Montesol Experimental Ibiza

Ibiza Before Ibiza

Long before beach clubs, superstar DJs, and villas with infinity pools, there was Montesol. The landmark hotel opened in 1933 and became one of the places through which modern Ibiza first presented itself to the outside world. Its location could hardly be more prominent. The creamy neocolonial façade presides over Vara de Rey in the heart of Ibiza Town, with the port in one direction and the fortified old town of Dalt Vila rising dramatically in another. Over the decades, Montesol witnessed Ibiza transform around it. Hollywood visitors arrived. Artists and bohemians followed. Hippies discovered the island. And eventually Ibiza became Ibiza.

Enter Experimental

Experimental Group acquired the hotel in 2021 and entrusted its reinvention to Dorothée Meilichzon, the designer behind several of the group’s most distinctive hotels. Importantly, she didn’t try to turn Montesol into a historical reconstruction. The protected 1930s exterior remains the dignified public face of the building. Inside, things become considerably more playful. Meilichzon takes the hotel’s bohemian history and runs with it through pastel colours, tactile surfaces, curious objects, and recurring celestial symbols. It feels nostalgic without belonging to any particular decade.

Shells, Suns and Moons

Look closely. The seemingly simple pale walls in the bedrooms have been individually pressed with seashell forms. Brass suns appear beside moon-shaped openings. Coral-coloured basins meet cream tiles. Wicker lamps hang beside polished walnut mirrors. Wardrobe doors fit together like abstract jigsaw pieces. Embroidered and fringed headboards introduce another layer of texture. Elsewhere are ceramic masks by Mallorca-based Anna Alexandra and wonderfully strange Playdough Stools by Diego Faivre. The references are eclectic, but Meilichzon holds everything together through colour and repetition. Greys, greens, dusty pinks, yellows, and soft blues create a cooler counterpoint to the intense Ibizan light outside.

Only 33 Rooms

Despite its status in Ibiza, Montesol is surprisingly intimate. There are just 33 rooms and suites. Rather than conventional luxury, they offer character: handmade surfaces, asymmetric details, artisanal lighting, curving forms, tassels, embroidery, and those recurring suns and moons. Some look towards the marina. Others face Vara de Rey or Dalt Vila. Modern comforts are present, but visually they remain secondary to Meilichzon’s interiors. This is a hotel where you remember the shape of a mirror.

Café Society, Ibiza Style

Downstairs, Café Montesol reconnects the hotel with one of its original roles: a meeting place. It spills directly onto Vara de Rey, allowing breakfast, tapas, coffee, or cocktails to unfold against the constant theatre of Ibiza Town. The food returns deliberately to uncomplicated Spanish hospitality, with local produce and familiar dishes rather than attempting to compete with the island’s increasingly elaborate restaurant scene. It feels right. Montesol doesn’t need to manufacture a destination around itself. The destination is already passing its terrace.

Above the Rooftops

Then take the lift upwards. The rooftop shifts the perspective completely. Its blood-orange tiled floor and relaxed furniture create a surprisingly intimate setting, but the real decoration is beyond the terrace: rooftops, harbour, Mediterranean sky, and the ancient walls of Dalt Vila. Experimental Group’s cocktail DNA naturally comes into play here. As evening arrives and the stone fortifications begin to glow, Montesol reveals one of the great advantages of staying in town rather than retreating to a beach resort. Ibiza is happening beneath you.

A Different Ibiza

Montesol Experimental occupies an interesting position on an island increasingly divided between vast luxury resorts and secluded rural fincas. It is neither. This is urban Ibiza. Walk outside and you are immediately among restaurants, shops, bars, the harbour, and the labyrinth of Dalt Vila. There is no swimming pool. No sprawling spa. No private beach. And none is really necessary. The luxury here is being at the centre of a city whose history the hotel has helped to shape.

Why It Works

Montesol Experimental could easily have become another beautifully restored heritage hotel. Dorothée Meilichzon makes it much more interesting than that. Instead of treating 1933 with excessive reverence, she allows Ibiza’s later bohemian spirit to infiltrate the building — shells pressed into walls, moons cut into bathrooms, brass suns, ceramic faces, tassels, sorbet colours, and furniture that occasionally makes you smile. Experimental Group then reconnects the hotel with its original social role through a café spilling onto Vara de Rey and cocktails above the rooftops. The result feels neither old nor aggressively new. It simply feels like Montesol has joined the next chapter of an Ibiza story it has been watching unfold for almost a century.