Celebrities and Artists Flock to this Spanish Island off the Coast of Spain—Now It is Getting Extra Luxurious Resorts

I hid underneath a camel-hair Berber tent on the seaside to shade myself from the extraordinary Mediterranean solar, subsequent to a younger lady from Atlanta who was tapping out poems on an previous typewriter. She requested me for a phrase—the primary that popped into my head—so as to add to her psychic verse. Close by, a German model-turned healer in a backless goddess gown and no tan traces was speaking about breath work. An artist in a crocheted bikini got here by and sought assist dragging a big metallic signal that learn, “SAVE ME,” into the ocean.

I smiled, as a result of with out even standing up, I had stumbled upon the elusive essence of Formentera—a pristine island 4 miles south of Ibiza that looks like a bohemian holdover from an earlier time. It has no Ibiza-style megaclubs, simply sand dunes, pine forests, and secluded coves. The stiletto-shaped slab of craggy rock lies on the southern finish of the Balearic Island chain. Its geographic isolation has, for the previous 5 a long time, made it a low-key social sanctuary for artists, musicians, trendy eccentrics, and different vacationing visionaries. 

Hippies first arrived within the Nineteen Sixties. Bob Dylan is reputed to have slept in an previous windmill. Pink Floyd stayed for prolonged durations, and the band used the eerie picture of an island windmill on the duvet of its soundtrack for Extra, Barbet Schroeder’s 1969 movie in regards to the hippie-heroin scene that was partly filmed on the island. Joni Mitchell, fleeing fame and Los Angeles, stopped there on a sabbatical by way of Europe that impressed her 1971 album, Blue. The design crowd got here subsequent and constructed stylish seaside escapes: they included Consuelo Castiglioni, the founding father of Marni, and Philippe Starck, the French architect.

“Formentera is a paradise within the heart of Europe,” Starck, who owned a cliffside house on the island for 3 a long time, advised a French trend journal in 2023. “It’s a rock, like a ship, in the midst of the ocean. I don’t know something extra good; I don’t know something extra uncommon.” 

I knew precisely what Starck meant as I lounged underneath the Berber tent at Can 7, an artists’ residence and personal house on Platja de Migjorn, a seaside on the island’s southern shore. It was peak summer season, when many seashores on the Mediterranean are wall-to-wall our bodies. However I encountered hardly any vacationers, other than a number of nude sunbathers splashing round within the calm and buoyant sea. 

It was early night, so I made a decision to go for a pre-dinner swim myself. As I waded in, the electric-blue water felt amniotic and restorative, as if my nervous system have been being recharged. At first, I believed that the hippie-healer vibe at Can 7 had rubbed off on me. But it surely seems I used to be swimming in an aquatic meadow of Posidonia seagrass that has been declared a UNESCO World Heritage website—a few of it’s considered 100,000 years previous. The lengthy, thick strands dance within the present, filtering the water and imbuing it with a magical crystalline glow. 

The land is equally as primordial—a pinkish grime so desiccated it made me thirsty simply it. However look deeper and the mineral-rich soil nearly takes on a jewel-like sparkle, with shades of rose, coral, and ocher. There may be historical past all over the place, too. Drive across the island and catch glimpses of previous civilizations: historical fig bushes propped up by wood crutches; centuries-old windmills that seem like big vintage flyswatters; stone partitions constructed by the Moors in the course of the Center Ages that by some means nonetheless look new. 

Till lately, Formentera’s elemental charms have been largely loved by day-trippers, who got here aboard 30-minute ferries from Ibiza or on non-public yachts. They sometimes confined themselves to the northern shore, and made the pilgrimage to Juan y Andrea, an island establishment that makes a speciality of boozy seafood luncheons on Platja de Ses Illetes, a spit of sugary sand. Fewer spent the evening, as many motels lacked the form of haute-hippie vibe that Joni Mitchell may need sought, nevermind something extra luxurious. The lodgings have been usually concrete bunker-like constructions left over from Franco’s dictatorship or large bundle resorts constructed earlier than the federal government clamped down on improvement within the Nineteen Eighties. Upscale vacationers looking for nicer lodging have been left to lease villas—except they have been fortunate sufficient to be visitors of Starck. 

I first visited Formentera 20 years in the past. I stayed on the solely semi-chic place I might discover, Las Banderas, a small lodge run by Leah Tilbury, the sister of English make-up entrepreneur Charlotte Tilbury (their mother and father met at a full-moon celebration on Formentera within the Nineteen Sixties). The rooms have been fundamental, and the few visitors have been scrappy membership children taking a break from Ibiza to work on their tans. I used to be fortunate if I might discover fresh-squeezed juice or a memorable meal. 

Can 7 occupies the identical construction that was as soon as Las Banderas. Coincidentally, I used to be staying in the identical room I had 20 years earlier, though it was unrecognizable—redesigned in wabi-sabi model with a charcoal shade palette, high-thread-count linens, and earthy Moroccan textiles. The property was initially a Nineteen Fifties taverna run by an previous lady who appeared like a witch—I do know this as a result of a stone effigy of her marks the turnoff from the primary street. (An endearing characteristic of the island is the numerous roads that aren’t recognized by indicators, however by painted rocks and statues.) 

Permits to construct new motels on the island are nearly inconceivable to get. However with older homeowners seeking to promote or lease, a number of properties have been refurbished and opened as barefoot-luxe motels, attracting the kind of guests who may begin their mornings with Pilates overlooking an olive grove and finish their nights feasting on fresh-caught langoustines and biodynamic wines.

Among the many latest is Teranka Formentera, a boutique property from the identical builders because the Nobu motels in Ibiza and Marrakesh. Set amongst aromatic pine bushes, the 35-room lodge has all of the substances required for classy lounging: raw-wood daybeds, plush neutral-color cushions, and modern artwork—to not point out a saltwater swimming pool and a rooftop bar that’s preferrred for sundown cocktails. The backyard restaurant often is the dreamiest on the island: constructed proper on the sand, it has rustic wood tables illuminated by African straw lanterns dangling from olive bushes. My boyfriend and I dropped in for lunch one afternoon, taking within the scene as we grazed on a tomato salad with impossibly contemporary burrata. The opposite tables have been crammed with smooth ladies in sheer caftans, their hair and pores and skin salty and sun-kissed.

Our subsequent cease was Dunas de Formentera, which opened final summer season simply steps from the ocean. Marugal, a lodge group that additionally operates the ultra-exclusive Cap Rocat in Mallorca, turned a former hostel into an “eco-luxury” resort, with a sequence of whitewashed bungalows that appear to be carved into the dunes. The property is shaded with wind-sculpted pines that curl and snake like one thing out of Dr. Seuss. I believed it was probably the most ingenious landscaping I’d ever seen, till I spotted it occurred naturally.

As we explored the sandy paths, I kicked off my footwear with out pondering, and satisfied my boyfriend to do an impromptu photograph shoot. After what appeared like a whole lot of poses and ever-changing backdrops, we have been each panting and questioning tips on how to get again to the lodge. Then, out of nowhere, a waiter appeared and handed us two freshly made mojitos. All was again on monitor.

Drinks in hand, we checked out our room. Designed by Mallorca-based Antonio Obrador, the interiors are an homage to Balearic splendor: earthy textures and pure supplies corresponding to jute, terra-cotta, clay, cotton, and wooden. Nothing fake anyplace. A striped, pastel-pink headboard was a refined nod to the Nineteen Sixties Mediterranean jet set. There are additionally eco-friendly touches, together with an hourglass timer that encourages you to maintain your bathe to lower than 5 minutes. 

The next morning, I used to be sipping contemporary watermelon juice by the infinity pool with Maria Pulido, the lodge’s basic supervisor, who has lived on the island for greater than a decade. With satisfaction in her eyes, she requested if I had tried vintages from the island’s two wineries, Bodega Terramoll and Cap de Barbaria. Within the late 1800s, she advised me, the aphid-like pest generally known as phylloxera, by accident introduced from the USA, decimated Europe’s vines. Scientists finally discovered tips on how to graft the roots with resistant American ones, however it altered the grapes’ DNA. Formentera, due to its isolation, was one of many few locations that escaped the blight, and varieties like Monastrell stay unadulterated to at the present time. 

In a method, that’s how I really feel after I’m in Formentera: shielded from the world’s troubles by the ocean, which acts like a moat and gives a way of safety.

On considered one of our closing nights, we went again to Can 7 for a celebration. As an alternative of an EDM-fueled bacchanalia of the type discovered on Ibiza, it was an intimate gathering: three DJs joined seven guests from Romania, England, Spain, Sweden, and the USA. The Berber tent glowed with flickering candles as we huddled on cushions round a espresso desk that held vases of wildflowers and knowledgeable mixing deck. The DJs created a down-tempo soundscape with the quantity stored low, in order to not disturb the nonetheless evening past. It felt subversive, like a recreation of sardines—the reverse of hide-and-seek—during which we have been all hiding from the opposite gamers on Ibiza nonetheless looking for the celebration. 

After a number of drinks, somebody advised transferring our little soirée to the seaside. Formentera’s darkish skies and lack of sunshine air pollution make for spectacular stargazing. We unfold blankets and sarongs on the sand and shaped a circle with our heads so it felt like we have been all one large blissful mind. We giggled, sang, and traded tales as we stared up into the cosmos. I smiled as a result of I’d occurred upon Formentera’s soul once more—solely this time I wasn’t even sitting, however sprawled out gloriously underneath the celebs. 

A model of this story first appeared within the June 2025 difficulty of Journey + Leisure underneath the headline “La Isla Bonita”