Santa Eulalia is the third-largest town on Ibiza and the one built around a seafront promenade rather than a club strip. It has two sandy town beaches, a marina, a restaurant street that runs all year and a hill with a sixteenth-century church on it, and the evenings here are dinner on a terrace rather than a queue.
That is why the town is as family-heavy as it is. We have set out what is in the town and what sits along the coast either side, so you can see how a week here would run.
The town
The promenade runs from the marina to the mouth of the Riu de Santa Eulària, which is the only river in the Balearics and is dry for most of the year. Along it are two town beaches with shallow water, a run of restaurants and a playground, and the whole thing is flat and walkable end to end.
Carrer de San Vicente is the restaurant street a block inland, pedestrianised and busy from about eight in the evening. It holds more kitchens per hundred metres than anywhere on the island outside Ibiza Town.
Above the town, Puig de Missa is the white fortified church on the hill, sixteenth-century, with a small ethnographic museum beside it and the best view of the coast from its terrace.
The coast either side
South, Cala Llonga is ten minutes away, a sheltered sandy bay between two wooded headlands, and it runs a small evening market on Thursdays in season.
North, Es Canar is ten minutes the other way and holds the Wednesday market at Punta Arabí. Beyond it the coast opens into Cala Nova, Cala Llenya and Cala Mastella, all of them shallow and calm.
Inland, San Carlos is fifteen minutes up the road, and Las Dalias with it.
Good to know before you book
This is the practical town. Supermarkets, a health centre, a bus station and shops that are open in February. If you are staying for more than a fortnight, that matters more than it sounds.
The beaches in the town itself are modest. They are fine for a swim and a paddle rather than a beach day. The good ones are the ten-minute drive either side.
It is a twenty-minute drive to the airport and twenty to Ibiza Town, which puts it closer to everything than its reputation as the quiet corner suggests.
Quick answers
Is Santa Eulalia good for families? Yes, and it is the standard answer for a family week on Ibiza: flat, walkable, shallow water, everything open.
Is there nightlife? Bars and restaurants, not clubs. The clubs are twenty to thirty minutes away.
How far is the airport? About twenty minutes.
Is it open in winter? Yes, more than anywhere else on the coast.
Is there a market? The Thursday evening market at Cala Llonga, the Wednesday market at Es Canar, and Las Dalias on Saturdays fifteen minutes inland.
Can you manage without a car? For the town itself, yes. For the beaches either side, a car is easier.
Who it suits
Santa Eulalia suits families who want to walk to dinner, anyone staying a long stretch, and people coming out of season who want somewhere that is still functioning. It suits the club crowd least, and that is deliberate on the town's part.