Formentera

As the smallest inhabited island of the Balearics, Formentera is often overshadowed by the more popular Ibiza and Majorca with their fame of being the holy ground for every party loving teenager in Europe, but this actually made Formentera a hidden gem for those tourists looking for a more relaxing holiday and a taste of unspoiled nature.

Truth is, although there are a number of bar and restaurants to cater to its guests, the 85 km square island remains largely untouched by the tourism industry with all its noise and chaos. Here you are a long way from the hoardes of promoters trying to sell you a ticket to the local disco while you are just trying to chill out under the sun or gazing at the sea. With no airport and access limited to ferries from mainland Spain and the island’s larger Balearic neighbours, Formentera is surely the most peaceful place to plan a family trip or a quiet weekend with friends to recover some energy after Ibiza’s wild nights.

Things to do in Formentera

Formentera is truly a dreamland for beach and nature lovers: with over 20 km of white sandy beaches, amazing golden coves, clear turquoise water and endless cereal fields, the island is a real paradise on earth, so much so that it has been declared, together with Menorca, a natural reserve and world heritage site by UNESCO. So, for everybody wondering what to do in Formentera and where to go, the small island offers to its guests some of the most gorgeous beaches in Europe, like the famous Playa de Ses Illetes with its unbelievable sunset or the more popular Playa de Llevant, both easily reachable by renting a scooter or a bike for a free tour of the island.

If it’s the sea that you want to explore, hopping aboard a boat is as easy as renting a car in this yachting playground: from catamaran lessons to tour trips around the island, from cruise sailing to raft renting, Formentera will offer you every kind of marine activity, as well as many different water sports like kitesurfing and windsurfing. But if you really love those crystalline waters and want to discover the real treasures that they hide, what you are really looking for is your first experience of scuba diving in Formentera.

Diving in Formentera

Voted in the first Neptune awards in 2005 as the Best National Diving Destination, Formentera’s waters bear the honour of having been declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site! This is owing to the submerged meadows of Posidonia, a seagrass known as the lungs of the Mediterrean that is renowned for providing the perfect habitat for hundreds of sea creatures, a real blessing for every diver wishing to encounter the greatest variety of fishes.

The customary tranquillity and amazing clarity of the island’s water make Formentera the perfect spot for lovers of diving and underwater photography, as the average visibility of 30 meters makes those dive sites second only to the most remote tropical islands, allowing even the less experienced divers to enjoy the great number of shipwrecks, walls and caves that the underwater side of Formentera has to offer. And now diving has become even more simple with the new PETER Diving System, the perfect tool to take your first breath underwater in a complete safe environment, available on the island at Vellmari Diving Centre and especially designed for your first unforgettable diving adventure in Formentera.