Santa Eulària’s Town Beaches: A Guide to the East Coast

Santa Eulària des Riu sits on Ibiza’s east coast. It operates at a completely different speed than the club towns. You actually get sand you can walk on without tripping over a DJ deck. The town backs right up to the Mediterranean. Up on the Puig de Missa hill sits an old fortified church. It gets very quiet here. The water is clear and ridiculously shallow so families basically take over by 10 AM on a Tuesday. I once saw a guy try to swim laps but he just kept scraping his knees.

The Main Beach: Playa de Santa Eulària

This curve of sand runs right along the town center for about 400 meters. And it stays incredibly shallow. You have to wade out forever just to reach waist-deep water. That makes it a massive draw for parents wrangling toddlers in floaties. Tractors clean the sand every night. Down by the water you will find rows of sunbeds and umbrellas for rent. I usually expect to hand over exactly €18 in cash for a pair of beds for the whole day. The guy collecting the money never seems to have a working card machine so bring small bills. A paved promenade runs behind the sand. Walk straight from your towel to grab an espresso or a €4 pistachio gelato at one of the cafes facing the water.

Walking to the Neighboring Coves

You definitely do not have to stay on the main strip. I usually walk north past the dry riverbed. Keep going and Niu Blau appears in about ten minutes. It is a small protected cove. It feels totally removed from the main town center where the big hotels are. Locals tend to grab the best spots under the pine trees by 9 AM. The water stays flat even when the wind whips up the rest of the coast.

Or head south to S’Argamassa. You reach it by cutting past a residential block and some older midrange hotels painted pale yellow. Food is the priority here. Several restaurants essentially spill right onto the sand. Go eat grilled fish while your chair legs sink into the shoreline.

The Walk to Cala Es Niu

Walk about 15 minutes further south from the promenade. Things get rocky. Cala Es Niu sits completely out of sight from the main hotel drag. There is no concrete path backing the shoreline. You just find a rough patch of stones and a single wooden beach bar that sells overpriced but freezing cold Estrella beer. The snorkeling beats the main beach by a mile. The rocky bottom actually holds real sea life instead of just blank sand. I always bring thick water shoes. Getting in barefoot is a genuinely miserable experience that will ruin your afternoon.

Structuring Your Day

Mornings on the east coast start slow. Claim a spot and go for a swim. By 2 PM the Spanish lunch crowd completely takes over the promenade restaurants. Skip the places advertising full English breakfasts on laminated boards. I always track down a restaurant serving bullit de peix. This local fish stew is incredibly heavy. You will need a nap afterward. A simple plate of freshly grilled calamars a la planxa works too.

Later in the afternoon you can hike up to the 16th-century church on Puig de Missa. The walk up Carrer de Sant Jaume is steep. It takes about twenty minutes of sweating up the paved path but the view from the arches at the top covers the whole coastline. They arbitrarily lock the main gate in the late afternoon. If they do just lean on the stone wall and look at the water. Eventually you wander back down to the promenade and find a bar for a drink.