The peaceful joys of swimming off Ibiza's northern coast

Each week, we spotlight a dream vacation recommended by some of the industry's top travel writers. This week's pick is Ibiza.

Most visitors come to Ibiza with the aim of getting wild at its world-famous bars and nightclubs, said Will Hide at the Financial Times. But I made my first trip to the Balearic island with a more peaceful pursuit in mind: sea swimming, "something I've been doing to relax and get fit for more than a decade." I wasn't planning "a gentle splash in the breaking waves before resuming tanning activities back on shore." Instead I'd be joining a tour of the Spanish isle's relatively underdeveloped northern coast, led by SwimTrek, which specializes in long-distance group swimming trips around the world. We'd swim about 2 miles every morning and afternoon, "heading out to sea, then along the cliff-lined coast before returning into a cove farther along."

Our first outing began with a drive through "sweet-scented woods full of chirping cicadas" to the bay at Cala de Sant Vicent. Families played volleyball on the golden sand as we strode into the 79-degree water, which is kept crystal clear by the filtering properties of meadows of Posidonia oceanica, a sea grass that thrives around Ibiza's north coast. "Immediately, the usual calming, meditative feeling swept over me as I fell into a rhythmic front crawl, staring down at plump black-and-white fish who eyed me as I invaded their world." Another day, we dipped into the "inky-blue waters" of the cove at Caló de Porcs. In the middle of the bay, I asked our Italian guide, Alessandro Mancini, if he ever panicked while swimming alone. "No," he immediately replied. "It's very calming. It's my place to think. Or to not think."

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Our final day brought the longest swim, about 2½ miles, from the islet of Illa Murada to the cove at Portixol. A sailing boat dropped us at our jump-off spot, under towering cliffs. "Here the water was about 160 feet deep, but still warm." The abyssal darkness beneath me was disconcerting: "There was nothing to see in the intense blue except eerie stalactites of bright light." I slowly regained a sense of normality by focusing on the bright pink swim cap of my guide and the land to my right. By the end of our two-hour swim, "I couldn't remember a time recently when I'd felt more calm."

Read more at the Financial Times, or book a trip to Ibiza with Swim Trek. Weeklong inclusive vacations start at $1,145 per person.