La Torre Del Canonigo Hotel by Small Luxury Hotels

La Torre Del Canonigo Hotel by Small Luxury Hotels

Ibiza is one of those places that has been so thoroughly defined by one version of itself that the other version goes largely unmentioned. The clubs and the beach bars and the DJ culture are real and have their own legitimacy, but they occupy a specific geography, mainly the south of the island around Playa d'en Bossa and San Antonio. Ibiza Town, and specifically Dalt Vila, the old walled city on the hill above the port, is something else entirely. Dalt Vila is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, a fortified hilltop city first settled by the Phoenicians in the 7th century BC, occupied successively by Carthaginians, Romans, Moors and Catalans, its Renaissance walls built in the 16th century under Philip II of Spain and substantial enough that they influenced the design of Spanish fortifications across the Americas. Inside the walls is a labyrinth of cobbled streets, whitewashed houses, Gothic and Baroque architecture, a cathedral at the highest point with views to Formentera, and a handful of restaurants and bars on candlelit terraces that have nothing to do with the island's other reputation. In June, July and August the whole island fills up, and Ibiza Town is lively and fashionable and expensive. In May, September and October it is one of the quieter and more beautiful places in the Mediterranean. La Torre del Canónigo sits at the top of Dalt Vila, three 16th-century buildings, including a former Jesuit convent and a medieval watchtower, connected by a series of sun terraces and stairways within the UNESCO-listed walls. The hotel is seasonal, open April to October, and has 28 rooms across the three buildings, each individually designed with exposed stone walls, terracotta floors, velvet fabrics and a restrained White Isle palette that lets the historic architecture do the work. The rooms worth booking look directly over the port of Ibiza and across to Formentera, the kind of view that justifies every other decision about the trip. A pool sits in what was once the convent's olive grove, with marina views. The rooftop terrace is one of the best sunset positions on the island. Staff will bring you down the hill by golf cart when you want to explore the town below, which tells you something about the gradient and about the level of service. The people who come here are those for whom Ibiza means the old town, the yacht in the marina, dinner at a terrace restaurant above the port, and being inside a 500-year-old walled city rather than a beach hotel. They tend to have been to Ibiza before, usually many times, and to have long since moved on from the version of the island that everyone else is talking about. This is not a party hotel. The walls are thick and the setting is serene, and the guests who choose it are specifically choosing that. Anyone planning to arrive at 3am from DC10 would be better served by somewhere closer to the action. The short version: Three 16th-century buildings inside the UNESCO-listed walls of Dalt Vila, Ibiza's ancient hilltop old town, connected by terraces with views over the port and across to Formentera. Twenty-eight individually designed rooms, a pool in a former convent olive grove, a rooftop terrace, and staff who will bring you down the hill by golf cart. Open April to October. For people who know that the best part of Ibiza has always been up the hill.