We landed late in Ibiza and both Claire and I were exhausted. We didn’t know how long we would be waiting for the bus to the hotel, so we opted for a taxi. When we arrived at our hotel we both took a rejuvenating (and adequately hot!) shower in a bathroom that wasn’t the size of a closet. It was a luxury we hadn’t experienced in days, so needless to say, we slept well.
Waking up after a good night’s sleep in Ibiza was so refreshing. Our beds here were two twins pushed next to each other rather than one double to share. It was only a little bigger than what we had before but I think we were both happy to have a little more space to ourselves for sleeping. We immediately got dressed and headed toward Old Town for some food. The Old Town here extends from an old fort all the way to the port where there are many yachts and ships docked. We figured out as we were attempting to navigate the winding streets and Google-maps-interpreted directions that many businesses were closed at this time of year, taking the opportunity while it’s off-season to make repairs.
The place at which we were interested was closed so we landed at Hostel Parque which had delicious yogurt and toast with Avocado and tomato. I was in heaven. From there we walked into the walled fort and began our hike around. It was absolutely beautiful taking in the different ocean and city views and it was even sunny! This was what we had been looking forward to.
After a couple of hours of walking, we made our way back to the hotel to relax with some coffee, tea, and patatas bravas. Our goal was to head back to the fort to watch the sunset, but since we were stuck with a totally overcast afternoon, we just headed back that direction before dinner to explore a bit more. We walked through some main shopping streets as well as the port full of boats. It was crazy to see how many businesses would be closed for another month awaiting the tourists and busy season. For dinner we popped into Mar a Vila where we had our pick of Pinchos (aka yummy food on bread). We had chicken, veggies, potatoes, cod, and ham… it was tasty. We topped it all off with a beer for Claire and an Aperol Spritz for me. Then we walked over to Es Repos for dessert for a massive amount of chocolate for a not-so-massive price. I think it might have been because we caught them as they were about to close… but either way, we were full and happy campers. Back to the hotel we went after for an early night.
What to do for a day in Ibiza during offseason? It was a total ghost town… so I booked a massage at the hotel for the afternoon. We started the day off at Es Repos again. I had puff pastry full of cheese and tomato (basically a fancy hot pocket) and an amazing chai latte, and Claire went for a spinach and chicken pastry, a toast with tomato, and a doughnut to go along with her usual espresso. After breakfast we went back to our hotel to pack up and check out. Even though our flight wasn’t until late, we had to be out of the room. We then found our way down to the promenade by the water and walked until the sidewalk ended (literally). There were tons more restaurants and hotels that we discovered, along with a beach that I’m sure is packed during the warm months. A few of the restaurants looked open but most were closed or cleaning and repairing. After the walk we went back to the hotel where we had planned on relaxing but found out that I should be paying for my massage with cash, which we were very low on by then. So we walked back toward old town to get some more cash — no such luck, so we had some 100 Montaditos and went back to the hotel where I begged them to let me pay by card (they obliged). We hung in the lobby until I had my massage and I went down for an hour of pampering while Claire worked out. From there we had an afternoon snack/early dinner at Mitch’s Bar next to our hotel.
We went back to the lobby to watch the Atletico game (#truefans) before venturing down to the old town one last time for a glass of wine. From there we went back, got our bags, walked to the bus stop and headed to the airport. We arrived super late to Barcelona but we got in, took the shuttle bus to our Airbnb and went to sleep.