Chilled Ibiza: Experience the Ultimate Sunset Mix

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Moving from its party-hard peak, Ibiza has gone through an introspective shift, with a desire to slow life down so it can hit its rhythm again. But if the coast is reimagining the infrastructure of the package-tour era, out in the countryside the movement is fuelled by nostalgia for the Ibiza of a much earlier time: simpler and more pastoral.

It reminded me that even as one generation moans about how much more magical and idyllic Ibiza was in their day, successive generations are already finding new sources of magic and idyll. The great dome of Privilege up on the heights of San Rafael looked forlorn and unkempt, the encroaching vegetation making it appear like a Mayan ruin in the early stages of being reclaimed by the jungle. Back in the day, the sleepy hamlet of San Lorenzo had a single bar, the Casanova, where country folk went to smoke cheroots and play cards. Further round the west coast, I stopped for a dip at the pretty cove of Cala Moli, just down the road from the splashy private community Sabina Estates. La Torre is not the only delicious makeover of a tired hostel – look at Los Enamorados in Portinatx, the delightful waterside bolthole curated by design freaks Pierre Traversier and Rozemarijn de Witte.Neighbouring Eat is Life and Alma Canalla, with burgers by Valencia’s The Black Turtle, make Port des Torrent something of a gastro melting pot.

The old north-south divide is also increasingly redundant: you’re as likely to discover a cool boho scene among the glitz of the south as a whopping heavyweight resort on a wild northern beach. Though most of my friends here have moved away, a few stubbornly cling on, resisting the sky-high cost of living in a spot that’s become a magnet for the super-rich. On a hot day it bustles with beautiful people who come for chef Rafa Zafra’s impeccably prepared fish and shellfish. On the night I was there, drinking cold fino sherry and nibbling burrata with olives and juicy figs, the soundtrack was a Brazilian guitarist playing soft bossa nova. There was an atmosphere of elegant unflashiness, chastened chic, that seemed somehow attuned with the mood of the times.The group has overhauled the house and its grounds, drawing on a deep knowledge of the area’s traditional architecture. It was Marañón who introduced me to the community of estate owners who are restoring and regenerating great swathes of abandoned land. The original fixer for anything you want organised while in Ibiza, from villas to chefs, drivers to yoga teachers.