Dates you were there: Saturday 28th July - Saturday 4th August... first time I've been peak season again and would prefer not too again, but this was at the only possible date for the group of our size.
Where you stayed: Villa O - a lovely villa just in the hills of San Antonio on the road to Cala Salada. Very old fashioned and slightly falling apart in places, but nice to be remote enough to be away from the madness but 5 minutes away from the centre. Beautiful view from the main balcony.
Club nights visited: Rumours at Destino, Solomun+1 at Pacha, Circoloco at DC10, Pyramid at Amnesia, Resistance at Privilege and Cocoon at Pacha.
Best night: Cocoon - without question (and I'm honestly not being biased
) it truly was far and beyond any other event. We arrived around 1AM as we have discount list before 01:30 to see DJ Koze starting his set. He started off a bit slower but picked things up. The last 30 minutes of his set in particular I thought was excellent where he played tracks like his summer hit 'pick up'. Sven came on and played a superb set - as I mentioned in my other review many of the other big tracks of the summer that I heard during Week 2, but in a different order and with enough other tracks to make this set as great as it was. The B2B between the two of them again was brilliant, some incredible music played. A real shame that I didn't bump into any other spotlighters this night - I really did try to keep an eye out but by 3AM I was very much worse for wear!
Solomun+1 with Dixon on Sunday was also excellent. We arrived just before Dixon started playing and I thought his warm up set was outstanding. Solomun followed up with another good set, again not as good as I've seen in the past but still solid. The B2B was excellent, although by that time in the night we were very much worse for wear and decided to leave just after 7AM. Overall musically a great night and despite it being very busy, there was room to move.
Pyramid on the Monday was markedly improved from when we attending the opening party. The booth changed positions during the course of the night - Brame & Hamo and Stephan Bodzin being located by the back bar (a great shout as it did make the room feel busier than it probably was) and then things moved across to the usual booth for Maceo. Much prefer this position, it doesn't feel right being at Amnesia facing in the other direction. Stephan Bodzin played a good set - I've heard better 'live' sets from people like Saytek or KiNK but still a nice set. Maceo Plex for me was far and beyond anyone else and really plays that room well - I've only ever seen Sven Väth control the terrace on that level before so really enjoyed that one.
Resistance on Tuesday I really enjoyed personally. Although I personally had zero interest in watching anyone in the main room, you could feel a special atmosphere building due to it being Carl's birthday. It was also my first ever visit to Privilege and to see it at full capacity, fully rocking like that was great. I really love the venue; it has some real character to it and monster soundsystems in both rooms. We personally arrived around 01:30 so missing the first hour of Sasha & Digweeds set so it took us a while to get into it, but I thought for the last 90 minutes in particular that they were outstanding. A lot tougher than I expected, but a brilliant flow and a proper journey set. We then stayed on and watched Eats Everything who was very average as expected. A lot of predictable build up and drops. We stepped into the main room for 20 minutes to catch the tail end of Carl Cox who sounded good, but by that point we decided to call the night to a close. The one negative (but which was to be expected by how busy the venue was), the queue for the taxi after was long and very poorly organized.
Worst night: Circoloco - we arrived to watch the last 30 minutes of Lee Burridge set which was good. Very fitting for the garden IMO. As soon as Tanzmann and Squillace took over things took a turn for the worse - pure monotonous tech house at its worse, to the point that we actually went into the empty main room just to get away from it all. Virgil Abloh then took over and played one of the very worst sets I've ever seen live - zero flow, awful track selection. Again we had to leave the room as things were that bad. It was at this point that we decided to leave and head to Circoloco. Bitterly disappointed. I have adored Circoloco in the past and have had some amazing nights there, but the past two occasions have really left me with a sour taste in my mouth - too busy as soon as the garden shuts and poor sound quality inside are two huge negatives.
Best bar: Flahertys Irish Bar - the only bar we really visited to get away from the madness on our last night, but there was an acoustic singer in there and we all really enjoyed it. Reasonably priced drinks and a decent enough crowd.
Best place to eat: Unfortunately on this trip there wasn't much eating out as we had a villa and had mainly bbq's - but the two places worth mentioning were Sunset Ashram for lunch which was superb as always (even if very expensive) and Tapas in San Antonio, somewhere I visit everytime and have never been disappointed.
Money spent: (in total for two): Around 1300 all said and done which wasn't too bad considering how long we were there.
Biggest regret: Not getting a car and exploring/overdoing it with the consecutive nights out. Although those nights felt like a great idea at the time, I really did feel the consequences for the subsequent two days which wasn't a nice way to end my trip.
Going back?: Honestly, as things stand I feel like I need a break away from the island. NINE visits in the last four years and the mental toll that takes on you coming back does get tougher and tougher each time, especially as you get older as cliched as that sounds. I think a minimum of a year away really would make a return in 2020 incredible.
Top tip: (s) ALWAYS get a car and ALWAYS explore the island - I promise you will come home feeling like some time has been wasted if you don't. I would also concur that no more than two consecutive events or 3 in a week should be undertaken unless you want to feel severe consequences after. Four huge nights on the bounce seemed like a great idea until I remembered the last time I did that I was 21 not 25
