Hiking around Ibiza: Ses Salines, St Mateu, St Miguel

Preparing for the season of hiking tours

Thanks to living in Norway, I became fond of walking, mountains, hiking, outoorsy things. There, walking the mountains is not even always a sport per se, because you need to “walk a mountain” to get home. Which makes Norwegians and people living there able to walk distances easily. But of course there are sportive and more challenging walks. My favorite, not the most challenging in Norway, but still, favorite is the 7 mountain hike in Bergen. You can read about it here. When I first visited Ibiza, I was surprised that this little island is covered in mountains and hills. They are not high, but still everywhere which means a great opportunity for sportive people to explore the island on foot.

So where to go in Ibiza on foot?

Basically everywhere. The longest distance you can have (directly) is ca 40 km (7 mountain hike done in a day has 35 km), while the coastline is 210 km. Nevertheless, there are mountains and bushes that you just can’t walk through. You have to know where you are heading or at least be ready to walk back.

I have been exploring only few areas so far and my favorite is Ses Salines area, although I have only seen it a bit and not with a group or a guide. It will be my priority in the next weeks to walk the area again and with a guided map, at least. Along with the highest top in Ibiza is Sa Talaia, 475m, that will be the second priority.

There is a map with directions that you can download which gives directions and information about some of the popular hiking routes in Ibiza.

But what I have done, is hiking in St Mateu and St Miguel areas and a night walk from Sant Antoni to Santa Agnes in North/ North-East part of Ibiza. Sant Antoni is considered a party-zone during summer time, still, the track there was great! And let me tell you, the more eastern part is a nice relaxed region. It is much quieter, more green and perfect for campo-lovers. Pictures speak louder than words, have a look yourself. More pictures are at IbizaLinker’s Pinterest page.

The first longer route with a guide Toby was ca 10 km long and started in the St Mateu area, near Cala d’Albarca. I cannot give very clear directions, because, well, the locations are still new to me :). We had a circular walk for 3 hours in the nice sunny weather with some wind. The walk offered wonderful views to cala d’Albarca and surrounding areas. On that walk you can make a detour below to see the stone bridge which was, if I remember correctly, 40m above water. It was steady, so you can easily stand on it, no worries. But coming down, you have to be careful for there are loose stones and it is easy to just slip right over the cliff. Yey!

Hikers above water

People can and have lived here during the warmer periods. You can see that there has been a roof-like thing built

The second walk was also with Toby, this time with a lovely group of people. The route was again circular, started and ended at St Miguel beach with lots of ups and downs to make you work for it. I loved it! Again, great million-euro-views, including to a millionaires island (sold by his child with pennies and now on sale for millions again), the Pirate Tower where there are mattresses (for your comfort), a lonely place for helicopters to land on or have huge parties and of course the pathways, plants and clear blue water. The whole trip was around 15 km and I would love to do it again. Are you sporty? Let’s go for a walk there!

The Pirate Tower

The night walk to see the blossoming almond trees took place on Saturday, 23rd of February from 8pm-11pm which means it is very dark in Ibiza. I loved the walk, because it had character, different terrain, from winding road to small stony path with a steep mountain wall on one side and a forest on the other, to gardens with lovely houses and lots of almond trees. Luckily people around me had the head-lanterns so I could see in front of me, too. The moon was almost full, but on the more darker places, in the forest area, it was still very dark. But looking back I could see the little dots of lights from other people or ahead, sometimes, the lights from the houses. I wished I knew how to make pictures in the night because the nature gave one astonishing view after another. I did not smell the almonds, though.
The walk was organized by the city government and there were around 60-70 people? Quite a lot, from kids to elderly people. This walk takes place every year during the almond blossoming time – good time to come here ;).