Take the ferry to Formentera if you want a cheap day ashore, and a private boat from Ibiza if you want the water. The ferry sells a seat per person to a port; a charter is priced per boat and anchors off Ses Illetes itself. Ours start at €1,699 a boat for a full eight-hour day in low season, or about €191 a head on the eleven-guest Chiara 37.
Both are good days. They are not the same day, and the comparison people usually make — ticket price against charter price — is the one comparison that tells you least. What follows is the honest version, including the case where the ferry is plainly the right answer.
The crossing: forty-five minutes, and what surrounds it
From Marina Ibiza a charter boat is off Formentera in about forty-five minutes. The ferry crossing is short too. The difference is not the water between the islands, it is everything on either side of it.
The ferry runs on a timetable from a terminal. You queue, you board, you cross, you arrive at the port of La Savina, and then you need to solve the problem of getting from a port to a beach — a taxi, a hire car or a scooter, in August, along with everybody else who was on the boat. Coming back, you are working towards a departure time all afternoon.
A charter leaves when you arrive and stops where the beach is. There is no transfer at the other end because the boat anchors off the sand. The day has one moving part instead of five, and it is the removal of those four that people actually pay for.
Cost, compared the right way
A ferry ticket is per person and priced by the operator; check the current fare with them, because it moves with the season and the sailing. What we can be precise about is our side of the comparison, so here it is, low season, eight hours, skipper and Spanish VAT at 21% included.
| Boat | Guests | Low season, 8 h | Per person |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chiara 37 | 11 | €2,100 | €191 |
| Bambina 44 | 11 | €2,690 | €245 |
| Pardo 52 | 10 | €3,599 | €360 |
| Riva Venere 75 | 12 | €5,700 | €475 |
Against a ferry ticket, a per-person figure in the two-hundreds is clearly more. Against a ferry ticket plus a return taxi plus a hire scooter plus a beach club table for a group of eleven, the gap narrows a great deal, and the charter figure already has drinks and eight uninterrupted hours in it. The arithmetic behind every number above is set out in what a charter costs per person.
Which beaches each one reaches
This is the real difference and it is the reason most people end up chartering.
- Ses Illetes — the long pale sandbar on Formentera’s northern tip, and the reason the island has the reputation it has. Reachable both ways: by land from La Savina with a vehicle, or by anchoring off it, which is how it is meant to be seen.
- Espalmador — the small uninhabited island between Ibiza and Formentera, with the shallow channel and the sandbank. No ferry goes there. It is a boat-only stop and it is often the best half-hour of the day.
- The eastern side and the smaller calas — a scooter reaches some of them slowly. A boat reaches them in the order that suits the wind.
- The water between the two islands — on a charter this is part of the day rather than a transit. It is also where you swim when Ses Illetes is busy.
Our Formentera day trip page sets out how the route is usually built and which boats suit the crossing best.
Is a day trip to Formentera worth it?
Yes, and it is the day most first-time visitors remember. The water there is a different colour from the water off Ibiza — shallow, sand-bottomed and startlingly clear — and the island itself is flat, quiet and almost undeveloped by comparison.
The one qualification: in July and August the northern anchorages are busy by late morning. A charter handles that by arriving early or by moving one cove along, which is exactly the kind of decision the skipper is there to make. A ferry day handles it by being on a beach with everyone else.
Which boats suit the crossing
Anything in the fleet will get there. What changes is comfort if there is any sea running. The Bambina 44 cruises at up to 34 knots and takes eleven, which makes it the value choice for a group. The Riva Venere 75 takes twelve with four crew, cabins and proper shade, and turns the crossing into part of the day rather than a stretch to be got through.
Above twelve people it is two boats, which works well on this route because both anchor together off the same sandbank — see hiring a boat in Ibiza for twenty people.
When the ferry genuinely wins
Three cases, and we would tell you the same on the phone. If there are two or three of you and the budget is the deciding factor, the ferry is unarguable. If you want to spend the day inland — the market at Sant Ferran, a long lunch, cycling the flat roads — then a boat is an expensive way to arrive somewhere you are going to leave. And if the forecast is poor, the ferry crosses in conditions that would make a charter day uncomfortable.
Otherwise, the day you are imagining when you picture Formentera almost certainly has a boat in it. Tell us your date and group size, or browse the full fleet first.
Common questions
How long is the boat trip from Ibiza to Formentera?
About forty-five minutes from Marina Ibiza on a charter boat. The ferry crossing is short as well; the time difference on a day out comes from the queue, the timetable and the transfer from the port to a beach, not from the water itself.
How much is a private boat to Formentera?
From €1,699 for a full eight-hour day in low season, skipper and Spanish VAT at 21% included. On the eleven-guest Chiara 37 at €2,100 that is about €191 a head; the Bambina 44 is €2,690, or €245 each. Fuel is charged separately on the day.
Is a day trip to Formentera worth it?
For most first-time visitors it is the day they remember. The water is shallow, sand-bottomed and a different colour from the water off Ibiza, and the island is flat and quiet by comparison. In July and August, arrive early — the northern anchorages fill by late morning.
Can the boat anchor at Ses Illetes?
Yes. That is the point of going by boat: you anchor off the sandbar itself rather than arriving at the port of La Savina and solving the problem of getting to the beach from there.
Can we stop at Espalmador?
Yes, and it is often the best half-hour of the day. Espalmador is the small uninhabited island between Ibiza and Formentera, with a shallow channel and a sandbank. No ferry goes there — it is a boat-only stop.
Ferry or private boat with children?
A charter, in most cases. It removes the queue, the timetable and the transfer at the other end, and the boat anchors in shallow water where children can swim off the platform. Children count towards the twelve-guest limit by head, whatever their age.
