Travel Guide to Ses Illetes in Formentera

First things first – Formentera Island

In this Guide, we are going to travel to one of the most amazing beaches of the Balearic Islands: Platja de Ses Illetes. You can find it in Formentera, just south of Ibiza island. Formentera is the smallest of the Balearic archipelago, but maybe the most famous of them when it comes to the beauty of the beaches. We paid a visit there, to see what was the fuss about and at least for us it is true, that the best beaches are there.

Map of Formentera with the location of Ses Illetes

Little paradise called Ses Illetes

This beach or Platja is located on a very narrow peninsula that offers the chance to enjoy the sea in opposite directions at the same time. That feels as if you were in two different places. The peninsula is quite long and has several beaches, not only Ses Illetes. Without hesitation, we visited all of them, just not to get any regrets after the journey and of course, it was worth it. Normally, we spend then all day enjoying the real Ses Illetes with its crystal water.

Platja de Ses Illetes — Two beaches along the little trip in Ses Illetes Peninsula, before the one we stayed at

As we said, it’s worth it to walk to the end of the peninsula, which takes almost 1.5km. A little exploration is always good.

S’Espalmador is 200m away, more or less. This island, too, has amazing beaches. It seems easy to just go there swimming or even by walking through the water, but the bay watcher there didn’t recommend it, for safety reasons, because of cross-currents. Maybe in times of low water levels, it’s no problem.

When to visit

We visited Formentera for 2 days, at the beginning of June. Generally, it is a very good choice to visit the Balearic Islands in the interval May-September, regarding the weather. But if you take into account also the crowdedness of the beaches, the prices, availability of hotel rooms, it’s recommended May-June and also September. As for us, the weather was better in May and in the first weeks of June it was windy which it’s not really the best, but it doesn’t affect the amazing experience there.

Activities to do at Ses Illetes

Such a beautiful beach offers a lot of opportunities to enjoy the time there actively, by:

Swimming – which was our main activity
Snorkelling, with your own equipment
Renting small boats at the Port La Savina
Kayaking, from our information, was only possible if had your own, for ex. like an inflatable one
Trekking all around the Peninsula
Ball playing – funnier for more than two persons

Before ending this unique beach day in the late afternoon, we took some last memories with us:

How to get there

This little paradise is truly mesmerizing, right?! But to live this experience, we need to go there first. The interesting part is that you can’t go directly to Formentera from wherever you are, since there is no airport. This is because there are Natural Parks there, like The Ses Salines d’Eivissa i Formentera Natural Park, that’s also a World Heritage of UNESCO. But no worries, it’s still easy to get there, as described below:

By Plane to Ibiza Airport – or by ship Palma de Mallorca – Ibiza
Ibiza-Formentera, Boats every 30 minutes from the Port of Ibiza
La Savina Port – Platja de Ses Illetes: Take public line Bus L3
La Savina Port – Platja de Ses Illetes: Renting a bike, a motorcycle or a car

Riding around the island with a bicycle or a motorcycle is very popular there, especially if you plan to visit it for many days. For us, the public buses were a more practical way than we thought and only the lines that take to Ses Illetes are priced, all other public lines are free.

Ibiza Old Town — Heading to Formentera from Ibiza, here is the view of the Old Town of Ibiza

Heading to Ibiza from Formentera, here is the view of Ses Illetes from the boat

We can also say that the journey itself from Ibiza to Formentera is a very cool activity!

Where to stay

Sunset views in Formentera — View of Ses Illetes at sunset from the place we were staying.

On the Island, there are some small cities where you can stay, but of course, to visit Ses Illetes more comfortably it’s recommended to be nearby. For example, we stayed in the area of Es Pujols (Platja des Pujols), which has also beaches with clear water. From there you can reach Ses Illetes easily by bike, motorcycle, public bus or even walking along the shore, the distance should be a maximum of 4 km.

Platja des Pujols at night with a full moon

What to eat & drink

In Formentera we find Ibiza’s traditional cuisine as the dominating one, being like twin islands. Of course, there are unique dishes, but we didn’t have so much time to get to those. To enjoy the beach as much as possible, we’d suggest the following:

Packed Lunch (we bought food at the supermarket) + local beers
buy sandwiches (or something else) from the local vendors
Restaurants in the vicinity are also an option, but not recommended, not only because they are quite pricey, but mostly because it is much cooler to eat in the vicinity of the waves and their sounds.

In conclusion, we can say that Ses Illetes are truly one of the best beaches in all of the Balearic Islands, having visited 3 of 4 big islands that are part of them. You can also check other experiences we did on the other islands by going here. Till next time, we wish you a pleasant stay on the website and happy Travelling!