The market on Benirràs beach runs every day except Wednesday and Thursday through the summer, from the middle of the day until the evening. It is small, it sits on the sand and along the path behind it, and almost nobody comes for the shopping.
What people come for is the drumming. It starts about two hours before sunset and builds to the moment the sun touches the horizon, which on this beach it does between the arms of a bay with a rock standing in the mouth of it. After that the drummers quieten down, and the evening turns into people sitting on the stones while somebody juggles fire.
What is on the stalls
Jewellery, printed cloth, leather, candles and the sort of thing that has been sold on this beach since the 1970s. It is a handful of tables rather than a market in the sense of Las Dalias, and you will have walked the length of it in ten minutes.
That is not the reason to be disappointed by it. The stalls are the excuse for the afternoon rather than the point of it, and the beach does the rest.
The drummers, and which day to come
Sunday is the day most people mean when they talk about Benirràs, and it is the busiest by a distance. The drumming happens on the other open days too and is smaller and easier for it, so a Friday or a Monday gives you the same thing with room to sit down.
The afternoon runs the same way whichever day you pick. Things are quiet until late on, the drums start about two hours out, and the crowd on the sand thickens as the light goes.
Getting there, and the beach itself
Benirràs is in the north, in the municipality of San Juan, down a winding road from the village of San Miguel. The last stretch is steep and the car parks fill from the middle of the afternoon on a Sunday, so on the busy day it is worth arriving before the drumming rather than during it.
The beach is stones and coarse sand rather than the fine stuff, the water is clear and deep quickly, and Elements sits at the back of it if you want lunch before the afternoon starts.
Quick answers
What days is the Benirras market on? Every day except Wednesday and Thursday, through the summer.
What time do the drummers start? Roughly two hours before sunset, so the time moves through the season. In August that means from about seven, in May and September rather earlier.
Is it worth going on a day other than Sunday? Yes, and it is more comfortable. Sunday is the big one.
Is it a big market? No. A few dozen stalls. Las Dalias and Punta Arabí are the large ones.
Can you swim there? Yes. The water is clear and it shelves quickly, so it suits swimmers more than paddling children.
Is there parking? There is, up the hill behind the beach, and it fills on a Sunday afternoon.
Making an afternoon of it
Benirràs works best as the end of a day in the north rather than a trip on its own, because the drive up is the better part of an hour from the south of the island. A morning at the Sunday market in San Juan, lunch somewhere inland and then down to the beach for the afternoon is the version that earns the drive.
If you are fitting several into one week, there is our guide to the hippy markets in Ibiza.