Today, we are docked at the beautiful island of Ibiza, Spain. Ibiza is famous for its nightlife and electronic dance scene, but we aren’t here that late so we’ll have to miss that. We booked a tour today called the Gourmet Tour – Top’s Ibiza – Bullit De Peix. Bullit De Peix is a regional cuisine, essentially a fish stew.
The excursion started with a village tour of a small village called Santa Gertrudis. The tour guide was this delightful old lady that was always smiling and bubbly. She walked the village with us, pointing out certain plants. Then, we were lead to a local church called Santa Gertrudis de Fruitera, and told to walk around and meet back together at the church. There were some small shops around here and the tour guide gave us wonderful ideas of what to buy to bring home. One of the things she recommended was Ibiza salt, which was less than a dollar a bag, but they cost an arm and a leg in the US.
Shopping was great here. Prices were much cheaper than the earlier ports and the little town felt clean and quiet. I kind of wondered if people were still sleeping from a night of partying.
Then we were back on the bus, driven by some beautiful scenery, and arrived at Playa Puerto de San Miguel, a beautiful beach with lots of restaurants, water activities, and people sunbathing. I did not take many pictures of the beach because beaches in Spain are all nudity friendly.
Time to eat. Remember, our excursion is called the Gourmet Tour – Top’s Ibiza – Bullit De Peix, so now it’s time for that Bullit De Peix! The restaurant was right on the beach, a nice seafood restaurant called Port de Balansat. It almost seems like they were trying to be secretive about the name of the restaurant – I’m guessing because if we had gone to the restaurant on our own, we could have saved a lot of money, or they didn’t want us to look at the restaurant’s reviews. Not sure. Either way, the food we had was delicious and definitely a little different than the fish stew we eat at home. The meal came with bread and drinks (beer or wine), in addition to the fish stew. Everything was unlimited. After the meal, we were each given a slice of greixonera, a traditional Ibizan bread pudding that is heavenly.
Bread Course
Second Course
The meal was served family style but unfortunately I didn’t take a picture of the big serving trays of fish stew. Another note: the fish had bones in them.
Dessert Course
The dessert was so amazing. My mouth waters now when I think about it. I wish the dessert course was unlimited!
This was the end of our excursion. After lunch, we were back on the bus and back to the ship. This was an expensive excursion but I really enjoy local cuisine so it was worth it in that aspect. We had local beer, local wine, local fish stew and local dessert, all combined with a little bit of local history and the shopping was great too.
Thank you for the info. We’re on the Epic in October and this excursion was one of the 2 listed on the NCL excursions site. Hard to make a decision since there were no reviews of either. The other excursion is at Old Town, Salt Museum and Fourmet. Earl at the harbor. Your review helped tremendously. Wondered how long of a bus ride from the port to the town and restaurant for the excursion you chose.
Hi Vikki! I’m so glad my post was helpful to you! I looked up my notes. It looks like the drive from the port to the first stop (Gertrudis) was about 25 minutes. Then after spending some time in Gertrudis, we drove about 30 minutes to the restaurant. After the restaurant, it was about 30 minutes back to the port. These notes may not be accurate but I hope it helps! Please check out all my other blogs on Epic and let me know if you have any other questions! (Simply search for epic on top right for other blog entries on Epic.)