Ibiza FAQ

All of Spain’s beaches are public, ours included, and you only pay if you want a sunbed, umbrella, or a spot at a beach club like Amante or Blue Marlin.

Bring your own towel and you’re set.

The Free Sunset Spot in San Antonio does exactly what it says: grab a cold drink from a nearby supermarket and find a seat on the rocks.

For a DJ and cocktails instead, Kumharas and Sunset Ashram are the paid alternatives.

More than you’d expect.

Esfigueral Restaurante is fully plant-based, and most modern spots we list (Mama Chia, Project Social, among others) mark vegetarian dishes clearly on the menu.

For anywhere popular (Es Boldado, Sa Caleta, Es Ventall, most sunset-view spots), yes, often a day or more ahead in July and August.

Casual places (taco counters, burger joints, the food stalls at the hippy markets) you can usually just walk into.

It swings hugely. A clifftop sunset restaurant can run well over 50 euros a head, while a Sant Antoni tapas bar or an inland village grill can be half that or less.

Our Food guide flags which is which as you browse.

It’s one of the best value ways to eat well on the island. A menu del dia is a fixed-price lunch menu, usually three courses (starter, main and dessert), often with bread and a drink included, and it’s offered at most traditional restaurants, not just the tourist spots.

Expect to pay somewhere between 9.50 and 15 euros depending on the place, a fraction of what the same courses would cost ordered a la carte in the evening.

It’s a lunchtime tradition specifically, typically served from around 1pm for a couple of hours, and it runs all year round rather than just in season. It’s popular with locals on their lunch break as much as with visitors, so ordering one is also a good way to eat where islanders actually eat.

Check our Dessert guide.

It’s short, but every entry is a genuine favourite, from Eiscafe Viccio’s vegan options to the carrot cake at Eiscafe Gelato Ibiza.

A sunbed plus food and drinks at a spot like Blue Marlin can easily run 100+ euros per person.

The free beaches and casual chiringuitos in our guide are the way to keep the cost down without missing the views.

Cards, including contactless, are accepted almost everywhere in town, but carry some cash for beach bars, market stalls, small chiringuitos and parking machines near hiking trailheads.

It depends a lot on what you’re after, since the season swings hugely. The core season runs from April to the beginning of October, with the party scene peaking hard from mid-July through August: biggest crowds, highest prices, hottest weather.

May, June and September give you the same clubs and warm sea with noticeably less chaos.

October is a different island: quieter roads, walkable heat, the last of the fig harvest still hanging in the air, and it’s genuinely one of the best months for hiking and exploring the sights and coves without the crowds.

If you want almond blossom across the countryside, that’s a late January to February thing instead, well outside the season, with most restaurants and clubs shut for winter. One thing to watch for if you’re travelling in autumn is Gota Fria: the intense, fast-moving storm systems that can bring flash flooding to the Balearics between September and November, so check the forecast before you go.

The big names (Pacha, Hi Ibiza) lean smart-casual and door staff can be picky. Beach bars and the more underground clubs (DC10, 528 Ibiza) are far more relaxed, so trainers and a T-shirt are fine.

If you’re booking a VIP table, note that most clubs require men to wear long trousers in the VIP areas specifically: shorts that were fine on the main floor won’t get you past that section. Outside the VIP tables, shorts and smart casual are accepted pretty much everywhere.

Cannabis clubs are private members-only associations, not shops open to the public, and that distinction is what keeps them within Spanish law. To join you typically need a valid ID, a membership application, and sometimes a referral from an existing member or a small registration fee.

Once you’re a member, consumption and purchase happen inside the club premises only: taking cannabis outside, reselling it, or consuming it in the street, on a beach or in a bar is illegal and treated the same as any other public drug offense. Tourists can join many clubs, and some cater specifically to visitors, but membership isn’t guaranteed on the spot everywhere, so it’s worth checking a club’s policy and bringing ID before you go.

Expect a calm, social atmosphere built around responsible use rather than a party scene, plus house rules around photography, guests and discretion that every member is expected to follow.

Not until after 2am, generally.

Arrive earlier and you’ll find shorter queues, cheaper entry, and a much emptier dancefloor, a good option if queuing isn’t your idea of a night out.

A handful of newer spots we list (NOCTURNA, Tomodachi Ibiza) now ask guests to seal their phones in a pouch for the night.

It’s part of the appeal for people who want an old-school, fully-present night out, worth knowing before you go if that’s not your thing.

Ibiza’s jellyfish are mostly the mauve stinger (Pelagia noctiluca): small, pinkish-purple and mostly see-through, with long trailing tentacles. They’re just drifting with the current, so getting stung is really about swimming into a patch at the wrong moment rather than anything to worry about beforehand.

They’re most likely from around May to October, when the water’s warm, and turn up wherever currents happen to push them close to shore that week: some coves, Sol d’en Serra is a known one, see jellyfish in season, along with a few spots on the west coast. Numbers shift year to year and week to week, so ask at a nearby bar or chiringuito before swimming in, since locals usually know what’s been around; the free “Medusas Ibiza” app also has crowd-sourced sighting reports if you want a heads-up before you head down to the beach.

If you do get stung, get out of the water, and don’t rub the area or rinse it with fresh water, since both can trigger more stinging cells. Rinse with seawater instead, and pick off any stuck tentacles with tweezers or the edge of a card rather than your bare fingers. A hot shower or a warm compress, as hot as you can comfortably stand, usually eases the pain better than ice. Most stings are just an itchy, burning welt that settles down within a few hours to a couple of days. Head to a pharmacy or the nearest health centre if the pain doesn’t ease, if a large area is affected, or if you get a wider reaction such as difficulty breathing, dizziness or swelling of the face: that’s rare, but worth treating as urgent.

Ibiza didn’t have snakes at all until fairly recently. The horseshoe whip snake, native to mainland Spain, arrived roughly two decades ago, most likely hidden among the roots of imported olive trees, and it has since spread across an estimated 90% of the island.

The good news for visitors: it’s non-venomous and not considered a danger to humans. You’re unlikely to see one at all unless you’re out hiking through scrubland or rural areas, since it tends to keep well clear of people.

The bad news is for the island’s wildlife. The snakes prey heavily on the Ibiza wall lizard, a species found nowhere else on Earth, and several isolated populations on offshore islets have already disappeared entirely. Regional authorities now trap thousands of snakes a year as part of an ongoing control effort, alongside a captive-breeding program for the lizards. If you spot one while out walking, there’s no need to worry, just give it space and let it move on.

Sant Antoni and other parts of the island have tightened their public conduct rules, and the fines are real. Walking around town without a shirt, away from the beach, can bring a fine in the low hundreds of euros.

Drinking alcohol in the street or other public spaces is treated even more seriously: Sant Antoni’s restricted zone bans it outright, with fines that have climbed toward 3,100 euros under the toughened rules brought in for 2025, and off-license shops there can’t sell alcohol between 9:30pm and 8am either.

Buying from unlicensed street vendors, counterfeit goods especially, can get the buyer fined too, not just the seller. Drug possession is treated as an administrative rather than criminal offense for small personal amounts, but fines can still run into the thousands of euros, and non-EU visitors risk deportation on top of that.

Turning up at an unlicensed villa party or illegal afterparty carries the same risk: both organizers and attendees can be fined, since these events skip the safety, noise and insurance rules licensed venues follow. None of this affects the clubs, bars and beach spots in our guides, but exact fine amounts and rules shift from year to year, so it’s worth checking the current local ordinances before you travel.

Don’t leave anything visible in the car when you park at viewpoints and beaches like Cala d’Hort: bags, phones, sunglasses, anything that looks valuable through a window is an invitation, since these are exactly the spots where a car sits empty for an hour or more while everyone’s down at the viewpoint or on the sand. If you’re travelling with luggage, it’s worth dropping bags off at your hotel or villa before making any stops along the way, rather than leaving them in the boot at a random car park.

It’s also worth knowing that watch-snatching gangs do operate on the island during high season: small groups scout targets at hotels and upscale restaurants, then grab expensive watches off wrists, sometimes using a friendly handshake or hug as cover, sometimes more forcefully, before getting away on a moped. If you’re wearing anything valuable, it’s safer left at your accommodation than worn out for the night.

Sturdy shoes over sandals, more water than feels necessary, and start early.

Several trails (Torre des Savinar, the walk to Es Vedra) have little to no shade and get hot fast by midday.

Between rain events, fine dust carried over from the Sahara desert settles on road surfaces. When the first drops of rain hit, that dust mixes with water to form a thin, slick film, almost like a layer of wet clay, before it has a chance to wash away.

This film dramatically reduces tire grip, especially in the first 10–20 minutes of a shower.

The riskiest window is right at the start of rainfall, before the dust has been rinsed off the surface. Once a shower continues steadily for a while, the dust washes away and grip generally improves.

So counterintuitively, a light drizzle after a dry spell can be more dangerous than a longer, heavier downpour.

Q: Which roads and situations are the riskiest?

• Roads that have gone several days or weeks without rain (dust has had time to build up)
• Painted lines, crosswalks, and manhole covers, which get even slicker
• Roundabouts and curves, where braking and cornering forces are higher
• Rural roads with less traffic to naturally clear the dust

Q: Does this affect scooters and motorbikes more than cars?

Yes, significantly. With only two contact points and less weight pressing the tires down, motorbikes and scooters lose traction much faster on a dusty, wet surface. If you ride in Ibiza, treat the first few minutes of any rain shower as black-ice-level caution, particularly when braking or leaning into turns.

Q: What should drivers do to stay safe?

• Slow down noticeably as soon as rain starts, even if it looks light
• Increase following distance — braking distances can double on dust-slicked roads
• Avoid sudden braking or sharp steering inputs in the first few minutes of rain
• Be extra cautious on painted road markings and roundabouts
• If riding a scooter or motorbike, consider waiting a few minutes for the initial dust film to clear if you can

Q: Does this only happen during visible “calima” (hazy sky) events?

No, dust can accumulate gradually and invisibly over dry weeks even without a dramatic hazy-sky calima event. You don’t need to see a dust cloud in the forecast to be at risk; any first rain after a dry stretch carries some of this danger.

Q: How can I check if conditions are likely to be risky?

Watch for two signals together: a dry spell of several days or more, followed by the start of rain. If both apply, treat the first 15–20 minutes of driving as high-risk regardless of how light the rain looks.

Bring some.

Vendors are a mix of card and cash-only, and parking near the bigger markets is often a small cash-only fee.

Light haggling is fine, especially on bigger items, but it’s not expected everywhere.

Read the room and let the vendor’s tone guide you.

They mostly run on fixed days: Punta Arabi is Wednesdays in season, and Las Dalias and the Sant Jordi market have their own weekly schedules.

Check ahead before you plan a trip around one, since hours shift out of season.

Generally, yes: the Necropolis of Puig des Molins and the Dalt Vila fortifications are open-air and easy walking.

Check the MAEF museum’s site for hours before you go, since they shift seasonally.

A relaxed half-day covers the walled old town, the cathedral and the ramparts at the top.

Go slowly, since it’s steep cobbled streets the whole way up, and linger at the bastions for the harbour views: they’re the payoff.

Yes, but time it. Torre des Savinar and the Mirador de l’Illa d’Es Vedra are both best around sunset and get busy.

Arrive early, wear shoes you can walk a dirt track in, and expect little to no shade on the approach.