Further inland is Santa Gertrudis, at the centre of the island and just about as far away from the sea as you can get. This is where many locals gather to take refuge from the crowds of high season. It's also a meeting point for adopted locals who gather at hang-outs such as Bar Costa to admire paintings by island artists. The painting tradition stems from the flower-power era when penniless hippies paid for their food in kind. The collection covers virtually every wall in the bar and contains some fabulous pictures. You can also get great tapas here.

Elsewhere in Santa Gertrudis, there's little more than a church, a few more bars, some chic shops (nearby San Rafael is the centre of the island's pottery trade), and a wonderful feeling of peace and quiet – especially during low season. Santa Gertrudis is also an important part of the island's grapevine. Messages, small ads, contact numbers, social events, home tutors, lost dogs – this is the place to come to keep up-to-date with real Ibiza.

For those seeking the island's hippy heritage, San Carlos on the north-eastern coast is the place to go. Las Dalias, a legendary bar that earned its counter-culture stripes in the 1960s, is a village hall-like venue which has witnessed four decades of tie-dyed, wide-eyed freaky dancing and free-form drumming. And it still does to this day. An eclectic mix of original Ibizan hippies and enthusiastic new converts from Denmark, Germany and the UK continue to gather here.

The other hippy landmark is Anita's. Anita, the formidable Ibicenco hostess, has long since retired, but her eponymous San Carlos bar remains open, serving pizzas and tapas on the vine-covered patio. The original telephone cabin (it used to be the only place in the area with a telephone) is still there, as are wooden mail boxes from the days before e-mail and mobiles, when Ibizan posties couldn't (or wouldn't) deliver to remote fincas postcards and letters about adventures in Marrakech, San Francisco or Goa. Even today, Anita's notice-board continues to be a point of contact – yoga, tai-chi classes, homeopathy sessions and organic vegetable deliveries are advertised.

Just outside San Carlos is Can Curreu, a 400-year-old finca lovingly converted into a luxury restaurant where Parisian intellectuals dine on foie gras. It's well located for Ibiza's best and least-known beaches, including the secluded naturist haven of Aqua Blancas.

Another atmospheric part of the northern coast is the isolated beach at Benirras, where communal drumming sessions are held every Thursday at sunset.

One of the island’s most 'mysterious' landmarks is Es Vedre, a 1,200ft limestone outcrop off the south coast. Hundreds of UFO sightings and religious 'visions' have been reported here. Tanit, the Carthaginian goddess of love and fertility, is believed to live inside the rock. And, according to Greek legend, Es Vedre is home to the 'sirens' who lured Odysseus from his ship in the Odyssey.

A similar pull exerts itself on visitors who hear whispers about Atlantis. Most Ibizan residents know its location. Atlantis, they insist, is an ancient sandstone quarry which provided the stone blocks for the construction of the Egyptian Pyramids.The quarry walls feature extraordinary carvings, along with paintings by successive generations of visitors. Some two-thirds of the way along the tricky cliff-top descent to Atlantis is a cave (inhabited by a witch, according to folklore). At the entrance you must leave a personal item or risk bad luck.

Modern Ibiza has reaped the rewards of its reputation for things mythical and mystical. Ever since the Phoenicians first declared that the island's red soil was magic, the island has inspired remarkable devotion. And if, as Nostradamus predicted in the 15th century, Ibiza becomes the planet’s final refuge – due, apparently, to wind patterns over the island that will protect it from nuclear fall-out – few residents of this extraordinary island would be too surprised.