San Carlos is one street, a white eighteenth-century church and a few hundred people, fifteen minutes inland from Santa Eulalia. It is on this list because of what grew up around it: the hippies who arrived in the sixties settled in this corner, and the village has kept more of that than anywhere else on the island.
The two things that draw people are Las Dalias on the edge of the village and the run of small coves on the coast below it. We have taken the village, the market and the coast in turn.
The village
The church sits at one end of the street with the square in front of it. Anita's is opposite, a bar that has been open since the 1960s and was the hippies' post office before it was anything else: letters were left behind the bar for people with no fixed address. It still functions as a bar rather than a monument.
Beyond that there are a few restaurants, a shop and not much else. In February the village is almost empty and in August it is busy for one day a week.
Las Dalias
The market sits on the main road just outside the village and runs on Saturdays from February to November, with a night market on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday evenings through the summer and a Christmas market in December. It started in 1985 with five stalls and has more than three hundred now.
On a Saturday in August around twenty thousand people come through, which is worth knowing if you are staying within earshot.
The coast below
Fifteen minutes down the hill the coast opens into a run of small bays. The smallest is Cala Mastella, with a fish shack on the rocks. Cala Llenya is the wide sandy one, easiest with children, and it holds a Sunday market through the summer. Further north, Cala Nova and Es Figueral both have more open water.
Inland from there the road climbs to Aigües Blanques, which is a different kind of beach entirely.
Good to know before you book
The village has almost no facilities. A shop and a few kitchens. Santa Eulalia, fifteen minutes away, is where the supermarkets are.
Saturdays are different from the rest of the week. The road past the market backs up from late morning in summer.
It is forty minutes to the airport, which is among the longer transfers on the island.
Quick answers
What is San Carlos known for? Las Dalias market, Anita's bar, and the hippy history of this corner.
How far is Las Dalias? On the edge of the village, a few minutes on foot.
What is the nearest beach? Cala Mastella and Cala Llenya, about fifteen minutes down the hill.
How far is Santa Eulalia? Fifteen minutes.
Is it open in winter? Partly. The village keeps going and Las Dalias runs on Saturdays from February.
Who it suits
San Carlos suits people who want the countryside and the markets rather than the coast, and who do not mind a drive to the beach. It is one of the few places on Ibiza that still reads as a village first.