How to Spend a Perfect Day in Formentera

There is a particular moment, about halfway across the water between Ibiza and Formentera, when the colour changes. The Mediterranean's usual deep blue thins out into something closer to glass, and if you're leaning over the bow you'll see the seabed appear beneath you long before the island does. That moment is worth building a whole day around, and it's the reason a Formentera crossing is the single most requested route in our fleet.

We'd start early — not for any romantic reason, but a practical one. Illetes, the lagoon-like beach that gives Formentera its 'Caribbean of Europe' reputation, is genuinely closer to empty before eleven. Anchor in the shallows, swim the channel between the two islets, and you'll have that impossible turquoise water almost to yourself for an hour or two.

From there, a short hop north brings you to Espalmador — technically part of Formentera's protected natural park, and reachable only by boat. There's a sandbar here that seems to move with the season, a warm, calm channel for swimming, and a mud lagoon a little further inland that locals swear by for the skin, whether or not you believe them.

Lunch is the one decision worth making in advance. In peak months, the handful of beachfront restaurants around Illetes fill quickly, so we'll usually recommend either booking ahead through your broker or keeping lunch simple and onboard, anchored somewhere quiet, with the afternoon stretching out ahead of you.

By late afternoon, most first-time guests want one more stop before the crossing home — often Es Pujols, Formentera's liveliest harbour village, for something colder than water and a walk along the front. It's not essential. Some of the best Formentera days we've run have ended with nothing more than a slow, sunlit return across the channel, engines low, everyone quiet in the way a good day on the water tends to make people.