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What to Do in Ibiza When It Rains: Indoor Plans That Save the Day
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what to do in Ibiza when it rains
It has happened. You have come to Ibiza and today you wake up to grey skies and that Mediterranean rain that cannot quite decide what it wants to do. The good news is that it does not rain much here, and almost never all day. The even better news is that the island has far more to offer than beaches, and a rainy day is the perfect excuse to discover it.
It sounds strange, but it is true. The fortified old town in the rain, with wet stone streets and hardly anyone around, is one of Ibiza’s most beautiful sights. It takes about twenty minutes to walk up from the port, there are covered passages and corners where you can shelter and, if the rain gets heavier, there is always a museum nearby.
Wear shoes with a good grip. Wet cobblestones are more slippery than they look.
Ibiza has three thousand years of history behind it, yet most visitors only see the last thirty.
The Museu d’Art Contemporani d’Eivissa, inside the city walls, is small and takes a little over an hour to explore. The Museu Arqueològic tells the story of Phoenician and Punic Ibiza. And the Necròpolis del Puig des Molins, a short walk from the centre, is a Punic cemetery with thousands of tombs carved into the rock: probably one of the most impressive places on the island and one of the least visited.
If you only have time for one, choose the last one.
Ibiza changes completely as soon as you move away from the coast. Santa Gertrudis, Sant Josep, Sant Joan, Sant Carles. Whitewashed churches, tree-lined squares and cafés where people sit reading the newspaper.
A rainy day is perfect for driving this route and stopping in two or three villages. It does not take long to cross the island from one side to the other, and there is always somewhere to sit while you wait for the rain to pass.
The large hippy markets are seasonal and outdoors, so in winter or during heavy rain they are not the best option. The Mercat Vell de Vila, on the other hand, operates throughout the year, and Ibiza’s municipal market is a good place to see local produce and spend some time.
It is worth checking opening hours before you go, as many places close around midday outside the main season.
There is a version of this plan that many people are reluctant to admit they enjoy, but it always works. Several hotels on the island open their spa facilities to outside guests. Three hours of sauna and a heated pool while rain falls outside is, objectively, a pretty good day.
Not for swimming. For seeing it.
The coves on the west coast take on colours under a heavy sky that you will never see in an August photo: the sea turns lead grey, the rocks darken and Es Vedrà appears and disappears between the clouds. Park nearby, walk for twenty minutes and head back to the car. It is a short plan, but one you will remember.
If the rain is light, the viewpoint at Torre des Savinar, in the municipality of Sant Josep, offers one of the best views of the islet. With low clouds, the scenery looks positively cinematic.
The access road is unpaved and can become muddy in the rain, so consider the road conditions and your car before heading down it.
And then there is what people who actually live here do when it rains: sit down to eat and stay there.
Good weather in Ibiza comes with a strange kind of pressure. When the sun is shining, you feel you should make the most of it, go to the beach and do something. A rainy day frees you from all of that. There is nowhere else you need to be, so you can spend three hours at the table without feeling guilty.
At Social Point, we keep the grill burning and have a menu made for exactly this kind of day: grilled meat, wine and time. Wood fire also has an obvious advantage on a day like this: it keeps you warm. And if the afternoon stretches on, there is almost always music.
It is useful to know before booking your trip. The rainiest months are, by some distance, October and November, followed by December and the first part of spring. Summer is almost completely dry: in July and August, an entire month can sometimes pass without a single drop of rain.
But the rain here has one characteristic that changes things considerably: it is often intense and short-lived. It can rain heavily for an hour, sometimes with a storm, and then clear up. A full day of continuous grey skies, like those sometimes experienced in northern mainland Spain, is relatively rare.
The practical consequence is that you do not need to cancel the day. You simply need to rearrange it. If it is pouring at eleven in the morning, there is a good chance that by five you could be watching the sunset at Cala Comte beneath a spectacular sky, precisely because of those clouds.
One combination that works well: spend the morning visiting museums in Dalt Vila, when the rain is often at its strongest. Have a long lunch from around two o’clock, without watching the time. Then in the afternoon, if the rain has stopped, make a quick trip to a cove or viewpoint to see what the sky looks like after the storm.
It is, genuinely, a better day than many sunny August days spent fighting for a space on the sand.
A lightweight windbreaker, closed shoes with a good grip and not much else. It is rarely truly cold here: in winter temperatures generally range between eight and sixteen degrees, and autumn is warmer still. An umbrella is often more of a nuisance than a help because when it really rains, the rain usually comes with wind.
And if your original plan for the day has fallen apart, book a table and leave the rest to us. We are open Monday to Sunday from 13:00 to 02:00, rain or shine.