Las Dalias runs on Saturdays from February to November and is closed for January. In summer it also opens on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday evenings as a night market, and in December it comes back at weekends for Christmas. It is at San Carlos, in the north-east, and it is the one most people mean when they say the hippy market.
It started on Valentine's Day in 1985 with five stalls. There are more than three hundred now, and on a Saturday in August something like twenty thousand people come through. We have set out the hours month by month below, because they move more than anyone expects.
The Saturday market, hour by hour
The market opens at 10:00 every Saturday it runs. What changes is when it shuts.
June and September: until 20:00. July and August: until 22:00, which makes it an evening rather than a morning. April and May: until 19:00 or 20:00. October: until 19:00. November: until 17:00. February and March: until 17:00 or 18:00. January: closed.
Outside high summer it also opens on Sundays, from 11:00, closing at much the same time as the Saturday. That covers October, November, February, March, April and May.
The night market, June to September
From 1 June to 30 September the market opens on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday evenings from 19:00. It runs to 23:30 in June and September and to midnight in July and August.
The night market is a different thing from the Saturday one. It is smaller, it is lit with lanterns rather than daylight, there is usually live music, and the crowd is there for the evening rather than the shopping. If you only have one visit in you and you are here in July, this is the better one.
What is on the stalls
Jewellery, leather, clothing, hats, rugs, hammocks, candles, vintage rails and a good deal of printed cloth. Some of it is made on the island by the person behind the table and some of it is not, and the two sit next to each other without much distinction.
The bar at the centre of it has been there since long before the market and is the reason a lot of locals turn up at all. There is food, there is usually somebody playing, and the whole thing is built around a courtyard rather than laid out in rows.
Getting there
San Carlos is about 25 minutes from Santa Eulalia and forty from the airport. There is parking in the fields around the site, which is free and fills from late morning on a summer Saturday.
Quick answers
What day is Las Dalias? Saturday, from February to November. Sundays too outside high summer, and Sunday, Monday and Tuesday evenings from June to September.
Is Las Dalias open in winter? Yes, on Saturdays through February and March and again in November, and on December weekends for the Christmas market. January is the closed month.
What time does it open? 10:00 on Saturdays all year. Closing runs from 17:00 in November to 22:00 in July and August.
Is the night market the same market? No. It is smaller, it starts at 19:00, and it runs June to September only.
Is it free to get in? Yes.
Which is better, Las Dalias or Punta Arabí? Las Dalias is the older and the prettier, and it runs most of the year. Punta Arabí is bigger and runs on Wednesdays from April to October.
Fitting it into a week
Las Dalias is the one market that does not depend on the season, which makes it the answer for a week in March or November when almost everything on the coast is shut. In July, the Saturday is hot and crowded by the middle of the day, and the Tuesday night market is the easier version of the same place.
The other markets, by day of the week, are in our guide to the hippy markets in Ibiza.