BLACKBOOK The portside town of Ciutadella in Menorca at sundown ISLAND HOPPING BEAUTIESOF THEBALEARICS From the isolated charm of Formentera and Menorca’s idiosyncratic nature to Mallorca’s chic majesty and the ceaseless buzz of Ibiza, this quartet of islands each has its own idea of the perfect escape. BY PAUL RICHARDSON Spain Barcelona Valencia BALEARIC ISLANDS The Balearic archipelago – featuring Ibiza, Formentera, Mallorca and Menorca – accounts for a third of Spain’s dozen inhabited islands. The quartet lies in a rough curve off the country’s east coast, yet all are closer to Africa than to Madrid. I lived in Ibiza for ten years in the 1990s and have made innumerable visits to the other islands, and my love of them runs deep. History has knocked them about: Menorca was marked by its spell as a colonial vassal, while Formentera was abandoned entirely for a period. After the tensions of the Spanish Civil War, Ibiza sunk into near oblivion. Then came big changes. Few world revolutions have affected a place as completely as the Balearic tourist boom of the 1960s. The figures tell a startling tale: in 1960 there were fewer than 400,000 visitors to the four IBIZA MALLORCA FORMENTERA Spain Valencia MENORCA Barcelona BALEARIC ISLANDS FROM TOP: GUNNAR KNECHTEL/LAIF, STEVE STANKIEWICZ 32 departures-international.com MALLORCA MENORC
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