TLDR: A much delayed recap of stop 2 on our honeymoon in 2022 - Ibiza!
I’ll start this post off with an apology for how delayed it has been. Life as always gets crazy and I got a little distracted and this blog unfortunately was sacrificed. I am happy to be back and ready to finish recapping our honeymoon! As a reminder this honeymoon trip was planned by our amazing travel planners at UncorkedEscapes!
We left off in my last post departing Barcelona. From Barcelona we flew to Ibiza for a fun-filled and surprisingly relaxing 3 days. Every time we told someone we’re going to Ibiza as a part of our honeymoon, we always got very puzzled looks - Ibiza is not really a honeymoon destination…. Well I am happy to report that we had a surprisingly relaxing and romantic few days exploring the gorgeous island. Most Ibiza itineraries you find will tell you all about the crazy, awesome parties and clubs you can find. I am here to report that Ibiza is a beautiful island and there is actually more than just parties to experience! So if you are here to get the low-down on all the parties, I am sorry, contrary to the title - we did NOT take any pills in Ibiza, though we did listen to the Mike Posner song a few too many times.
Day 1: Transitioning from the hustle of Barcelona to the hustle of Ibiza
We left Barcelona bright and early for a quick flight to the island of Ibiza. Even on the plane it was very clear what most people go to Ibiza for, our flight was almost entirely full of American 20-something year old tourists talking about the various clubs they wanted to visit. As soon as we landed we were inundated with advertisements for the various visiting DJs and parties that were happening around the island. Even the driver of our private car was sure to point out the hottest clubs as she took us to our hotel.
As soon as we arrived at our hotel, the Nobu Hotel Ibiza Bay, the vibe completely shifted. We were instantly transported to a world of elegance and relaxation. We were absolutely amazed by the beauty of this resort. The open concept lobby led us directly to their main pool and beach access. The wonderful staff gave us a quick tour around the property before showing us to our room. We quickly decided to take advantage of the gorgeous property. We spent the remainder of our day strolling along the beach and relaxing by the pool.
For dinner that evening we had reservations for a sunset dinner at the Nobu Restaurant. Even if you don’t stay at the Nobu, I highly recommend you make your way here for drinks and/or dinner. Everything about our dining experience was spectacular! The ambiance was perfect - with the backdrop of the sunset over the beach with a light breeze. The drinks were divine - I enjoyed a classic glass of red wine while Ash indulged in a spicy Jalapeno Martini. Lastly, the food - AMAZING. Even as a vegetarian there were so many options for me from tempura, maki rolls, and appetizers. There wasn’t a single dish that we didn’t love, we both definitely understood the hype surrounding Nobu Restaurants.
Day 2: Surviving our exploration of the Island
Our second day in Ibiza was honestly the day I was looking forward to the most in Ibiza, and I honestly wish I had kept my expectations lower. Ashvin always tells me that I get too excited too early for our adventures and thus I am let down when even the smallest thing doesn't go our way, but what can I say I just get excited during the planning process!
For this day we booked a full day Jeep Safari Excursion of the island. In our ideal world we had envisioned more of a ATV-type tour where we could do some off-roading and driving of our own, but that didn’t really seem like an option available near our locale in Ibiza. That being said we were told we were getting an open-air Jeep vehicle that we could drive if we wanted as we toured the island. UncorkedEscapes contracted with an external company to book us our tour, and we were told we would visit all the best hidden places of Ibiza and historic sites, enjoy lunch at a local restaurant, snorkel, visit secret caves, and even enter an underwater cave.
So, obviously you can see why I was so excited about this day. And honestly it started off great. The “open air” Jeep picked us up at our hotel and we began our drive to our first scenic spot. Our jeep wasn’t really an “open air” vehicle unless we of course rolled down our windows, but honestly we didn’t mind too much with the heat outside, the luxury of the air conditioning was much appreciated. We made our way along the Ibiza coast stopping along to visit a historic defense tower and Ibiza’s first outdoor club venue. This was all very cool and exciting until we realized that our guide didn’t really know the history of the island and was making most of it up as he went on (thanks to a couple easy Google searches, we were able to figure this out haha). We did learn a lot about our guide’s personal history though, as he went into way too much detail to explain why he was now living in Ibiza, as opposed to his home country (cliff notes: he partied too hard, as many do in Ibiza, and now has a lovely son he cares for in Ibiza).
Even though we weren’t really getting the real history of Ibiza we didn’t mind as we were honestly more interested in the views and swimming. We asked our guide to take us to somewhere we could swim. We finally made our way to a cavern, and although our guide advised us that a future spot was actually better for swimming, we were both exhausted from the heat and just wanted to dive in. To be honest, it was fantastic! I’ll never know if the “future spot” would have been better or not, but to me I swam in the best cavern in Ibiza!
At this point it was nearing lunch time and I was very much ready to eat. The guide also was not the best driver and his rash driving had started to make me sick (and if you know me, I do not get motion sickness easily). So we insisted we stop at “the local restaurant” to grab something to eat. When we reached this “local restaurant” I was once again left disappointed. This was no restaurant, it was literally a roadside bar stop. I promptly made my way to the bathroom to throw up from this guide’s awful driving. As I made it out of the bathroom, Ash handed me a couple bags of chips, a Ginger Ale and a Sprite (he got himself a much deserved beer). I looked for our driver to see where he was, I immediately noticed he was also at the bar, ordering himself a a double rum and coke; it was at this moment that Ash and I ended our full-day tour. We did not want to continue on for another 3-4 hours with this driver that was drinking on our tour. Honestly we didn’t even want this guy driving us back to our hotel, but we had no other way to get back. Thankfully, UncorkedEscapes was great in this situation, we contacted them about the driver and they promptly contacted the external company and worked with us to get a refund, and hopefully employ some more professional drivers in the future!
The remainder of the day we spent relaxing poolside and napping in our room before dinner. For dinner we made it into Old Town Ibiza to El Olivo Mio. This restaurant was gorgeous; it was situated in a very small, yet bustling area of Ibiza. We were seated outside where we had ample people watching opportunities and a gorgeous view of the winding roads of Old Town. The dinner itself was enjoyable. I got the Spinach and Ricotta Ravioli and Ash enjoyed the Beef Tenderloin with Chimichurri. The food itself was great, but after our previous dinner at Nobu and Paco Meralgo in Barcelona it didn’t match up quite as much for us, but the vibes of the restaurant definitely made up for it. After dinner we decided to walk around and explore Old Town. We walked around the area and visited a couple random local bars before asking a local hotel to call us a cab home.
Day 3: Ultimate Relaxation
For our final day in Ibiza, UncorkedEscapes had set aside time for us to enjoy a local beach club. They had made tentative reservations for us at Chambao Nobu Beach Club, Nassau Beach Club, or Cotton Beach Club. In the end we decided, instead, to just reserve a cabana at the main pool at the Nobu and spend our day relaxing. And that is exactly what we did, we relaxed in our cabana right after brunch and stayed there until dinner time. I cannot recommend the Nobu pool enough, the service was phenomenal. The staff kept the mimosas constantly stocked for me as I enjoyed lounging poolside, literally all day.
After our day of relaxation we ventured to the opposite side of the island for dinner at Relish. Relish was a delicious dinner, but this dinner, and honestly this entire area of Ibiza is definitely catered towards American tourists. Their entire menu had all American staples. - Mac and Cheese, Fried Pickles, Hummus Board, Chimichurri Steak, and BBQ Chicken Wings to name a few. The menu was overall delicious, they know exactly how to cater to their American crowd. We genuinely had a hard time narrowing down our choices to a reasonable amount of food. The trouble we faced was once dinner ended, we could not get a ride out of this area. We waited for an hour at the taxi stand, but every Taxi was only dropping passengers off and not picking up. We walked to multiple hotels to ask them to call us a taxi and every hotel had the same response - “we have called the taxi, you’re welcome to wait outside but there are multiple people waiting”. Finally Ash and I decided to split up, I walked to a hotel while he walked along the street trying to hail a cab. He finally was able to hail one, who initially told him that he wasn’t picking anyone up. It wasn’t until Ash explained we were going to the Nobu that he agreed. It was then, on the ride home, that the cab driver explained to us that in that part of the island cab drivers stop doing pick-ups after 10PM because they do not want to get stuck in the party scene with tourists. He only picked us up, because he was getting a fare to go back to the other side of the island.
After our adventure trying to get home, we weren’t quite ready to go to bed so we enjoyed a couple drinks at the bar at Nobu before calling it a night, ready for our early flight out to Italy in the morning!
Next Stop: Ischia, Italy
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