In Ibiza for 24 hours? Explore the best of the city.
Less7AM : Start the day in the Med at Cala Llonga, an east-facing beach where you can swim out toward the sunrise as its first rays glint off the bay. Later, there will be all sorts of summer hubbub on this spot, but at this hour there’s still a hush to bask in between sheltering cliffs and pines.
8AM : First yoga, then breakfast at Amante Ibiza, a nearby beach club that occupies its own secluded cove at Sol d’en Serra. Hatha yoga sessions on the sand are followed by a seafront buffet of yogurts, fruits, juices and cereals.
9:30AM : Explore the world’s best-preserved ancient necropolis at Puig des Molins, an atmospheric Punic-era burial ground replete with hundreds of tombs. The adjoining museum collects funerary art, pagan effigies and other mysterious relics of Ibiza’s first Phoenician settlers and other, later civilizations.
11AM : Shop your way around the arty boutiques of central island village Santa Gertrudis. Boho concept store La Galeria Elefante is always worth a browse for craftwork, homeware or hippy-chic summer clothing.
12:30PM : Order a pre-prandial vermouth at Bar Costa, the village hangout at the heart of the island, which proceeds inwards from a sunny terrace, through a small lounge with a fireplace, to a large sanctum hung with paintings offered by various gifted but cash-strapped artists over the decades as payment for their drinks and sandwiches.
2:30PM : Walk off that midday feast with Manu Ehrensperger of Ibiza Hike Station, a hugely energetic and charismatic nature guide who can lead you to your choice of deep pine forests, clifftop vistas, smugglers’ coves and obscure beauty spots only accessible on foot.
6PM : Ease into the evening on San Antonio Bay, with a couple of cocktails set to a blissful downtempo soundtrack on the seafront terrace of Café Mambo (though purists of Balearic chillout music may prefer the original source of that subgenre at the nearby Café del Mar).
8PM : Take a sunset sailboat cruise to dinner in a remote cove at El Silencio, the profoundly aspirational beach house restaurant, art space, cocktail lounge and club venue on Cala Molí. As of 2023 the cuisine has been the purview of Argentine chef Mauro Colagreco, and a grill-based daytime menu gives way to Japanese omakase dining at night, though there’s also the option of highly refined tapas at the pool bar, which guests can take away to eat in a hammock.
12AM : Begin a long summer night of superclubbing at Hï, which offers just one of many elite nocturnal entertainment options on the island but is probably the reigning king of clubs in terms of sheer production value, star quality and technical specs. The world’s biggest DJs come to play its sci-fi hi-fi system, while the world’s most beautiful people tend to occupy the dancefloors and VIP booths.
1PM : Enjoy a traditional Ibizan lunch at Ca’s Pagès, a roadside farmhouse turned grill-house that has served pork ribs, lamb chops, skewered sausages, meaty rice dishes and stews for half a century, with the rustic stone interior opening to a sprawl of outdoor tables.
10:30AM : Climb to the heights of the ancient capital to walk the Renaissance walls of the Dalt Vila citadel, stopping to buy sweets from the cloistered nuns of San Cristobal Convent and take in Ibizan landscape paintings at the Puget Museum.
5PM : Take a post-hike break, cold beer or even a quick nap on a day bed or hammock at El Chiringuito, now one of the island’s more essential daytime hangouts, down where the sand meets the salt at Es Cavallet.