Like a couple of complete numpties we decided to go without buying tickets in advance (last minute decision). DON'T EVER DO THIS. It cost us E55 each to get in, which meant we didn't have much cash left over for drinks and there's no cash machine in there that I found. I then misheard the girl at the bar thinking that she'd said the drinks were E20 each at which point I fell into a deep pit of despair as we only had about E70 between us to keep going for 6 hours? Worse than that, it was obvious it was a very "mood enhanced" crowd, which pissed me off even more as we hadn't found anything at that point. To get an idea of how I was feeling see Stonebridge Mix of Sia - lol. Anyway, music was pretty good and b/f enjoyed himself. Staff were pretty horrible - disdainful.
Next trip out was to Eden for Wonderland - wanted to see Prydz and Tongy. Again, hadn't found any little fellas, so was relieved in a way to find that it seemed to be more of a drinking crowd. Nearly got thrown out cos I had a bit of a snooze in a sofa on b/f's shoulder for about 45 minutes - most of EP's set - oh well. Tiredness catching up. Overall good night, but not in a hurry to return. Club seems to be run by Brits, and not dissimilar to Ministry in London.
Things got considerably better when we went to WLS. Had found some stuff by then and absolutely loved the club itself. We went pretty mad to James Zabiela's set - b/f knows him from Southampton. Loved that it had so many different rooms. Bit disappointed that there wasn't any truly outdoors terrace, but we had realised that Ibiza has obviously been cracking down on sound pollution etc anyways. Loved the upstairs terrace and the pod thingies. Love the atmosphere in PdB at night and all the little bars and so on.
Next outing was the following Thursday to Be@Space with Wally Lopez and Danny Tenaglia. Didn't enjoy this as much as WLS, but still had an overall good night. Only 2 rooms open and a lot emptier, even though it was an opening night, which surprised us.
At that point, I felt my holiday was over because b/f didn't want to do any more clubbing nights, even though we still had more than one week to go! We'd planned to go to Meganite at Privilege (more for himself than me - he's the techno freak!), but b/f was too tired to cope. Honestly - these youngsters ...
On the weekend we moved over to Cala Tarida in the west, and did the sunset strip a couple of times. I noticed another poster felt disappointed by it being a tourist trap and overly commercialised, but I think that's true everywhere these days.
I loved it, although Cafe Del Mar was pretty crap and only for the stamp collection. Cafe Mambo much better and at least we could get some dinner there. We then bumped into our new found friend (Roberto - we met him in Space), and had cocktails at the bar where he worked further up the road from the sunset strip. When he knocked off, he took us to this bizarre supermarket/milk bar kind of thing in the middle of town where you could buy a bottle of San Miguel at supermarket price and sit at their tables outside and drink it. He knew some "looky looky" guys and got some stuff. Weirdest stuff I've ever had - even managed to go to sleep on it! Anyway, we went to Bar M after that, which was a bit rubbish really.
The following day we went to Cala Comte - has to be seen to be believed. Water almost as clear as it is on the islands off Queensland. Loved it. Noticed some ticket touts wandering around handing out tickets for Amnesia Foam Party. Wonder why they didn't approach two old farts like us? Anyway, we managed to get a couple of tickets despite not being PYTs! In the evening, we went down to Cala d'Horte for dinner overlooking Es Vedra. Kinda spooky - it's supposed to have mystical powers and it was windy and a bit like something out of the beginning of an Amityville film.
After dinner we headed for Amnesia. B/f suggested we stop off at KM5 when we went past, but I thought we needed to press on. Wish we'd stopped! Amnesia was empty, and they were playing really cheesy house and pop in the main room. In the end it became a sort of challenge to stay until the foam came out. But we had to get up earlyish the following day, so by 4:30am we decided to call it a day because we concluded that the foam wouldn't happen until about five minutes to 6, and we just couldn't stay out that late.
On the Monday we went to Formentera. Whilst this is a lovely island in it's own right, and we even found a beach with fairly fierce surf, which I wasn't expecting in the med, I was already pining for Ibiza. One of the other posters said that once you've been to Ibiza 3 or 4 times you struggle to hold back the tears when you leave. Well, I was already crying and we were only 10 miles away!
After 3 days in Formentera, we'd planned to go straight to the airport and go home. However, I managed to persuade b/f to have one last night in Ibiza - I just couldn't leave without doing that. We had one last night where I was determined to go to Pacha, but we tried to get cheap/free tickets and failed. If you hang around the bar strip in IT long enough, you can sometimes get bargains into the clubs (so we're reliably told by some expats), and we'd even heard that on some nights they were bussing people up to Privilege and Amnesia free. But not for Pacha - it was after all David Guetta's F*** me I'm famous night, and they just won't budge on the price. Lesson learnt - there are deals to be done on the less popular nights, but probably not on the big nights.
What do I think of Ibiza after my first time there? Gorgeous, stunning and love the lifestyle. Everything I've been looking for in a holiday for a long time (try finding that amount of bars/restaurants/clubs/colour etc in Australia - you'll be lucky!) Clubbing? OK - it wasn't quite as free and easy as we'd expected, but once I got over that, I loved it. Food - surprisingly unhealthy and greasy - had expected it to be more like Algarvian food - fresh, hearty and tasty. But you can't have everything.
I know this has ended up being a bit of a long rambling essay, but remember how I said at the beginning that the b/f wanted to stay up at Portinatx? Well, we went up there one night and it was alive! Alive with mozzies that had a great time biting us, and alive with tacky bingo and karaoke bars. Avoid at all costs if you have any taste whatsoever.
We should be booking today for our next adventure in Ibiza in about a month - WOO HOO!. You'll be pleased to know that I've managed to gain some leverage with the b/f, so we should be doing a lot more clubbing. This time should be easier now that we know where everything is and what we want to do - doing some old favourites (Zabiela at WLS) and some new stuff too - Carl Cox, Zoo Project, Privilege. Also looking to do some of the smaller, less expensive bars/clubs and even DC10 if the bally place can avoid being shut down by the authorities long enough!
Can't wait!! 8)
LTTP
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