Gabriela has built her life here with her husband and their two sons, after many years of moving between countries without ever staying long enough to feel rooted in one place. She grew up in Berlin and left at eighteen to study in Switzerland, where she met her husband. What followed was a life shaped by movement, living in Dubai, Germany, Morocco and Ghana as his work took them from one place to the next. Each move carried a similar pattern, arriving somewhere new, building a life for a few years, then moving on again. “We would stay two, three years,” she says. “That was just our life.” Ibiza was never part of that trajectory.

In the summer of 2015, while on holiday in Croatia, they found themselves speaking about wanting something different. At the time, Gabriela was living in Berlin with two young children, running an interior design shop, while her husband was working in Vienna and commuting between the two cities. “With two small kids, it just didn’t make sense anymore,” she says. They didn’t know where they wanted to go, only that they were looking for a different way of living.  “We just thought, Mediterranean.” When Ibiza came up, her reaction was immediate.

“I said, are you crazy? For me it was a party island, nothing else.”

They came to visit the island in November, and the experience didn’t immediately change her mind. It rained for most of the trip, and the houses they were shown felt far removed from the life she knew, set in the campo in a way that felt unfamiliar rather than peaceful. The one thing that stayed with her was the school, Morna International College.

“The children were all running around in their shorts and t-shirts and they just looked really happy. And somehow that convinced me.”

Within a matter of weeks, everything shifted. Her husband accepted the project, she sold her shop, and they moved to Ibiza in January, settling first in Jesús. However, the first months were uncertain. The kids adapted quickly, and her husband went straight into work, but Gabriela found herself in between, trying to understand where she fitted within this new environment.

“I remember saying every evening, I’m not sure I can make it work here.”

What she saw around her didn’t immediately feel familiar, and it took time to find a sense of belonging within it. That shift came gradually, through school, through friendships and through the repetition of daily life. “It took me a while,” she says. “But then slowly, you find your people.” Over time, the island began to settle into her life in a quieter way. The structure of her days remained full, school runs, work, afternoons moving between activities, but the feeling around it changed. “It’s not that my day is less filled,” she says. “It’s just that I’m surrounded by less stressful people.” Time outdoors became part of that rhythm without needing to be planned, walks on the beach or in the forest sitting naturally within the day.

“I wouldn’t say the island healed me, but it softened me.”

The shift wasn’t sudden, but something that happened over time, through living within a place that allowed for more space between things. Today, she runs GL Bespoke Celebrations, planning and designing weddings and events both on the island and internationally, building a business that reflects the same sense of structure and ease she has found in her personal life. Her days follow a familiar rhythm, work in the morning, family in the afternoon, evenings often spent at home or with friends. Over time, that repetition has become something she values. “We go back to the same places,” she says. “The same beaches, the same walks.” There is comfort in that familiarity, in not constantly searching for something new.

“Here, we’re not chasing anything. We’re just living.”

Her two sons grew up on the island. They were eight and eleven when they arrived, and now they are eighteen and twenty-one. One has already left, the other preparing to do the same. When her eldest left, he sent her a message from the ferry.

“Mum, it’s really hard to leave Ibiza, to leave you, my brother and Dad, but I know I am ready. Thank you for the greatest childhood I could of ever had.”

For Gabriela, that moment stayed with her. It reflected something she had come to understand over time, that the island had given them a sense of belonging that extended beyond the place itself. They grew up within a close community, where people know each other and friendships develop over years, while also being surrounded by different cultures and languages. “I think they will take that openness with them,” she says. “It becomes part of how you see the world.”

When she reflects on Ibiza now, she doesn’t try to define it as one thing. The island has always held different layers at once, the spiritual, the creative, the everyday lives of families, and the tourism and music scene that made it internationally known. “I don’t think Ibiza has changed that much,” she says. “It has always had different sides.” What feels more uncertain is the balance, particularly as the cost of living continues to rise. “I hope it stays possible for people to live here, not just visit.” At the same time, she hopes the island holds onto something more intangible.

“The openness and kindness of people here is something very special.”

For Gabriela, Ibiza was never meant to be permanent. It was another move, another chapter, another place to stay for a few years. But over time, without a clear decision, it became the place that held them.