Surviving a weeks clubbing in Ibiza

Although it seems strange talking about 'surviving' a holiday, anyone who's done a week or more's clubbing in Ibiza can probably relate. Far from returning feeling refreshed an relaxed most people will return and feel like they need to curl up in bed for a week to recover! In this post I'm going to share some tips I've picked up from Ibiza clubbers on both getting the most from your time in Ibiza as well as getting through the week in one piece and coming out feeling good at the end. If you've got your own tips please share, in the comments.

Booking your holiday

Get all your travel plans organised before you leave so you can relax from the time you leave the house. Ibiza holidays are made seriously easy for holidaymakers by well established transport links so this shouldn't be too much hassle. A few things you'll want to arrange:

• Flights
• Hotel or villa
• Airport transfers
• Travel insurance
• Enough euros for the first few days

Obviously booking your balearic islands holidays as a package through a travel agent will make this even easier but you might save a few pennies doing it yourself.

There's a few low cost flight options to Ibiza these days. Easyjet, Ryanair and Monarch tend to work out the cheapest but pay attention to arrival times. The cheapest flights are often in the evening meaning you won't arrive until around midnight and get to your hotel at 1am or later. You can still go out at this time so you might not lose the night but where possible fly early in the day to give you a chance to get settled into your hotel, catch some afternoon rays and have a decent meal before the partying starts. That way you'll feel better the next morning.

Where you choose to base yourself in Ibiza will go a long way to dictating the sort of holiday you'll end up having and, ultimately, how much sleep you get, so choose carefully and do your research. Book into a place like Ibiza Rocks Hotel in San Antonio or Jet Apartments in Playa den Bossa and the partying is likely to be non-stop and sleep might be hard to come by. That's fine if your 18 and are into your clubbing holidays, but if like me you're past your prime and don't do so well without sleep it's probably advisable to check into somewhere a bit quieter. Consider staying in Ibiza Town or Es Cana rather than San Antonio or renting an Ibiza villa out of town is a great option if there's a few of you because you can really get some peace and quiet during the day.

Make a rough plan of your weeks clubbing - look at what parties are on and what dj's are playing while you're out there and print it off to take with you. Start thinking about what nights you want to go to. Maybe start a Facebook group with your mates to discuss which parties you're going to hit (a useful way to kill some time at work in the weeks leading up to your holiday!) It's also a good idea to give yourself one night off a week where you take it easy and get to bed at a reasonable time. Don't feel like you have to force yourself to go clubbing every night.

Don't make this more stressful than it needs to be. Arrive at the airport in plenty of time, have something light to eat and go easy on the beers. It's easy to let pre-holiday excitement spill over into a spontaneous drinking session which is only ever going to end up as a premature hangover before you've even got going! The flight to Ibiza from the UK is only around 3 hours and the time difference is only +1 hour.

Consider packing light and only taking hand luggage to get through arrivals quickly, but bare in mind this only saves you time if you don't have to wait for a transfer coach and all your mates are doing the same thing, if one person checks baggage you may as well all. If you're on a package holiday you should have transfers included, else the fastest way to town is to get a taxi which wont cost you much per person if it's full. If you're planning on renting a car in Ibiza don't wait until you arrive to sort out your car hire. Ibiza car hire companies, especially the ones at the airport get really oversubscribed in the summer months and chances are if you don't pre-book you won't get one which will mess up your plans.

The quickest way to ensure you burn out half way through your clubbing holiday or crash when you get home is to replace food with beer. As you're likely to be keeping irregular hours and missing breakfast just try to eat as much and as often as you can, don't worry about piling on the pounds, you'll soon burn them off dancing for 6 hours a night - most people I know lose weight on holiday in Ibiza! If you're not getting your 5 a day take some multi vitamins and drink some fruit juice, this might help support your immune system and reduce the chance of getting ill when you return home.

While alcohol is extremely expensive in Ibiza clubs, it's relatively cheap in the pre-club bars of the West End, Playa den Bossa and San Antonio Bay. This creates a dangerous binge drinking cycle where many holidaymakers try to consume as much alcohol as possible early in the evening to see them through to the early hours without needing more drink. There's no real answer to this if you want to drink it's really the only way to do it, the best way to limit the damage of this type of drinking is to go steady and not feel compelled to get to clubs when they open at midnight. 2am is when Ibiza clubs really get going so aim to arrive around then.

Avoid drinking during the day, this leads to exhaustion, dehydration and horror stories about falling asleep in the sun and suffering severe sun-stroke.

Although on the whole Ibiza is a safe destination, like anywhere there's always reports of crime directed at tourists. The most common is still break in's and theft from hotel rooms. The bigger Ibiza hotels are pretty secure these days, many with electronic door locks. The biggest risk is losing your key while you're out so it possible leave it at reception when you go out.

Put valuables in your safety deposit box if you have one in your room or the hotels safe if you don't. Make sure you take out travel insurance before you leave to cover you in the unlikely event of a problem.

Other common incidents tend to revolve around taxis, either charging too much for a journey or physically threatening passengers. Again both are rare but you can limit the risks by taking care who you ride with. Although all Ibiza taxis should be licenced and metered nowadays it often works out that the illegal cabs are there when you need them most and there's no legal ones in sight! Although you should definitely avoid illegal cabs if you can, if you do need to take one, agree a price for the whole journey up front (not per person) and if the driver seems drunk, claims not to speak English or just doesn't feel right to you don't be afraid to walk away. Like any city in Europe females would be well advised to avoid taking cabs alone and especially illegal cabs.

Despite everyone knowing about the damaging affects of the sun all too well these days, every year in Ibiza you see holidaymakers walking around bright pink with skin pealing off them. This is the most dangerous thing you can do in Ibiza in my opinion.

The sun is extremely hot in Ibiza particularly in July and August when burn time for most skin types is under 15 minutes. Avoid going out during the hottest part of the day (12-2) and instead if you want to tan, aim to do it later in the afternoon and obviously wear a high factor sun screen.

When you return from your holiday you're likely to have fallen out of your usual sleep pattern. You might find it hard to sleep at a normal time, even if you feel exhausted. Some clubbers returning from Ibiza even report suffering from sleep paralysis. Try to plan your days off work so you have a few days to recover at home before you have to go back, allowing you to catch up on sleep. Ween yourself back into a normal sleep pattern by going to bed steadily earlier and taking short naps to catch up on sleep hours.

I hope this post gives a few useful tips for anyone planning a clubbing holiday this summer either to Ibiza or another party destination. If you are I hope you have a fun and safe time!

This was a guest post from the people at Travelmatch - a neat new holiday comparison site with some good deals to Ibiza.