Six reasons to visit Balearic island Formentera in summer 2022

Ibiza’s laid-back cousin, Formentera – the Balearic island with no airport and few paved roads – knows a thing or two about slowing things down. Life here is all about the simple things: eat lobster rice with your toes in the sand; watch the sun dip into the Mediterranean with a glass of Formentera wine; take a stroll along powdery white sand beaches that meet a turquoise sea. Add to that a Marine reserve with some of the clearest waters in Europe, a 130-kilometre hiking network and a burgeoning food scene, and you can see why so many who come to Formentera never leave.

The island’s 32 hiking and biking trails, known as “green routes”, connect whitewashed villages like Sant Ferran and Es Pujols via 130 kilometres of stone and sand trails flanked by pine forests and turquoise seas. The green routes pass Formentera’s iconic lighthouses and watchtowers, including La Mola and Cap de Barbaria, where the best panoramic views of the island can be found. Nature, too, is reason enough to lace up your hiking boots: wildflower meadows, juniper forests and isolated coves are just some of the landscapes you’ll encounter.

Thanks to the Posidonia Oceanica, a seagrass that acts as a natural filtration system on the island, Formentera has some of the clearest and bluest waters in the Mediterranean. Explore the island’s 69-kilometre coastline on a paddleboard or kayak or join a dive or snorkelling tour, where you’ll find an underwater world of shipwrecks (the sunken Don Pedro cargo ship is 140 metres long) and rich marine life. The islands of Espalmador, off the northern coast of Formentera, offer the clearest waters for underwater exploration, while Cala Saona has calm waters for paddle boarding and swimming.

Blessed with miles of coastline