Exploring the Island of Ibiza by Moped

And it certainly was! I had a really fun day out and discovered a few hidden gems that I doubt I would have discovered otherwise.

So making my way to the Cooltra Scooter hire shop in Playa d'en Bossa with my rucksack full of beach wear, sun cream and my camera, I was pretty excited about what the day might hold. It is pretty straight forward to hire a scooter on the island, and actually incredibly cheap too. The folk at Cooltra were really nice and supplied me with a helmet (compulsory to wear), a small map, showed me how to work the scooter and how to lock it up when I left it and that was it...off I go!

I made my way down to the south coast hoping to reach the beach at Sa Caleta and perhaps find the Pheonician ruins. I made my first mistake here and instead of checking the map properly and following the smaller, quieter roads, I followed the road signs and ended up on a fairly main road out past the airport and towards San Jose. I didn't feel quite as comfortable on this road, possibly because it was my first half hour on the bike...and was glad when I saw the turn off to Sa Caleta and made my way down this quieter route to the coast.

The beach at Sa Caleta is stunning - the entire bay is surrounded in a wall of red rock that is a striking contrast to the clear turquoise waters, especially when viewed from above. There is not much of a sign to the Pheonician settlement but if you follow the path past the restaurant and out to the headland then you will see a fenced area in the distance and this is it. To be honest I was a little disappointed, it is possibly best viewed from the air rather than through the fence that surrounds it. However, a quick walk along the coast line to the east and I came across the beautiful little cove filled with traditional boat houses which offered some great photo opportunities.

After my visit to the beach I decided to head to the neighbouring beach at Cala Jondal for some lunch. The road down to this bay is very pretty and delightful to ride on a scooter. There is also a great choice of beach clubs to eat at, ranging from the chic upmarket to the everyday, more relaxed restaurants. Feeling like treating myself I opted to go upmarket at the Blue Marlin...you can read my review of lunch here.

Travelling at a gentle pace on the back roads I made my way from here to the small town of Es Cubells on the south coast. It offers an amazing view point along the coast and has the traditional white washed church at it's centre. It is an extremely small town but it does have a few good restaurants and there are paths that take you down along coast if you are looking to stretch your legs. There are also several more bays and beaches here that are worth exploring, but I decided to leave those for another day.

Next I made my way to San Jose in the centre of the southern part of Ibiza. An inland town that is fairly developed and residential but that offers a few treats for the discerning traveller...or girl on a moped! The church is beautiful - as many of them are in the towns across the island. I love the fact that you look inside the churches too, as each one offers a different experience. There are also a couple of tiny narrow streets that have a few boutiques and cafes on them, plus the gem of San Jose the Reco Verd restaurant, music bar and terrace that sits opposite the church.

After a coffee I got back on the scooter and made my way west to Cala Tarida on the coast and weave my way through the forested back roads as I try to find a small beach and supposedly hidden cove of Cala Llentia. It was a slow process as I was trying to look out for signs as well as driving carefully but I was very grateful at this point not to be on public transport and searching by foot, or even by car. The moped is easy to manoeuvre on the small roads and it makes it easier to double back when I make mistakes...which happened frequently.

Eventually I came to the end of a road that seems to only lead to private villas and I decided to get off the moped and make my way the last 150 metres by foot. The stories about the secluded bay are right, it is tiny, beautiful and I couldn't see any possible way to get down into it! Although there was a man down there sunbathing with his dog so if you are determined then I think you can find a way down. I was intrigued however by something else...there are several large scale pieces of art dotted around on the cliff top. I came across a huge skull made of silver that is covered in silver butterflies, a beautiful old doorway that led into the bush and a stonehenge-style sculpture made from huge pieces of rock. (This one was by the Australia artist Andrew Rogers) Finding these sculptures was possibly the best part of my day out!

I feel as though I was able to cover a lot of ground on the moped, reaching and exploring places, towns, bays and coves that I wouldn't normally have been able to find. Hiring a moped certainly gives you a lot of freedom, even if it is just to beach hop along the coast. By the end of the day though I was pretty tired and a little sunburned (remember to put sun cream on the backs of your hands!) but happy to make my way slowly back across the island to Playa d'en Bossa to drop off the moped.