Cala Bassa

Cala Bassa is on the western coast of Ibiza, in the municipality of Sant Josep, a small bay of white sand backed by sabina pine with water that is exceptionally clear and shallow for a long way out.

The bay is organised around a single beach club that has run it since the 2010s, and the arrangement is the reason it belongs to this world rather than to the coves. Sunbeds, a restaurant, music and a boat shuttle from Sant Antoni make up a day that is sold rather than found; a strip of free public sand remains, as Spanish law requires, and it is smaller and busier than the concession.

The water is the genuine asset. The bay faces west into a sheltered aspect, the bottom is sand and posidonia, and the clarity is a consequence of the seagrass — posidonia meadows filter and stabilise the water, and the Ibiza and Formentera meadows are a UNESCO World Heritage site. Anchoring on posidonia is prohibited and enforced, which visitors arriving by boat should know. The bay faces west, so the light through the afternoon is what people stay for as much as the water.

Development is the club, a car park and pine forest behind. Sant Antoni is fifteen minutes by road or a boat shuttle across the bay. Cala Comte a few minutes south — Cala Conta in Castilian, one beach under two spellings — has the sunset, the rock ledges and no club, and is where people go when Bassa is full.

A club runs this bay and sells a day rather than a place, which is fair enough as long as you know it before booking the boat. The free strip is real and small. The water is clear because of the posidonia under it, and anchoring on that is prohibited for good reason. Cala Conta a few minutes south has the sunset and no club at all, and the boat shuttle from Sant Antoni serves both.