Infamous party island Ibiza is now a wellness destination

At the edge of a cliff overlooking the glittering Mediterranean in Ibiza, a crowd of 50 or so dancers gyrated, ululated and outstretched their arms towards the sun.

It was an ecstatic dance party for the ages — but there was no alcohol, no illicit substances or any famous DJs in sight. It was a workout class, not a rave.

The cliffside celebration was led by instructor Luuk Melisse who, along with his partner Gabriel Olszewski, runs Sanctum, one of Amsterdam’s buzziest fitness studios, propagating a mindful movement method that’s part aerobics, part dance, part guided meditation.

At the start of each session, participants don a pair of Bluetooth headphones through which the class leader provides instruction set to a soundtrack of inspirational quotes and electro music.

Melisse and Olszewski came to Ibiza to take part in the inaugural Alma, a wellness festival concept developed by Six Senses Ibiza (from $301), which opened its doors in July 2021.

The festival brought in an international jet set of wellness practitioners and leaders — including The Class founder Taryn Toomey from New York, top London cosmetic acupuncturist Sarah Bradden, model and environmentalist Lily Cole and Michael Acton Smith, founder of the meditation app Calm — as well as close to 200 guests from around the world.

At a time of year when Ibiza’s social scene typically starts to wane until the next summer, Alma attendees gathered to take part in kundalini yoga, vitamin IV drips, tantric sex workshops and all the latest the wellness world has to offer.

“It’s been such a cool weekend,” said one attendee, an American expat who had flown in from Barcelona. She had been on the fence about attending, but decided to come when she saw that Taryn Toomey would be there. Another attendee said he had traveled around the world to take Sanctum classes.

The success of Alma, especially in its first year, may come as a surprise to some. That’s because Ibiza, the third largest of Spain’s sun-drenched Balearic Islands, is known as one of Europe’s great party destinations. The island has been an important summer season checkpoint for the international jet set since the 1960s, famed for its luxe bohemian living and extravagant nightlife — you haven’t really made it as a DJ until you’ve played Ibiza.

But on the island’s secluded northern side, literally and figuratively worlds away from the nightclubs and partying throngs on the southern shores, there’s been a cultural shift towards balanced living. Today, it’s an island where travelers go not to drown out the experience of everyday life but to optimize it. After a stay filled with yoga flows, fancy spa treatments and just the right combination of organic juices, you just might leave feeling, looking and being better than when you arrived.

Six Senses is leading that charge by integrating healthy living into everything on property — there is a spa and healthy touches such as white sugar not being allowed on property — as well as an annual festival is the vision of the hotel’s developer and owner Jonathan Leitersdorf.

“We’re like a jewelry store built on top of a gold mine here,” said Leitersdorf. “There is an explosion of talent on Ibiza. There are so many incredible practitioners for yoga, sound work, breath work, everything. We have 200 practitioners as part of our network, so we didn’t need to bring anybody in from off the island.”

While there have been higher-end resorts on the island for some time, such as the Nobu Ibiza Bay and the 7Pines Resort, none offer the same absolute focus on well-being, and this is the first time that the island’s plethora of wellness practitioners have been celebrated and integrated into a single luxury hotel setting.

“The idea was to create a place that’s got it all,” said Leitersdorf. “You detox, then you retox, you see the culture, you meet people, you do spiritual things, and eat healthy and organic food. We want people to lose 1 kilo before they leave.”

And if you ask locals, the debut of Six Senses Ibiza and its Alma festival are an important milestone in the island’s transformation from a psychedelic hot spot for naughty jet-setters, to one where you can still have your partying, but with a side of cryotherapy and perhaps a guided meditation or two.

“There has definitely been an increase in wellness culture here,” said yoga teacher James de Maria, who has lived on the island for 23 years.

When he moved to the island in 1999, he was one of just six yoga teachers on the island; today, there are innumerable. By his estimation, it was around 2010 that “word regarding the magic healing qualities of the island started to spread and there was a surge in wellness practitioners.”

There is faint hesitation among some locals, however, that the island is selling out.

“Ibiza is full of seekers, visionaries, thought leaders and talent,” said Mia Kirn, a local who has lived full time on the island since 2016 and is producing TEDxDaltVila which will, in March 2023, become the island’s first full-day TEDx event. “[It] has always been a mecca for well-being, it just was not so commercialized before as it is now.”

“Commercialized” need not be a dirty word, however.

The push to attract wellness travelers opens up the island to year-round tourism.

“You can be very wellness-focused and drink wine and eat cake and go party all night,” said Anna Bjurstam, the “wellness pioneer” for Six Senses Resorts globally. “It used to be on Ibiza that you were either a cool party animal or a tree hugger, but those things don’t have to be mutually exclusive.”