To celebrate the birthdays of two friends, 30 of us from all over the world descended upon Ibiza for 3 nights of back to back nightlife. My favorites were Blue Marlin and Ushuaia.
Table of contents
Food
Unlike on most of my trips, this section was pretty limited. For the most part, we grabbed food where it was convenient, which often meant at our hotel right before heading out for the night. We managed to squeeze in a few meals that were a little more deliberate.
Would eat again
We ate here when we came to the Beach Club, but you can make a reservation at the restaurant itself. The menus are different, but I imagine the quality is the same. This was the best food I had the entire trip. They had an extensive menu of appetizers, mains and sushi. The food was delicious and really easy to eat. We had at least 6 orders of the tempura tiger prawns, and multiple rounds of sushi. The pre-mixed cocktails were also fantastic – we had 4 or 5 pitchers of the Frosty Mango.
Kebab Star (Carrer de Porreres, 2)
Ibiza has a ton of fast food kebab stores – a concept that’s a lot more popular in Europe than in the US. After going to an evening party at Ushuaia, we dragged ourselves to Kebab Star, which we had spotted on our way to Wonder Food earlier that day. You stand in line, place an order for a kebab and fries and wait 5 minutes. Kebabs are an amazing drunk food. The line was pretty long, but it moved quickly.
Wonder Food is a cute cafe a few steps on the beach, which is perfect for breakfast or brunch. They served light meals like avocado toast, scrambled eggs, and pancakes. Coming here felt like a breath of fresh air after all the nightlife.
Would skip
The vibe and decor here was very calming – it felt more like walking into a jungle spa than a restaurant. They had large outdoor and indoor spaces. We started dinner at 8:30 pm, and as we were wrapping up, a DJ was getting set up for the night.
Even though I really enjoyed the ambiance, the food was under seasoned, tasteless, and came with a high price tag. I wouldn’t eat here again, but I would consider it for drinks if I was in the area again.
Clubs
Would go again
Blue Marlin is one of the best beach clubs in Ibiza. Sitting right on the beach, the venue consists of a restaurant, outdoor lounge area, and beach club. We booked 6 day beds in the beach club section, which made it easy for us to walk straight into the water when we wanted to.
When we went, they were having an issue with the speakers, which meant that the regular music programming didn’t take place. Instead, they played soft background ambient music. I know our hosts were a bit disappointed, but I genuinely didn’t mind – while it changed the vibe significantly, it made for a more chill afternoon. We spent the day lounging around, eating shared plates and drinking cocktails.
The food was a highlight – they had a range of menu items, but the tempura tiger prawns and the sushi were particularly good.
The service was also great, albeit sometimes slow. A small private bar was set up alongside our section and two dedicated waiters poured us champagne, rosé, pre-batched cocktails, well drinks and water throughout the afternoon.
Walking into the water was an experience. There’s no sand, so to get to the water, you walk along a dock jutting out into the ocean. When you step off the dock, the initial rocks are really slippery, but if you can make your way outwards it gets a bit easier. Several yachts and private boats were docked nearby, and Blue Marlin transports guests from their yacht to the club via speedboat.
Ushuaia (Calvin Harris)
Ushuaia is an outdoor club, with a massive stage and pool. Bottle service takes place on a raised platform running along one side of the venue. Ushuaia also has a hotel, with rooms that have balconies overlooking the club.
We bought out the Palm Area, which is at the back of the bottle service section with enough room for 30 people. After seeing the general admission crowd stream in, it was definitely worth it having a place to sit down and hang out, especially since Calvin Harris didn’t come onstage until 9 pm, and the venue was pretty much full by 7 pm. The bottle service area also comes with access to air conditioned private bathrooms, which was a huge benefit throughout the evening.
The club is fantastic. The sound system is phenomenal, and the venue has the capacity for laser shows and smoke. Ushuaia sits right in the Ibiza airport flight path, so we could see planes flying overhead all night long.
Calvin Harris had a residency at Ushuaia this summer, performing a set every Friday. The evening began with two openers, then finally, Calvin Harris appeared onstage at 9 pm. His set was a 90 minute run through of his greatest hits. Incredible evening and one of the highlights of my Europe trip this summer.
Fun, but not essential
Pacha (Jonas Blue and Robin Schulz)
We bought tickets online and went to Pacha around 11 pm that night. Tickets were still available late into the night and the line to enter moved pretty quickly. The venue is the size of a standard NYC club – much smaller than some of the megaclubs in other parts of Spain, like Barcelona or Madrid.
The club was really crowded, but it’s easy to get a drink and a good view of the DJ. And, funnily enough, Pacha had a merchandise store at the front of the club where you could buy all types of souvenirs, like paper fans and t-shirts for babies.
Even though I enjoyed the night at Pacha, and am glad I went because this was the first outpost of the iconic chain, the experience wasn’t particularly remarkable. Going to Pacha Ibiza didn’t feel much different to going to the club in NYC or any other major city. If there were a DJ making an appearance who I really wanted to see, I would of course go back for that, but there wasn’t anything about Pacha itself that makes me feel like I would need to go there twice, especially without bottle service. On the other hand, Ushuaia and Blue Marlin were awesome venues in and of themselves, and places I’d like to go to again.
Accommodations
I think the website really undersells the hotel. The rooms are apartment-style. Entering our room, the ground floor had a mini kitchen and dining room. A few steps down was the living room with a sofa, TV and small outdoor terrace. Upstairs was the bedroom and the bathroom. The room was incredibly spacious and pretty much had everything we needed for a comfortable stay. One downside was that the bedroom was pretty small, so we couldn’t really open two suitcases in it. I left my suitcase downstairs and that was fine.
The hotel has several large pools you can swim around in and an abundance of lounge chairs and cabanas. Even though we were in peak summer, the hotel didn’t feel crowded – at times it almost felt like we had the place to ourselves. We did see a contestant from Love Island come out of one of the rooms with his massive entourage.
Because we were such a large group, the hotel restaurant was a great spot for us to gather, and have light meals before going out. The pool bar menu consisted of bar food and a few entrees, enough to get the job done. Our room also came with a large buffet breakfast every morning, which had many hot choices, an egg station, and cold choices.
Would I stay here again? Maybe. The planners of the trip chose the hotel, and while I enjoyed it, next time I would be tempted to explore my options. The hotel was great value, but it wasn’t particularly luxurious or well-decorated. Those things don’t always matter to me – I think in the context of our trip, the hotel was perfect for our group.
Itinerary
After arriving in the evening, we got settled in and kicked off the weekend strong with a visit to Pacha.
After a late start to the day, we had a quick brunch and walk on the beach.
The day capped off with an amazing evening seeing Calvin Harris at Ushuaia.
The highlight of the day was visiting the Blue Marlin beach club. We finished off the weekend with dinner at Laylah.
AMANDA'S CHANTICS 