Santa Eulalia: The Town Ibiza Locals Actually Live In

Santa Eulària des Riu is the town people move to when they decide to stay on Ibiza. That is the most useful thing you can know about it.

It is not the prettiest place on the island, and it does not try to be a destination in the way Dalt Vila or the northern villages do. What it has is function. Shops that serve residents. Restaurants that stay open in February. A promenade where families walk in the evening because that is what people do here, not because it was designed as an attraction.

What it is like

The town sits on the east coast, roughly twenty minutes from Ibiza Town and thirty from the airport. It is built around a long seafront promenade running from the marina to the beach, with a pedestrianised restaurant street running inland from it.

The swimming is calm and shallow. The beach is not the most beautiful on Ibiza — that is not what it is for — but it is safe, easy and directly accessible without a drive.

Above the town, the Puig de Missa church sits on a hill with a fortified whitewashed body typical of Ibizan rural churches. It is worth the fifteen-minute walk up for the view over the town and the coast, ideally near sunset.

Who it suits

Families, more than anywhere else on the island. You can walk to dinner. Children can be tired out on the promenade. Restaurants expect them.

People who do not want to drive every evening. This is the real argument for Santa Eulalia. Elsewhere on Ibiza, dinner means a car and a designated driver. Here it means a walk.

Longer stays. The town has an actual supermarket, a market, a pharmacy and a hardware shop. On a two-week stay this matters more than it sounds.

Who it does not suit

If you came for the dramatic sunsets of the west coast or the wildness of the north, Santa Eulalia will feel tame. It is a town, not a landscape. The coast here is gentler and less spectacular than the cliffs of the south-west.

It is also on the wrong side for a llevant, the easterly wind. When it blows, the water goes cloudy and choppy, and the answer is a drive west.

Around the town

Cala Llonga, a few minutes south, is a deep sheltered bay with shallow water and a proper sandy beach. Very good for young children.

Cala Pada and S'Argamassa, north of town, are smaller and quieter with clear water.

Es Canar hosts the long-running hippy market on Wednesdays. It is thoroughly commercial now, but it is part of the island's history and worth an hour.

Inland towards San Carlos, the landscape opens into farmland and the villages become genuinely rural within ten minutes of the coast.

The villa question

Staying in the town itself means an apartment, and apartment lets face significant legal restrictions on Ibiza. Villas sit in the hills and coastal areas around Santa Eulalia — Can Furnet, Cap Martinet, the road towards San Carlos — giving you privacy and a pool with the town a short drive away.

That is the usual compromise and it works well: base yourself five or ten minutes out, and use the town as your evening destination rather than your accommodation.