Aaron's Guide To Ibiza
(A First Hand Account of 1 Weekend in Ibiza)
This guide is based on my weekend in Ibiza last summer (2008) in late August. So let me be the first to say, one weekend in Ibiza isn’t nearly enough time. Next let me tell you that all the hype you’ve ever heard about Ibiza…It’s real.
Ibiza is a Spanish Island off the coast of Spain adjacent to Valencia. Ibiza is known to be the ‘Party Capital of The World’.
If you're an all night party animal you've come to the right place. Pretty much any DJ will tell you they aspire to one day play in Ibiza, or that Ibiza is their favorite place to play. And pretty much anyone who has ever been to Ibiza will tell you how crazy it is, and how nowhere else in the world has daily parties like there are in Ibiza. Ibiza has the worlds top DJ’s playing 7 nights a week from June until September. No matter when you go, you a guaranteed to catch an amazing party.
I will start the story in Madrid. I had just met up with my friend Michelle who happened to be in Portugal and was down to meet up and hit up Ibiza with me on very short notice. We met up the night before in Madrid and stayed at another friend of mine, Gabby, who lives in Madrid. The next morning we woke up and decided to go shopping for some new clothes before making our way to Madrid airport for our 1p.m. flight. Needless to say we arrived 10 minutes late for our 12-noon check in time and were told we could not bored the flight. Luckily there was another flight at 12am that night so we hopped on that one.
(Me & Michelle at the airport)
Note: There are two ways to get to Ibiza, either by plane or by ferry. I flew to Ibiza to get there and to leave I took the three hour ferry to Valencia. Both were about the same price.
When the plane started to descend towards Ibiza and the seatbelt sign was on, and the flight attendants were even strapped in for landing, this female passenger that was clearly drunk and coked out of her skull got up and started collecting her luggage from the overhead despite the flight attendants yelling at her. They finally got her to sit down right before the plane landed. As soon as the plane touched down the women was out of her seat preparing to get off, again disregarding the flight attendants yelling at her to “sit down until the plane came to a stop”. Seeing this made me think, either this woman is a complete crack head or there is one hell of a party going on. In retrospect it was probably a combination of both.
Anyway a week or two prior, I randomly found some United States marine that was stationed in Istanbul, on an Ibiza Facebook group. He was planning a holiday to Ibiza the same date I was planning to go, however his friends backed out on him last minute. He now had a four-person hotel room all to him self. I contacted him and he said he was more than cool with Michelle and I crashing with him as long as we split the cost of the room. We stayed at the Casa Maria Apartments in San Antonio. It’s called Casa Maria Apartments but it’s really a hotel. The room ran us 70 Euro’s a night (divided three ways equaled about $32 CND a night each, which isn’t bad at all). The room was great, with two beds and a pull out couch, air conditioning, a balcony, fridge, and was only two blocks from the beach. The room/hotel was extremely clean and I was very impressed overall. I highly recommend staying at this hotel if you go.
One thing you must do if you goto Ibiza is head to Café Del Mar to catch a sunset. Every evening hundreds (maybe even 1000+ people) gather along the strip at Café Del Mar to watch the sunset. It is absolutely incredible, unlike watching the sunset almost anywhere else in the world. Local bar’s and cafes provide music to accompany the setting sun. And once the sun fully dips below the horizon everyone starts clapping lol.
Our first night (Saturday) in Ibiza we didn’t go out because we got there pretty late and just wanted to get some rest for the next day/night. Sunday we ended up getting free passes (while chilling at the beach) to Amnesia’s Sunday night foam party featuring Robby Rivera and David Vendetta.
Amnesia is an absolutely beautiful club featuring two rooms and multiple level balconies. One thing to note is that camera’s are not allowed in almost any of the nightclubs in Ibiza. I’m pretty sure it’s because they want to take your picture and charge you to buy it. So either stash it in your crotch or leave it at the hotel. The Clubs do have a coat check that they will make you check your camera in with, but it will cost you money. Amnesia’s foam party didn’t have much of a dress code, and seeing as it was a foam party, I wore a bathing suit, flip flops, and a t-shirt. The party was absolutely ridiculous although the foam didn’t come until about 6am. Drinks were pretty expensive, about 15 Euros, which is about $25 CND (for a 2-3 ounce drink, standard drink in Canada is 1 ounce). Also in Ibiza on top of normal bars at clubs, most clubs also have Nitrous bars, which serve balloons filled with Nitrous Oxide also known as laughing gas, for about 5 Euros a pop. All in Amnesia was an awesome party and a dope venue. I would definitely recommend checking it out if you hit Ibiza.
Hint/tip: To save money or even sometimes score free passes try and grab your tickets in advance. There are usually promoters on the streets and at the beach either handing out free passes or selling tickets. If you wait to buy your passes at the club the night of, you will end up paying more.
On Monday we purchased tickets (at something like 50 or 75 Euros each!) for Tiesto’s weekly Monday night residency at Privilege (The worlds biggest nightclub).
Now for someone (me) that doesn’t even really like Trance, that’s a lot of money to put out for a big name predominantly Trance oriented DJ. However after partying hard until 7am with lots of Progressive House thrown into his set, I had a new respect and appreciation for Tiesto. And I mean, you in Ibiza in the worlds biggest nightclub with the worlds biggest party animals, the vibe was so good, it could have been just about anyone DJ’ing and I would have enjoyed it. Anyways Privilege, definitely another must spot in Ibiza.
Aside from the wild nightlife, Ibiza is also a beautiful Island paradise, complete with white sandy beaches and crystal clear blue water.
Just about everyone on the island is there for the same reason (to party) so you're definitely going to meet people and have fun. We ended up meeting a group of 8 Australians (among others), and let me tell you Aussies know how to party.
One great thing about Ibiza is that most of the clubs have frequent shuttle busses running all night long all over the Island for free, so transportation isn’t a big problem. Now unfortunately I only stayed for three nights and was only able to check out Amnesia and Privilege. Some other notable and well-established venues to check out are Pacha, DC-10, Eden, Bora Bora, El Paradis, and Space. Either way upon arrival you will be bombarded with promotional flyers and billboards that will let you know what dj’s are playing where.
On the flight over all I was thinking was ‘I’m not really going to Ibiza’ and ‘there’s so many crazy stories, it’s probably all hype, just another party spot’.. But after going I honestly have to say, Ibiza lived up to every story and piece of hype I’ve ever heard and then some. I had huge expectations and Ibiza exceeded them. It is without a doubt the party capital of the world in my mind and I definitely recommend any serious party animal get over to Ibiza at some point, preferably while your young and can handle all-nighter after all-nighter of hard partying, sex, drugs, and alcohol lol. For the best beaches, parties, DJ’s, vibe, and sexy people, book your trip now to check out the world famous
I-beeeee-thaaaaaaaaaaaa (that’s how its pronounced).
Aaron
“Getting down to business, so you can get to the business of getting down”