Formentera: The Island Across the Water
Formentera sits just fourteen kilometres south of Ibiza, separated by a channel of water that manages, in the space of a forty-minute crossing, to feel like a genuine shift in register. The two islands are connected by ferry and by geography, but in character they are quite different. Where Ibiza carries the weight of its reputation and the infrastructure that comes with it, Formentera remains largely undeveloped, its interior flat and pine-covered, its coastline defined by stretches of sand and shallow water that have no real equivalent in the western Mediterranean. For guests based in Ibiza, a day on the water heading south is less an excursion than a natural extension of the experience, and one that the island’s setting makes almost impossibly straightforward.
Getting There
The standard crossing by ferry from Ibiza Town takes around forty minutes and runs frequently throughout the season, making Formentera genuinely accessible as a day trip. The more considered option, and the one that makes the most of what the crossing has to offer, is to charter a private boat. The channel between the two islands is shallow and brilliantly clear, and the journey itself, watching the colour of the water shift as you move south, is part of what makes the day worthwhile. A private yacht offers speed and comfort, and the freedom to stop where you choose rather than being bound to a fixed route. A sailboat or catamaran slows things down considerably, and for those whose idea of the day is less about arriving quickly and more about the particular quality of moving through warm, open water, that slower pace is its own reward.
Whichever option you choose, departing in the morning gives the day its proper shape: time at sea, time on the island, and a return as the light begins to soften in the late afternoon.
Ses Illetes
The first and most instinctive stop for most boats making the crossing is Ses Illetes, on the northern tip of Formentera. The beach and the waters around it appear regularly on lists of the most beautiful coastal stretches in Europe, and the description is not exaggerated. The sand is fine and pale, the water runs from pale turquoise close to shore through deeper blues further out, and the shallowness of the bay means the light refracts in a way that makes the colour almost implausible. It is the kind of place that photographs well but rewards being there in person more than any image can convey.
Anchoring offshore and swimming in gives the full effect. The seabed is visible at depth, the temperature is reliably warm through the main season, and the combination of light, clarity and relative quiet, particularly in the earlier part of the morning, is what Formentera’s reputation is built on. Ses Illetes is where the day announces itself.
Caló des Mort
Further along the eastern coastline, Caló des Mort operates on a smaller and more intimate scale than Ses Illetes. The cove is enclosed by low rocks, with wooden fishing huts lining the shore that speak to its working history, and the water inside is calm and exceptionally clear. It draws fewer boats than the northern beaches, and that relative quiet is its particular appeal. There is nothing polished or arranged about it; it feels like a place that exists on its own terms, which in the context of the broader summer season in this part of the Mediterranean is increasingly rare.
The combination of Ses Illetes in the morning and Caló des Mort in the early afternoon gives the day a natural rhythm, moving from the expansive to the enclosed, from the well-known to the more quietly discovered.
Lunch and the Beach Clubs
Formentera’s beach clubs occupy a specific and well-established position in the island’s offering, and two in particular have become fixtures on any properly organised day here. Beso Beach sits on the sand at the northern end of the island and has built a loyal following on the basis of long, unhurried lunches, good music at a considerate volume and a setting that makes it easy for an afternoon to extend well beyond its intended length. The food is Mediterranean in character, the wine list leans toward rosé, and the general atmosphere is of a place that understands what its guests are looking for without making an event of it.
Chez Bibi offers a slightly more contained experience, its tables arranged close to the water’s edge and the cooking focused on the kind of straightforward seafood and local produce that the island’s geography makes available. It is less about spectacle than about quality and setting, and it tends to attract guests who want to eat well in a beautiful place without much more complication than that.
For those who prefer to step further back from the established circuit, many boats and captains with genuine knowledge of the island can direct you toward smaller, less visited restaurants, where the fish is local, the service unceremonious and the surroundings considerably quieter. These tend to be the meals that guests remember most specifically.
The marina district, by contrast, operates at a more familiar luxury register: international brands, yacht-adjacent fashion and the kind of white-walled boutiques found in most upscale Mediterranean ports. It is polished and convenient, and well suited to those who know what they are looking for. Between the two, the streets around Vara de Rey and the adjoining pedestrian area hold something closer to a working town’s retail offer: independent fashion, homeware, bookshops and the occasional concept store that sits between the two poles.
Adlib fashion, a loose-fitting, white-linen aesthetic that emerged in Ibiza in the 1970s, still has dedicated proponents here, with several designers maintaining studios and small shops in and around the old town. It is one of the few genuinely local style traditions to have persisted, and worth seeking out for those with an interest in design that carries some local meaning.
The Quieter Side
Formentera’s appeal is not exhausted by its best-known beaches and most visited lunch spots. The island has a coastline that rewards exploration, particularly on its eastern and southern edges where the development thins and the landscape becomes more straightforwardly natural. Coves accessible only from the water offer the kind of swimming and anchoring that is increasingly difficult to find anywhere in the Mediterranean during the summer months, and a captain who knows where to look makes a considerable difference to what the day can be.
The interior of the island is worth at least a brief consideration for those who arrive by ferry and have an hour or two to spend on land. Flat enough to explore by bicycle, which can be hired easily from the port at La Savina, the interior is covered by pine and juniper scrub, with a handful of small villages, notably Sant Francesc and Sant Ferran, that retain the particular quietness of an island that has resisted the more intensive forms of summer development that have altered its neighbours.
Planning the Day
A day trip to Formentera works best when it is treated as a considered undertaking rather than improvised on the morning. Departing early makes the most of the water before the main ferry traffic builds and the popular anchorages fill, and it gives the day enough time to include both the established stops and something more personal. Returning in the late afternoon, with the light behind you, makes the crossing back something worth paying attention to in its own right.
For guests staying in a luxury villa in Ibiza, we can assist with boat charter introductions. The range of options is broad, from modest motorboats suited to a spontaneous half-day to fully crewed yachts for a larger group that wants the day organised to a higher specification. The important thing, whatever the vessel, is that Formentera is approached with enough time to let it be what it actually is: not a destination to be processed and ticked off, but an island that repays patience and attention rather more than it does efficiency.