Ses Illetes or Cala Saona? Ask our skipper and you will get the same answer every time: Ses Illetes in the morning, before the ferries from Ibiza arrive — Cala Saona once the north wind picks up, or when you want the soft, golden end of the afternoon. That is the short version. The better answer is that on a private boat you do not have to choose at all. From our berth in Santa Eulalia we run a full-day route that covers both beaches comfortably, with the wind — not the crowds — deciding the order.
Ses Illetes: the lagoon at its best, before the ferries land
Ses Illetes lies on Es Trucadors, the narrow finger of sand that points north from Formentera towards the islet of S'Espalmador. What made it famous is the water: a shallow shelf of pale, milky turquoise where you can still stand a surprisingly long way from the beach. Approaching by boat, you see the exact moment it begins — the deep ink-blue of the channel gives way to glowing sand, and suddenly the boat's shadow is drawn sharply on the seabed below you.
Early in the day, this is one of the calmest, most beautiful anchorages in the Balearics. You hear the anchor chain run out over the sand, and after that, not much at all. From late morning the picture changes: the ferries deliver their crowds, day boats stack up along the beach, and the lagoon becomes the busy postcard everyone has seen. Our timing rule is simple — be in the water at Illetes while most visitors are still queueing at the port in Ibiza.
Lunch is the other reason to be here. The beach restaurants behind Illetes are the most famous in the Balearics, and our team can reserve your table in advance as part of the charter. If a long lunch is the centrepiece of your day, read our guide to Formentera's beach restaurants worth arriving at by boat.
Cala Saona: the sheltered cove that owns the evening
Cala Saona is the opposite proposition. It is a compact, sandy cove on Formentera's west coast, framed by low rust-red cliffs and pine woods, with far fewer boats at anchor and a slower rhythm on the beach. The water is the same improbable turquoise — it simply comes in a smaller, quieter frame.
Two things make Saona special from the deck of a boat. The first is shelter: on days when a northerly breeze pushes chop across the Illetes lagoon, Saona usually stays flat, tucked in behind its cliffs. The second is orientation: the cove opens to the west, straight into the evening light, with the silhouette of Es Vedrà rising from the horizon across the water. If Illetes is Formentera's morning beach, Saona is its late-afternoon one.
Ses Illetes or Cala Saona? Let the wind decide
On the day itself, this choice has less to do with taste than with wind. The Illetes lagoon is glorious in calm weather but open to the north; when the Tramuntana blows hard, the anchorage gets choppy and the magic drains away fast. Cala Saona keeps its calm water on exactly those days. Our skipper checks the forecast every morning and reads the sea on the crossing — so the decision is made for you, not by you.
| Ses Illetes | Cala Saona | |
|---|---|---|
| Best moment | Morning, before the ferry crowds | Late afternoon and golden hour |
| Wind | Needs calm — open to the north | Usually sheltered when the north wind blows |
| Atmosphere | Famous, front-row, lively in season | Smaller, slower, more local |
| Lunch | Legendary beach restaurants — reserve ahead | Quieter; many guests eat on board instead |
| Evening | Most boats are gone by then | The classic sunset side, facing Es Vedrà |
The two-beach day from Santa Eulalia
Here is how it actually runs on our Formentera day trip. We cast off from Berth H17 in Marina Santa Eulalia around 10:00 and head south along the coast, past Cala Llonga and the walled silhouette of Dalt Vila. After about an hour of relaxed cruising we make the first stop at S'Espalmador, the uninhabited islet just north of Illetes, for a swim in shallow, glass-clear water.
Late morning we drop the hook off Ses Illetes itself: beach time, a slow lunch ashore at a reserved table, or the Mediterranean lunch board (€45 per person) at our own teak table if you would rather stay barefoot. Then, in the afternoon — precisely when the beach is at its fullest — we do the one thing the ferry crowd cannot: pull the anchor and cruise around to Cala Saona for the quiet second act. One more swim, cold glasses sweating on the teak, cliffs slowly turning copper. We are back in Santa Eulalia by 18:00.
That flexibility is also the honest answer to the ferry question: a scheduled boat can bring you to Formentera, but it cannot move you to the sheltered side when the wind changes at two o'clock. We have run the full numbers in our ferry versus private boat comparison.
Our honest advice
Do not agonise over the choice the night before. Glance at the forecast if you enjoy that sort of thing, then let the skipper make the final call on the day — on a private charter, flipping the order costs nothing. Morning in the lagoon and afternoon in the cove, or the other way round: with both beaches in a single day, "Ses Illetes or Cala Saona" stops being a dilemma and becomes an itinerary.
