Pre-30's Bucket List - IBIZA!

It may be that Fahad's 30th birthday last December made me start to think about my own impending 30th birthday (ok, 2.5 years is still a way to go), but Ibiza was on my pre-30's bucket list of things to do so it made the itinerary for the summer. While Ibiza is often known for it's gorgeous, white sand beaches, fine dining and luxury resorts, when most people think of it they think of mega-clubs, all-night raves, and superstar DJ's. Needless to say, I wasn't sure if my nearly-30 body could handle so much fun, so we booked a four-night trip over the August Bank Holiday weekend, maximising holiday time. This meant leaving work Thursday evening and hitting the town as soon as we landed in Ibiza.

We opened with a big bang, heading to the 5,000 person capacity super-club, Amnesia, to see Calvin Harris, the world's highest-paid DJ. We arrived with a bit of time to explore the club, buy a fairly priced €18 rum and coke (each!), and then settle in to our awesome spot for the show.

 

Although there are some of these clubs in London, like Fabric, I have never been to any and sort of expected a normal dance floor atmosphere. It was a mixture of a club and concert, with lots of special effects through in such as lights, lasers, fog and confetti. 

  

After an amazing show and a 6am finish, we headed back to out at Playa D'en Bossa for some much deserved rest! The next morning we rolled out of bed to explore the hotel and surrounding town in the daylight, having arrived at around midnight the night before. Our hotel was right on the beach in the heart of a lot of the action. 

The hotel itself, Ushuaia, plays host to daytime parties every day, starting from around 5pm and ending at midnight. One of the reasons we selected in particular is that by staying there you gain free access to the events (which can cost up to €60 per person). We were lucky enough that our hotel room actually looked out over onto the Ushuaia club, offering great day and night views. 

Friday night was headlined by Kylie Minogue, who I wasn't as anxious to see up close, but we watched the evening unfold from our balcony while getting ready to go out later. The venue didn't seem to fill up until after sunset. In addition to listening to and watching the DJ, we had a regular stream of airplanes coming in overhead. 

While we did notice them all throughout the day, they definitely seem to pick up in the evening. When we were booking flights we definitely noticed that flights were skewed toward the later end of the day, perhaps because of the budget airlines. The flights were never a noise problem for sleeping or for the show, and made for a pretty cool photo!

The next morning we were up bright and early, thanks to our 'power nap' which turned into an early evening in bed. We headed straight to the beach beds to try to catch a good spot and found a pretty wide selection. We finally settled on an area with our own umbrella (much needed!) and a pretty decent view of the water.

 The area really started to fill up around 1pm and we got a good feel for the types of people and groups staying at our hotel. I was really surprised to find so many couples and an 'older' crowd. You can definitely come to Ibiza after 30! Although, I wasn't sure that everyone was out clubbing every night, the people staying at our hotel must have had a small interest in music and dancing because of the club's nightly show offering. There was beach staff which served food and drinks, so we had some lunch and sangria, sampling both white and red versions. Conclusion: I like champagne/prosescco version the best (which we had had at lunch the day before)!

Post-2pm, the vibe in the beach area picked up. People had had a bit more to drink and the music changed from nice and relaxing tunes to loud dance tunes. The main act at Ushuaia Saturday night was Ants, with opening acts starting around 3/4pm. We weren't as interestd in seeing Ants, so stayed at the beach until around 5pm and then went into the nearby area to find dinner. The big show for the night was Martin Solveig, who was playing at Pacha. 

I had heard really good things about Pacha - that it is a lot of people's favourite club and that it has a lot of interesting rooms. We got there to watch an opening act, an American (very surprising!). Martin came on much later than expected, but he won me over and ended up being my favourite DJ, or at least tied with Calvin. We were super close to the booth and could look him in the eyes, and the entire dance area felt pretty intimate.

The next day we woke up and decided to visit the village because I couldn't handle another day of full on sun. Despite being hidden under an umbrella for all of the previous day and regularly applying sun cream, I burned my shins and chest which were both constantly directed at the ocean for nearly 7 hours. Whoops! It was good for us to soak up some culture though.

We took a bus into Ibiza town, found a cute plaza and sat down for an alfresco lunch. i was surprised at how many tourists also ventured away from the partying and the beach to explore the city. We actually sat next to two American girls (another surprise there!) who sounded like they were studying abroad.

 After lunch and regaining energy, we walked up to the fortress for a look around. Inside there were more cafes to eat at and cobbled streets leading throughout the fortress. 

We headed back to rest on the balcony and get ready for the next evening out - Avicii from the balcony followed by Space Sundays (another club / night which was recommended to me). As we were relaxing on the balcony reading books, Fahad got a text message from British Airways saying that we could check in for our flight. Normally you get this kind of notice 24 hours in advance, strange as we weren't supposed to leave until Tuesday. Fahad logged in and frantically asked me what day our flight was. 'Tuesday', I confidently responded. He asked me to check the reservation email as he was getting a notice that it was tomorrow. And sure enough... he and British Airways were right. How did this happen? It is still a mystery. We tried to change our flight. No availability. We even looked into booking an additional one-way ticket through another providers. All airlines were sold out for all of Tuesday. We just had to buckle down and enjoy our last night. 

After shaking off the bad feelings, we decided to go down to the main performance area to see Avicii up close and to enjoy the atmosphere. We walked in just as he was starting and it was the most crowded venue I had been in yet. It was difficult to see, so we manoeuvred our way in as best as we could and settled in. Five minutes later, Fahad had a feeling that somebody was in his pocket and sure enough, his wallet was missing. We went up to the room to cancel the cards and stayed the to watch the rest of the show. Great day so far!

Space was conveniently across the road from our hotel, so we went after the Avicii show ended. There wasn't any headlining DJ that we had heard of before, so we spent time exploring the rooms looking for music that we liked. It was more relaxed since we did not have to rush off to see any particular act. All in all, we ended with a bang but were definitely left wanting more. Here's to planning Ibiza 2015!