Formentera

[Justrelax2022]

Hi! Has anyone been to Formentera? Looking for advice and recommendations. We will have our 10 month old baby in tow - good or bad? Any tips? Are the bus links good or do we have to hire a car? How do we ensure car safety abroad? I am feeling overwhelmed but SO desperate for a holiday! Thanks in advance

Formentera is beautiful. Most people hire scooters/quads - you’ll see couples and their suitcases balanced on one scooter! - so you’ll need to be alert when driving a car. Get a small basic car, rather than a luxury one, as many of the beaches are accessed by tracks rather than roads (hence people hiring quads) and parking can be tight. The only thing I’d worry about with a 10 month old is the lack of shade. Most of the beaches are ‘natural’ without sunloungers and umbrellas, and so you would need to know you had access to your own shade.

@countdowntonap this is incredibly helpful - thank you! Would you go with a 10 month old or not, is there somewhere else you’d advise? Would you say having a car is 100% needed there too (any experience of the buses?) thank you so much again for your reply

Having some form of own transport would be needed in my opinion. The first time we visited was just for a day and so we didn’t have our own transport. Whilst there are lots of taxis at the port, trying to get a taxi back to the port was difficult. There is one main road through the island where the buses pass, but as there is not lots of custom for them they’re not super frequent. Also, from the main road there could be quite a walk down the tracks to the beach. Hiring a car though your hotel would be easy enough - they would drive the car to your hotel and pick it back up from there at the end of your holiday. The next two times we went (and stayed on holiday) we made sure we had our own transport.

There are lots of Italian families, and I do recall a British family with two children in our hotel one year, but there are also lots of couples/groups of friends.

It's lovely, do go to the lighthouse at the very tip of the island. The cafe there has heavenly views.
Agree that you may prefer to hire a car, it'll make your trip much easier.

@Justrelax2022 will you be going straight from the airport to the ferry, or having a stop over in a hotel? If you pre-book your ferry, you can check in online and use an e-ticket which means you don’t have to spend as much time hanging at the port with your baby.

I wouldn't personally go with a 10 month old- but I did see young children there. There is little shade and little to do- so it's very much a beach holiday- which is fine- but not great in my opinion with no shade with small people. It's also very dull if you hit poor weather ( and we did have2 rotten days when we went one summer) - we did a split with 4 days Formentera and 4 days Santa Eulalia -

@countdowntonap @Squirrelsnut @Crikeyalmighty thank you all so much for your help. Definitely food for thought to mull over!

Definitely get a car. You can get a car hired in Ibiza at airport then take car on car ferry also to save having to sort luggage into taxi to port. There’s not as many car ferries a day though

I think it’s ideal at that age. The beaches clean, just take own umbrella. The town is lovely to wander around. And some nice restaurants

You could also do less days there and stay in Ibiza also for duel locations. 3-4 days at each would be ideal

I would be inclined to use taxis to get around, at the cost of maybe having to plan your not-sitting-still days a bit more carefully. It's a tiny island and to spend £300 on car rental to drive 50 miles seems like a lot of money.

If by "ensure car safety abroad" you mean the car seat question, you can just take your normal baby seat along with you. The airline will take it off you at the gate and put it in the hold for free.

I personally wouldn't. It's lovely but there's very little to do there other than sit on the beach. It's a very quiet place with fairly basic infrastructure. Great if you're looking for somewhere very tranquil I guess.
You will have to travel from the airport to get the ferry and then on to your hotel once you arrive. It's a lot of faffing with a baby.
Perhaps look at Es Cana or Santa Eulalia. They have plenty of accommodation choices and are very geared up for families.

I have a question if anyone knows the answer.

We're going to Santa Eulalia in a few weeks and are interested in visiting Formentera for the day.

We won't have a car and don't want to hire scooters or use taxis but would consider a tour by boat, preferably from Santa Eulalia where they visit a couple of Formentera beaches or snorkeling spots, stop for lunch etc.

Is this something that's available? I've not found anything by googling and thought we'd just have a wander around SE marina when we get there to see if anythings advertised but I thought I might as well ask here too. We've never been to Ibiza so just thinking about what we'll do to make the most of our first trip.

@Bjorkdidit Try the Ibiza/Santa Eulalia TripAdvisor Forum. Someone will definitely know on there.

Regarding the shade issue people have mentioned, maybe take one of those pop up shades in your luggage.

amzn.eu/d/efKV05P

Thanks I can see a mention of a 'daily excursion boat' so we'll probably look into that when we get there. There's also some other good ideas such as walking along a coastal path to neighbouring bays, which is the sort of things we like to do.

@Bjorkdidit yes there is a marina where you can catch the boat to Formentera.
You can also go to Es cana, just around the bay or Ibiza town.

www.santaeulaliaferry.com/es/?gad_source=1

You will need to switch the language to English at the very bottom of the right hand menu

Thank you @samarrange it would mostly be a chill holiday as it’s been a bit of a year so we wouldn’t be looking to go out exploring every single day. Re car seat, how does it work if you have an isofix base, does that come with us too? Sorry, am a bit lost with the car stuff.

@Towerofsong this looks great and good for UK day trips too. Thank you!

I wouldn't bother with the Isofix base. It's designed mostly for convenience when putting the child in and out of your car on a daily basis. There is no legal need for it, as a 3-point seatbelt will provide perfectly adequate restraint.

No. The isofix if just for convenience. You can install baby seats with just seatbelt. Your pram might also have car seat clip on option for easy transport