Hacienda Na Xamena

In 1969 there was no road to this stretch of Ibiza's north coast, no water, no electricity and no telephone line, and Daniel Lipszyc, a Belgian architect, began building a hotel on it anyway. It opened in 1971 as the island's first five-star, set into a cliff 180 metres above the sea. Behind are the pines and 150 hectares of preserved land, with an organic farm for the kitchen at Eden, so lunch has not travelled far. The arches and galleries are a Mediterranean house at the scale of a hotel, painted white and set into the rock. Inside, the white goes almost all the way: polished cement floors, grey cushions shaped like river stones, and on the terraces only glass between the chair and the drop. In several rooms a round bath stands on a plinth at the window, with the sea beyond it, which makes getting out the hardest part of the day.

Recommended for anyone who has come to Ibiza for the island rather than the nights out, and for families happy to swap a kids' club for a playroom, a cinema and a kayak. Swimming means going down: four minutes by car to Port de Sant Miquel, or eleven to Cala Benirràs, where the hotel's kayak trips stop to swim and snorkel on their way round the caves. Then back up to the Cascadas Suspendidas, eight hot pools stepped down the cliff, each at its own temperature, so the only real decision of the afternoon is which one to sit in next. Stay three nights and they are included. Los Nidos, on the roof, claims the only 360-degree sunset on Ibiza. It is a bold claim, and the roof is a good place to test it.