He may be a millionaire pop star with a supermodel girlfriend and armies of fans worldwide but when it came to buying a luxurious Mediterranean hideaway there was only one person James Blunt trusted to find him the perfect pad -his mother.

And 56-year-old Jane seems to have done her son proud, discovering a stunning villa on the island of Ibiza which the singer, who had a No1 hit with You're Beautiful, has now snapped up for £1.7million.

The 150-year-old hilltop property - surrounded by pine forest - has six bedrooms, a library, sun terrace and an outdoor swimming pool with its own pool house.

It also has stone floors, two antique fireplaces, a two-bedroom guesthouse and staff living quarters.

Thirty-two-year-old Blunt plans to write his second album at the villa and has already spent time there with his lingerie-model girlfriend Petra Nemcova, 27.

A source said: "James's mum did plenty of legwork for him because he's been so busy with his work. She viewed at least four properties on Ibiza before recommending this one. James visited and decided he wanted it straightaway.

"It is so remote and peaceful, the perfect place to get away from it all. He has hardly had his feet on the ground since his sudden runaway success.

"His life has been a manic stream of concerts and television appearances, but now he's looking forward to escaping from it all. Petra absolutely adores the house and the countryside."

Harrow-educated Blunt, a former officer with The Household Cavalry, became an overnight sensation last year and is reckoned to be worth £5million after his debut album Back To Bedlam sold four million copies.

He is now said to be waiting for a grand piano to be delivered to the villa before starting work on his new songs.

Although Ibiza has a reputation for attracting binge drinkers and drug-taking clubbers, the more remote parts of the island are among the most beautiful in the Mediterranean.

Other celebrities who have houses nearby include shamed French football star Zinedine Zidane and designer Jade Jagger.

The villa is certainly a far cry from Blunt's British home - a cramped flat in Fulham, West London.

Ibiza offers a wide variety of good live music. Often, the most difficult task for the visitor is to find the venues, as they are not normally accompanied by million dollar advertising budgets. Not only that, but because of the lack of auditorium space, (Can Ventosa....the largest can only seat 350 people), they are either in small music clubs, restaurants, some hotels or outdoors.

But the events and offers are there...and cover everything from Classical Music, to Opera, Jazz, Pops, Rock-n-Roll, Caribbean

No passport is required, the flights are free and there's no carbon footprint - welcome to the brave new world of virtual holidays. Gemma Bowes books a package tour of cyberspace and asks: could this be the new Ibiza ?



I'm ambling along the beach, palm trees looming through the dusky haze of sunset. I can just make out some lights through the trees and, as I draw closer, I realise it is a beach club, with dozens of gorgeous people in outlandish clothes dancing on the sand.

After joining them for a while, I follow a sign for a treehouse campsite and find a stylish open-air lodge, with verandas built up into the trees and bean bags and designer chairs round open fires. I recline for a while before Mario, my tour operator, says he wants to buy me some designer clothes before taking me skiing. Then he'll take me to see some historical sites and meet some celebrities.

It seems I've stumbled upon my dream holiday. What's more, it's free, totally eco-friendly and we don't have any long coach transfers between the sites. We can simply teleport, or indeed fly.

Mario Gerosa's tours are a little different to your average package holiday. He's the world's first 'virtual tour operator', offering holidays in cyberspace through his company, Synthravels, to online 3D, interactive worlds, which together have around 20 million users worldwide.

Like a combination of a computer game and a chat room, these complex digital worlds are downloaded over the internet and allow people to explore the graphic environments and interact with each other via an avatar - a digital version of themselves. While many log on to make friends, as they would in a chat room, businesses are realising the potential to reach a huge and growing audience. The most famous virtual world, Second Life, has attracted 4.6 million members since it was developed in 2003 by San Francisco-based Linden Lab, and now big corporations are using it to contact customers and market their goods. IBM holds meetings there, American Apparel sells virtual versions of its clothes, DJs and bands perform live online and there is a virtual Reuters office with a hack to report on Second Life events.

Now the first 'virtual holidays' to this and other digital worlds are being offered by Synthravels, which Mario launched last October. He says he's not a IT bod; his background is as a travel writer for Conde Nast Traveller magazine in Italy and he's now a reporter for the Architectural Digest in Milan by day, running his virtual tours in his spare time.

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Here we go again. Paris Hilton and her friend go to Ibiza and Saint Tropez. They have a lot of fun, as we can see. Paris shows us her crotch for the start, and the party goes on with a lot of illegal substances. Have fun watching them, they surely had fun taping it! All the parts from Ibiza are here !!

Scientists from the CSIC. the University of the Balearic Islands, Portugal, Carribean and the USA have discovered a Posidonia Oceanica, of more than 8 kilometers in length, and 100,000 years old.

The 'Posideonia Oceanica' is, in layman's terms 'sea grass', and the wavy plains of this plant found off the coasts Ibiza and Formentera, have been, since 1999, part of the reason for the award to Ibiza as a 'Heritage of Humanity'.

The huge plant was discovered between 'Es Freus' (the straits that separate Ibiza from Formentera) and the 'Ses Salines' beach....and quite by accident, as there are more than 100,000,000 of these plants in the area.

The bad news is that, because of the pollution in the Mediterranean, these plants are disappearing at the rate pf 5% per year.

Thanks to San Antonio council visitors to Ibiza will be able to enjoy the famous sunsets and eat and drink to their heart's content without it costing a fortune. As we all know San Antonio is really upping its image with new tourist infrastructures; the new ferry terminal, the soon to open bus station, town centre streets being repaved and pedestrianised, the lovely market area by the church and of course the new promenade to Cala Gracio.

All these are now joined by a purpose built recreation and barbecue area on the seafront just beyond Cala Gracioneta. Only just officially opened the area has enormous picnic tables, a bank of barbecues – there's even a special low barbie for disabled people in wheelchairs – a large supply of wood, water for washing up and plenty of bins to recycle your empty bottles and paper.

The idea is that you just turn up with your salads, vegetables and meat, grill it to perfection on the BBQ's in situ, and accompany it with some very reasonably priced supermarket drinks, and sit back, relax and enjoy the fabulous sunset on a balmy summer's evening.

1) The beaches. Particularly Salinas beach which is absolutely beautiful.
2) The Bambuddha Grove restaurant. It's MediterrAsian restaurant set among bamboo, which is wicked.
3) The new Kanya Beach bar in San Antonio. Its looking beautiful and we can't wait to do our parties there.
4) I forget the name; but there is a clothes shop next to Wips in San Antonio which sells wicked stuff from people like Maharishi. In fact, there are lots of great clothes shops in Ibiza Town and San Antonio.
5) Pacha on Wednesday night. That's always my favourite club to go to on a night off. Beautiful people and a gorgeous vibe.
6) Being able to see wonderful DJs such as Steve Angello, David Guetta and Eddie Halliwell any day of the week is one of the best things about Ibiza.
7) We Love Sundays at Space is a must do.
8) Tidy Extreme at Es Paradis: Always a treat for for the more energetic who go to the island - and I love playing there.
9) Plastik Lounge Bar in San Antonio. A great place to chill and relax and hear some fab music too.
10) The Vibe. There is no where else on earth that can live up to the wonderful cosmopolitan party vibe to Ibiza. I've played all over the world and no where can match the sheer excitement you feel when your plane lands at the airport.
11) Explore the smallest Balaeric island, Formentera on a Vespa.
12) Visit Café Makau in Santa Gertrudis.
13) Café Mambo on Friday nights for the Pure Pacha warm up. Best cocktails and best sunset view.
14) Buy your partner a gift at El Alyay.
15) Detox and get yourself up to the northern beaches in Benniras.
16) Lunch at Tropicana in Cala Jondol for the best beach lunch vibe.
17) Go to the new La Troya night on Wednesdays at Space.
18) Replenish your brain cells at Atzao, the best Spa on the island.
19) The best Full English breakfast at the Passion Juice bar opposite playa d’en Bossa Beach.
20) Grab a copy of the Pacha magazine to get an insight into Ibiza and see my interview with Yasmin La Bon. www.pacha.com

Ibiza weekender ... remember the summer
FULL IBIZA INDEX ››

TOP clubs and DJs from Ibiza are set to gather for the first 'multi-club' weekender, United Kingdom of Ibiza, in October. Space, Bora Bora, Privilege, Amnesia, Eden and El Divino will be represented at the two day event on the South coast. DJs including Dave Pearce, Sonique, Brandon Block and Alex P will be spinning the tunes at the massive Butlins Bognor Regis Resort, which has a capacity of 4,000, on October 13 and 14.

Clubbers can purchase special 'early bird' tickets, which cost from £89 per person and include accommodation, club entrance fees and free access to facilities: A funfair, Splash Waterworld and even a recording studio.

There are also luxury VIP packages available from £128.
For more information and full DJ line ups see: www.unitedkingdomofibiza.co.uk

By MIRANDA COOK