RURAL IBIZA (COVER STORY)
Nightclub, what nightclub? asks Hazel Davis as she loses her glowstick and discovers a calmer, greener side to Ibiza
COULD you pass the brie please?”, “Ooh, these strawberries are delicious”, “Will you just look at the wild poppies, they’re so pretty”. The sun is shining and a gentle breeze ripples across the field in which we are devouring an ad hoc Balearic picnic. There is no sound other than the odd chirrup of a bird and an insistent cockerel at the nearby finca.
This morning we stopped in the northerly town of San Miguel de Balansat, browsed a little hilltop boutique full of Indian fabrics and handcrafted leather goods, watched a local artisan at work and wandered around the picturesque church before loading our basket with cheese, olives and bread and heading for a field. Yes, this is the legendary Ibiza, the party isle, capital of the club kids and queen of bug-eyed sunrises.
But I have been on Ibiza for two days now and I haven’t so much as seen a nightclub. OK, I saw a sign for one but I was too busy looking at the verdant orchards beyond to really notice it.
It’s a side of Ibiza we are rarely allowed to see and one that is grossly overlooked. If the TV is to be believed, the island is full of debauched half-naked teenage Brits and resounds with a non-stop house beat. I have already lost count of the number of people who said, “Ooh you’ll get wasted every night and probably go skinny-dipping,” when I said I was coming here.
I have to admit that I wasn’t entirely relishing the idea of spending time on the ‘Gomorrah of the Med’. But arriving on Ibiza I was confronted with the reality: a picturesque island with mesmerising views and glorious architecture. Clubland very much exists here but you can avoid it, and out of season the island is frequented by sun-seekers and culture vultures looking for a tranquil break by the sea.
San Miguel de Balansat is a small town of cafés, shops and houses. A majestic fortified church overlooks the town and houses a beautiful flower-laden graveyard. A tiny newsagent doubles as a coffee shop with the addition of a table and chair and next door a lace shop is presided over by an elderly woman wearing a chignon.
My accommodation is in the coastal town of Santa Eulalia, one of Ibiza’s quieter resorts and about 21km from the airport. It’s popular with families and non-clubbers and is recognised as the island’s gastronomic centre. Despite first appearances and the fact that most guests in my hotel are around retirement age, nightlife in Santa Eulalia does exist. It just doesn’t revolve around live sex shows. A wander down the town’s restaurant street, Calle San Vicente, offers more than 17 restaurants for every budget including the island’s oldest restaurant Celler Can Pere which serves several varieties of fish and some decidedly robust-looking lobsters. The quieter nature of Santa Eulalia means that the tables line the road and by 10pm you find yourself part of some Balearic street picnic.
One of the most perfect examples of Ibizan architecture can be found in Santa Eulalia’s 16th-century church. At night the church and hill are floodlit and the view over the river bridge into the town is really spectacular.
A real highlight of Ibiza for me is the whitewashed cubic modernist-style countryside architecture. Blending sympathetically into the green landscape, the lines are clean and the modular shapes are ever-changing. Land is widely held here and most people who live in rural Ibiza have substantial space. The countryside is filled with orange and lemon groves and fig trees which give the air, as you wander through a village on a hot May day, a particularly potent scent.
But there’s more to do out of season than stuff your face with olives and stare at buildings. Each May Ibiza Town’s medieval fortress, Dalt Vila (meaning ‘high town’) hosts a medieval celebration to commemorate the declaration of Dalt Vila as a World Heritage Site in 1999. More than 120,000 people visit the free festival to browse some 200 craft stalls and watch falconry demonstrations and musical performances.
Dalt Vila’s Gothic-Baroque Santa Maria cathedral dominates the skyline and opposite the archaeological museum features artefacts from the first settlers to the Catalan conquest in the 13th century, covering a period of more than 3,000 years.
At the medieval festival pigs are roasted, leather is sewn and wares are peddled left, right and centre. As I stand and watch a group of painted, sweating men leaping up and down to music and drum beats, I begin to wonder if I really am so far removed from Manumission and clubland after all.
It’s easy to get to Ibiza Town from Santa Eulalia by car, bus or ferry and the 40-minute ferry journey across the turquoise sea takes in the secluded beach at Cala Llonga before affording a spectacular view of Ibiza Town – its ancient port and old-world splendours.
Ibiza is so small (just 35km long and 20km wide), that it doesn’t take long to get around. It’s best to hire a car, but buses are available and taxis aren’t expensive (if deathly fast). Saturated with countryside and ancient customs, my companion and I glammed up and headed inland to the small village of San Rafael (on the San Antonio road) for some late-night dining at L’Elephant, an achingly chic restaurant with spectacular views over Ibiza Old Town.
San Rafael comprises little more than a church and a few bars and restaurants and is used more as a focal point for the villagers living in the surrounding countryside. L’Elephant exudes such cool that its remote location only enhances its reputation and throughout the night a succession of celeb-alikes parade through. The charismatic owner wends among the dimly lit tables laughing, drinking and smoking cigars to the backdrop of a low-level chill-out DJ. This is as near to clubbing as I want to get and I like it.
Ibiza is, after all, the party capital of the world so some obligatory but civilised endof-holiday cocktails are quaffed at nearby Elayoun, an opulent red-soaked Arabic styled bar and restaurant in the village, complete with its own belly dancer and fashion parade from the adjoining boutique – a fairly common feature of country restaurants. The clientele are, as expected, tall, beautiful and elegant and the devilishly handsome bar staff more than happy to invent a cocktail on our behalf.
I haven’t had time to explore every inch of Ibiza’s rural beauty – a large proportion of this island is designated a World Heritage Site, including God’s Finger in the Benirràs Bay, a large piece of rock jutting into the sea. I’m told another spectacular site is the rocky island of Es Vedra, the third most magnetic point on earth, which has attracted all manner of myths and legends and is believed to be the inspiration for Homer’s island of the sirens in The Odyssey. Nevertheless, I’ve had a good taste of the other Ibiza. Several tons of locally crafted silver heavier, and a dozen or so olive trees devoured in my wake, I leave via the island’s picturesque airport, living proof that you can enjoy the delights of the White Isle without having to appreciate the works of Judge Jules.
USEFUL SITES
L’Elephant
www.elephant-ibiza.com
Hotel La Cala in Santa Eulalia
www.ibiza-spotlight.com/lacala
Elayoun
www.elayoun-ibiza.com
Balearic Islands Tourism
www.illesbalears.es
Book selected hotels and villas with your flight through www.jet2.com
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