Cala Comte

Cala Comte is on the western coast of Ibiza, a series of small sand pockets and rock ledges facing a scatter of islets — Illa des Bosc, Sa Conillera and its lighthouse — a few hundred metres offshore.

The water is why it is famous. The bottom is white sand and posidonia in shallow water, and the colour it produces at midday is the one Ibiza puts on its posters. The sunset from the ledges runs down between the islets, and the crowd that gathers for it — several hundred people on the rocks in August, with a bar behind — is a fixture rather than an accident.

The seagrass under it matters more than the colour. The posidonia meadows between Ibiza and Formentera are a UNESCO World Heritage site and include what is thought to be among the oldest living organisms on earth, a clone estimated at some hundred thousand years. Anchoring on posidonia is prohibited and enforced by patrol; the meadows have still declined measurably from boat traffic and from nutrient load. Sa Conillera's lighthouse has stood since 1857 and the islets around it are a nature reserve closed to landing.

Facilities are a car park that fills by mid-morning, two restaurants and sunbeds on the sand pockets. The council has restricted parking in response to the numbers. Cala Bassa a few minutes north has the sand this one lacks, and the boat shuttle from Sant Antoni serves both.

Very little sand, a great deal of rock, and the best water on the island over it. Come in the morning to swim and snorkel over the seagrass, or in the evening for the sunset between the islets with several hundred other people, and accept that those are two different visits. The car park is full by ten and the council has closed the streets around it.