Ibiza – welcome to the famous party island

Our journey to from Paris to Ibiza was a bit rocky… you see we had mapped out which subways to take to get to the airport, but didn’t anticipate an additional 10min airport train that you had to take on top of that.  So this meant we missed our bag check-in by like 1min.  They refused to let us check-in and we missed our flight, which then meant paying in an additional 119 euros to catch a later flight out, which was only to arrive in Ibiza at 23:45 (we were going to be there around lunch time initially).

But you know what, lesson learnt.  Always give yourself enough time plus some extra for unplanned events.  We at least still got there in the end… well myself & D did.  Sadly we lost Vo as she had to head back to SA for a work crisis. 🙁  So #VoDKa2013 became #VoDKaLite2013…  Vo was definitely missed, but D and I forged ahead.

We were welcomed by hot, humid weather, even at that time of the night.  You could feel the island vibes immediately.  We were also welcomed by what seemed like a scene out of that reality show, Geordie Shore.  A group of English girls, there for “Jean’s stag”, or so all their matching vests said.  There was also a gay best friend in the mix, who proceeded to have a huge argument with another English fellow in an unrelated travel group.  There was a lot of “innet”, “bovverred” & “for f*ck saaakes” thrown in the mix. Classic Geordie style script really, and I must admit, I really enjoyed watching it go down in real life.

This group was heading to the San Antoni area. We had been warned to avoid that area because it’s packed with what they refer to as “chavs”.  Therefore, to be extra safe, we figured we’d stay at the total opposite end of the island, in a peaceful little surfer type village called Es Canar.  It’s about a 45min taxi drive from the airport, but you can take the bus as well.  And it’s a little out of the way, which is both a pro and a con at the same time.  A pro because you’re away from the hectic party party areas, so you can relax & take a break whenever you feel like it.  A con because it takes a bit longer to get to the party areas when you’re keen to get in on the action.

Es Canar reminded me a little of Jeffrey’s Bay back home.  It’s got it’s own beachfront, lots of little cafes, restaurants and bars, as well as little beach clothing shops.  Some might say it’s a bit boring there, but I found it to be the perfect getaway spot.  I for one don’t appreciate trying to get some sleep with “doef doef” music blaring through the walls throughout the night.

We had booked the cutest little apartment via Booking.com – it’s called Apartamentos Sandic and it’s situated on the main coastal road in Es Canar.  It was also right above an awesome little cafe & bar called Roxy’s where you could have some food or a jug of Sangria, whatever your fancy.  Yes, they play old school 80s tunes all day long, but I kinda liked that about the place.  I’m an 80s child after all and it was a nice break from what you’d hear in the clubs.

Now let me give you a little tour:

View at night

View by day

The apartment complex came with it’s own pool

Chillin’ at Roxy’s downstairs (Photo credit: Darryn’s twitter feed)

Beautiful little pebble beach right across the street

Es Canar beachfront by day

Es Canar beachfront by day (cont)

Es Canar beachfront at sunset (remember, the sun only goes down around 10pm!)

Es Canar beachfront at sunset (cont)

The Jacaranda Lounge – the most “modern/hip” place in Es Canar

This Jacaranda Lounge was an interesting one… they punt the fact that it’s free entry and that they have a massive pool, day beds and all that.  But once you get inside you very soon realise that things aren’t quite as awesome at it seems.  3 euros to use the pool, 25 euros for a day bed, 2 for one happy hour cocktail specials that doesn’t mean you order one and your friend gets one free, but instead that you must order two for yourself and the 2^nd one is free.  Say what now?  Anyways, it’s definitely a rip off, but it made for a nice spot to chill one afternoon when we didn’t feel like missioning anywhere.  We just obviously didn’t opt for a day bed.  We went for the cheap seats (which were actually free) and some pool time only.  Plus whatever was cheapest on the food & drink menu. #ofcourse

Just to put it all in perfective for you, here’s a map of Ibiza – the red circle is where we were staying.  Then the main clubbing type things happened closer to Ibiza town (also known as Eivissa), San Antoni & Playa d’en Bossa:

Photo credit: www.brightibiza.com

The island in its entirety isn’t really that big.  By car it should take you about an hour to get from one end to the opposite end.  So it’s all relative in any case.  We just didn’t go the car route (I personally can’t get my brain to understand that other side of the road thing, so didn’t want to risk it).  But it would obviously have been much easier than relying on busses and taxis – if you have a designated driver of course.  So that’s something to consider.

Right, that’s it for now.  I’ll share more about all the things we got up to in Ibiza in my next few posts.

xxx