I was desperately in need of a break and some time with the gals, but none of us had a lot of time or money. I did a quick google… I found a bike hire place, cheap flights (thank you Ryanair!), saw some photos of the roads in Ibiza and I was sold. We had a few mishaps but the whole trip was an absolute highlight. If you’re in need of some inspiration for a long weekend away on two wheels that won’t break the bank, look no further!
We based ourselves out of Sant Antoni de Portmany – the less touristy side of the island but still easily accessible; a taxi from the airport split between four was very reasonable. Although our flight was an early one, by the time we’d found our apartment, been to the supermarket (coming out with some excellent baked goods and freshly pressed orange juice), had a wander around the town and collected our rental bikes, it was almost sunset. We couldn’t resist a test spin on the bikes so pedalled very leisurely to Punta Galera – one of the top ranked spots to see the sunset on the island. Our bike handling skills were put to the test because the road quite quickly became gravel and eventually ended up us carrying them across the rocks. SO worth it! Absolutely recommend doing. Just make sure you have lights for the gravelly ride back in the dark!
Day two was a 50 mile loop around the north of the island. I called this ride “pure happiness”: friends, sunshine, shorts, blue skies, mountains, coast… what more could I want?! I was pleasantly surprised by how few cars there were, and those that were on the roads were very respectful. I have done some riding in mainland Spain before and don’t remember the Spanish drivers having the best reputation for cyclists, but this was different. The road surfaces were immaculate too, so there was minimal hesitation on the beautiful swoopy descents. We stopped for a view in a very hidden car park in a wooded area just west of Santa Agnes de Corona. Stunning! Having spent the morning enjoying pastries on the balcony (plus faff), factoring in several photo breaks and a couple of minor mechanicals, we found ourselves very hungry with limited options for lunch; it was long gone ‘lunch time’, the Spanish have siestas and the resorts were all vastly out of our student budgets. Luck came our way though and we had a lovely meal at Café San Romero. Felt it on the climbs afterwards though! Overall a delightful route that ought to have only taken half a day and left us with the other half for swimming, but we took the attitude of ‘cycling holiday not a training camp’ and went out for some large sangrias afterwards instead.
I’d planned a loop of the island for day three that would have been about a hundred miles, but all that time I spent route planning was wasted when we found a rally race closing the roads we wanted 🙄😂 of course the road closure came at the bottom of a long descent, but perhaps this was a blessing in disguise because we turned around and went back up it and that was maybe the most beautiful bit of cycling we did. There were some hilarious toots of encouragement from some boys trying to pretend we were riding the TDF haha. We had a little touristy stop at a street market in St Joan de Labritja, followed by lunch at Café Vista Alegre. The town was bustling with music and people – such a delightful Mediterranean vibe. Plan B meant we missed out on Santa Eularia des Riu; not that there was anything I was particularly excited to see there but I had read good things about the road between there and Cala St Vincent. The perk of riding through the middle of the island was that we got to see more variety of scenery; lots of the farmland, vineyards and authentic Ibizan life. Coming into Ibiza Town there was a brief section of very fast dual carriageway (?) that truthfully I wasn’t sure we should be on, but we bombed it down the hard shoulder and no cops pulled us over. We made a little detour to see the view over the city from the castle before pedalling through the strip of clubs which look extremely sad during their closed season!
We headed out past the airport on a little road across the salt farms with crazy gusting winds and mirages on the tarmac to the beach at the southernmost point. Slightly underwhelming but nice nonetheless. My route then took us through some farms then up into some lanes into the very affluent part; every house had acres of land, big fences with huge security gates, signs to warn of guard dogs and sea views that screamed rich at passers by. Celebrity holiday homes probably. Continuing west, we took an accidental wrong turn – or rather didn’t take the turn – and carried on down to the cutest little beach. Another happy mishap perhaps, although the looks on their faces when they got to the dead end and realised the hefty hill we had to go back up were not overly happy…
The last 20km back to Sant Antoni were undulating and beautiful, winding through forests with stellar views at every little peak. Again, there had been considerable faffing in the morning so our 9am start had been 11:03 and we had to put a shift in to get back before the sun went down! It’s a shame the closed road messed up the map and we missed out on a chunk of coastline, but we were all in agreement that the hairpin climb from Sant Vincent to Sant Joan was the best of the day!
We managed to squeeze in a little spin before returning the bikes in the morning of our departure. This was a much more countryside feel with a little bit of off-roading (though nothing that we couldn’t ride!), and some rain, much to our disappointment!
We hired the bikes from Ibizasport and they were great. Definitely would hire again. All in all I think I paid no more than £200 for the whole four days: flights, accommodation, bike hire, food. Maybe just over with the sangrias. If you are looking for a fun little getaway then I really do recommend a cycling trip in off-season Ibiza!!
If you've been convinced and want to plan some rides out there, I've shared my routes below 😊
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