Island escapes
Formentera
Nothing shouts adventure like a two-wheeled island excursion. Starting with rugged Formentera in the Med, here are our international isle highs for 2023…
Rugged, windswept and only accessible by boat, Formentera, the smallest of the four main Balearic islands, ticks plenty of the required boxes for two-wheeled adventures. And then some…
After two days of riding in Ibiza (itself a fresh alternative to the ubiquitous cycling destination of Mallorca – see p47) we hopped on the ferry to Formentera, which had been tantalisingly out of reach from our base in Ibiza Town.
After disembarking the boat at La Savina, our first stop was the Estany Pudent lagoon, a biodiverse birdwatcher’s paradise that’s home to flamingos, storks and one of Europe’s largest concentrations of black-necked grebes and flanked by the salt flats of Ses Salines, which glow pink and violet in the early summer sun. The salt production was once the island’s key industry, now replaced by tourism. And at Platja de Ses Illetes it’s easy to see the lure of Formentera, the narrow stretch of white sand and crystal clear waters on either side lending itself to Instagram icon status.
Formentera’s chief climb is hardly Ventoux, but its consistent ascent gains 150m in 5km and boasts a couple of epic hairpins
The distinctive shape of Formentera (pop. 12,000) sees the island only a mile wide at its narrowest point, meaning the busy PM-820 trunk road is the only asphalt option for heading southeast to Far de la Mola (pictured on the opening spread), our lunch destination and one of the island’s wildest corners. The flat, smooth section of the PM-820 is something to endure rather than enjoy, but the fun soon returned after the town of Es Calo in the shape of Formentera’s chief climb, its consistent and winding ascent gaining 150m in 5km and boasting a couple of epic hairpins to boot. It’s hardly Ventoux, admittedly, but it was enough to tax our early-season legs – there’s also the option of a mid-climb drink and pastry at the El Mirador bar on the way up.
Back in time
The dusty landscape and quaint whitewashed villages on the la Mola plateau transported us back in time (and could well be Central Mexico), but hopefully not before the 18th century. Due to the very real fear of raids from Barbary pirates seeking to capture slaves, Formentera was uninhabited for 300 hundred years from around 1400, with normal life only resuming at the end of the 18th century.
The 1960s and early ‘70s saw the island become a magnet for the counter-culture movement, with Joni Mitchell penning parts of her classic ‘Blue’ album on the island, and Jimi Hendrix and Pink Floyd also rumoured to hang out there. Those hippy roots are still evident in the languid Codice Luna Formentera bar at the Far de la Mola lighthouse on the island’s eastern tip, where you can (if you’re as daring as our photographer Joe) dangle your legs over towering and vertigo-inducing (for me, anyway) cliffs.
We took the dusty farm tracks back to the top of the Es Calo climb, venturing into gravel bike territory aboard our road bikes, but the payoff was pure isolation and escapism, with just geckos and some striking Diego Maradona street art for company, not the first images of the Argentinian football great that we’d encountered on the island’s walls.
A sharp left on the descent to Es Calo takes in another showstopper beach, Caló des Mort. A beachfront gravel track leads to its turquoise waters, rugged Utah-esque rock formations, white sands and a ramshackle fishing hut that encapsulates the essence of Formentera, a unique and low-key island that’s surprisingly untouched by mass tourism.
It may lack epic peaks and much exploration beyond two days of riding, but Formentera has snuggled under our skin and we’re already studying maps of the Cap de Barbaria for a future visit. Also longing for a fresh adventure? We’d suggest you do the same.
When to go
With our early-season legs not ready to face the mountains of Tenerife or Mallorca, we travelled in early May 2022. Away from our off-season slumber, this seemed ideal timing in terms of climate and dodging the summer crowds. In both Ibiza and Formentera we had the roads pretty much all to ourselves, while flights were cheaper and hotels easy enough to source in Ibiza Town. Formentera’s average highs and lows are 23°/14° in May, with just two days of rainfall. September would also be our pick.
Getting there
Formentera has no airport, but flights to Ibiza are available daily across the UK. For a non-flying option, you could take an overnight ferry from Barcelona for around £300 return. We boarded the ferry to Formentera (day return tickets were 40 euros) from the Port d’Eivissa in Ibiza Town. Travelling with bikes was easy but tell the ferry’s ticket operator that you’re bringing them. And make sure you book the 35min journey and not the 2hr version we initially booked to maximise your riding time!
THE ROUTE
● Short but memorable, our 51km route was leisurely ticked off in a day with time for a couple of dips in the tantalising, clear waters of the Med. The ride started at the ferry terminal in La Savina before heading east to the sands of Platja de Ses Illetes and then south to the rugged plain of La Mola. We did it on road bikes, but gravel is best for the unpaved sections at La Mola and Caló des Mort.
01. Bike shop
There’s a bike-repair shop on Formentera at Sant Ferran (formenteracycles.es); and Es Brolls (esbrolls.com) just south of La Savina offers road and MTBs for hire. We hired bikes from Simon at Velo Club Ibiza (veloclubibiza.com) in Ibiza for 30 euros per day each. He operates from a van, so will bring bikes to you.
02. Lunch stop
Formentera’s hippy roots are evident at the laid back Codice Luna Formentera at the Far de la Mola lighthouse on the island’s eastern tip, complete with decent jamon baguettes and panoramic views over the Med.
03. Photo ops
The white sand of Platja de Ses Illetes in the far north screams of a million Instagram posts. Get there early and you’ll avoid the crowds or arrive late for a post ride/pre-ferry dip. Likewise, shots of the sea at Caló des Mort will have your friends clamouring to book flights.
Distance 51km/32 miles
Elevation 358m/ 1,175ft
Download komoot.com/tour/871417684
