What the north feels like
The road from Santa Eulària to Sant Joan climbs through pine forest, and somewhere around the first bend the Ibiza you thought you knew disappears. No beach clubs, no billboards — just stone terraces, juniper-scented air and coves so green-blue they look photoshopped. This is the oldest Ibiza: the one the hippies found in the 1960s, and it has held on stubbornly.
There is no campsite in the north — the island’s campsites cluster on the east and west coasts — so most campers treat the north as a day-trip territory, which suits it perfectly. You come up for the day, swim at Cala Xarraca, catch the drums at Benirràs, and drive back to your pitch in the evening.
The beaches worth the drive
Benirràs is the famous one, and it earns it. A small bay facing a rocky islet, with a beach bar, boats moored offshore and — around sunset — drummers on the sand. The Sunday gathering is legendary, though in high summer the drummers often appear most evenings; in peak season Sundays are so busy that traffic is controlled and a shuttle bus runs from the Sa Plana car park. Come on a weekday evening if you prefer space.
Cala Xarraca, a little further up the coast, is a snorkeller’s cove where locals daub themselves with mineral mud that supposedly does wonders for the skin. Portinatx has three beaches in a pine amphitheatre and the island’s best clifftop lighthouse walk (Far des Moscarter). Cala Sant Vicent feels remote even by northern standards, and Aguas Blancas is the wild one — wide, wave-swept, backed by red cliffs. Note: there are clothing-optional sections at Aguas Blancas, and the waves can be serious.
The villages
Sant Joan de Labritja is the capital of slow: a white church, a handful of restaurants, and a Sunday market that is the anti-thesis of the big hippy markets — small, local, unhurried. Sant Miquel sits on a hilltop with a fortress-like church and the Can Marçà caves nearby. San Carlos belongs culturally to the east but spiritually to the north: the village that fed the 1960s hippy settlers, with the famous Las Dalias market just outside it.
Who the north suits
- Couples and slow travellers who want wild beaches and quiet dinners
- Families who like gentle resort beaches (Portinatx) and easy walks
- Snorkellers and kayakers — the water here is the clearest on the island
- Sunset romantics — Benirràs and the west-facing northern coves put on a show
Practical notes
- There is no legal overnight camping in the north — day trips only, from an east- or west-coast campsite.
- A car (or a full day with bus L20A/B from Ibiza Town) is realistically needed; the northern coves are not well connected.
- Bring everything for the beach day: some northern coves have a single chiringuito and nothing else.
- Parking at Benirràs is controlled in summer — use the shuttle on Sundays.
Where to stay nearby: the east-coast campsites — Camping Cala Nova, Camping Es Caná and Camping La Playa — are all 20–35 minutes’ drive from the main northern coves, and Camping Cala Bassa covers the north-west.
