Ses Margalides

The boat moors at a platform around 9 metres on Na Foradada, the larger horseshoe-shaped islet. The arch is visible above water before you enter — a 45-metre rock frame that sets the tone for what follows below. Moving west, the floor steps down and the wall builds on the left. At 10-12 metres the arches appear: broad passages whose surfaces are carpeted in Parazoanthus axinellae, the yellow encrusting anemone that glows amber under a torch. Aplidium sea squirts cluster alongside. Barracuda patrol the zone in loose schools.

The route rounds the smaller islet Es Picatxo. The depth here builds faster than the eye registers — exceptional water clarity is explicitly flagged in the dive briefing as the site's main hazard, since 40 metres can arrive without the usual colour-shift warning. Groups that hold their depth move north and find the gallery: a chamber between large rock blocks at 18 metres where light angles through natural stone windows. Mid-morning in spring or autumn, the effect is the best photography window the site offers. The dive closes back over the flatter top of Na Foradada, shallow enough for a natural safety stop near the arch.

The deep north-wall variant is a separate plan from the same anchor. Dropping past the gallery zone to 25 metres, then along a slope to 40 metres, the wall opens into a vertical face running to 60 metres where sand begins. Crevices here hold species absent from the shallower route: red coral, madrepora, dead man's fingers, deep-water sea urchins, lobster. The north arm's submarine tunnel — 25 metres wide, its ceiling just 3 metres from the surface — has walls entirely yellow with anemone and is the most concentrated section of the whole site.

Ses Margalides fills a specific space in Ibiza's dive calendar. The arch-gallery-tunnel sequence here is the most complete overhead-environment circuit accessible at recreational depth on the northwest coast. La Catedral is the island's headline cavern dive, but it draws divers deeper. Ses Margalides puts arch, gallery, and tunnel all within Open Water territory — and then offers a serious advanced wall for those who want one, from the same mooring.

The site's character is also distinct. The northwest coast beyond Sant Antoni is quieter and more exposed than the resort zones, with the islets framed by the vertical Es Amunts cliffs and no development in sight. Diving here reads as genuinely remote. What the site lacks in gorgonian density, it compensates in architectural range: each section of the dive is physically different, and the route changes in scale and light quality from the arch shallows to the gallery mid-depth to open-water circumnavigation.

The endemic plant on the islet surface adds an angle unusual for a dive site. Euphorbia margalidiana grows in exactly two places on earth.

Depth monitoring is the primary skill the site demands. The arch and gallery are straightforward. The section rounding Es Picatxo is not — the computer is the only reliable reference here, not the water colour. Discuss and agree a turn depth before descending.

A torch is useful for the gallery and tunnel even in daylight, and essential for crevice survey on the north wall. Northwest exposure means Tramontana or Mistral will cancel trips; check the marine forecast and confirm conditions on the morning. A 5mm wetsuit with hood covers any dive reaching the thermocline in summer. Shoulder months need 7mm or semi-dry. Ascend with an SMB — the west coast has seasonal boat traffic. Standard recreational kit is enough for the arch circuit; the north wall is a separate plan requiring appropriate gas management and certification.