Walking Ibiza's Ses Salines, from salt pans to the sand

Walking the salt pans

Parc Natural de ses Salines d'Eivissa i Formentera is why anything is down here at all: a UNESCO-listed working saltscape of shallow pans laid out like a chequerboard in pink, rust and white. Low stone walls divide one pan from the next. Flat-topped salt mountains and sabina pines close the view behind, and flamingos wade in the shallows. Walk it in the cool of the morning, when the light on the pans is at its best, and stay on the marked tracks. Guided park walks are bookable on +34 971 301 460.

Sa Canal salt works and loading pier sits at the southern end, where the road runs out behind the beach. Old narrow-gauge rails are still set into the ground. Salinera Española works the site and ships Ibizan salt to Scandinavia. The terminal is closed to visitors, so you see it from the public road and the far end of the beach. Salt is still a business here.

Església de Sant Francesc de s'Estany stands alone on the causeway between two salt lagoons, a small whitewashed cube with a single bell arch and nothing around it. It was built in 1785 for the salt workers and never granted parish status. You can see the exterior at any hour, which is how most people see it. The interior opens irregularly, so don't build a morning around getting inside. The planned park interpretation centre sits beside the chapel and is still not open in 2026.

Platja de ses Salines and Platja des Cavallet

Platja de ses Salines curves for 1.5 km behind low dunes and twisted sabina pines, turquoise in the shallows, with Formentera low on the horizon. It anchors a day down here, and it is the island's most fashionable stretch of sand. The beach is public and free, with no door policy anywhere on it; sunbeds are sold by the individual chiringuitos at €25 to €35 a day. Parking fills by 11:00 in July and August. The southern end stays the quieter half, and it is the end to aim for if you want sand around you.

Platja des Cavallet lies over the dune ridge, wilder and emptier, with high vegetated dunes, no buildings on the sand at all and the walled hill of Dalt Vila visible far to the north. The southern end is naturist and has been Ibiza's main LGBTQ+ beach for decades. Nobody polices any of it. The long-standing Chiringay closed for good in June 2026, so lunch on this beach now means La Escollera or El Chiringuito.

La Escollera (north end of Es Cavallet) is a blue-and-white timber terrace built on the rocks, with paella pans, fishing-port fittings and the dunes running away south. The same family has run it for more than 30 years and it opens 365 days a year, so it is the dependable lunch at this end of the park. Call +34 971 396 572 to book. They ask you to ring in case a private event has taken the terrace.

The watchtowers at Ses Portes and Sa Sal Rossa

Torre de ses Portes is a squat cylindrical 16th-century tower on a rocky headland of scrub, its stone doorway raised with no stair beneath it, the sea channel to Formentera open beyond. It is the tallest of Ibiza's 11 pirate-watch towers and it was built to guard the salt. The walk out from the end of Salinas beach takes 30 minutes and carries no shade at any point, so take it on in the morning rather than the middle of the afternoon. The tower is free and unstaffed.

Torre de sa Sal Rossa, also called Torre des Carregador, marks the northern gate of the park, where salt was once loaded onto boats. It sits on a low cliff at the end of a sandy bay, red-tinged rock below it, the Playa d'en Bossa strip running away to the north. The walk in from the road is short and the tower has no facilities. Staying on Playa d'en Bossa puts this within reach on foot before breakfast.

Beach bars and restaurants on Salinas sand

Sa Trinxa is a weathered wooden shack half-buried in the dunes at the far end of the sand, with mismatched furniture, driftwood, bare feet and pine shade over the bar. It has been going since 1978 and remains the least pretentious thing on this beach. Walk up, pick your patch of sand and take whatever table is free; nothing is reserved and nobody checks you at the door. The park banned DJ sets at the Salinas chiringuitos in July 2025. Come for the dunes and the shade.

Jockey Club has held the same patch of sand for three decades and is still the Salinas table people name-drop. Rows of white canvas parasols and cream day-beds run in regimented lines straight onto the beach, with a low timber restaurant deck behind them. It opens daily 11:00 to 19:00, and the kitchen serves 12:30 to 18:00. Loungers cannot be reserved at any hour. Up to seven people book by phone on +34 971 395 788; eight or more have to book by email and pay €65 per person in advance, with a 48-hour cancellation window.

Beso Beach Ibiza sits at the quieter end of Salinas, a 15-minute walk from the thick of the beach. The structure is rough timber and rope, hung with lanterns, floored with sand, and the tables are long and communal with Formentera across the channel. The cooking is Basque-Mediterranean. The 2026 season opened on 1 May. Reserve well ahead in peak season.

NoHo Beach Club is the newest arrival on Platja de ses Salines and the only beach club here that opens all year, which is worth knowing in a shoulder-season week when half the sand has shut. The terrace is pale wood and linen, raised above the beach, lit by sculptural fittings, with a long bar facing the sunset. This is the most formal door on Salinas. Book ahead on its booking page.

Sunset at Cap des Falcó

Experimental Beach Ibiza (Cap des Falcó) sits on the park's western edge with no neighbours at all. Wooden decks terrace down bare rock towards the water under oversized cream parasols, and there is nothing in view but salt fields and sea. The 2026 season opened on 3 April and it runs daily 10:00 to 00:00. Reserve before you set off; the approach is a dirt track, and a walk-up here risks a wasted drive. For a drink at sunset this is the best thing in the Ses Salines area.

Sant Jordi, five minutes inland

Església de Sant Jordi de ses Salines is documented from 1469 and is the best preserved of Ibiza's four fortress-churches: whitewashed, battlemented along the roofline, with steeply sloping buttressed walls and an arcaded porch. It was built for the people who worked the salt, five minutes inland from the pans. Entry is free when the doors are open around services. Keep your party small inside, because this is a working parish church rather than a monument.

Sant Jordi Flea Market takes over the Hipòdrom de Sant Jordi every Saturday from 08:00 to 15:00, all year, from 3 January to 27 December 2026. Trestle tables and car boots spread across the dusty horse-racing track, the rails and the tiered stand behind them, second-hand clothes and vinyl laid out under parasols. Entry is free and there is no limit on how many of you turn up. Arrive before 11:00 if you want to park. It is the one year-round, locally run fixture in the parish.

Where to stay

Ses Salines sits inside a protected park and no hotel stands on the pans themselves. The nearest real base is The Unexpected Ibiza Hotel (Playa d'en Bossa), a 180-room block in bold graphic patterns facing the long Playa d'en Bossa strip, with a beachfront pool deck and the salt flatlands behind it. It is five-star and adults-only. Family parties cannot stay. The drive down to the beach takes 10 minutes.

Before you go

Chiringay is gone, the interpretation centre beside the chapel is shut, the chapel interior opens on no fixed schedule and the market runs Saturdays only. Book Jockey Club, Beso Beach, NoHo and Experimental Beach before you travel in season; La Escollera and the guided park walks are arranged by phone.

See the Ibiza guide and the Ibiza hotel search.