The first time I bump into a small group tour outside my bedroom door on my way to breakfast at 9am, I’m a little startled.
“The majority of historians believe that this was a Roman amphitheatre,” one of the hotel staff tells a well-dressed older couple, who snap photos of the crumbling foundation stones a few feet below, slap bang in the centre of the hotel lobby. “But the truth is, we still don’t really know for sure. They’re still doing their homework.”
You get used to this sort of thing at Spain’s latest Parador hotel — or as its architects call it, a “museum-hotel” — a former 16th-century fortress perched at the summit of the island capital Ibiza Town’s Dalt Vila (old town). The hotel sits atop ruins dating to 2,600BC. Staying here feels like waking up at the heart of an archaeological dig (though these digs are seriously swanky).
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Last month the government-owned Paradores hotel chain opened this, its 99th property — the first in the Balearics. It was a controversial choice for an island bemoaning mass tourism — but as Maria de la Fuente, the head of the hotel’s guest experience, tells me: “We need to bear in mind that this is not a normal hotel. History prevails here.”
What you need to know
- Where is it? Paradores’ 99th property is in Ibiza Town
- Who will love it? Historians, Ibiza-lovers
- How much is it? Double rooms with breakfast are from £166 a night
- Insider tip Take a tour of the hotel as soon as you check in, there are many hidden corners and lookout points
If you aren’t familiar with the brand, this is Paradores’ USP. It renovates buildings with historic significance. Santiago de Compostela’s Parador, for example, is supposedly the oldest hotel in Spain, with a room opened by John XXIII before he became pope. The one in Granada sits within the Nasrid Palace on the complex of the spectacular Alhambra.
The hotel sits atop ruins dating to 2,600BCShutterstock
And don’t be put off by the fact that Paradores are “government-owned” — there’s nothing municipal or budget about this 66-room hotel. It took two decades to build and ended up costing £40 million owing to the complexity of the renovation and requirement to preserve the monument.
It’s all part of Ibiza’s glow-up from a destination for Kevin and Perry partygoers to mature clubbers who want to spend big in the luxury hotels. Arriving by car (it’s a 15-minute drive from the airport), guests follow winding roads up to a dramatic wide brick tunnel burrowed into the side of the hill. It’s quite the entrance.
Architecture by the Spanish designers Ignacio Lliso and Julián Manzano-Monís in collaboration with Ramón Andrada looks seamless and slick but it wasn’t without its challenges. For example, work on a subterranean lift shaft had to be abandoned after Phoenician ruins from the 6th and 7th centuries BC — the most ancient on the island — were discovered. “Every time we wanted to do something, something else came up,” de la Fuente says.
The sleek modernist architecture gives Nobu and Six Senses, which also have branches here in Ibiza Town and in Portinatx in the north, a run for their money. The bedrooms come in three categories — standard, superior and junior suite — all in a palette of creams and cappuccinos with Miró-esque knitted textile artwork by Koral Antolin and marble bathrooms.
The Parador has a sleek, modernist designJorquera
Some rooms are wheelchair accessible, but, the manager Pau Arbona explains, “this is a fortress — it was designed to be as inaccessible as possible”.
In the light-filled lobby there’s bleached-white stonework and marshmallow sofas with sisal rugs. Huge glass doors swing open to white turrets with jewels of blue sea peeking through.
The modern Mediterranean design theme is hardly cutting edge, but more importantly it allows the original architecture to really sing. Such as the Renaissance arch framing the reception desk, or the Arab tower, which really does look like a museum exhibit, behind floor-to-ceiling glass in the spa — truly a hot tub with a view.
The spa complex in the hotelRocio Romero Rivas
Art, much of it by Spanish artists, adds zing to the interiors. Take the striking contemporary sculpture by Samuel Salcedo of a lifelike cement head in the cobbled courtyard, which has a touch of the modern-day Roman emperor, or David Magan’s shimmering coloured acrylic globe, which acts as a space-age stained-glass window in the Polvori lounge.
Ibiza Town’s bars are just below the Parador
Cross the courtyard and you’re right above the old town, where a few streets below, the alfresco Aperols start flowing at sunset while Café del Mar Balearic beats set the tone. A bar inside the hotel is opening soon, but for now head to S’Escalinata, where people sit on beanbags cascading down the steps (@ibizasescalinata; Carrer Portal Nou). The bars stay open until the early hours, but tucked up in bed behind the thick castle walls you’d never know.
And if you don’t join them you can be up to visit the Santa Maria Cathedral early in the morning, before the cruise ships dock at the port and thousands descend on the old town. Free group tours of these streets run every Monday and Saturday with Civitatis (book in advance; civitatis.com).
There is plenty to do in the old town below the hotelGetty images
There’s plenty to do in Ibiza Town. You might spend the day perusing its vintage and boho boutiques (don’t miss celeb fave Annie’s), seeing the necropolis — the Puig des Molins — and the museum of contemporary art. If you have a car, head out to the island’s beaches and coves, or take the ferry to the white-sand beaches of Formentera for the day (£70 return).
Whatever you do, don’t miss the breakfast buffet, though. It’s groaning with sweet pastries and crespells — Mallorcan sugar-dusted biscuits — made by the nuns in the adjacent San Cristóbal convent, founded in 1599. (Can Vadell bakery, in the lower part of the town, is a top spot for more pastry action.) As well as an omelette station and à la carte offering, there are smoked Ibizan meats and cheeses, Ibizan chai made with cardamom, cinnamon, black pepper and cloves and root tea infused with pistachio and rose petals from the island.
The restaurant serves Mediterranean fare
At the hotel’s Almudaina restaurant, which serves a Mediterranean menu including lobster bisque (£31), Mallorcan chicken stewed in almond and saffron (£29), and Galician tomahawk steak for two (£82), the service is bright, but there are still teething problems. My main course — a glorious wodge of dentex fish loin — is brought at the same time as my partner’s starter. The snags continue elsewhere. The fire alarm goes off three times during our stay — including at 5am.
Unlike other Ibiza hotels, which operate with a bouncer at the door and a strict dress code, the Parador is a fortress by design, but keen to lower the drawbridge and invite islanders for a poke around too. Before the hotel opened for guests, there were two weeks of viewings for locals, who have patiently endured the building work here. The weekend before opening, there was an open house and 4,500 Ibiza residents queued to look inside. Plus island residents get a 20 per cent discount on stays.
The restaurant serves excellent Mediterranean food
“It’s been closed for 70 years — nobody from the island had seen these views before,” Arbona says in the cobblestone courtyard of the Patio d’Armas in the Dalt Vila. “This is the beginning of everything,” he says. “The whole island started from here.”
It’s not just the architecture where this hotel packs in the drama. One morning I’m sipping tea on our bedroom’s outdoor terrace, with views that stretch from the port to Formentera, when a woman with a bird of prey appears on the castle ramparts to scare away the seagulls. It’s like a scene from Game of Thrones.
In fact, early morning is the most magical time here. With the island silent and the gulls hanging in the breeze, it feels untethered from the present day. The pristine white old town and vast expanse of ocean is below, and the whole castle is yours — at least until the tours get going again.
Katie Gatens was a guest of Parador de Ibiza, which has B&B doubles from £166 (paradores.es), and the Spanish Tourist Office (spain.info). Three days’ car hire from £200 with Sixt (sixt.co.uk). Fly to Ibiza