Ibiza: Just One More Time

Ibiza is incomparable to anything else – if you like clubs, music and dressing up, Ibiza is an absolute must for everyone to experience! But don’t be fooled, the island is not all full of drunken lads and music until the early hours. There are some absolute gems that you can find, whatever age you are and whether you’re there for the clubs or not. We found a nice balance, mixing it up with both the nightlife and an evening in the heart of Ibiza Old Town, catching that Spanish vibe over a nice paella.

Not being eighteen ourselves anymore, the idea of staying in San Antonio (a typically young, British party area) definitely wasn’t appealing to us (I stayed at Ibiza Rocks seven years ago in San Antonio and if you’re looking to be up all day / night with rowdy crowds and banging music whilst sunbathing then this is the place to be). Therefore we found a really nice AirBnb in Eivissa (situated between Ibiza Old Town and Playa De’n Bossa). This place was great! It was relatively quiet with a nice mix of people, including both holidaymakers and Spanish residents. Also, it was still a good distance from the clubs we bought tickets for – but not too close 😉
The AirBnb was situated right on the beach which was perfect during the early evening when having a couple of drinks and playing some UNO.

Clubs
We booked all of our club tickets before we arrived as they are often a bit cheaper to buy in advance. Tickets cost anything between €25-€70. This can feel quite pricey but they’re sooo worth it! Drinks, however are also pricey and never does this feel okay. At approximately €13 a beer and twenty for a mixer, you can’t help feel like you’ve been mugged each time you go to the bar! But as they told us “people still come back to Ibiza every year”, so why wouldn’t they charge the world for a drink!?

DC-10
On our first night, we went to DC-10 (where beers were ten euros – great success!) . This club is very close to the airport which is cool as it means you see planes fly over throughout the night. The club is relatively small in comparison to others in Ibiza but it has such a good vibe. There’s a couple of rooms with various DJ’s playing each night (Disclosure and Groove Armada did a DJ set on our night which was great!) There’s also an outside-terraced area where you can chill and soak up the atmosphere.

The Zoo Project
Zoo Project was so much fun! Louis had been a few years ago with his friends and loved it so I wanted to see what it’s all about – any excuse to wear glitter and buy some Gypsy Shrine!
The day/night is basically a big party at an old zoo, filled with people dressed up as animals, covered in glitter and dancing to house music. We hired someone to come to our villa and paint us which was perfect as it meant that we could get ready and have some drinks at the same time.
She was amazing! I highly recommend this company – bodypaintingibiza.com

 

 

It was €40 per person which includes the side of face, whole arm and either chest or top leg section. We didn’t book in advance so were lucky to get someone at such short notice, but I’d recommend WhatsApp’ing them in advance to be safe. Either this, or you can find various bars that offer a face-painting service. However, Louis did this a few years back and said it wasn’t half as good as this year.

We got a taxi to Zoo Project, again pretty close to where we were staying (cost about €20).  With the island being so small, taxi’s are a really great way of getting around. You can almost go anywhere for a small fee. We arrived at Zoo around 7pm, which in hindsight was a great turn around considering we got in at 7am from the previous night. Zoo Project opens at 4pm but we were told that it’s relatively quiet until about 6pm so we took our time. It’s such a great atmosphere from the moment you walk in with bright colours, costumes and actors coming at you from all directions. 

 

There’s a shisha bar there and for €20 it’s pretty well priced for Ibiza, although it didn’t have much taste! The shows they put on are amazing with loads of dancers dressed up as animals. They have DJ’s and performers in an amphitheatre-style section which was a highlight of the night. This is where I decided it would be a great idea to FaceTime my mum and share our experience haha! She was right in there dancing away on the sofa back home.

The day/night runs until 11:30pm so plenty of time to party somewhere else after. I really recommend leaving just before the end as the queues for buses and taxis apparently spiral out of control. So we left at 11pm and luckily jumped into a taxi within minutes. On to the next club – Amnesia!

Amnesia

Currently, Saturday night’s are hosted by Elrow at Amnesia. If you haven’t seen these guys before, they tour all over the world playing at various festivals and stadiums and they really are a must see. Louis and his friend Tom (Tom and Charlotte were with us in Ibiza) had been to an Elrow show a few years back in Ibiza and wouldn’t stop banging on about how good they are… and I must say, they didn’t disappoint. They turn the venue into one big party, filled with inflatables, acrobats, people on stilts and various other actors doing weird stuff! It’s all so colourful with balloons and confetti falling from the skies throughout night – just so much fun! (I’ve had to be a little sneaky and take some of their photos of the night from their website – they’re just too good!)

They also set up an outside area filled with games and activities where you could win free drinks (although I’m not how you actually won a drink because nothing we did was ever successful). Also, it seems that me and Louis got married by some random Frankenstein-looking guy who wed us in front of hundreds of people on-stage haha. 

My one criticism of the night (along which every other person we spoke to) was that Amnesia were clearly only interested in making money. The night had sold out, but they were still letting people in on the door at 5am. The place was absolutely heaving, it took so long to get inside / outside and everyone was crushed against each other. Something that made this worse was that part of Elrow’s show saw lots of stilt walkers coming through the crowds. This took up so much (needed) space and they got angry when people were trying to get past! We’ve since seen a lot of reviews that have stated exactly the same. Having said this, the night was amazing, it didn’t ruin it for me at all, it’s just a little heads up! Drinks again are pretty expensive, beers €10 and worst of all … one Jagerbomb cost €23!!

Old Town

After a mental few nights we fancied a night off! Old Town was only about five-minute drive away from Eivissa so it was nice and easy to get to …and so beautiful on arrival! There’s a walk up to a viewing point by the harbour which was a really nice place to watch the sunset.

There’s so many great looking restaurants around, you certainly won’t go hungry! Every time we decided on one, another place across the road seemed slightly more appealing. We came across this place full of fairy lights and flowers which made for the perfect setting for the four of us. We had Sangria, tapas and paella which was all delicious!

Playa D’en Bossa

Bossa was only about twenty-minute walk along the beach from our villa, so we headed there for some afternoon drinks. This area is definitely a lot more lively than Eivissa (but still not as crazy as San Antonio). The strip is full of bars and clubs, so this is probably not the best place to go if you want to chill. It was nice to be close enough to walk there, especially as after a few drinks in the bar along the beach we decided we wanted to go out again for our last night. 

We went to ‘White Elephant’ on the beach which was fine, nothing in particular that made it worth writing about, however the beers were only €3.50 so I couldn’t not include it! 

There are people selling tickets on the road everywhere so you won’t struggle to find any out there if you wanna book as you go along. We decided to try out ‘Hi‘ (formally Space) on our last night, and got tickets for €40 each, instead of the €50 they were advertising for.

Cafe Mambo

That night, before we headed to ‘Hi‘, we checked out the legendary Cafe Mambo. This is the place where you can go and watch a pretty amazing sunset along the seafront. It’s located in San Antonio, therefore we had to journey across to the other side of the island from Eivissa. However, this was definitely worth it. If you want to spend the evening with a drink in your hand on the beach with some chilled music, it’s a great atmosphere. Again, it doesn’t matter who you are, how old you are or why you’re in Ibiza, this place draws crowds from all walks (I know a family that recently took their children to Mambo and absolutely loved it).

You can book tables at Mambo for a variation of prices. If you want a table at the front of the cafe, these cost €70 minimum spend per-head. If you want a table at the back – they’re free. But you still have to buy drinks which are definitely cheaper than the clubs, but still quite pricey in the real world. So here’s a little tip that we found out after buying a couple of rounds in the restaurant. If you go and sit on the benches on the beach (owned by Mambo) you will need to buy your drink from the Cafe. However, Mambo obviously don’t own the beach. Therefore, if you go to the supermarket that can be found right next door, you can buy as many drinks as you want for about €2 each and sip them on the beach with everyone else that has done the same … and sit IN FRONT of the people in the cafe who have paid €70 per head to be there! Winner.

Hi

Hi was previously Space which we had great memories from so we were interested to see what it’s like now it has been refurbed/re-branded – it did not disappoint! There’s a big outside area full of tee-pee’s, waterfalls and bars. This club is by far the most expensive though…€14 for a beer! There’s a couple of different rooms inside with various DJ’s playing. Martin Garrix was playing in the main room at 3am and whilst we were waiting for that we stumbled across the best part of the club…

One of us needed the toilet and when we went in we couldn’t have be happier with what we were greeted with! It was a huge unisex toilet called ‘Wild Corner’ with a DJ booth in the middle playing old school HipHop/Garage and commercial songs. It was amazing in there, could recommend it more! I don’t want to say too much about it, but just go in there and you won’t be disappointed! 

Martin Garrix put on the most incredible show – his set was amazing! And the light show was something that I’d never seen before. Our friend actually went to see Eric Prydz at Hi this week and said the same “the best performance I’ve ever seen” (apparently Eric Prydz helped develop the lighting system and it’s one of Hi’s major selling points). It ended up being our favourite night out there, so be sure to check it out! 

Enjoy x