Your First Night Out Will Cost €200. Here's How Not to Make It.
The seven ways people burn their entire budget before 2am, and the exact order to do a night in so you don't.
Elena Marí
Updated August 2026
A dense festival crowd at an open-air Ibiza event at blue hour with arms raised and coral stage lights
Almost everybody's first night in Ibiza costs about twice what it should. Not because the island is a scam, but because you arrive with four days of anticipation, no sense of the geography, and a phone battery at 30%. The mistakes are extremely predictable, which means they are also extremely avoidable.
The short version
Do a cheap, good first night and save the big one for later in the week. Eat properly before you go anywhere. Book the taxi before you need it. And do not let the first person who approaches you outside a club sell you anything.
The seven expensive mistakes
One: going straight to a club from the airport. You are tired, you haven't eaten, and you will be finished by two. Clubs here do not fill until after one in the morning.
Two: drinking inside without pre-drinks. A spirit and mixer is €18–25 in every main room on the island. Four of those is more than the door charge. Drinking on a terrace before you go out is completely normal here.
Three: buying from a tout. Resold QR codes are frequently already scanned. The club will not help you and you will be on the pavement having paid full price.
Four: no plan for getting home. Taxis are capped in number here and the 04:00 queue outside Playa d'en Bossa is long and bad-tempered. €30–45 back to Ibiza Town, more after three.
Five: the wrong base. If you're clubbing in Playa d'en Bossa and sleeping in the rural north, every night ends with a €60 taxi. Pick your base around your nights.
Six: leaving the venue for air. In-out is not permitted at any of the big rooms. Once you step outside, your night is over.
Seven: three big nights in a row. This is the one that actually ruins trips. The second night is worse than the first and the third is a waste of €200.
- Drinking inside instead of pre-drinks
- €60–90 a night
- Tout ticket that doesn't scan
- €50–90, gone
- Taxi instead of the Discobus
- €26–41 each way
- Wrong base, four late nights
- €120–240 across a week
- Third consecutive club night
- €150–250 and the next day
The order to do a night in
Sunset on the west coast from about 19:30 — with a beer rather than a cocktail. Dinner at 21:30, properly, somewhere inland or in the old town. A bar in a village or the port from 23:00. If you're going to a club at all, arrive after one, and go to the room where the music you like is actually playing.
Then the Discobus or a pre-booked taxi. Not a queue, not a walk along an unlit road, and not a hire car under any circumstances.
A €90 night that works
Supermarket beers on a terrace at sunset, €6. A proper dinner in a village at 21:30, €28. Two drinks in a bar in Ibiza Town's port, €18. Late entry to Eden in San Antonio at €25 on a weekday, two more drinks inside, and the €4 Discobus home. That is a genuinely big night out for under €90, and it is what people who live here actually do.
Eat before you drink and book the taxi before you need it. Everything expensive that happens in Ibiza happens after you break one of those two.
Getting home
The Discobus is €4 flat and runs all night between the towns and the main clubs from May to October — it is the single best piece of nightlife infrastructure on the island. Book taxi apps before you leave the venue. Keep your phone charged, agree a meeting point with the people you came with, and drink water between rounds.
Do not drive. The Guardia Civil run checkpoints on the club roads all season and the limit is 0.5 g/l, lower than the UK. Stay with the people you arrived with, and look after anyone who isn't coping — the medical points at the big clubs are free and staffed all night.
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Where to stay so night one is cheap and easy
Every hotel, hostel and apartment around Ibiza Town, Ibiza, with walking distance to the door — so you know whether you're strolling home or paying €70 for a taxi at 6am.
Frequently asked
- How much should I budget for my first night out in Ibiza?
- €150–250 if you're doing a club properly. But your first night is the worst one to spend that on, because you don't yet know the island, the taxi geography or which room you actually want. Do a €70–90 first night — sunset bar, dinner, one late bar — and save the big spend for night three.
- What's the biggest mistake people make in Ibiza?
- Going out hard on the first night, in the most expensive place, with no plan for getting home. It burns roughly a third of a week's budget in eight hours and typically costs the whole of the next day as well.
- Should I book a club for my first night?
- No. Arrive, eat, watch a sunset, walk around the port, and see who is playing where. Book the big night for your second or third evening once you know how long the taxi takes and how much a drink costs.
- Are pre-drinks cheaper in Ibiza?
- Substantially. Supermarket spirits and mixers cost a fraction of the €18–25 you'll pay inside a club, and drinking on a terrace before you go out is completely normal here. Just do not turn up to a door visibly drunk, because you will not get in and the ticket is not refundable.
- How do I get home from an Ibiza club at 4am?
- The Discobus is €4 flat and runs all night between the towns and the main clubs from May to October. Taxis are limited in number and the 04:00 queues are long — book by app before you leave the venue rather than after.
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Elena Marí
Nine years living on Ibiza. Researches the island base by base, separating lived local knowledge from details that must be checked with operators and properties.
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