Ibiza Town

Ibiza (Elvissa) is an island of intense physical beauty. People come here for its notoriously laid-back atmosphere and to indulge in sensual pleasures. Fabulous beaches provide

bathing in crystal-blue waters, nude or otherwise; inland are rugged mountains and gentle lowlands filled with orange and almond groves. Ibiza town clusters around massive walls on a great plug of rock commanding views over ocean and countryside, and everywhere is alive with the drenching heat. As evening falls, a soft, glowing light saturates the exotic Mediterranean landscape and brilliant flowers release their heady scents on to the balmy breeze. It is an atmosphere to relish in peace in Ibiza's Dalt Vila (high town) and forms the background to chic partying in the town's harbourside madness.

Ibiza Hotels

Apartamentos Playa Grande - Calle Arguelades, 7 Ibiza, 07800
Apartamentos Playa Sol I - Calle Carlos Román Ferrer, 30 Ibiza, 07800
Apartamentos Atzaró - Calle Arguelades, 7 Ibiza, 07800
Apartamentos Playa Sol II - Calle Carlos Román Ferrer, 27 Ibiza, 07800
Hotel Club Mare Nostrum - Calle Pedro Matutes S/N Ibiza, 07800
Marítimo Hotel - Ramón Muntaner, 48 Ibiza, 07800
Hotel Central Playa - Calle Galicia, 12 Ibiza, 07800
Hotel Victoria - Playa Talamanca S/N Ibiza, 07800
Hotel El Corso - Ila Plana Talamanca (Ibiza), 07800
Apartamentos Venus - Av. Doctor Fleming, 48 - 50 San Antonio de Portmany (Ibiza), 07820
Le Blond 18-35's La Noria - Playa D'en Bossa Playa D'en Bossa (Ibiza), 1334
Hotel Playa Real - Ses Feixes 52 Talamanca (Ibiza), 07800

Liberal attitudes are a legacy of the hippie colonies that were sprinkled around the island during the 1960s, easily integrated with the relaxed and friendly ways of the islanders. Ibiza town is still very much at the heart of things. The children of the sixties came to enjoy a harmonious lifestyle and spawned, among other things, a free and fluid creativity still very much in evidence in the individuality and style of cafes, bars and restaurants, in artwork and boutiques.

Fashion is immensely important here and you can expect to find weirdly exotic clothes designed to enhance the human form: review the contents of your suitcase before booking in. The crowd is cosmopolitan and Ibiza is also where a lot of gay men and, less visibly, gay women choose to holiday.

Nothing so typifies the atmosphere here as the early-evening paseo around the Sa Pena area. It is a burlesque circus of activity: wildly dressed performance artists swoop on rollerskates, whooping and screeching like carnival beasts to advertise Ibiza's discos; human pyramids and madmen on stilts dance to draw the crowds. Discos are an essential part of Ibiza fife. Each tries to be more outrageous than the next and yet, happily, they are not exclusive. This is the real strength of the place: even if you are not into wearing rabbit trimmed skipants, have fewer than six studs in your ear, and do not have "lust" tattoed across your breast, you are still likely to have a really good time.

GETTING YOUR BEARINGS

Ile Avenida de Espana is a broad, straight, main road that leads into Ibiza town from the airport. It feeds directly into Paseo Vara de Rey, where you will find the tourist office. Most of the modem town lies parallel to these streets in a neat grid plan of low rise apartments; it is all very small and easily manageable.

Dalt Vila is the oldest part of Ibiza, a walled hilltop citadel that has retained much of its old character. A walk round the walls affords excellent views of both the surrounding countryside and the ocean, while the narrow lanes within them remain very pretty. It is possible to drive up into the main streets of the Dalt Vila but steep, narrow lanes make the more interesting quarters extremely difficult for cars. There is a shortage of turning and parking space even in Dalt Vila's main squares; it makes sense to leave your car down below.

Immediately below the Dalt Vila, between its ancient walls and the new town network, is the old fishing quarter known as Sa Pena, a warren of dilapidated whitewashed houses long given over to Ibiza's weird and wild shock me nightlife.

Ibiza Attractions

Dalt Vila

The cathedral topped Dalt Vila forms the core of old Ibiza. Enter from the Plara de la Constitucion through a grand gateway flanked by headless Roman statues. Polished, cobbled stones take you up to the Placa Mercat and the Placa de Vila, a main street that cuts its way through the lower part of the Dalt Vila revealing a seam of restaurants and cafe-bars. Commercial tourist activity is largely confined to this strip, leaving the rest of the old town charmingly free for picturesque ramblings.

A walk around the battlements is a must if you want to appreciate the full effect of Ibiza's Mediterranean setting. The views are superb and you can see yachts and speedboats beetling about on the deep-blue water, surrounding hills cloaked in olive trees and almond groves, and immediately below is the bustling port. The air is full of the scent of frangipani blossom, honeysuckle and pine; lizards skittle from under shrubs and across walls; and everything reminds you that there is an exotic landscape worth further exploration inland.

Picking your way round the old town gets tricky. The crumbly orange and ochre tiled domes of the church of Santo Domingo crouch beside the town walls at the end of Calle Sa Carrossa. Follow the tarmac road from here past the cool, palm-lined Plaza de Espana up until it becomes Calle de Juan Ramon. At the end the road swings round to the left into Calle de San Ciriaco, a steep, slippery cobbled lane that eventually climbs to the cathedral square.

Visible from all around, the cathedral is a building of engaging simplicity, with a low, square tower, tall, unadorned buttresses and a plain Renaissance doorway. It stands in a quiet cobbled square.

Sa Pena

Shoved up between the waterfront and the massive walls of Dalt Vila, Sa Pena was the traditional fishing quarter. It is now the scene of the most outrageous and theatrical of Ibiza's nightlife. A honeycomb of crumbling, narrow, whitewashed streets, it is full of the most outlandish bars, restaurants and shops, all seething with people until late into the night. As darkness falls, the whole area takes on the character of an eastern souk or bazar peopled by mythological creatures, a fantasy world full of possibilities.

People come here to people-watch, to shock and be shocked, but it is oddly harmless and not at all as intimidating as the dress codes might suggest. After all, Ibiza is a small, friendly island and the town is first and foremost a holiday resort; people are here to enjoy themselves as well as to live out a fantasy image of who they would like to be.

Beaches

Playa d'en Bossa, Salinas and Talamana are Ibiza town's local beaches, all very popular and crowded, with fine sand and clear water. Buses run to these beaches roughly every 30 minutes from Avenida Isidoro Macabich, just by Plaza Enrique Bahamas y Tur. To get to the island's idyllic, empty, sandy coves you really need to hire a moped or a car and head away from the crowds.

ALSO WORTH SEEING. Museo de Art Contemporaneo Museum of Contemporary

Art

(Open Monday-Friday 10.00-13.30 and 18.00-21.00, Saturday 10.00-13.30.) Entrance free. This large exhibition space is housed in a finely renovated old building with steep, timbered ceilings and whitewashed walls. Exhibitions change regularly; while the art is primarily contemporary, paintings from the beginning of the 20th century are shown here, too.

Museo Dalt Vila: Archaeological Museum

(Placa Catedral, 3. A 1 00-peseta ticket also buys access to the necropolis. Open Monday-Saturday 10.00-13.00.) A large collection of Punic finds, including figures of goddesses, clay vessels and coins found in the necropolis nearby. Most of the exhibits date from 7 BC-AD 3.

Museu Puig des Molins: Necropolis of Puig des Molins

(Via Romana, 31. Tel: 30 17 71. Open Monday-Saturday 16.00-19.00.) Phoenician necropolis, partially carved out of the rocky hillside, containing over 2,000 tombs.