FAMILY | IBIZA
– liked them even – and friends with babies had raved about north Ibiza. They promised we’d revel in its beauty and balmy climate (especially in late September when we were visiting) and so we ended up bedding down in the modernised duplex wing of a classic Balearic villa. Agroturismos in Ibiza are being heavily marketed to “the returnee”, aka former clubbers, like me, who come back en familie, looking for a grown-up version of their glory days. Under normal circumstances,
I’d rather eat my liver than spend my holidays on a farm. My day job is beauty editor on IMAGE magazine. I don’t do animals, fields or mountains. I do sun loungers, beach clubs, sail boats and boozy lunches, or rather I did, pre baby, but having had a disastrous and rather dangerous beach holiday in Portugal the previous summer, it was a toss-up between a Eurotrash hotel replete with family clubs and all-you-can-eat buffets, or getting down and dirty with the pigs. When we awoke the following morning to the sight of azure sky, peachy cliffs and sun-drenched SITTING vines sweeping down to the PRETTY infinity pool, things started Taxis in Ibiza are exempt from to look up. And as we joined the law requiring child/booster the bunch of international seats, and presenting your charges at guests under the olive trees for a rank or at the airport will be unlikely a morning banquet of fresh to prompt drivers to produce them. figs, avocados and coffee, the Pre-book with Ibiza-airportterm farm suddenly seemed transfers.com, which provides rather inaccurate. A stunning seats at €3 each country manor perched over an per journey. agricultural estate would be a more apt description, and the only sight of muck or animals was in fact Charlie running around the vines happily chasing the household cat. So far, so bliss, but we’d hardly had a dip in the gloriously cool pool when the daily nap saga was soon upon us. We don’t follow a strict schedule at home but if he’s not down by lunchtime, we pay the price. Midday naps become the bane of our holidays because we need to be near the cot (the buggy never quite cuts it in the heat) and thus any day trip, or beach visit, was curtailed until he awoke around 2pm. But here’s where the agroturismo trumps other accommodation options for a young family – in terms of security, they’re in the middle of nowhere, with no passing foot traffic other than the few resident guests, they’re run by kind Less of a farm, families who float around keeping a and more of a country estate, weather eye on their tiny guests, and Can Planells the pools, terraces and sun decks are offers an infinity only a stone’s throw from your very pool, glam duplex secure room. This meant we could accommodation lounge outside in the gardens only a and alfresco breakfast few metres away, catching some rays, banquets. while he safely caught his zzzs.
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APRIL/MAY 2014