It must be summer. The sun is shining, the airport queues are growing and, right on cue, social media is full of shocked tourists posting photos of expensive bills in Ibiza.
This week’s scandal? Coffee and toast. Nearly twenty euros’ worth of it!
Cue outrage. Cue “Ibiza has lost the plot.” Cue hundreds of comments from people who somehow still act surprised that one of Europe’s most in-demand holiday destinations charges premium prices in certain venues.
Here’s a radical suggestion: don’t buy it.
Nobody is being frogmarched into a beach club and forced to order artisanal sourdough with hand-massaged avocados and Himalayan salt flakes.
And let’s remember one important detail: prices have to be displayed by law. There are no hidden surprises. You know the cost before you order. If you don’t like it, walk away. It’s really not complicated.
The endless ritual of posting menus and bills online for public outrage is becoming a bit tiresome. Yes, Ibiza can be expensive. We all know this.
Water is wet. The sun is hot. Ibiza charges more than Benidorm but here’s the thing the annual complainers often overlook: there are options. Plenty of them.
You can eat cheaply in Ibiza (thank you Cebo and Casa Thai) You can find menu del día deals, local bars, family restaurants and places serving excellent food without requiring a small bank loan.
You can also choose the glamorous beach club experience where you’re paying not just for the food, but for the location, the atmosphere, the music, the service, the sun-bed culture and the Instagram backdrop.
That’s called choice, it’s a wonderful thing and if the prices still offend your sensibilities? There are literally hundreds of other holiday destinations available.
But… they’re not Ibiza, are they?
That, ultimately, is why the complaints keep coming and the planes keep landing. Same outrage. Same screenshots. Same expensive avocado toast.
Same time tomorrow for the €14 coffee story?
Inspired from a rant by DD
MAN IN SAN AN by Martin Makepeace 