San Antonio
The club-oriented scene in the package tourism resort of Sant Antoni (San Antonio) is as bombastic as you’ll find in Europe. High-rise, concrete-clad and blatantly brash, San An (as it’s usually called) primarily draws crowds of young clubbers bent on the relentless pursuit of unbridled hedonism, though it also finds room for some families too.
Things can get out of control in the Brit-only enclave of the West End with its unbroken chain of bars, disco-bars and fast-food fryers, but there are less frenetic sides to the resort.
On the west side of town there’s a burgeoning array of stylish bars along the Sunset Strip and Caló des Moro, while Sant Anotni’s harbour, prized by the Romans, remains the resort’s best aspect – a sickle-shaped expanse of sapphire water that laps s’Arenal beach, backed by wooded uplands.
Around Sant Antoni, away from the crowded sands at the heart of the resort, you’ll find some impressive cove beaches, as well as plenty of other gorgeous swimming spots.
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San Antonio Harbour
Sant Antoni’s main harbour front begins at the Egg, a white sculpture erected to honour a tenuous claim that Christopher Columbus was born on the island. Inside the hollow structure is a miniature wooden caravel, modelled on the 15th-century vessels in which the explorer sailed.
West of the Egg, the broad promenade has a luxuriant collection of tropical palms, rubber plants and flowering shrubs and a series of flashy modern fountains, dramatically illuminated at night. Behind the promenade is a string of concrete office and apartment blocks occupied at a street level by rows of pavement cafes, where you can eat American fast food or tuck into a full English breakfast while gazing at a Mediterranean harbour. On summer evenings, this area is lined with street sellers and caricaturists, and filled with drinkers.
The promenade narrows once you’ve passed a statue of a fisherman, complete with nets and catch; opposite here is the Moll Vell, the old dock, where you’ll often see a fisherman mending their nets and fixing reed lobster pots. Further west, you pass the marina and modern Club Nautic (Yacht Club) building and the main bus terminal before you reach a 400-metre-long dock that juts into the harbour, from where huge ferries head for mainland Spain.
The Sunset Strip
Sant Antoni’s legendary Sunset Strip of chill out bars is the most sophisticated side of the resort. In the day, the setting appears far from ideal – the bars cling to a jagged, low-lying rocky shelf and it’s a tricky scramble over the rocks to take a swim. However, the location starts to make sense towards sunset, when all eyes turn west to watch the sun sinking into he blood-red sea, to a background of ambient soundscapes.
Until 1993, there was only one chill out bar, the ground-breaking Café del Mar, along this entire stretch of coast which was very much the preserve of in-the-know clubbers and islanders. But since then the scene has proliferated and there are half a dozen such bars here, with the sunset spectacle now very much part of most people’s “Ibiza experience”.
The West End
The island’s most raucous bar zone, the notorious West End – described by writer Paul Richardson as “The Blackpool of Ibiza, cheerfully vulgar, unashamedly unglamorous” – spreads over a network of streets centred around Santa Agnes. There’s nothing subtle about this almost entirely British enclave of wall-to-wall disco-bars and pubs, interspersed with the odd hole-in-the-wall kebab joint or Chinese restaurant serving fry-up breakfasts.
In summer the streets are overrun with sunburnt lager louts in football shirts; understandably, few Ibizans would dream of drinking around here and you’ll be able to tell straight away if it’s the kind of place you’ll love or hate. In general drinks are much cheaper than Sunset Strip or Ibiza Town averages, and as the disco-bars are usually free it’s an inexpensive place to strut your stuff. The music is generally party-anthem holiday house and mainstream R&B, but plenty of decent DJs have cut their teeth in the better bars, which include the Simple Art Club and Kremlin, both on Santa Agnes.
Sant Antoni Bay
Officially, the urban limits of Sant Antoni end at the Punta des Molí. Continuing west you enter its “bay” area, which is a little less built-up. Plenty of British visitors booked on last-minute deals end up in hotels around Sant Antoni bay, and though the area is unremittingly touristy, it tends to attract more families than San An itself, so the atmosphere is less boisterous.
From the Punta des Molí promontory Cala de Bou heads west around the bay, between apartment and hotel blocks and the attendant commercial sprawl. The best beach on this stretch is Platja des Pinet (or Platja d’en Xinxo), some 3km west of Punta des Moli. It’s certainly nothing special – a small sandy cove, barely 100m wide, but there’s safe swimming in the sheltered waters and three cheap shore side snack bars. It’s possible to water ski or take a ride on an inflatable banana here, and there’s also a rickety-looking waterslide complex.
The coastal road around Sant Antoni bay comes to a halt at the pretty sandy cove of Port des Torrent, named after a seasonal stream which originates on Ibiza’s highest peak, Sa Talaissa, and empties into the small bay. Nestled at the end of a deep inlet, Port des Torrent’s sands are packed with families lounging on sunbeds and splashing about in the calm water during the summer, when a snack bar-restaurant also opens; for the rest of the year , it’s empty save for the odd fisherman.