Chilled Ibiza: Experience the Ultimate Sunset Mix

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I stood on my balcony and took in the sight below: a beauteous pool, bright young things lounging in swimwear, the gentle thud of house music. As I traversed the island, I found plenty to confound my expectations as well as stir up long-dormant memories.

It was Marañón who introduced me to the community of estate owners who are restoring and regenerating great swathes of abandoned land. It’s a story I’ve told before: for 10 years I lived in an old casa payesa in Sant Vicent de sa Cala at a time (the 1990s) when rent was as cheap as chips, smartphones and the internet hadn’t happened yet, and you’d be hard-pressed to find a good hotel on the island.La Torre is not the only delicious makeover of a tired hostel – look at Los Enamorados in Portinatx, the delightful waterside bolthole curated by design freaks Pierre Traversier and Rozemarijn de Witte. A 300-year-old casa payesa in the classic ibicenco style, this gorgeous San Lorenzo property had stood abandoned for 80 years before its exemplary six-year restoration job. The organic produce at HaSalon at The Piazza restaurant – helmed by Eyal Shani, the founding father of new Israeli cuisine – is sourced from the company’s farm outside Santa Gertrudis. On a hot day it bustles with beautiful people who come for chef Rafa Zafra’s impeccably prepared fish and shellfish. She also knows about the loveliest new hotels, especially those low-key ones that open their doors quietly.

A moratorium by the Balearic government has halted the construction of new hotels on non-urban land, essentially forcing would-be developers to revamp old ones.With rustic rattan, washed-out linen and sandy floors, Jondal, on the cala of the same name, is Ibiza’s restaurant of the moment, no contest. On the walk down through the forest, balsamic scents of heat-baked pine and rosemary flung open the synapses of my memory. Raising my eyes along the horizon, I saw a sweep of dull identikit rooftops – the coastal suburbs of ‘San An’ – and, through a gap between the buildings, an enticing slice of blue sea.