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Ibiza is well known for being a party island full of beach clubs and super clubs with world famous DJs, where (mainly) youngsters flock for hedonistic nights and spend the days sleeping it off on the beach or by the pool. However, the White Island is much more than a party destination. It’s an island of incredible natural beauty, bathed in golden light, with stunning coastlines, a hippy history and UNESCO heritage sites.
What more reason do you need to plan a week in Ibiza with teenagers? Ours loved searching for hippy Ibiza at the island’s markets and sunset drumming, and spent a happy day exploring Ibiza Old Town and Dalt Vila. Here’s how we planned the rest of our week.
We based ourselves in a villa near Santa Eulària des Riu, a quieter, family-friendly town on the east coast, and spent the week exploring coves, markets, Ibiza Town and the north coast, with one early evening in San Antonio for the sunset.
Ibiza is one of the Balearic Islands of Spain, an archipelago in the western Mediterranean Sea. Over 50 islands make up the archipelago, but most of them are uninhabited. The largest are Mallorca and Menorca to the east, then Ibiza and Formentera to the west, which together are known as the Pine Islands (the Pityusic Islands).
Ibiza lies roughly 150 km east of Valencia on the Spanish mainland. Most visitors arrive at Ibiza Airport, and there are also ferry routes to Barcelona, Valencia, Dénia and Mallorca from Ibiza Town and San Antonio. Ferries also run to the smaller island of Formentera from Ibiza Town, San Antonio and Santa Eulària des Riu.
Don’t be surprised if your flight to Ibiza is lively. Our Ryanair flight from Manchester was full of young adults at the back of the plane getting into the party spirit and being giddy (but not badly behaved). There were plenty of families and couples on board to even things out. Funnily enough, the flight home was silent, as all the partygoers were asleep!
The main party towns on Ibiza are San Antonio on the west coast and Ibiza Town in the southeast, so you might want to avoid these as your base when visiting Ibiza with teenagers, as they get noisy in the evenings. Here’s another suggestion.
Santa Eulària des Riu (Santa Eulària, or Santa Eulalia in Spanish) is the third biggest town in Ibiza, on the east of the island, and a much more family-friendly resort. We found it a great location, as it’s no more than 20 or 30 minutes from other parts of the island, so you can explore the island of Ibiza easily. It’s also only about 15 km from Ibiza Town and around 22 km from Ibiza Airport.
There’s a good range of accommodation in Santa Eulària, with hotels across the price range. We found a villa with a pool on the edge of town, which worked well for our week in Ibiza with teenagers. It had a cactus garden, a BBQ and an outdoor kitchen, with a resident lizard in the sink!
Santa Eulària has a pretty seafront promenade, the Passeig Marítim, lined with palm trees, cafés, bars and restaurants.
At the eastern end of the promenade, you’ll find the marina, where you can rent a kayak or a boat to explore the coast. There’s also a ferry to the neighbouring island of Formentera, which is lovely to visit.
At the western end of the promenade, the River Santa Eulària runs to the beach and you’ll find a pedestrian walkway to the small beach of Caló de s’Alga. A short distance up the river is the Pont Vell, the old bridge.
In the summer season you'll find a lively local craft market along the Passeig de s'Alamera, the boulevard running from the Town Hall square down to the sea. Check the town's tourist information for the days it runs.
As well as all the amenities you might need, such as banks, pharmacies and supermarkets, you’ll be spoilt for choice with places to eat. Santa Eulària has two streets full of good restaurants, both traditional and modern, on Carrer de Sant Jaume and Carrer de Sant Vicent. We enjoyed picking up delicious acai bowls and green juices from Passion Café for breakfast, before braving the steep hill starts at the road junctions to get back to our villa.
You can find the famous Nikki Beach Ibiza beach club in Santa Eulària. Book a cabana, chill out in the pool area and listen to the DJ while you eat in the outdoor restaurant.
A short drive south of Santa Eulària brings you to Cala Llonga, a beautiful bay where you’ll find the restaurant Amante, sitting high above the cove. Make sure you visit for a memorable meal!
A hill called Es Puig de Missa overlooks the town of Santa Eulària. You can walk up the 52 metre hill to the fortified 16th century church at the top. As you climb, the path winds around the hill, with lovely views over the town towards the sea. From one angle you can spot a very straight road leading into town.
As you get closer to the Church of Puig de Missa, you’ll notice several white crosses near the top, which local tradition links to the days of the Barbary pirate raids. Next to the church is a lovely courtyard of shady arches to rest in before you explore the tiny church and the small garden in front of it.
There’s a strong hippy heritage on Ibiza, which gives the island a cool, bohemian feel. As I describe in In Search Of Hippy Ibiza, there are several ways your teenagers can enjoy the hippy side of Ibiza, including browsing a hippy market, joining the sunset drumming at Cala Benirràs, or visiting Es Vedrà, the spiritual home of the island.
Whilst you might be tempted to avoid San Antonio completely when visiting Ibiza with teenagers, we decided to go with an ‘early doors’ strategy, to avoid the town in full party swing. If you visit in the early evening, you can soak up the atmosphere on the sunset strip where the famous beach bars are, such as Café Mambo and Café del Mar, and leave before things get lively.
We booked a table at Café del Mar overlooking the bay in time for sunset (see the featured photo). It wasn’t the best food of the holiday, and it wasn’t a cheap meal, as the seats with a view come at a premium. However, we had a lovely evening watching the world go by.
People were coming out for dinner, promenading, playing on hoverboards on the water and gathering on the rocks in front of the beach bars to watch the sun go down, all to laid-back beats from the restaurant’s DJ. Everyone clapped when the sun dropped from view!
A much cheaper option would be to eat elsewhere and then come down to the rocks in front of Café del Mar to watch the sunset.
If you want to combine San Antonio with something else, visit the Time and Space monument on the coast, about 25 minutes southwest of San Antonio, before dinner. Sometimes called the 'Spanish Stonehenge', it's a semicircle of 13 basalt columns on a clifftop by the artist Andrew Rogers. The tallest column is about 10 m high with a gilded top. You reach it on a 10-minute walk along an unsignposted dirt path, just south of Cala Codolar.
On our last night in Ibiza, we took our teenagers on a sunset kayak, and I think we can all agree it was a wonderful way to finish the holiday! We drove 30 minutes from Santa Eulària to the small resort of Portinatx on the north coast.
Portinatx would be another family-friendly resort to consider staying in, although it's a bit further from the action elsewhere (around 40 minutes from Ibiza Town).
We booked the Ibiza: Sea Kayaking at Sunset and Sea Caves Tour through GetYourGuide, and it was the highlight of the week.
We turned up as instructed, in time for a safety briefing and some general kayaking instructions. Then we set off paddling around the coast, exploring caves and nearby bays. The water was crystal clear, and in one cave we were encouraged to jump in for a float to cool off before carrying on.
We kayaked past the Six Senses Ibiza hotel, which runs down the cliff to the water, before arriving at Cala Xuclar, where we stopped for snacks. I spotted a very appealing seafood restaurant directly on the beach, Chiringuito Cala Xuclar, with canvas director’s chairs, a huge awning and fairy lights. One for another time!
Then, as we kayaked back to Portinatx, we were treated to the most remarkable sunset. Our guide stopped so we could watch the sun drop below the horizon and produced a bottle of fizz to toast (and clap) the disappearing sun. What a lovely moment!
If you want to make a stop on the way to Portinatx, visit the sleepy village of Sant Joan de Labritja, about 10 minutes before you reach Portinatx from Santa Eulària. The village has a traditional, non-touristy feel, with an 18th century whitewashed church and white Ibicenco houses with wrought iron railings and cobblestones.
On the east coast, about 20 minutes’ drive from Santa Eulària, you’ll find the Torre d’en Valls (also called the Torre de Campanitx), one of the island’s best preserved defence towers. It was built in the 18th century and restored in the 1980s after an explosion in the 19th century.
When Ibiza’s towers were first built they were manned day and night, and if raiders were sighted, a horn was sounded or a fire lit, so islanders knew to take refuge. Unsurprisingly, the tower has wonderful views over the Mediterranean.
About 1 km west of the tower is the beach at Pou des Lleó, where you’ll find a local fish restaurant. Alternatively, head on to Cala Mastella, where there’s a well-known, simple fish restaurant called El Bigotes, which serves the catch of the day overlooking the water. Book ahead, as it’s very popular.
There’s a lot of history to learn about in Ibiza Town (Eivissa in Catalan), mainly in the old town, Dalt Vila (‘Upper Town’), which has UNESCO World Heritage status. For our day there, see my guide to Ibiza Old Town and Dalt Vila.
In closing
Our teenagers thoroughly enjoyed their week in Ibiza and would return in a heartbeat (maybe without Mum and Dad next time?). There were so many options for water sports, pretty coves, flea markets or just hanging out somewhere of real natural beauty that they never got bored.
The island casts its magic on you, and a week went all too quickly, so if you can stretch to longer, do. Start with the hippy markets and sunset drums and a day in Ibiza Old Town.
The White Island, we'll be back.
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