The family and I just spent a week in Ibiza on a package holiday booked with Jet2. Since having kids, I tend to find myself using Jet2 for all our family holidays. They just take care of everything, you get loads of luggage allowance and I don't really have to think too much about anything. It cost about £3k which to be honest, made me want to cry. That is such an outrageous amount of money to have to spend, but I have to work with the school holidays now so I guess I need to get used to it. The flight from Manchester was just under 3 hours. We had a late flight out which was a nightmare as little one was past tired. The early flight home was absolutely fine though. Ibiza is obviously known as one of the party/clubbing capitals of the world, but we went there for a family vacay, so I wasn't entirely sure what to expect.
Where We Stayed
We stayed at a hotel called Invisa Hotel Club Cala Blanca which is on the North East coast of the island in a place called Es Figueral.
The hotel was really nice. The resort is huge which made getting about with a 2 year old quite difficult but there were loads of families there that were returning for a second or third time which says a lot about the place. We booked the all inclusive package.
The rooms were okay. We booked a room which they described as something like premier supreme room with pool view but tbh I would just go with a cheaper one next time. It had everything we needed. TV had no English channels which is something I feel bad for moaning about but it was annoying. Bathroom was fine. Nothing to write home about but did the job. Balcony was nice for an evening drink when little one was asleep.
Just outside of the hotel there are a couple of shops which you can use for snacks and drinks and beach bits and souvenirs and the likes. Buckets and spades and snorkelling stuff or whatever. They are pretty well stocked.
The Food
Most things are included on the all inclusive. Meals, drinks, ice creams etc etc. There are a few bits that were not such as the cocktail bar in the adults only section and premium ice creams and coffees but that is standard.
The food was good. Some nights it was really good. They certainly don't cheap out on ingredients. Some of the meat dishes, steaks, fish, ribs etc were really good quality. I will try and include some pics here. There were loads of options for food and the food hall was pretty big with loads of staff. Saying that, it did get CRAZY busy in peak time but once you were seated you could kind of zone out of the madness until you were ready to go up again.
Breakfast was amazing. The usual offering of Full English style, continental stuff, pancakes, churros, pastries, fruit, yoghurt, tea and coffee. You get the idea. Loads of choice and plenty of stock. Lunch and dinner were the same. Different menu every night with some consistent stuff for the more picky eaters amongst us. They also had a Tex-Mex style restaurant that was open a few nights but we didn't try it so I can't comment. But I imagine that it was good.
In-between meals they also had food you could eat. Pizza, chips, salad and other bits but again, we ate so much at meal times that we never used it.
We were staying on the opposite side of the hotel to where the food hall was so it was a bit out of the way (when I say that I'm talking a 5-7 min walk but with a toddler that was enough).
Facilities
The hotel has a kids club, huge kids water parks, several outdoor pools, an indoor pool, a gym, laundry, games rooms, kids play parks and several bars. It really has everything that you need to stay on the resort the whole time. Worth noting that the water parks are not really suitable for a 2 year old. They are more for kids aged maybe 5 and up so ours couldn't really use them.
In the evenings, after dinner we headed to the kids disco. I think this starts at about 8 which is normally past little one's bed time but actually worked quite well for our holiday routine. She loved it, did loads of dancing and the hotel activity staff people are great with the kids. They do a later show every night from 21:30 but we never actually made it to those. They did look good, they got some external people in to run them and people seemed to have fun.
If anyone from the hotel ever reads this, the one piece of feedback I would give is that having the table tennis table, and pool table, right by the stage, causes absolute chaos. There's a kids disco on with toddlers dancing around everywhere, and right next to it a bunch of slightly older kids smashing table tennis balls at people and bumping into everyone. That one detail really didn't work and caused several arguments on the few nights that we were there.
The Beach
The hotel has access directly onto a beach. All beaches in Spain are public so the beach is not private to the hotel. With that being said they charge £10 (euro) per lounger and £10 for an umbrella. I can't stand being on the sand so we had to pay this which was costing us £30 a day which on an all inclusive you really don't want to be doing. You can take your own stuff down and not use this service but just something to be aware of. If we went again I would buy our own beach stuff on day one and not pay for beds. Our toddler naps well so she just slept on the beach and by the pool in the shade which made life easy.
Exploring the Island
So for me, the location was the downside of the hotel. I am the type of person who likes to get out and about. I like to walk the strip, do a bit of exploring, visit a few bars and shops and just get out. Other than a couple of shops and a single restaurant, there really is nothing around. They run a bus to the hippy markets and a few other bits (for a small cost) so you can get to those but this really is a stay in the resort sort of place. If you have gone all inclusive, that may be exactly what you're after. Just not really for me.
On the Saturday we went to the Las Dalias hippy market in San Carlos. This one runs on Sundays so worth planning around. The hotel run buses for £2.50 per person which gives you 3 hours, which was plenty of time. There is also a different market on a Wednesday that you can get to as well. You can find more information about that particular market here.
We did rent a car from the hotel for a day. They have a car rental place in the hotel. It was about £70 for the day and they provided a car seat. We got an automatic VW T-Roc which was perfect for us. The lady at the car rental place gave us a large map with loads of places to go so we explored viewpoints and amazing beaches. What an absolutely stunning little island.
We also drove over to Ibiza Town which took about 40 mins. The place is a nightmare to drive so don't go there if you're not confident but we managed to park up and explore the old town which is really nice. Parking there is about £4 per hour and I'm pretty sure I drove in a bit that I wasn't supposed to and at some point will probably get a fine that I could do without but it is what it is.
We were going to drive over to the west coast of the island for the sunset as there are loads of great locations to watch it set over the sea but sunset was about 9pm and the toddler would not have coped. You should definitely check this out if you can though.
Weather
We went at the very end of May. It was between 23-26 degrees every day. Not a cloud in the sky. That never sounds too hot to me but I wouldn't have wanted it to be any hotter. Weather was absolutely perfect.
Would We Go Again
Yeah I think we would. I would try and get a car for a few days and do half days exploring at a time. The hotel itself was amazing and there were loads of people who go every year so it's a great place. The bar staff were a bit rude but I do find that a lot in Spanish hotels these days. Very little tolerance for the kids (kind of understandable, who can tolerate other people's kids??) and my wife got the vibe that they hated her. The rest of the staff were lovely.