Ses Illetes

At the northern tip of Formentera the island narrows to a thin finger of sand and rock called Es Trucadors, with water on both sides. On its western shore lies Ses Illetes, a beach of fine white sand about 450 metres long, where the sea stays shallow far out from the shore: some fifty metres from the waterline it is still only about a metre and a half deep. Over pale sand the water turns every shade from glassy clear to turquoise, and the dark patches further out are underwater meadows rather than rocks.

The beach takes its name, which means the islets in Catalan, from the scatter of small islands and reefs just off the shore. Behind the sand, low dunes of fine sand rise gently towards the centre of the spit. The whole area belongs to the Ses Salines Natural Park of Ibiza and Formentera, which covers the south of Ibiza, the north of Formentera and the strait between them. About three quarters of the park is sea, and much of that seabed is covered by meadows of Posidonia oceanica, a flowering seagrass found only in the Mediterranean. These meadows filter and clear the water, shelter fish and other marine life, and shed leaves that pile up on the shore and help hold the sand in place. The Posidonia meadows of the park are part of the UNESCO World Heritage site Ibiza, Biodiversity and Culture, inscribed in 1999.

Formentera is the smaller of the two inhabited Pitiusas, the southern group of the Balearic Islands, and it is reached only by sea, which has helped it keep a quiet, low-built character. The beach belongs to the island's single municipality, and the nearest settlement is La Savina, the island's port, about 4 km to the south along the salt flats of the park.

Getting there

Formentera has no airport. The nearest airport is Ibiza Airport (IBZ) on the neighbouring island; from Ibiza town, about 18 km from the beach in a straight line, passenger ferries cross to La Savina in roughly half an hour. From La Savina the beach is about 4 km north by road through the Ses Salines Natural Park.