Illetes is beach life for folk who want to keep it simple - then head back to the yacht. On a weekend afternoon, those who have thought ahead and booked a table make tracks for Juan y Andrea restaurant. Thirty-five years ago, with his wife Andrea, the current owner's father opened a beachside shack serving the fish he caught off his own boat.
Now look at the place: with its huge success, the shack has spilled out into several terraces and a bar, and boat- people come in various states of undress to sit with their feet in the sand and eat platters of pescado a la sal , fabulous paellas and Formentera prawns a la plancha.
A few metres away lies a glassy, turquoise sea. I walked to the very end of Illetes, the northernmost tip of the island, from which, on a dead-calm day, you can wade through the water to the islet of Espalmador. From here I could see the distant hills of Ibiza, green-grey in the afternoon light, and the wall of white hotels at Platja d'en Bossa. I thanked heaven I wasn't over there, fighting for a patch of beach among the package-holiday crowds, but here on this lonely strip of white sand fringed with Caribbean blue.
Sant Francesc is Formentera's 'capital village'. It has a main square, a fortress-church, a Trumptontown hall, and a cluster of streets. I sat at a terrace table at the Bar Central and breakfasted on coffee and toast with tomato and olive oil.
Around me, an ensalada of accents: Barcelona Catalan, Argentine Spanish and, most evidently, Italian. The Italian presence on Formentera is one of the more surprising aspects of island life. During the summer months it can often seem as if half of Milan has decamped to this Balearic isle. It is said that as many as a quarter of the island's inhabitants at any one time are Italian. One advantage of this fact is that the Italian food on Formentera is a lot better than the Spanish average.
A disadvantage is the slight strangeness of finding that, for example, of the half-dozen beach bars along Platja Migjorn , all but one or two are Italian-run.
If the Italian contingent is one of Formentera's significant social groupings, another is the hippy crowd. In other places, including Ibiza, hippydom has mutated into something more radical, moneyed and fashion-conscious. Here it has remained in its primeval state, like a moth preserved in amber. Every day in Sant Francesc is hippy-market day. People in sandals and long cotton skirts pad about the tiny square, smoking roll-up cigarettes.
Souvenir stalls sell sarongs and handmade jewellery. A flea market behind the church has an air of desperation, with elderly freaks trying not very hard to sell their cast-off household items. Photocopied posters in the bars offer yoga classes, massage and Ayurvedic treatments. I recognised it all from Ibiza, but here it seemed even more unreconstructed, more antiquated. Formentera is a time tunnel. So much so that the souvenir shops in Sant Francesc even sell those s tourist postcards with flamenco dresses that stand out from the card, and others featuring medallion men with auburn tans.
Something similar can be seen in Sant Ferran , another of the island's handful of villages. Here, the only building of note apart from the church is Fonda Pepe , a down-home hostel and bar that was once Formentera's major alternative hang-out. Either through nostalgia or laziness, its owners appear to have changed very little about the old place.
I spent a while soaking up the curious, archaic atmosphere. Outside in the street, groups of grungy young people sat with their dogs on strings. The air reeked of marijuana. Inside, the Fonda was a museum of the original hippy era, with black-and-white photos of jam sessions with hairies strumming guitars, and multicoloured daubs whose lysergic colours had lost their brightness with the passing of the years.
The artisans' market just outside El Pilar de la Mola , on Wednesday and Sunday afternoons, is the king of the hippy markets, and the one cultural event for which the whole of Formentera - hippies, locals, Italians and the rest of the tourists - turns up to watch.
The road to the market winds up through the pinewoods. There are so few hills in Formentera that this one seems alarmingly precipitous. This is one place where cyclists get off their bikes and push. Halfway up, I stopped to look back at where I'd come from. There was the island laid out below me, sprawling in the heat-haze, its thin waist flanked with white skeins of beaches and embraced by a tranquil blue sea. The craft market had a seriousness and quality that were, somehow, surprising.
A German painter called Firefox, a bearded veteran of the scene, was busy making a painting in big, bold brushstrokes of vibrant colour.
Some of the jewellery, including Lorenzo Pepe's chunky silver rings and bracelets, wouldn't look out of place in the pages of Vogue, perhaps endorsed by a Formentera babe such as Jade, Kate or Elle. Just beside the market, on the avenue leading to El Pilar, stood the showroom of one of Spain's leading jewellery designers, Enric Majoral, bringing a touch of Barcelona to this cobbled-together rural community. From this road branch off numerous secondary roads that lead to the various villages and beaches of Formentera.
To orient yourself, you should know that every place along this stretch of road is identified by the kilometer it belongs to calculated based on the distance from the port of La Savina. The island of Formentera stands out for its outstanding natural beauty, but surely what makes it famous, wherever, is the clarity of its waters. The secret of the long beaches of Formentera and its crystal clear sea lies in the Posidonia oceanica meadows that surround the island, an alga that has multiple functions including giving oxygen and transparency to water and making it possible to deposit sand along the coast.
The population living in Formentera is about Distributed between the various villages, from the capital Sant Francesc Xavier to the other nucleuses like Sant Ferran , La Savina seat of the port , Es Pujols main tourist resort where we recommend you to rent an apartment and El Pilar de la Mola, the number grows considerably during the summer season.
A holiday destination par excellence, especially for European citizens, this small island welcomes around , tourists each year. Thanks to the crystal clear sea and its sandy beaches, Formentera is one of the most loved places in the Mediterranean. It is in fact the favorite destination of travelers who want to spend a holiday in contact with nature and those who visit it for the first time are literally bewitched. Famous are its sunsets that give colors and emotions difficult to find elsewhere; its white beaches and gently sloping seabed allow anyone to relax and indulge in the wildest spirit that lingers in this place.
You will find nearby the cliffs of Punta Rasa, which is for us the best place to watch the wonderful sunset in Formentera. How to get there : From the center of the island, you will have to follow the road that goes towards El Cap de Barbaria, and then at a certain moment take the right turn towards Cala Saona. You can also take the public bus L3 to get there. The Playa Migjorn is the longest beach on the whole island, occupying most of the Southern coast of Formentera.
The beach is surrounded by giant sand dunes, pine trees and accommodations with sea view. Apart from taking a bath and enjoying relaxing moments on the beach, Migjorn Beach is also a great place to do sport on the long wooden walkway that was built there. There are also nice seaside restaurants and bars here, a perfect way to enjoy the breeze of the sea with a cocktail in your hand. How to get there: As we told before, Migjorn Beach is very long more than 4 kilometers , and therefore there are various access points to the beach.
In difference with the area of Ses Illetes, in this island there are no constructions apart from the Torre de Sa Guardiola, a tower that serves as vigilant of the area. The island is private property , but the access is free for everyone. Therefore, we advise you to visit the island by boat. In several points of the island catamaran boat excursions are organized to visit the island. This beach is very popular amongst families , since there is a large variety of facilities around.
Cala Es Ram is a small and calm cove with transparent water. The most typical way to get there is either taking a ferry from Ibiza — there are several companies such as Balearia, Trasmapi, etc. In high season you can also get a direct boat from Barcelona and other places on the mainland.
Formentera has a large variety of accommodations, but because of the small size of the island, hotels can get booked quite early. Therefore, if you plan to visit Formentera, you should book your accommodation well in advance.
From the different areas on the island, Es Pujols is where you will find many restaurants or places to party, whereas Playa Migjorn is more popular amongst local families. The best prices you will find in the hotels in the interior of the island, which can be a good option for budget travelers, since in Formentera no beach can be far by motorbike. For us, these are the most essential beaches in Formentera. The truth is that any of these beaches are marvellous and they will transport you to the Caribbean.
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