Paying for Things and Drinking the Water in Ibiza

I still remember trying to pay for a €2.10 espresso in San Juan with a piece of plastic. The waiter just stared at me. Things here run on a very specific logic and you learn it quickly when something goes wrong. Figuring out the ATM situation or why the tap water tastes like that saves a lot of daily frustration. And it keeps you from looking like someone who literally just stepped off a cruise ship for the afternoon with no idea where they’re going.

Money Matters

You can tap a phone to pay for almost everything in main hubs like Ibiza Town or San Antonio. Visa and Mastercard work everywhere. But you absolutely need physical cash on you. The card reader at a tiny beach shack at Cala d’Hort will predictably lose signal right when you try to settle up on a Tuesday afternoon. Bring 50 or 100 euros in small bills. You will need coins for the artisan market at Las Dalias and tipping your taxi driver. Do not exchange home currency at the hotel reception because they give terrible rates. Just pull euros straight from a bank ATM. Watch out for the blue and yellow Euronet machines sitting on the main tourist strips. They charge absurd withdrawal fees that sometimes hit seven euros before you even realize what happened.

Sending Postcards Home

Getting a physical piece of mail off the island takes a bit of planning. You have a couple of options for buying stamps. Going to the official post office (Oficina de Correos) is one way. Or look for a licensed tobacconist called an estanco. The tobacco shops are marked with a distinct brown and yellow sign and they stay open much later into the evening. Sending a postcard to the UK currently costs around €1.75. The actual post offices usually close by 14:00 on weekdays so don’t leave your mailing errands for late afternoon. I usually just grab stamps at the estanco while buying a lighter or a bottle of water since the line at the main San Antonio post office almost always wraps around the building by 10:15 AM on a Monday.

The Tap Water Problem

Restaurants here do not serve free tap water. When you sit down and ask for water the waiter brings a glass bottle and adds it to your bill. You have to specify if you want still (aigua sense gas) or sparkling (aigua amb gas). A single bottle at a beach club costs up to €8. Tap water on the island is heavily desalinated. It is perfectly safe for taking a shower and brushing your teeth but it tastes heavily of minerals and salt so you really will not want to drink it. Nobody drinks it. Go to a Mercadona or Eroski supermarket and buy the massive 8-liter plastic jugs for your apartment. They cost about two euros. Carrying those heavy plastic jugs back to a rental car parked three streets away is annoying but you do what you have to do when you need water for the week.

Local Language

The official language here is Catalan. You see it on every street sign and government notice. Locals speak a specific island dialect called Ibicenco, though everyone also speaks Castilian Spanish. You can get by entirely in English in the main resorts since staff are used to tourists from all over Europe. But learning a few basic words goes a long way. Waiters notice.

When you walk into a cafe in the morning try saying “Bon dia” instead of good morning. “Gràcies” works for thank you. You hear people say “Bon profit” when food arrives at a table. If you need to find something you can ask “On?” for where. You see “Aigua” on menus for water and “Carrer” on signs for street.