Family holidays: Parent-friendly Holidays in Ibiza

Mention Ibiza to parents of a certain age and they’ll look at you wistfully, remembering balmy summer nights spent having it large in San Antonio. Until recently, parents have been more likely to dance the Agadoo than shake it at Pacha. But not since the introduction of an overnight childcare service that offers parents voluntary sleepless nights and the chance to dance ‘til dawn at one of the island’s super-clubs.

Ibiza is a beautiful island, although the hedonistic havens of Playa d’en Bossa and San Antonio tend to draw younger, noisier crowds – for families, I’d recommend the quieter east coast of the island. Our hotel, the Cala Verde, nestles high in the bushy pinehills of Playa d’es Figueral, and with its two swimming pools, mini club and nightly kids' disco, it’s a perfect base for our party-lovin' gang. Two adults and two children can share a room, or larger adjoining rooms are available.

Duty bound, we drag the kids screaming from the hotel pool for a grand tour. As the third-largest of the Balearics, Ibiza is still surprisingly compact. Hiring a car is cheap, and you can get from east to west in little more than an hour. Cala Conta in the south, considered one of the finest coves on the island, has clear, shallow waters and an aquamarine shoreline that is generally reserved for postcards and Wham! videos. This side of the island is best for Ibiza’s glorious sunsets, but rather than risk the cringy applause at Café Del Mar (“Duh, the sun sets every day, you know!”), those in the know watch it from the Sunset Ashram, a kid-friendly Indo-Mediterranean restaurant serving the best vegetarian thali on the island.

Friday – the night we grown-ups have been waiting for – comes round quickly. When Alexis, our fully qualified nanny for the evening, set up Childcare Ibiza , it became an instant hit with the celebrity DJ crowd who decamp here each summer. For overnight stays, you need to pre-arrange an extra bed in the children’s room, or, say if you’re in a villa, in a separate room close by. You can book a nanny for 4-, 7- or 12-hour sessions, or for that extra-long lie-in, an overnight followed by a 4-hour session, which is, unsurprisingly, extremely popular.  

We arrive at Pacha soon after midnight and swan around the chalky white terraces of Ibiza’s prettiest club with the island’s young and beautiful. The main room is jammed with folk jumping to the DJ’s every spin, and as the music throbs joyfully through my veins, I’m afraid I don’t give the children a second thought. 

In the morning, Alexis gets up with the kids and takes them down for breakfast. Chatting happily over boiled eggs, they, in turn, barely notice a bleary-eyed Mummy and Daddy rolling up for a much-needed café con leche…