Travel tips to Casa Ana, our Villa on Formentera
As there is no airport on Formentera one has to fly to Ibiza and catch a ferry which takes 30 minutes.Travel arrangements will vary according to your home location, but I hope that these suggestions and links will assist you.
Flights arriving or leaving during the night are cheaper than day time flights but there may then be no ferry running between Ibiza and Formentera. One solution if you book a late arrival flight from the UK is to reserve a room at a hotel in Ibiza overnight, before catching the ferry the next morning. Of course this may not be practical in say July or August when most places are fully booked.
If you have to do this, always book in advance and a good way of doing it is through a Google search for Budget Accommodation Ibiza. This should throw up several hotel brokers who exist by selling unused accommodation for the hotels. I have used cheaphotels with good results, making bookings at Maritimo Hotel and LuxMar Apartments which are in Figueretas, 5 minutes by taxi from the ferry port. Both were excellent and very reasonably priced.
FINDING FLIGHTS
There are several search engines on the Internet for this purpose and regular Internet users will probably have their own favourites. I have found best results with a combination of Cheapestflights and Skyscanner.
Alternatively, you can go directly to the flight operators such as Easyjet, Ryanair, Thomsonfly, Monarch Airlines; Air Berlin; Tuifly; Alitalia.; Myair.
FERRIES
There are two ferry services operating to and from the island - Balearia, and Mediteranea Pituisa. They use the same ticket hall at the entrance to the port. At the airport tell the taxi driver "el puerto" or even just Formentera and they will drop you outside the ticket office. Each company will display the time of their next crossing. Mediteranea Pitiusa offer the most crossings and continue later into the evening, 10.00pm for most of the season.
If you are retired, ask for "Jubilados" or "Seniors" - there is about a 40 % discount! They may ask to photo-copy your passport as proof of age.
CAR AND BICYCLE HIRE
We used to hire bicycles (Agustin bicycle and motor scooter hire) in the centre of Es Pujols) but as we get older, now tend to hire a car. However I always take out annual excess charge insurance with say Questor Insurance which is much cheaper cover than from the hire companies. When you pick up your car you will have to leave credit card details for the excess - about €600 and if the car is returned undamaged it is re-credited to your card. If there is any damage, get a receipt and claim the excess back from Questor.
Prices for car hire change from day to day, a bit like budget airlines and like the airlines, the earlier you book the better the price is likely to be. I recommend Carhire3000 who claim they will beat the price of any other company for the same vehicle. Click here for a quotation or to confirm a booking.
Pick up the car at the ferryport in La Sabina & you will not have the cost of taxis to and from the villa. Arrange for the vehicle pick up time to be about two hours after the expected flight arrival time, unless arriving at night.
