Ibiza, Balearic Islands tide times

Predictions: Open-Meteo Marine (MeteoFrance SMOC, 0.08° grid) — heights relative to MSL (not chart datum / LAT). Model-derived.

Model-derived from a global ocean grid. Useful indication; expect about ±45 minutes on average vs. a local harmonic gauge, individual stations vary widely. See /methodology for per-region detail. Not for navigation.

Conditions as of 00:00 local time. Refreshes daily.

Predictions: Open-Meteo Marine (MeteoFrance SMOC, 0.08° grid) — heights relative to MSL (not chart datum / LAT). Model-derived. · Not for navigation.

The angler tradition for major/minor fishing windows: major ≈3-hour windows around moon transit and opposition; minor ≈2-hour windows around moonrise and moonset. Times are Europe/Madrid local. Folk tradition, not a scientific forecast.

Ibiza — Eivissa in Catalan, the language with official status on the island — sits in the western Mediterranean 80 kilometres off the Valencia coast. The Mediterranean is a nearly landlocked sea with a restricted connection to the Atlantic through the Strait of Gibraltar, and this geometry produces one of the smallest tidal ranges of any European coastline. At Ibiza the spring tidal range is 0.10 to 0.25 metres. That figure is not a misprint: the sea here rises and falls roughly the height of a car key on the biggest tides of the year. The tidal pattern is mixed semidiurnal with pronounced diurnal inequality. On many days, one of the two daily tides so dominates the cycle that the pattern resembles a single tide per day — a high and a low separated by roughly 12 hours, with the secondary high or low barely detectable. The practical result for anyone planning activities in or on the water: tidal state is largely irrelevant to safety, access, and timing decisions at Ibiza. Wind direction, swell exposure, and ferry schedules matter more. What the western Mediterranean does have instead of tides is exceptional water clarity, and that clarity is directly connected to the seagrass meadows of Posidonia oceanica that cover the seafloor around Ibiza and Formentera. Posidonia is a flowering plant — not an alga — that forms dense meadows in water from 1 to 35 metres depth. The meadows filter particulates, oxygenate the water column, and stabilise the seabed. The result is visibility routinely reaching 20 to 30 metres in summer. The Posidonia meadows around Ibiza and Formentera are designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site (part of the broader Pitiusas Islands marine habitat designation) and a Natura 2000 protected area. Anchoring directly over the meadows is prohibited under Spanish law; vessels are required to use designated mooring buoys in protected zones or anchor only on sand between patches. The Dalt Vila — the UNESCO-listed Old Town — occupies a promontory above the harbour. The 16th-century Renaissance walls, built under Philip II and classified as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, rise directly from the harbourfront and are visible from the anchorage and the ferry terminal below. The harbour itself, the Port d'Eivissa, is one of the busiest in the Balearics: inter-island ferries to Formentera running every 30 to 45 minutes in summer, car ferries to Valencia and Barcelona, and a substantial superyacht and sailing yacht mooring area. The ferry to Formentera takes roughly 30 minutes and crosses the narrow Es Freus channel between the two islands, where tidal streams of 0.5 to 1.0 knots concentrate marine life and are a known diving and snorkelling area. Ses Salines natural park at the island's southern tip is an active salt production area — the pans have been harvested since Phoenician times — alongside a protected wetland and beach. The salinas (salt flats) are fed by seawater through controlled sluices that open on the highest spring tides of the year, typically the equinoctial springs in March and September, when the marginal Mediterranean tidal range is briefly sufficient to flood the pans by gravity. For the rest of the year, water management is by pump. The resulting environment is a flat, open salt flat with flamingos, avocets, and stilts visible from the perimeter road, alongside the Ses Salines beach — one of the clearest-water beaches on the island, backed by Posidonia wrack rather than plastic debris, because the seagrass meadows trap the floating organic material. Es Vedrà, the 382-metre sea stack rising from the water 1.5 kilometres off the island's southwest coast, is the most photographed natural feature of Ibiza. It is an uninhabited protected nature reserve. The cliff faces host Eleonora's falcon colonies; the waters around the base are Posidonia habitat. The nearest access point is Cala d'Hort beach, from which the rock is visible across the strait. Formentera is visible from Ibiza's southern and southeastern shores on clear days — the island lies 7 kilometres across the Es Freus strait. Snorkelling and diving are the activities most directly governed by the tidal irrelevance: entry and exit timing, underwater visibility, and depth management are determined by wind, current, and ferry wash rather than tidal state. The same logic applies to stand-up paddleboarding in the caleta bays that indent the north and east coasts — Cala Mastella, Cala Boix, Cala de Sant Vicent all offer flat-water paddling that depends on wind exposure, not tidal access. Tide data for Ibiza, Balearic Islands comes from the Open-Meteo Marine API, a gridded model product. Timing accuracy is ±45 minutes, height accuracy ±0.3 m — usable for trip planning, not for navigation.