Formentera is the smallest inhabited Balearic island — twelve miles long, reachable only by ferry from Ibiza — and the most Mediterranean of them all in feel. There are no high-rise hotels, no airport, no chain restaurants. The island’s cuisine is defined by what can be grown, fished, or dried in the harsh sun: sea bream, octopus, figs, almonds, and above all peix sec — sun-dried fish, traditionally ray or skate, that is the island’s most distinctive ingredient and shows up in salads, stews, and toasts across the island.
The beach chiringuitos of Formentera are the great seaside restaurants of the Balearics. Juan y Andrea on Playa de Ses Illetes does grilled fish and seafood paella on a stretch of beach that looks Caribbean. El Pirata on the same beach is quieter, more local. Inland, Can Carlos in Sant Francesc serves creative Balearic cooking in a converted farmhouse, and the town’s small market on Wednesday and Saturday mornings is where locals buy flor de sal from the island’s salt pans — a finer, more mineral salt than Ibiza’s. Rent a scooter, don’t plan anything, eat slowly.