Can I take a hire car on the ferry to Formentera?

Almost never without written permission, and many contracts exclude it outright. The reason is recovery: once the car is on another island the company cannot reach it with a truck, and their insurance and assistance arrangements often stop at the water. Ask before you book the ferry, get any permission in writing, and assume the default answer is no.

Is there a limit on vehicles entering Formentera?

Formentera operates a seasonal restriction on how many vehicles may enter the island, with an authorisation and a charge attached, aimed at the summer months. The scheme, the dates and the quotas are set by the island authority and have been revised more than once. Check the current position directly with them before you plan around taking any vehicle over, including a motorbike.

Can I collect a car in Ibiza town and return it at the airport?

Sometimes, from operators who have depots in both, and usually for a fee that reflects moving the car back. On an island this small many companies simply do not offer it, because a single depot and an airport counter is the whole network. Ask before booking rather than assuming, and get the drop fee as a number.

What happens if I take the car across anyway?

You are in breach of the contract for the whole rental, not just for the crossing. In practice that means insurance cover falls away, the excess ceases to be a cap, assistance will not come to you, and the deposit is exposed. Ferry operators also record vehicle registrations, so the idea that nobody will know is optimistic.

Can I hire a car on Formentera itself?

Yes, and it is the sensible way to do it. The fleet there is small and it books out early in summer, so reserve well ahead. Scooters, quads and bicycles are also widely available at the port, and for an island that size two wheels covers most of what people want to do.

One-way hires and taking a car off Ibiza

Two questions come up constantly and have the same answer. Can I drop the car somewhere else on the island, and can I take it on the boat to Formentera? Mostly no, and mostly for the same reason: a small fixed fleet that cannot be recovered from where you left it. What the contracts say, and how to do the day properly instead.

Ibiza is about forty kilometres end to end. That fact quietly answers both of the questions people ask most often about the small print of a hire car here, and it answers them the same way.

A one-way drop is uncommon because the network to support it barely exists. And taking the car off the island is excluded because the company cannot get it back without putting it on a boat, which nobody is going to do for you.

One-way on an island this size

Most operators here run one depot, or one depot plus an airport counter. There is no chain of city branches to move a car between, so the only one-way that is regularly offered is town to airport or the reverse, and that usually comes with a repositioning fee.

Even where two depots exist — the airport, and something in the town, Santa Eulària or Sant Antoni — the distances are so short that the fee often exceeds the cost of simply driving back. Twenty-five minutes across the island against a charge for someone else to do the same drive is not a difficult sum.

The situation where it genuinely helps: a stay that starts on one side of the island and ends with an early flight. Ask, get the fee as a figure, and compare it against a taxi and one fewer rental day.

The situation where it does not exist at all: flying into Ibiza and out of Palma or Mahón. That is two rentals, and any quote suggesting otherwise deserves a second look at what it actually includes.

There is a related trap in longer bookings. Because the island fleet is small, some operators will happily extend a rental by a day or two on the phone but will not accept the car back at a different point, so an extension and a change of drop-off are two separate conversations. Settle the drop-off location when you book and put it on the contract, along with the hour, because a late return to a town depot that closes at seven is a night of parking you did not plan for.

The Formentera question

What you want to do	Usual contract position	The practical route
Take the hire car on the Formentera ferry	Prohibited, or written permission only	Foot passenger, hire on arrival
Take a hired scooter or quad across	Same restriction, plus the entry scheme	Hire on Formentera instead
Take the car to Mallorca or the mainland	Prohibited on almost every contract	Not worth attempting
Leave the car parked at the ferry terminal for the day	Fine, and normal	Arrive early; the parking there fills
Reach Formentera by rented boat	A charter matter, not a car one	Different day, different budget

The recovery argument is the real one. A hire company here operates with a recovery truck, a workshop and a relationship with a local garage. All of that stops at the water. If the car breaks down on Formentera, or is damaged there, nobody is coming, and the cost of resolving it is not covered by the excess you paid for.

The flat turquoise shallows of the Es Freus channel between Ibiza and Formentera with a channel marker buoy, no vessels in sight. — Three miles of water, and the reason your rental agreement stops at the harbour wall.

The vehicle quota nobody mentions until later

Separately from anything your rental contract says, Formentera limits how many vehicles may enter the island during the summer. It is an authorisation scheme with a charge attached, administered by the island authority, and it has been adjusted between seasons since it was introduced.

The consequence for a visitor: even a vehicle you are permitted to take across may need to be registered and paid for in advance, and the quota can be exhausted. Check the current scheme, the dates it applies to and what it covers directly with the Formentera authority before building a day around driving there. Do not rely on the ferry ticket page to tell you.

This is also why the island is a good place to arrive without a car. Distances on Formentera are small, the terrain is flat, and hire scooters and bicycles are available at the port — booked ahead in July and August, because that fleet is small too.

Doing the Formentera day properly

Park on the Ibiza side. The ferry terminal parking fills early in summer, so allow for walking a few minutes.
Go as a foot passenger. Frequent crossings in season, half an hour or so each way depending on the boat.
Book the vehicle on the other side in advance, or plan the day around the local bus and a bicycle.
Watch the last return. It is earlier than you think outside the peak weeks, and missing it is expensive.
Or do it by water instead. A day charter across Es Freus costs more and gets you to water no ferry route touches.

The exception worth asking about

Some operators will grant written permission for the ferry on a long rental, with a supplement and a specific note on the contract. If you have a real reason — a week split between the two islands, say — ask at the point of booking rather than at the desk on the day, and get the permission attached to the agreement in writing with the registration on it.

The same principle applies to everything unusual in an Ibizan rental: the question is free at booking and expensive at the counter. That includes the airport collection arrangements and the pricing behaviour that decides your August rate. None of it is negotiable once you are standing at a desk with a flight behind you and a queue behind that.