I get the same reaction from British people when I tell them where I go for my Holidays.

I think people need to visit the island to see for themselves what a gorgeous place it is.

We have been 5 times now and never seen any of the *drunk* and *rowdy* people, although I'm sure they do exist.
Isn't it the same in every holiday place?
There is usually an area where it's more rowdy and a certain time of year.

I have been writing to newspapers and magazines who publish articles maligning Ibiza (i.e. most of them) for the past three years. Of course none of my letters have ever been published. Perhaps if the people who know and love Ibiza did the same thing then the message would begin to get across that the drug crazed culture that the media writes about is a small percentage of holiday makers during a short period of the summer. The first voice of reason that I have seen in the press during all this time comes from Roger Sanchez who is quoted in the Independant 10/4/2007:

http://travel.independent.co.uk/europe/article2193570.ece

EDIT: Post edited for copyright reasons. Weblink inserted to replace copyright protected text
David HT Mod

i'm constantly amused that the clubbing fraternity always blame the bad image of ibiza on a few kids on a rites of passage booze up in san antonio. they should take a look at their own socially unacceptable (and thus far illegal ) behaviour, habits and consumption first!

I don't know where you live spottydog but I would suggest that you have your head in the sand if you think that Ibiza is any worse than any British town where young people gather. The point of this thread is that there is a lot more to Ibiza than drugs and clubbing. It is a beautiful family friendly island and it shouldn't be degraded by the media the way that it is. The media criticises Aya Nappa but not Rhodes, Manchester but not England so why not San Antonio instead of Ibiza?

clubbing fraternity?

Who are you referring to spottydog?

We get this from just about everyone we tell that we often visit Ibiza (September 1st-15th in '07)......
The look of horror on their faces the moment we mention Ibiza never fails to make us chuckle, and although we are in our early 40's we too like to frequent the club-bars, and this horrifies people even more when we tell them!
As for the comments from Spottydog, while I strongly believe in freedom of speech and voicing of personal opinions, Per...Lease!
Not everyone who frequents clubs in Ibiza or anywhere else for that matter, partakes in illegal consumption!
And what is socially unacceptable (let alone illegal) about going clubbing?

To us what is far more socially unacceptable is the vast amounts of alcohol that holidaymakers (particularly British holidaymakers) insist on tipping down their throats when on holiday, be it it in Ibiza, Blackpool or Newquay!

Coming from the Southwest we see countless hoards of boozy holidaymakers from all over the UK piling into Newquay and Torquay every summer and drinking far more than they can handle, and on the whole they are not clubbers, but far more often grown men often with families in tow!

When it comes to foreign resorts it is more often than not All Inclusive drinks hotel packages that are to blame for Boozy Brits, rarely see a Dutch or Swedish family off their faces on booze when we go to Ibiza!

I don't usually post in the Ibiza forum, but I too get infuriated by one poxy journalist being allowed to give his/her opinion about a resort/island and influencing the masses who read the cr@p they write and believing every word for word.

Out of all the Balearics, I do love Ibiza and have had many fantastic holidays on the Island.
Recently a journalist went to Benidorm with his wife and 2 kids for a few days, now whether you love or loathe Benidorm this is irrelevant to my post, but merely as an example of bad unbalanced press being allowed to influence the general public.
He took his kids to the theme parks and stated that they could have been in Blackpool, he made a point of mentioning the high rise buildings and the tattooed, beer swilling Brits getting tanked out of their heads on lager for a euro.

He never once mentioned that for 9 months of the year the average age of the tourists are 60+ years old and that the British mindset of "get as much beer down your necks in 24 hours", only occurs for a few months of the year max, and is confined to a small area of the town, in comparison to the actual size of Benidorm.
He failed to mention the European award winning fantastic beaches or the old town with its Spanish roots and tapas, or the fact that for a one euro bus ride you can be in a typical Spanish village that is so far removed from Benidorm, that the difference is like chalk and cheese, infact you don't have to take a bus, just a walk out of the town brings you to view the surrounding countryside and mountains.
He never once mentioned the beauty of the Costa Blanca surrounding Benidorm no he decided to dwell on the negative views he held instead.

As you can guess the newspaper also received a letter from me, but they didn't have the courtesy to address my points.

Benidorm is full of clubs and bars usually with entertainers that are passed their "sell by date" in the UK, but guess what ? I don't go in any of them, I'd rather spend my time having a drink in a Spanish bar trying tapas instead of fish n chips, but the point being is that I get labelled with the masses as according to this one poxy journalist.
If I wanted drugs, then I know where to go, just as I know where to go in my home town.

The Spanish have no need to criticise anyone, as they have big problems with underage drinkers and new laws are in the process of being passed through parliament to place heavy fines on anyone selling alcohol to "underage" persons and anyone being found underage and tanked up, also there is talk of the legal age to consume alcohol being changed from 18 years old to 21 years of age I don't know what effect this will have on tourists when the law gets passed"¦and IMO it will get passed because we have a Spanish woman minister with a mission behind the law and she has made it quite clear that it will be a National law with no exceptions.
We have the wine producers up in arms at the moment because they say that wine should not be included in the new laws, as wine has health benefits .true, but not if you drink X bottles a day.!"¦so the fine details of the law are still being thrashed out at the moment.

I do wish Spain would set the record straight in the British press, whether it be Benidorm, Ibiza or Barcelona when bad, inaccurate reporting is allowed to influence the population by one journalist, who probably knows less about Ibiza than some of you good people in this forum.

Sanjiiiiiiiiiiii

Great post as usual Sanji. Now had three visits (all to San Antonio Bay) over the years and found it to be a great resort and a lovely island. Hate to hear people criticise Ibiza but I fear that the scourge of 'Ibiza Uncovered' will be with the island for many years yet.

Wilson

In my opinion the island will never get over the Ibiza Uncovered stigma. I'm the same when i say that i'm going back to Ibiza, people look at me funny & say "are you not a bit old for all that?" A bit old for what precisly??

The island has a very poor image, all you can do is tell others your own opinion.

At the end of the day who cares what other people think, as long as you enjoy this special island for whatever reason

The way we see it the bad name Ibiza often has actually works to our advantage, that being the more conservative types, those most likely to complain at every little thing they see on holiday, are far less likely to be in Ibiza when we go for our holiday.
There is nothing worse than whinging narrow minded Brits when you are trying to have a good time on your vacation.
We found this breed far too often in our jaunts to Cyprus, they would go into Ayia Napa just to whinge, every morning over breakfast you could hear them moaning about how downmarket Cyprus had become.
So the fact that many less liberal holidaymakers will avoid Ibiza without knowing the actual facts about this great, great island....doesn't bother us in the least, quite the opposite in fact!

I get angry as well regarding the bad press tourists get who go to Ibiza, I have been 4 times to Ibiza each time to a different resort, and they have all been great places to stay, we went to Es Cana last September, what a beautiful pretty little resort, and I never saw a drunk the whole time I was there, Santa Eulalia next door is so classy for shopping and eating out and then you have Ibiza town with its history etc
The comments re Benidorm are spot on as well, my son is autistic and cant stand noisy places yet Benidorm is ideal for us because of the wide promenade, great shops and friendly locals. We love strolling through the old town at night up and down the streets, its a great town full of character. I like a drink but dont get drunk, I do avoid the new town at weekends due to stag and hen weekends but all in all its a great place.

Good point Londonexiles. The neighbours either side of me are typical of the people that you mention - complain if the milkman is 5 minutes late, or moan to the coucil that the bins are emtied a day late after a bank holiday. When they found out we go to Ibiza, the look of horror on their face was a picture. The Island really is better off without narrow minded people like that.
We have been to San Miguel, Portinatx and San An bay and never encountered any problems at all.

So the fact that many less liberal holidaymakers will avoid Ibiza without knowing the actual facts about this great, great island....doesn't bother us in the least, quite the opposite in fact!

It might not bother you, but there is more to the future of Ibiza than your fortnightly jaunts the Islands economy does not depend on (some) people who go to clubs in San An & Ibiza town to get wasted on booze and shat...
They party all night and sleep all day and the only people getting rich are the clubs and the drug barons......those people are so yesterday now.

We found this breed far too often in our jaunts to Cyprus

There's breeds and pedigrees.

The Island really is better off without narrow minded people like that.

Sorry, but the Island is not better off and that's a narrow minded view to take if you actually care about Ibiza.

let's debate this without personal comments please.
I have to add to it the unfortunate fact that my OH will not look at Ibiza as his vision of it is what he has seen on tv( and memories of a holiday there when he was a lot younger )

If it were not for people taking their 'Fortnightly Jaunts' to Ibiza, then the economy of the Island would be in freefall, the tourism industry is the lifeblood of most islands in the Med....and Ibiza is no different.
And who mentioned drugs?....We visit Ibiza at least once a year, go to many different parts of the island and frequent many different bars and eateries. But for your information drugs don't figure in our visits.
Being more liberal and less narrow minded does not make you a drug taker or drunkard, what it means to us is being able to accept different social cultures, giving young holidaymakers the respect they deserve and having the ability to see that not every clubber is an airhead.
The narrow minded we talk about are the ones that storm off of Salinas beach at the mere sight of a naked breast, or look down their noses at clubbers leaving Space in the early hours like they are the Devil's children!
Perhaps you should take a moment to imagine the difference financially to Ibiza if all the clubs were to be closed down overnight.
It is estimated that between 140,000 to 150,000 clubbers frequent Ibiza every summer, a conservative estimate is that they spend over 250million Euros between them every year on the island.
Don't try to tell me that this is not important to the island....it doesn't wash!

If it were not for people taking their 'Fortnightly Jaunts' to Ibiza, then the economy of the Island would be in freefall, the tourism industry is the lifeblood of most islands in the Med....and Ibiza is no different.

Well you don't have to be Stephen Hawking to figure that out, or the fact that tourism is essential to the whole of Spain's economy.

And who mentioned drugs?....

I think you'll find that the world media associates Ibiza with clubs and drugs "¦and that is the point of this thread, the mis-representation of the whole Island of Ibiza, but don't try and tell me that some of these clubs are not a cess pit of debaunchery wriggled with drug dealers.

It is estimated that between 140,000 to 150,000 clubbers frequent Ibiza every summer, a conservative estimate is that they spend over 250million Euros between them every year on the island.

Ummm, the official figures for 2006 read that 1,720 million euros was spent in Ibiza by tourists, an average holidaymaker splashing out 979.80 euros or €95.23 a day.
€ 250 million ? that would buy the camel and the shat

Perhaps you should take a moment to imagine the difference financially to Ibiza if all the clubs were to be closed down overnight.

Well, you have to weigh that up in comparison to the increase in families and the mature tourist who might be tempted back to the Island..... who will spend more with local businesses and probably spend in a day, what a clubber spents at night....only instead of giving it some camel, they spend it in restaurants on fine wine and cuisine....other Islands manage quite well without the clubbing fraternity descending upon them.

It is estimated that between 140,000 to 150,000 clubbers frequent Ibiza every summer

A drop in the ocean when you consider that last year 4.460.141 commercial travellers arrived at Ibiza Airport .

The clubs contribute nothing to the Island apart from the taxes they pay and do you seriously believe that they disclose their true income.?

Are they contributing to the environmental impact ? for example, cleaning the streets up or the paramedics who they call when someone needs treatment.?
They refuse to let the paramedics through the front doors because they don't like the attention, so they throw some half comatose kid out of the back down some urine stinking alleyway.
You should read the story/watch the video of a paramedic based in Ibiza it makes sickening reading/watching, especially when some poor sod may be having an heart attack and the paramedics are called out to pull someone's son/daughter out of the shat they have taken instead.

Whether you like it or not, Ibiza wants a different type of tourist and is working towards that goal, whether it will happen in time, I don't know....it depends on the level of corruption and the will of the people, but there are several movements already taking place on the Island.

As a Spaniard once said to me .
They come, they leave and they leave behind la mierda. ( the poo)

http://www.ibizabound.com/blog/category/ibiza-news/
http://www.ibiza-hotels.com/news/2007/01/7-visitor-increase-in-2006-over-2005.php
http://www.ibizabound.com/blog/2006/10/06/the-end-of-legal-afterhours/

Sanjiiiii

OK that's enough if members cannot stop nit picking all the time then I'm closing this as of now, and please don't jump on the "freedom of spech band wagon" as I think everyones has had there say on this matter no matter which side of the fence it happens to be.

Topic closed.