The best family hotels in Ibiza

Apr 27, 2023

By Maya Boyd

Ibiza may have made its name as a magnet for after-hours fun, but the island has a laidback, loose-hipped loveliness that makes it a savvy choice for families with kids, too. Traditional whitewashed villages, easy-breezy coastal resorts and stately Ibiza Town are awash with the hotels that make summering a verb. Where else can babes in arms be lulled to sleep in an orange grove, curious kids cosy up with the local donkey, tweens try their hand at hydro-foiling, or restless teens roam the boardwalk en route to independence? Ibiza has everything from bohemian beach retreats with a salty, surfy crowd to luxurious bells and whistles resorts. But where to head to on an island famous for its north/south divide?

Freewheeling families and Ibiza old hands head north and west to historic finca homestays, lo-fi village restaurants, and a dramatic coast licked with rugged coves and fragrant pines. Days are spent at rustic beach shacks and crabbing in craggy coves before sleepy; sandy tots are ferried straight from the beach to barefoot suppers. It's south and east for the teen and tween dream, where buzzing beach clubs, water sports, DJ lessons, and the odd sneaky nightclub visit are all within striking distance. The south suits families who thrive on structure – lunches at the smartest chiringuitos are booked (by the office PA) weeks in advance, as are sailing lessons, nannies and high-spirited boat days to Formentera.

Inland, the smart set still clusters around central Santa Gertrudis, where boutique shopping, a cosmopolitan restaurant scene, and Ibiza's best international school make for year-round family appeal. Fifteen minutes northeast, however, and sleepy, soon-to-be-pedestrianised San Carlos is jostling for the island's smart family crown, with two excellent plaza pizzerias, a super-popular central play park and a mere five-minute spin from some of Ibiza's prettiest beaches. Distinct as the two sides of the island may be, Ibiza's dinky size means nothing is ever more than 40 minutes away. Here are our picks of the best hotels in Ibiza for families of all shapes and sizes.

Best for: bohemian families

Ibiza old timers and self-identified bohemians head north of dinky San Carlos to Can Talaias, where Laetitia and Cushan Thomas (he's the son of fabled English actor and Ibiza icon Terry Thomas) hold court at Cushan's historic family finca. The vibe is pure north Ibiza – Charlotte Tilbury had her boho wedding extravaganza here back in the day – and if the bougainvillaea-clad walls could tell stories, they’d write a book. In-the-know families return to Can Talaias year after year, booking the fab Sunflower Suite (with its extra kiddies’ room) way in advance and timing trips to align with families they’ve met here previously. Free-range children will make lifelong pals at the shallow kids’ pool – the owners’ children practically grew up there – before wandering off around the impossibly safe grounds to stroke sleepy kittens, spy on posing peacocks and cosy up to the friendly local donkeys. Owner Laeti is as accommodating as can be with babies and will fix up locally grown veggie purees and warm milk at the drop of a hat, while pareo-clad, barefoot parents whisk their tribes between naps to child-friendly local beaches Cala Boix, Cala Llenya and Pou des Lleó (with it chilled-out little surf shack). Jasmine-scented suppers are served family-style beneath a sky studded with stars as sleepy children nod off on, around and under the tables.

Address: Apdo, 244, 07850 Santa Eulària des Riu, Balearic Islands, Spain

Price: from about £310 per night

Book your stay: Booking.com

Best for: new parents

While family hotels in Europe tend to be all about the children, sometimes it's the parents who need the break. For (frazzled) couples with a lone child in tow, few places do it better than the borderline soporific surroundings of Ibiza's original agriturismo. With its acres of lush green lawns (totally eco, mind – the hotel is now entirely off-grid and uses its ample water supply), cosy hideout casitas and endless bougainvillaea-clad corners, the hotel is a vast space in which to lose (and potentially find) yourself. It's so sprawling that even a squawking newborn can be trundled off to the kitchen gardens for a quiet stroll without parents feeling eyeballed by fellow guests. Kiddie amenities are simple – cots, highchairs, kids’ menu, colouring books – but the excellent family pool with linen-clad cabanas, tiki bar and a toddler-tastic frog pond is one of Ibiza's loveliest. The largely open-air spa at Atzaró offers brilliant massages and facials. It is a dreamy, adults-only haven of tranquillity to which mama (or papa) can slope off to be stretched, soothed and pummelled back to life by kind and empathetic therapists. The hotel can also arrange excellent childcare at the drop of a hat, meaning that an early morning cycle ride through dewy lanes (the hotel has its own bikes) or a romantic supper at nearby La Paloma or Can Balàfia shouldn't be out of the question for new parents.

Address: Atzaró Agroturismo, Carretera de San Juan, Km 15, 07849 Santa Eulària des Riu, Illes Balears, Spain

Price: from about £382 per night

Best for: inventive kids’ clubs

Sticky-taped to the cliffside between southwestern Cala Comte and Cala Codolar, 7Pines is a sort of Kellerman's for contemporary families. It is a bells-and-whistles resort for folk who like all their diversions a golf buggy ride away. Sugar-cube suites are peppered around the grounds with their own gardens, terraces and dinky kitchens. Cute as the casitas are, families will want to hotfoot it to The Laguna – the family-friendly ‘resort within a resort’ – with tropical gardens, a kiddies’ pool and even a poolside taco truck for al-fresco snacks. Tucked inside The Laguna is the brilliant Kio House of Kids, a game-changing kids’ club created by local artists and educators to encourage environmental awareness among the little people. The kids’ club has a soothing, tactile space dedicated to teeny tots (rest area included), creative workshops, games, spaces, indoor activities and even a laidback teens’ escape. The ethos here is all about promoting creativity, consciousness and the power of imagination, so curious kids can expect to join in with upcycling collages, beach cleans and gardening classes while guilt-free parents disappear into 7Pines’ world-class spa (one of Ibiza's best-kept secrets) for restorative yoga, PT sessions and deeply intuitive massages.

Address: Carrer Puig Delfín, s/n, 07830, Illes Balears, Spain

Price: from about £521 per night

Best for: energetic kids

It's no surprise that Ibiza Bay runs like clockwork for families – the hotel is from the team behind Andalusia institution The Marbella Club, whose kids’ club is arguably the best in Europe. While the kids’ club at Ibiza Bay can't compete in size, it makes up for it in inventive activities, with hippie bracelet making, mermaid and pirate parties, sushi workshops (with mocktails) and popcorn-packed movie nights. A raft of cosy cabanas lines the elegant children's pool, where curious kids order from a first-rate mini menu (grilled payés chicken, salmon and veggie skewers, fresh fruit platter) while parents sip rosé and tap away at their smartphones. Rooms are capacious (interconnecting for larger families) and come stashed with baby bathrobes, goodie bags, baseball caps and branded pareos, while the spa offers too-cute parent-and-child massages, and everyone floats around the lobby barefoot. But the most magical thing about Ibiza Bay is in fact, the staff: they know the kids by name, turn a cheerful blind eye to borderline naughty behaviour and are the first to drape a comforting blanket over a softly snoozing toddler. Making parents feel at ease in a five-star hotel isn't as easy as it sounds, but Ibiza Bay make it seem like a breeze.

Address: Carrer de Ses Feixes, 52, 07800, Illes Balears, Spain

Price: from about £781 per night

Best for: creative, multi-gen families

Something about the pool and beach combo ticks all the right boxes, so when chic French hotelier Sophie Berdah, of Paris's hip Le Citizen, stumbled across a rough Salinas diamond – formerly Fred's Finca – she pounced. La Pandilla (‘the gang’, in Spanish) is a clutch of 10 whitewashed casitas clustered around an oval pool just ten minutes from the ice-white slick of Salinas. The creamy, curvaceous casitas sleep from two to 10 (or rent the whole lot and bring 65 mates) and have been designed with extended families in mind and can be as private or as communal as you like. Terraces open onto lush tropical gardens stashed with mango, fig and lemon trees and the pool bar, with its all-day, local-produce menu and roster of visiting DJs, is the heart of the whole affair. The standout at La Pandilla, however, is the cult of creativity – regular workshops range from the artistic to avant-garde, with local experts shipped in to teach theatre, flamenco, knitting, painting, photography, cooking and ceramics in the two stylish studios. If games are more your thing, there are giant quoits and board games by the pool, or else hotfoot it down to Las Salinas itself for sailing, paddleboarding and kayaking for the kids, followed by cocktails and DJs for the grown-ups at newly revived ‘90s beachside icon, Hostal Mar y Sal.

Address: Carrer de Formentera, 2-4, 07817 Sant Francesc de s'Estany, Illes Balears, Spain

Price: from about £170 per night

Best for: restless teens

Santa Eulalía is in the throes of a long-awaited renaissance, largely spearheaded by the revival of the beachside area between the rio de Santa Eulalia (Ibiza's last remaining flowing river) and the town. At the heart of this buzzing beachside barrio is Riomar, one of the smartest newest hotels in Ibiza. With its art-deco style lobby and rich, earthy palette, the hotel ticks all the grown-up boxes, but prides itself on being deeply family-friendly. Interconnecting rooms, sofa beds and cots (no charge) accommodate families of all sizes, but it's the outdoor spaces that really shine, with a toddler-sized pool alongside the main one (cannonballing encouraged), pool and beach games and a vast, enclosed, sand-floored chillout zone – known as Tribe – that's all swinging hammock chairs, giant bean bags and stacked kilim cushions – in short, a desert encampment for kids. The hotel sits right on Santa Eulalia's buzzy (and super safe) boardwalk – to the north is the town, with resort-style shopping, pavement cafes galore and a pretty promenade where older kids could safely explore unaccompanied. To the south are two hip beach clubs, of which brand-new UM Beachouse is the rustic-chic dream for Instagram-happy teens, who can while away the afternoons sipping Fanta Limón on the hotel's smart sunbeds afterwards.

Address: Calle Del Rio, 48, 07840 Santa Eulària des Riu, Illes Balears, Spain

Price: from about £339 per night

Best for: music-mad teens

Tucked into pine-clad foothills just above teeny Cala Gracio, OKU isn't a family hotel per se, but is a first-rate option for those with tweens and up. The location – just outside razzly-dazzly San Antonio – makes OKU a magnet for glossy, grown-up, one-time ravers who’ve ditched the nightly party scene in favour of DJ-fuelled cocktails at the hotel's open-air poolside bar instead. With its slouchy rattan daybeds, lazy ceiling fans, primitive ceramic displays and cantilevered wooden shutters, OKU has a contemporary, Tulum-meets-Skorpios vibe that will appeal to hip parents and fussy tweens alike, who can enjoy the duck-egg pool, 9am morning hikes and even the luxurious spa – parent/child treatments start from eight years and up. Older teens can slope off down to vibey Cala Gracioneta, where an upbeat beach restaurant serves lunch on the sand. In the evening, a five-minute cab ride will have them on San An's fabled sunset strip, where iconic beach bars Café Mambo and Café del Mar host outdoor pre-parties (with big-name DJs) for the big five nightclubs. OKU can even arrange private DJ lessons for young spinners back at the hotel if they catch the music bug. Junior suites sleep three, or the new private villa – with its own pool – sleeps eight.

Address: Camí del Portixol, 2, 07820 Sant Antoni de Portmany, Illes Balears, Spain

Price: from about £414 per night

Best for: older teenagers

There's a hush-hush serenity to the Ibiza Gran Hotel that feels all grown up, but behind the scenes, this bolthole is a wonderland for well-behaved children. Teeny tots are showered with goodies upon arrival – rubber ducks, colouring books, animal balloons and homemade cookies galore – while jet-lagged parents are grateful for Stokke bathtubs, baby-specific Aveda amenities and a thoughtful kids’ menu that includes homemade fruit pure for babies in the room at arrival. Poolside, giggling toddlers waddle in and out of the vast lagoon-style pool, with its tinkling waterfalls and fizzy hot tub, while tween slope off to shady corners to read and catch up on study. The hotel's location in frisky Marina Botafoch makes it a great one for older teens who’ve been lured onto one final family holiday – Ibiza's original nightclub, Pacha, is on the doorstep and is a rite of passage for over-18s, while hip on-site discoteca Club Chinois hosts some of the planet's hottest DJs, from Luciano to Ida Engberg. Pacha-owned cabaret extravaganza Lío is just a few steps away and would make for a super-charged family supper and night out (over 18s only).

Ibiza Town itself, jam-packed with great boutiques, pavement cafes and atmospheric family-friendly restaurants like La Bodega, is a fifteen-minute stroll around the Marina, but much more fun is the half-hourly El Corso, a wooden passenger boat that's been ferrying the great and the good across the harbour for over 50 years.

Address: Passeig Joan Carles I, 17, 07800 Eivissa, Illes Balears, Spain

Price: from about £524 per night

Voga Marí

Best for: best for beachcombers

The magnetic pull of Ibiza's little sister island is in its laidback, barefoot simplicity, where sun-soaked beach days blend into sultry summer nights and life happens out of doors. Formentera old hands know that Playa Migjorn is where the island's most authentic vibe is to be found, and none come more authentic than lo-fi Voga Marí, a clutch of low-slung bungalows tossed into the dreamlike landscape of the dunes. Part of the island-wide Astbury collection (founded in 1982 by Formentera old-timer, the retired British army colonel John Astbury), Voga Marí is a wonderland for free-range children, who’ll tumble out of the light-filled studios at daybreak to chase waves still edged in gold from the rising sun. Crabs will be caught, sandcastles built, and stucco-coloured seashells threaded onto strings of seaweed while parents sip coffee and prepare breakfast in dinky yet perfectly appointed kitchenettes. A snaking boardwalk threads through the protected dunes, linking Voga Marí with barely-there beach bars like Kiosko 62, while the sandy caminos just behind the beach are the dream for family bike rides. Come nightfall; there's little to do but play Uno on the pretty terrace while the lighthouse at Cap de Barbaría blinks out its warning.

Address: Carretera de la Mola, Km. 9.5, 07860 Platja de Migjorn, Balearic Islands, Spain

Price: from about £205 per night

Finca Can Martí

Best for: nature lovers

Slow, slow, slowwwww is the buzzword at Can Martí, a serene, 400-year-old limewashed finca estate in the rural nature reserve of Es Amunts. Set among rolling agricultural land, Can Martí is a working permaculture farm overflowing with organic vegetables, sugar-sweet strawberries and endless native species. Rooms are postcard-pretty, whitewashed boltholes with rustic cream-on-cream interiors, linen-draped beds and sabina wood ceilings, some with cosy mezzanines for kids. Outdoors, barefoot children scamper between the reed-fringed natural swimming pool and the on-site farm, where peas are harvested, friendly donkeys stamp for attention and eggs are collected from clucky, dusty hens. If lolling by the pool with a book proves too soporific for parents, there are yoga classes and fantastic, frankincense scented massages on the breezy deck. When evening comes, a pine-scented stroll to the bohemian village of San Joan is rewarded by a clutch of organic restaurants – including the much-loved Giri Café – and an old-world atmosphere that harks back to San Joan's heady days as the hub of Ibiza's hippy era.

Address: Venda de Ca's Ripolls, 29, 07810, San Juan Bautista, Illes Balears, Spain

Price: from about £345 per night

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