Hello friends and welcome to My Ibiza, a personal website dedicated to my families love for the sunshine paradise of Ibiza and its smaller sister island Formentera. Here you will find links to other sites of interest about both Ibiza and Formentera, images of the islands taken by myself and my family over the years and our own personal thoughts and feelings on these two stunning locales.

My name is Marc Farrimond and both myself and my lovely wife Laura have been going to the islands since 1990 when we first visited Ibiza on our honeymoon. Ever since we first went, the islands have held a mystical sway over both of us and last year we took our two children Daniel and Katriana there for the first time and we now plan on emigrating there just as soon as possible.

Why My Ibiza
Why create a site about an island part way around the world? Well for one we have hundreds of photographs of both Ibiza and Formentera that we love to share with friends and family and now the world, and likewise we would like to make clear a few points about Ibiza and the reputation it has gained over the past couple of decades.

For many Ibiza is nothing more than a place where young people go to party and live a 24 hour lifestyle of drink, drugs and sex! Of course this is in all senses true but there is another side of Ibiza that is often passed over for the more commercial one, and for every story of drunken Brits running riot in the West End of San Antonio, there are hundreds more of family orientated resorts that don't make the papers.

So where is Ibiza?
Well Ibiza is located some 150 miles from Barcelona on the Spanish mainland, lying in the midst of the warm waters of the Mediterranean. From England it takes on average 2 ½ hours flying time from the majority of airports around the UK, though if you wish too it is possible to drive to Ibiza via car, heading first through the Channel Tunnel and then driving through France and Spain and catching a car ferry from Barcelona to the island itself.

Eivissa as the local Ibicencos prefer to call it sits comfortably in the western Mediterranean and is part of the chain of islands known as the Balearics, along with its sisters Mallorca (Majorca) and Menorca. Eivissa has been a popular destination for tourists since the early '60s when hippies from Germany, Italy and France began to flock to Ibiza in their droves for its laid back idyllic lifestyle and easy living approach to life. Many stayed on and made the islands of Ibiza and Formentera their home and the influences of the hippy culture can still plainly be seen on both islands even now!

Of course the islands are not a new thing and have a vast history dating back hundreds of years, but for the most part until the hippy invasion the only real things of note of the islands where their salt and beer exports and little else. Now in the new millennium Ibiza is big business with thousands of tourists from around Europe flocking their every year and many will come back time and time again!

Perhaps now Ibiza is more famous for its club scene, where clubbers from around the world, mostly the UK and Germany descend every night during the clubbing season and dance till dawn, then often move onto another all day event such as Boro Boro or Space. The club culture lifestyle has had its impact in more ways than one on Ibiza and in the space of two decades it has gone from little more than a run down Spanish island to a throbbing metropolis and home to some of the largest night clubs in the world. The club scene brought with it new attitudes to life for the Ibicencos and now more and more of the islands 90,000+ population find themselves involved in one form of tourism or another, and much of the money that has found its way to the islands over the past couple of decades has been pumped into making standards of life better for the local Ibicencos people, improving sewage systems, housing and transport, and communications with the rest of Europe.

Language Barriers
Most of the people in Ibiza speak at least a little English, with many speaking Italian or German as a preferred second language, though many streets and landmarks are signposted in both Spanish (Catalan) and English in the major towns on the island, and on a lot of the bus stops and ferry ports!

The Ibicencos are a very warm and friendly people who welcome strangers with open arms and are only too pleased when a tourist tries to communicate in the native tongue of the island, and most will bend over backwards to help if possible if you go that little bit further and learn a few words or phrases. In England most of the Spanish language that is taught in schools is Castilian rather than Catalan and this can sometimes lead to confusion with pronunciation, but on the whole if you can manage a few phrases you will go far, especially shopping and in restaurants.

Getting Around
Ibiza has an excellent bus transit system in place, though be warned the busses on the island can get very crowded even in low season, and most routes having a set price of a few euros per person (children over 6 pay the same as adults), and the busses run from all corners of the island, making those all important day-outs that little bit easier.

Of course you can always hire a car while on the islands, and prices vary but on the whole tend to be quite cheap when compared to other parts of Europe, including England. Don't forget that unlike the UK, in the rest of Europe they drive on the right hand side of the road!

If you feel you have the stamina and can withstand the heat, then bicycle hire is one way to go and is not only cheap it is relatively safe, with many cycles only lanes dotted around the island. Formentera is best viewed by bicycle and they can be hired in all of the towns on the island or picked up at the marina of Port de la Savina, with costs varying but often under €20. As mentioned cycling is safe but always think safety first when riding a bicycle as others are not often as considerate as they should be.

Taxi travel in Ibiza and Formentera is often safer than many other places around Europe and taxis are relatively inexpensive, but it is always a good idea to find out the price of your journey from the driver before you begin your journey. Another point to remember is that drivers will add a surcharge of around €1.00 for journeys after midnight and that prices may vary during mid and high season!

Climate
Ibiza gets on average 300 days of sunshine per annum, with around 10 hours of sunshine per day in the summer and 5 hours during winter days! Temperatures vary from around 14° C in January to over 30° C during August, and water temperatures of between 10° C in January and 26° C in August, making the islands beaches among the best in Europe.

Beaches
Ibiza and Formentera have as already mentioned some of the very best beaches in Europe if not the world. Here beach life is laid back and sedate, though during high season months (July-September) they can often get packed almost beyond belief. Of course it is very easy to find a little nook that seems tourist free, and it is little wonder that Formentera boasts some of the best nudist beaches around. Of course some of the beaches close to the resorts can become packed very quickly and it's always a good idea to keep your eyes well and truly on your belongings. You can hire sun lounge's and umbrellas for a few euros, though on some of the most popular beaches they can often be hard to come by. You can find out more about the best beaches on both islands by checking on the beaches link in the menu.

Other things to do
Of course there is far more to the islands than just sitting around in an English pub all day, eating English food and watching English television and many who visit the islands do just that! Ibiza is steeped in a rich tapestry of history with everything from Neolithic sites to Moor forts to be found on both islands, many museums and art galleries and much more! Street and beach performers are common place all over the main resorts and will entertain crowds with their skills and talents, often helping make a holiday that bit special.

There are lots of sports to partake in on the islands from golf and cycling to water sports such as scuba diving, snorkelling and fishing and many more.

For those who like things a little more sedate, walking is an excellent pastime and many routes for walkers are signposted all over both islands, and the feel of the warm sand between your toes is always nice, though can get a little hot!

Shopping is another pastime that many of us indulge in when on vacation and Ibiza has a myriad of shops, stores and supermarkets that make life that bit easier on the visitor. You can buy almost anything on Ibiza and the island has many designer outlets that rival even London, and it is little wonder that Ibiza is a millionaires playground for the rich and famous, with many movie stars living on the island.

Sightseeing
There are lots of interesting places to visit on both Ibiza and Formentera, from Dalt Vila, the old town in Ibiza to the Egg in San Antonio celebrating the birth of Christopher Columbus! Ibiza lies some 16 miles from Formentera and you can reach this paradise of an island by ferry from the port of Ibiza town or via one of the smaller boats from many other ports around the island, and the journey takes between 25 and 70 minutes dependant on what mode of boat you take!

With the island lying in the middle of the Mediterranean it is little wonder that influences from all over Europe and North Africa can be found on the islands, reflected in the islands architecture, culture and design. In recent years many of the older buildings in and around Ibiza town have been knocked down and replaced with more modern buildings, bringing the island up to the 21st Century.

You can find out more about places to visit on both islands by clicking on the places tab in the navigation menu bar, this includes bars, places to eat and cool shops!

Images
As you look around My Ibiza you will notice many photographs taken by myself and my family. All of the images are organised into Albums for ease of use, with images being optimized for the net, though a few are larger than nomral, each of these images is free for you to view but if you do wish to use any of them could you please contact me at marc.farrimond@blueyonder.co.uk with the details on exactly what image you wish to use. Also if you do find an image of yourself here on My Ibiza please contact me at the above address and if you wish me too I will remove it if need be. This is a family site and though some of the pictures may contain brief nudity, you will not find anything of an adult nature here!

If you have a similar site to ours we would love to place a link to yours on our links page, just contact me via the email found at the bottom of every page.