What's on in Formentera

Formentera is the small, flat island just south of Ibiza, and it's everything its louder neighbour isn't. There are no airports and no big resorts — just the clearest water in the Mediterranean lapping the long white sandbar of Ses Illetes, salt pans, a single quiet road spine, and the lighthouse and craft-market hill of La Mola at the eastern end. People come here to slow right down: cycle between coves, eat at a beach chiringuito, watch the sunset and not much else. That stillness is the whole point.

The summer calendar is intimate and low-key, in keeping with the island. La Mola's hippy craft market is the long-running institution, spread out below the lighthouse, alongside the Es Pujols night market. Music stays gentle and outdoors — the Formentera Jazz Festival in early June, the Nits de Mola concerts in the church square at La Mola, and the World Music Nights in the village plaças. Add the village patron-saint fiestas through July and August and you have summer about right for a place this size.

There's no airport, so everyone arrives by ferry from Ibiza (IBZ) — a half-hour crossing from Ibiza town. On the island a bike or a moped suits most people better than a car, but a small hire car or buggy helps if you're chasing the quieter southern beaches or staying out near La Mola, away from the main strip.

Whether you're in a Es Pujols apartment, a beach hotel or a finca inland, this is your guide to what's actually on while you're here — the markets, the sunset sessions and the small village fiestas worth wandering into.