There’s a moment, somewhere around the middle of September, when Ibiza starts to breathe differently. Nobody announces it in the papers: you simply walk down to the beach one morning at eleven and find there’s space everywhere. The light turns golden, the tarmac stops burning and conversations on the terraces run on longer, because nobody’s in a hurry any more.
Anyone who’s been coming to Ibiza for years knows this. And the ones who know it best wait a little longer still: until October.
It would be easy to talk about the end of the season in wistful terms, but that wouldn’t do it justice. October isn’t the epilogue to anything. It’s the season at its most enjoyable.
That changes the whole trip. You can turn up at Es Cavallet mid-morning without having made a plan the night before. Have dinner in Santa Gertrudis on a Thursday without booking a fortnight ahead. Head down to Cala d’Hort at sunset and find that Es Vedrà belongs to you and four other people.
Something happens in October that happens in no other month: Ibiza is left to the Ibicencos and to the people who’ve come to live it properly, and you feel it everywhere.
This is the time to wander through Las Dalias or the Sant Joan market without the crush, stopping to talk to whoever’s behind the stall. To walk up Sa Talaia in the morning or take the path out to Es Portitxol: routes that are simply unthinkable in the August heat. To cross over to Formentera without queueing at the port.
Above all, though, it’s the month for eating well. October is when the produce is at its best: rice dishes and the traditional bullit de peix, which is a different thing altogether once there’s a bit of a chill in the air. Plenty of inland restaurants bring back the old pagès farmhouse dishes they can’t manage in summer, when there’s neither the time nor the space between covers. Ask at our Guest Experience desk before you head out; there are places that only really come into their own at this time of year, and you won’t find them in any guidebook.
There’s something particular about coming back to the hotel after a few hours out on the island in October. The outdoor pool is heated, so in the middle of the month you can still take a long swim at sunset, at exactly the right temperature, at a point in the year when hardly anyone expects to.
And then there’s Sal Rossa Spa, a place that comes into its own as the air begins to cool: an unhurried water circuit with no eye on the clock, a massage after a long walk, or a facial ritual to repair whatever a summer of sun has left behind.
This year we close on 2 November. Until then, every week of October is a chance to experience Ibiza the way the people who really know it do: no queues, the sea still warm and the whole island moving at a pace that’s impossible in August.
If you fancy seeing the summer off here, now’s the time to look at dates.
We reopen on 24 March 2027! Book early and you’ll get the best of everything. Take a look at the Torre del Mar Friends Club on our website. Members always book with our best rate guaranteed and complimentary spa access, which in October is probably the best thing you can be doing on the island at seven in the evening.
See you in the best time of the year. 😉
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