Ibiza

Ibiza runs two hotel economies side by side. Along the south and west coast, from Playa d'en Bossa to Sant Antoni, stand the large beach hotels and the design led houses that fill for the club season. In the north, past Santa Gertrudis and on to the cliffs of Portinatx, the island changes: agroturismos in whitewashed farmhouses, small adults only retreats among carob and fig, and a few houses with a yoga deck and no music after dark. Dalt Vila, the walled old town, holds a handful of boutique hotels inside listed buildings.

Travellers come for the light, the short distances and the choice between the two moods. Nothing is more than forty minutes from the airport, and most northern houses arrange their own transfer. Regulars avoid August, arrive in late May or October, and book the north for sleeping while keeping a table at a beach restaurant in the south for the one loud night they allow themselves.