‘Can you feel the energy?’ asks the nice lady about to get us a drink from the bar, even though the bar is only just there and it’s really not her job, but that’s the team at Petunia: if there were prizes for most amazing teams, this lot would be the Ant & Dec of that sort of thing.
Yes, we’re in Ibiza but all the talk of energy doesn’t mean she’s off her nut, this woman. She’s talking about that famous mystical Ibiza energy that you may roll your eyes at the idea of – we did! We still do! – but which actually seems to exist. If by energy you mean a general low-key excitement to be here and a sense of calm, happiness, something else you can’t quite put your finger on though you may try.
Mind you, why would you not feel excited and happy to be at Petunia, one of Ibiza’s classic resorts, half an hour from the loveliness of Ibiza Town and about the same from the less-than-loveliness of San Antonio? No reason in the world. It’s set at the end of miles of woody, hilly countryside, facing a rock formation so huge and beautiful it looks like a backdrop, or an outsize impressionist painting. It’s called Es Vedra and it feels like the whole of Petunia has been sculpted out of the landscape just to pay homage. The pool, the poolside restaurant, the rooftop La Mirada Japanese restaurant, the rooftop bar, even the outdoor gym all face that big gorgeous rock. Feel the energy?
Petunia is more a resort than a hotel. And more a village than a resort. Made up of villas – so a villa-age! – it’s cut through with pathways lined with the most delicious planting – everything from walls of lavender to little allotments where they plant their tomatoes, from rippling palm trees to walls of giant daisies. And in between all this natural loveliness are little nooks to sit and sip, tons of them. Every corner you turn.
That means that even when the place is busy – and it almost always is with occupancy going up well into the 90-percents – it never feels like it. Having sat around an almost empty pool all afternoon – that’s where the woman and the drink and the energy conversation came in – we’re surprised to find La Mirada buzzy and busy, mostly with people staying (you can tell by the big wooden keys they’re carting around) but with a few visitors and a bunch of Instagrammers here to catch the sunset against that rock. They may just be here for the food, which – and you know how when you go to Europe, you often fancy Asian? – is gorgeous.
As for our room, well, there seems to be no end to it. Go in the sliding doors that take over a whole wall and you have a sitting area and then the bedroom area and then behind curtains a bathroom area and then beyond that an outdoor shower area. And we’ve already passed an out-the-front sitting area even before we get to the indoor sitting area. Then there’s an around-the-side sitting area and up those stairs from the outside shower area a roof terrace the entire size of the room with umbrellas and proper upholstered furniture… If it wasn’t so blazingly hot, we would have spent our whole time up here. Actually maybe we wouldn’t. Not with so many other places to spend your time.
But even though it’s the sort of place that locks you in – breakfast by the pool, a cold soup under an umbrella, a proper grown-up dinner looking at the rock, Japanese – there is stuff you’ll want to do whether it’s walking down to the cute little beach with the cute little beach restaurants or taking Petunia’s own speedboat out to see that Es Vedra rock up close.
We went all round it – beautiful! – saw some little almost deserted beaches, though we’re told that come high summer this place is buzzing, and even got our driver (sailor? Captain?) to stop so we could jump into that deep blue water from the side of the boat then have a couple of beers while we just took it all in.
And yes, laugh it up all you like, but the energy was magical. Call it the mystical ley lines that apparently run straight through Es Vedra, call it just a beautifully put together place to stay but yes, nice lady, we do feel the energy.