Ibiza’s club season runs roughly late April to mid-October, and on a night out in season the island still does something few places manage: a whole day built around music, from a daytime pool party through the ritual of sunset on the Sunset Strip to one of the superclubs that made Ibiza’s reputation in the first place. This route is built for stamina rather than speed, so treat the morning as recovery time before the day properly starts.
Getting there and getting around
Plan on taxis or the bus rather than driving for any part of this route; between an afternoon beach club, sunset drinks and a club night, this is not a day to be behind the wheel. Basing the afternoon and sunset both in San Antonio keeps most of the day within walking distance of each other; you’ll only really need a taxi for dinner and for the ride into the night’s club and back. Taxis get scarce around club closing times, especially in August, so if you’re relying on one to get home, build in a wait or arrange a pickup in advance.
Afternoon: a beach club, or O Beach for a proper party
Skip the idea of a midday start: Ibiza’s day clubs don’t really get going until mid afternoon, and turning up before then just means an empty pool. If you want the full pool-party production, O Beach in San Antonio opens at 1pm but only really fills up from around 3pm, building to its peak between 4pm and 5pm around its 600-square-metre pool, with commercial house, aerial performers and a young, highly social crowd, before winding down around 10 or 11pm. If you’d rather keep the afternoon calmer, any of San Antonio’s beach clubs work just as well for sunbeds, a swim and a relaxed lunch without the party production. Either way, basing yourself in San Antonio for the afternoon means no taxi ride before sunset: the Strip is a short walk from most of the beach clubs along this stretch.
Sunset: the strip in San Antonio
By early evening, move to Ses Variades, San Antonio’s Sunset Strip, where the whole bay turns to face west for one of the most reliable sunsets in the Mediterranean. Café del Mar, open since 1980, is the original chill-out terrace and still the more relaxed of the strip’s two big names, built around curated music rather than dancing. Next door, Café Mambo runs livelier and a little more social as the evening goes on. Both fill early for the actual sunset, so arrive with enough time to find a spot rather than turning up right as the sun touches the horizon.
Dinner and a break before the club
Take a proper break here. Eat somewhere unhurried near the strip or back toward the marina, and use the two or three hours before midnight to rest: Ibiza’s clubs run late, most not filling properly until well after 1:00, and the night goes better with a break between sunset and the queue.
Night: choosing your club
Ibiza’s clubs each have a distinct identity, and it’s worth picking based on the music rather than just the name. Pacha, in Ibiza Town, is the island’s classic superclub, with residencies spanning techno, house and more melodic, world-influenced sets across its rooms. Amnesia, just outside town, is best known for its huge open-roof terrace and for some of the island’s most theatrical parties, from Sven Väth’s long-running Cocoon techno night to the legendary La Troya cabaret closing sets. Hï Ibiza, on the road to the airport, is the newest of the big rooms and widely considered to have the best sound system on the island, with a techno and house programme across several spaces. DC10, out toward the salt flats, is the stripped-back, no-frills club that’s kept its underground reputation since the late 1990s, and it’s the true home of Circoloco, the island’s most famous Monday party, running house and techno since 1999. UNVRS, in San Rafael near Amnesia, is the newest addition: a three-room hyperclub built on the site of the old Privilege, with a different headline resident most nights of the week, including Carl Cox on Sundays and David Guetta on Fridays.
Book tickets weeks ahead rather than at the door. Online presale prices are the lowest they’ll be and tend to climb the closer you get to the date, especially for headline nights that sell out completely; door tickets, on the rare occasions they’re still available, are the most expensive way in. Expect somewhere between 25 and 120 euros depending on the club and the night, with UNVRS and other headline residencies toward the top of that range. Once you’re inside, the floor is at its best between around 2am and closing near 6am, so there’s no need to rush in at midnight; line-ups vary night to night and change season to season, so it’s worth a quick check of what’s actually on before you queue. Bring cash as well as a card, since some club bars and door staff still prefer it, and pace your drinking across the whole day rather than the evening alone: a pool party, a sunset session and a club night back to back is a long stretch even by Ibiza standards.
Prefer an earlier finish? Afternoon-into-evening options
Not every good night on this island has to run until sunrise. A handful of venues blur the line between afternoon and evening and wrap up at a more reasonable hour, which works well swapped in for the sunset-and-club stretch of this route if you’d rather be home before 2am than queueing for a superclub. 528, up in the Benimussa hills above Sant Antoni, runs open-air parties across several stages that often start in the afternoon, among them All Day I Dream and Brunch Elektronik on Sundays. Cova Santa, built into a cave in the countryside near Sant Josep, hosts theatrical parties on its amphitheatre-style terrace that usually kick off between 19:00 and 20:00, run through sunset, and move indoors later in the night. For something lower-key, Las Dalias‘ Night Market, on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday evenings, opens at 19:00 with stalls, food and live music in a relaxed, hippie-market setting rather than a club atmosphere.