Dates you were there:
Friday 6th September – Saturday 14th September (Fifth visit to the island, having been in 2006, 2007, 2014 and 2022)
Where you stayed:
Had a fun night at Pikes in 2022 so for this trip we decided to stay there for the first three nights, Friday to Monday (Garden suite, room 9, the one with the picture of the cat with the monocle on the wall!) Nice room, comfy bed (though the outdoor bathtub was out the front, so rather public!) Was great being able to just pop back to the room and step out right back into the party.
Then after the debauchery of Pikes, more relaxing accommodation - five nights at Agroturismo Can Toni Xumeu (five minutes from Cala Llonga). Beautiful and peaceful agroturismo with only five rooms on a spacious site with a lovely pool. Great food and friendly staff. Lovely room with a terrace. Couldn’t recommend more highly! 20-minute taxi to Ibiza Town.
Club nights visited:
Had a chilled one on our first night, the Friday; went for dinner at Monkey, walked along the sunset strip (and had a quick peep at the West End out of curiosity – very quiet) and then headed to Ibiza Town for drinks. When we returned to Pikes, at around 1am, the queue outside (the night being Melon Bomb) was enormous, stretching right around the corner! Had a dance for 30 mins (and even heard Spice Girls being played in Freddies) before bed.
Trip (get-traum), Club Chinois (Saturday 7th)
After dinner at Pikes, we had a little dance in Plaza Mayor to Phat Phil Cooper. Yasmin was playing in Freddies (a reduced line-up due to the tragic death of Danielle Moore; Crazy P Soundsystem were due to play). We heard a few tracks, seemed like a fun, eclectic set; house, disco, funk. Freddies was rammed, to the extent that it was uncomfortable to be in there for a decent length of time (and as another poster pointed out, the over-use of the strobe added to this).
Our plan for this night, though, was to see Felix Da Housecat’s set at Flower Power, Pacha, and then walk over to Chinois to see Traumer. We got to Pacha at around 1:30am and the dance floor was already packed like sardines. Just not an enjoyable experience. So we only stayed for 30 minutes and then headed to Chinois.
At Chinois we caught 20 mins or so of D'Julz’s set; what I heard was rather disappointing – dull tech-house. Thankfully things picked up (no doubt helped by the beans kicking in!) from 3am onwards when Traumer and Enzo Siragusa came on and played B2B. Really enjoyed this. It’s a nice venue, good sound and visuals, and the crowd was very international. It was busy but there was room to dance.
Sunday Best at Pikes (Sunday 8th)
Had a nice, chilled recovery afternoon by the Pikes pool with a cocktail or two, listening to tunes by For Mankind. In the evening had a great dinner and sunset at The View, before returning to Pikes for a dance. Saoirse played a nice house set – Freddies was busy, but not quite the sardine fest that it was on Saturday. Nevertheless, we had more fun dancing to Saoirse’s set in the bar room next to Freddies (next to the ball-pit room).
On all three weekend Pikes nights it was a good crowd, older, though mainly British, so lacking a bit of diversity in that respect.
HE.SHE.THEY, Amnesia (Tuesday 10th)
We were feeling a bit tired having spent a lovely day on Formentera, but made it along. In the main room for HE.SHE.THEY, Jennifer Cardini rolled out good techno to a fun crowd – really enjoyed it, whilst Paul Woolford played B2B with Melé on the terrace for Claptone’s Masquerade. After Cardini, Marcel Dettman was next up in the main room. He played a strong set, however about half way through, the already sparse crowd unfortunately thinned out further as people went next door to see Claptone, until Dettman (through no fault of his own) was playing to a nearly empty room. Was a shame as Dettman was who I’d come to see. I heard that in peak season HE.SHE.THEY was busier, naturally, but at this late season stage it perhaps suffered from the fact that it's an unlikely bedfellow with Masquerade...
Towards the end of the night, I went next door to see some of Claptone – not my usual thing but better than I thought it would be. Fun production touches, dancers etc, and lots of room to dance.
Sven Vath, Las Dalias/Akasha (Thursday 12th)
We arrived about 9:30pm and particularly enjoyed the last hour and a half of the outdoor session. Good sound system in Akasha and (I don’t know if this is a regular thing at Akasha or just for this night) the no photo policy was welcome! Hadn’t seen Sven play for many years and thought it was a good set (7 hours, peppered with the occasional crowd-pleaser) Great night – good crowd, older, and very international.
On Friday, our final night, I was curious to see the renovated Teatro Pereyra (having had a great, blurry night there in 2014!), so we bought the €50 tickets (balcony) for the ‘Hippie Heaven’ show, a musical potted history of Ibiza featuring two hapless American hippy protagonists. This was gorgonzola levels of cheese, but in our monged-out state, post a big night at Sven, quite an amusing way to spend our final night
The theatre looks great.
Best night: Sven Vath, Las Dalias/Akasha
Worst night: Perhaps slightly harsh as was only there 30 minutes, but Flower Power gets this as there was no room to dance…
Best bar: Only went to a few bars. Probably Paradise Lost. Also had cocktails at Up, on the roof of the Standard Hotel, which has a nice view of Dalt Villa.
Best place to eat: Great dinner with the sunset and Es Vedrà in the distance at The View, 7Pines. Went for the 4 course tasting menu option. Great service.
Nice meal at Etxeko (girlfriend had the lamb, which was delicious, my steak was good. Feel like we should have done the tasting menu rather than à la carte to have gotten the full experience, however we were in a bit of a hurry to get to Las Dalias for Sven!) Great service again.
Also enjoyed dinners at Amante, Monkey Ibiza, Sa Finca (lovely terrace spot, very peaceful), La Scala (Ibiza Town, nice intimate ambience and tasty food) and Quimera (Formentera, great view of the sunset)
And lunches at Sa Trinxa, Cotton Beach Club, La Paloma, Agroturismo Atzaro (we went for the spa) and Restaurant KinAnA (at our agroturismo)
Best beach and/or beach club:
On this trip we visited a few beaches that I hadn’t been to before: including Migjorn on Formentera, which we really liked; Cala Tarida; and finally made it to the north of the island, visiting S'arenal Gros and S'arenal Petit in Portinatx.
And returned to beaches we love, including idyllic Ses Illetes and Salinas.
Beach club wise, we went to Sa Trinxa (my favourite) and Jockey Club.
Money spent: Too much
Biggest regret: Only a minor one; would have loved to have gone to Harvey at Pikes on Monday, however we were checking out of Pikes on Monday morning (we’d booked Pikes back in February before we knew he’d be playing then) and naturally we wanted our Pikes nights to be when we were actually staying at the hotel.
I was tempted to go to Pacha on the Sunday for Solomun and Dixon, by reports it sounds like it was a pretty good one, however I knew it would be totally rammed, and my girlfriend in particular really dislikes it when it’s that busy… Also, I don’t feel like we had a proper Freddie’s session, due to it always being packed. I don't think we were in there for more than 30 mins at a time. I’m sure some people don’t mind it like that but after 20 years of clubbing I like a bit of space!
Going back?: Of course.
Top tip:
Do go to Ibiza for a bit longer if you're able to so you can factor in more relaxation time!
Make sure that the ferry you get back from Formentera is one that takes 30 mins rather than an hour!
It was my second time staying at an agroturismo and again loved it, beautiful surroundings and very tranquil after hectic nights out!
Walking along the walls of Dalt Villa (with the cannons) on our final evening, through fortuitous timing we had a great view of the sun setting behind the hills, and despite the great view and it being a Friday night it wasn’t too busy.
Observations and/or conclusion:
The taxi situation seemed much better this time than when I last went in June 2022.
Second half of June or first half of September are my favourite times to visit – all the parties in full swing so plenty of choice where to go, yet not quite as rammed as peak season (hopefully, though as above there are exceptions…!) June might just about edge it for me due to the longer days and less chance of showers. I wonder too if the clubs are slightly less crowded in June compared to September? (They seemed so when I went in June 2022 anyway, however maybe this was an unusual year as it was the first full season back after the lifting of Covid clubbing restrictions)
Overall a great trip!
