where to go

We’ve been here >10 years now and each year things continually evolve. Sadly the island is getting less bohemian and more ‘properly’ run .. ‘t council are determined to get their taxes these days. You can only go to these places if you pretend you’re spanish. Read the menu in english then flip to the spanish and (try) to order of that.

Bar/restaurants

San Gertrudis
A lovely village with square having a number of nice cafes. Try Bar Costa for their legendary bocadillos and racions (and have a look inside).

Can Suldat 
Out on the es Canar road from Santa Eulalia, turn off rt 1km or so after turning and drive past a water tank, left and another 300m. A special old finca run by a swiss guy Peter, who starts handing out his home-made limoncelllo late at night. Menu is very limited, this is all about local atmosphere. Open until 4am so dont bother going out until 10pm or later unless eating. Better out of season when its quieter.
-Update- Regrettably social media has ruined the place: its busy with tourists, the locals have gone elsewhere, Peter has lost it, maybe ok out of season but certainly not in. A good example of the evolution (in this case bad) of places.

Santa Eulalia
There is so much ebb and flow of restaurants and coffee shops its hard to recommend anything. Morning coffee is Kaffein on the main walkway or Harinus in the plaza.
Above the main st is a street of restaurants.  Sandy’s is now a Thai and we had a good meal earlier this year. In other restaurants we’ve had good, and bad experiences but consistently ibicencan Rincon de Pepe (for sangria/wine/tapas) are favourites. Ang likes Project Social but I dont! Curry is a rather important parts of our lives but I’m afraid the 3 Santa Eulalia curry houses are rather mediocre.
The treat is a rooftop finca-restaurant overlooking Santa Eulalia in Siesta called SaFinca. good food and superb views. Also in Siesta we recently found a great local BBQ place Siesta Grill.

Sant Carles 
A great stopoff while biking (and otherwise) is the legendary local, Anita’s bar. Try the Montaditos (various toppings on toast), and try biking after 3 jugs of sangria between two 🙂 A good example of how somethings never change !

Santa Agnes
Can Cosmi. The best tortilla (spanish omelette) on the island and, with sangria, a gret precursor to the walk/climb down Heavens Gate (Ses Ballandres), A nearby good end-of-day beer can be had at few km further down the road (to the left looking at Can Cosmi) at Es Boixan.

San Joan
Has a good local market on a sunday – I had my wedding ring made there (aaah). Giri cafe has a lovely garden but the food and coffee are overpriced shite. Sacca Ibiza, coming into the village is v pleasant.

Beaches

There are a number of good beaches heading up the coast from Santa Eulalia, take you pick from Carla Martina (good dive business and Chirincana beach cafe), Cala Nova (chillout and good waves after winds) thru Cala Llenya, Cala mastella …

Aigues Blanques 
A special find was Aigues Blanques. Take the road from sant carles to cala st vincent and after km-marker 16 take right to ‘aigues blanques’. At the end of this road you can park and walk down .. but the real local place is to turn rt at the car park, follow the road for another 500m and look for an entrance on the left. Park around here and walk through the entrance and down to unmarked beach.  Unfortunately a big storm took some of the beach away so it can get busy.
Another example of getting fukked up with social media and a total knob’ead writing an article ‘best secret beaches in Ibiza’ – place has too many blaady tourists.

Cala D’en Sera 
A bit round the coast from Portinax is a marvellous little spot with an abandoned hotel, beach bar, pretty quiet and superb snorkelling.

Salinas area 
Take the road from ibiza ring-round to Sa canal. About 2km before Sa Canal turn rt onto dirt track signposted Pont Be Baix and mystical beach. Park at the end and walk up and along the hillside towards the southern tip. The apartments have a little bit of driftwood (!) .. much of it came from here.

Cala Llentrisca  
From the Ibiza/San Joseph road take the road to Es Cubells. At Es Cubells follow the road to the left that then doubles back heading sw along the coast. At the gate tell them you want to go to the Cala Llentrisca beach, go right up hill at first fork and right at second. Park at end near no7 and take path for km or so to lovely beach.

Atlantis and Sunset
This is actually the quarry at Sa Pedrera where they mined the stone for Dalt Villa. Follow the road to Cala D’Hort (a rather nice place with -the rock- but touristy) and at the top of the hill before you go down to Cala D’Hort opposite a white building there is a untarmac’d road to the left. Follow this to the parking. If you go right you go no-where, straight on is to the Torre des Savinar and a bit to the left, up and over the hill and follow the path down the hill under the cliff face to the sea, 

If you take the path to the Torre de Savinar for about a km there is a place looking out to -the rock- Es Vedra, where you will get probably the best sunset on the island, and with few tourists 🙂

Ibiza Stonehenge
The founder of cirque-de-soleil has a villa on the island, and, being a crazy sunworshipper, he built a ibicencan stonehenge. He was fined a EU1m for no planning but I don’t think he cared. I leave you a challenge to find it 🙂

Markets

Regrettably the best genuine hippy markets have gone, the most authentic ones left are at San Joan on a Sunday (damn, shut down by ‘t council .. hooray, reopened by ‘t council)) and Las Dalias near San Carles (both have live music). There are plenty of ‘hippy’ markets around eg in Es Canar, but most things are made in Vietnam. 
There’s a fruit/veg market near the bus station at Santa Eulalia

Rock-Blues

Gotta say I’ve never been to a club in Ibiza, and I’ve no plans to do so. There are a few great bars and places with live music. The San Joseph region promotes live music here. Also try Can Suldat on a Friday evng, Ca’n Pep on a Sunday aft, Las Dalia’s market …

Trips

Formentera
You can get the boat from Santa Eulalia or Ibiza over to Formentera. There is bike rental (€10 or so) where the ferrry stops and its a good way to explore the island. A nice route is to cruise the back tracks to the west, then south to Cala Saona, into Sant Francesc, round to the northern tip and back to La Savina for the ferry.