Ibiza

Walls designed by an Italian engineer under Philip II wrap the whole hill, with seven bastions jutting from the corners. Past the main Portal de ses Taules the cobbles climb without a break, so the walk is easier once the sun has dropped than at midday.

It caps Dalt Vila, so every uphill route through the walls ends at its forecourt. Built Gothic, it was redone inside as Baroque in the eighteenth century, plain outside and white within. The forecourt rail overlooks the harbour and the sea out to Formentera.

A Phoenician and Punic burial ground takes up an entire hill and shares the World Heritage listing with the walls. Rock-cut tomb shafts lie open among the olive trees on the slope, and the museum gathers the terracotta figures found inside them.

A rock island off the southwest coast, uninhabited and closed to climbers. It is seen from Cala d'Hort beach or a pirate watchtower on the cliff, twenty to thirty minutes on a dirt track from the car. At sunset people gather as the sun sinks behind the rock.

Salt pans on Ibiza's southern end still yield a harvest, and in some seasons flamingos land in the pinkened pools. Seagrass meadows off the park's beaches keep the water clear, which is why some stretches of sand are left under washed-up seagrass.

Held every Saturday in the yard behind a bar in the village of Sant Carles, it began with the hippies who reached the island in the 1960s selling what they made. Clothes, silverwork and incense stalls pack in, and by noon the car park is full.

A shallow rocky cove on the west coast whose pale turquoise water photographs well. The sand is narrow, so claim a spot first thing in the morning; at dusk a second crowd comes to sit on the rocky rise for the sunset.

The neighbouring island has no airport, so you sail from Ibiza port, roughly thirty minutes by fast ferry. Ses Illetes at the north end has white sand and shallow water and is often likened to the Caribbean. People get around on hired bikes or scooters.

This white hilltop church behind Santa Eularia doubled as a fort where townspeople fled when pirates landed. Its wide arched porch makes a shady place to rest, and the old farmhouse next door is the island's folk museum.

Bars and cafes line the rocky shore on the west side of Sant Antoni bay, and when Cafe del Mar opened there in 1980 the habit of playing music to the sunset began. The seats on the rocks fill a full hour ahead of sundown.

Traces of a Phoenician village from roughly the eighth century BC on a south-coast headland, listed within Ibiza's World Heritage site. Only low wall outlines show past the fence, yet a cove under red cliffs beside it pulls in swimmers who wander over.

A bay tucked into northern hills, with an offshore rock, Cap Bernat, likened to a figure at prayer. A hippie-era habit of drumming on the sand at Sunday sunset lives on, and those evenings the car park down the narrow lane fills early.

A small village amid central Ibiza's farmland, where cafes and craft shops ring a square facing a white church. Inland and beachless, it sees more islanders than holidaymakers; its terraces suit a slow breakfast. Ibiza town is fifteen minutes away by car.

A white fortress church crowning a northern hilltop, where villagers once took refuge from pirate raids. Inside, a side chapel keeps walls and vault painted with flowers and twining vines. Port de Sant Miquel bay lies a few minutes' drive below.

A small cove ringed by pines north of Sant Antoni, so clear you see rocks on the bottom. Fishermen's boat sheds with wooden doors line its far side. Over a rocky rise lies tinier Cala Saladeta; in summer cars may be stopped and a shuttle run instead.