San Lorenzo, or Sant Llorenc de Balafia, is one of the smallest villages on Ibiza. It is a fortified white church, a square, a bar and a scatter of houses in the farmland between the centre of the island and the north coast. There is no beach, no shop worth the name and nothing to do, and for a certain kind of week that is exactly the appeal.
What brings people up here is two restaurants and a set of medieval towers, and the drive itself, which runs through some of the best farmland on the island.
Balafia
A kilometre along the road, Balafia is a cluster of white farmhouses with defensive towers built into them, raised when pirate raids were a real problem and among the oldest surviving settlements on Ibiza. The towers are blunt, square and windowless at the base, and people still live in the houses, so it is a place to walk past rather than through.
It takes ten minutes and it is the most direct contact with the island's older history outside Dalt Vila.
Where to eat
La Paloma is the best known, a garden restaurant with tables among citrus trees, and it is booked well ahead through the summer.
Cami de Balafia is the other one, a family grill in an orange grove that has been running for over thirty years.
Between them they are the reason most people have heard of the village at all.
Good to know
There is nothing else here. No supermarket, no petrol, no cash machine. San Juan is ten minutes north and Santa Gertrudis fifteen south.
The roads are narrow and unlit. Fine by day, slower after dark.
It is central. Twenty-five minutes to Ibiza Town, twenty to the north coast, twenty-five to the west. For a week of driving to a different beach each day, that matters more than it sounds.
Quick answers
Where is San Lorenzo? Inland, between the middle of the island and the north coast.
What is Balafia? A hamlet of fortified farmhouses with defensive towers, a kilometre from the village.
Is there a beach? No. The north coast is about twenty minutes.
What is it known for? La Paloma and Cami de Balafia, and the towers at Balafia.
Is it walkable? The village is a few minutes end to end. Everything else needs a car.
Is it open in winter? The village, yes. Cami de Balafia closes for several months.
Who it suits
People who want the countryside and are happy to drive, and anyone whose week is built around eating well rather than sitting on sand. It is one of the quietest addresses on the island in August.