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Casa Fiesta, Ibiza - hotel review: It'll be all white on the night
Ibiza isn’t short of luxury rentals, but Casa Fiesta offers a more accessible taste of the high life, says Sophie Lam
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Your support makes all the difference.If estate agents are to be believed, Ibiza is the new St-Tropez. Superyachts that stretch to 140m queue up for berths in the White Isle’s cosmetically enhanced marina, while luxury villas are the latest hot-tip investment. The Hard Rock Hotel, which opened on Playa d’en Bossa in 2014, serves one of the world’s most expensive tasting menus (€1,500 per head) at its Sublimotion restaurant.
Less than twice the size of the Isle of Wight, Ibiza is well furnished with high-end properties, many of which are rented out for up to €30,000 per week yet manage to retain an appealing air of seclusion. That’s not to say that a taste of the high life isn’t available to those without Qatari-sized cash reserves.
A case in point is Casa Fiesta, the stage name (the title is revealed on booking) of a renovated Ibicencan villa in the south of the island. Although just five minutes’ drive from the airport, like so much of the island, it feels remote (save for the busy road from Ibiza Town to San Antonio, which runs past its front gate).
The villa is part of Chic Ibiza Villas’ portfolio, which includes just 40 such properties enhanced by a concierge service that can organise anything from restaurant, beach club and nightclub reservations to DJ lessons.
The house lives up to its name. There’s an 18m pool surrounded by pine trees, a poolside terrace fitted with party-size speakers and al fresco kitchen/dining room with barbecue. The emphasis here is on letting your hair down in style, in the comfort of your own home.
The rooms
There are four bedrooms spread over two floors in the main house with two more in an outlying casita, all with air conditioning or the option to fling open the shutters instead. The decor is all whitewashed walls and polished wooden floors with Eames armchairs, Pop Art-style prints and Venetian mirrors.
The kitchen overlooks a long, wooden dining table, but for most of the year you’re likely to be eating outside. Wi-fi is free and fast, while cleaners and gardeners appear daily (although you can request for the frequency to be adjusted).
And this being Ibiza, there’s more than one Buddha statue reclining on a dry stone wall or planted in the lush and expansive gardens.
Out and about
Ibiza has enough beaches to visit every day of the week, although you’ll need to rely on a hire car or taxis to reach them. Highlights in the south-west include the pine- and cliff-hemmed Cala Jondal for laid-back lounging at Club Tropicana (tropicanaibiza.com) ; Las Salinas for the approach through peaceful salt flats to a hedonistic strip of white sand and sculpted poseurs; and Cala Conta where the easygoing atmosphere ramps up as the day fades at the Sunset Ashram (sunsetashram.com). Aim for Cala Benirras in the north for a flavour of the island’s hippy roots, where the Sunday sunset is enlivened by fire-spinners and drummers.
The food and drink
The culinarily inclined might be tempted by the villa’s wood-fired oven and extensive cooking range, but far better to enlist the help of Miles and Markito at Dalilicious (00 34 971 326 988; dalilicious.com; from €90pp), who banish you from the kitchen in order to prepare either a poolside barbecue or fine dining blow-out (and do the washing up, too). We opted for the latter, which started with home-made Pimms then expanded our waistlines with chicken liver paté, tiger prawns with wakame and wasabi, scallops on edible “sand”, a rich moules marinière, fillet of beef with clams and lobster tail, all rounded off with a puff pastry tart filled with figs from Miles’s garden. Don’t make plans to go clubbing that night, you’ll be inclined to do little more than roll into bed.
To see Ibiza in all its preened glory, book a table at Bambuddha Grove (00 34 971 19 75 10; bambuddha.com), a moodily-lit Asian pavilion in the countryside, complete with bamboo groves, stone Buddhas… and a sex shop. The pan-Asian menu (sushi, teriyaki, Thai curries) isn’t cheap, with dishes around €20, but the food, setting and people-watching combine to create an incomparable night out.
The essentials
Casa Fiesta, San José, Ibiza (00 34 63858 2290; chicibiza.com/casa-fiesta.html). Rental starts at €4,995 per week; sleeps 12. Carrentals.co.uk offers car hire on Ibiza from £5 per day .
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