Something unusual happens in Ibiza in the last full week of October. The season has wound down, the hire cars have thinned out, and the island's back roads and pine trails fill up with people in trainers. This week — 19 to 26 October 2026 — is the busiest sporting week of the Ibiza autumn, with a trail marathon festival, a triathlon, an open-water swimming meet and a four-day walk across Formentera all landing within seven days of each other.
If you are on the island now, you can take part or you can watch. Both are worth doing. Here is what is happening, when, and what else is worth your time this week.
The Ibiza Trail Marathon Festival — Saturday 24 October
The island's signature running event takes over the west coast on Saturday. Organised by Club Deportivo Es Puig and starting from Platja de s'Arenal in Sant Antoni, the Ibiza Trail Marathon Festival runs three distances through the hills behind the bay:
- 48 km marathon — roughly 1,600 m of positive climbing, off at 07:30
- 28 km half — around 900 m of climbing, off at 08:30
- 11 km Starter — around 300 m of climbing, off at 10:00
Each distance is capped at 500 runners, which keeps the singletrack from turning into a queue. Entries start from around €35 depending on the distance.
What makes this race worth travelling for is the ground it covers. Red-earth paths through pine forest, dry-stone walls that predate the hotels by several centuries, carob trees, and long stretches where the only sound is your own breathing and the sea somewhere below the ridge. The long course works deep into the Sant Josep hills, in the shadow of Sa Talaia — at 475 m, the highest point on the island, and on a clear October morning a place from which you can see Formentera.
Watching it: the finish area at s'Arenal is the easy option and has the atmosphere, but the better photographs come from higher up on the hill roads. Go early, park considerately on the verges, and take a jacket — the first hour up there is genuinely cold.
The Ibiza Sprint Triathlon — Sunday 25 October
The next morning the action moves to Ses Figueretes, just south of Ibiza Town, for the third edition of the Ibiza Sprint Triathlon. It is a sprint-format race: a 750 m sea swim off Figueretes beach, a looped urban bike leg of four laps, and a flat two-lap 5 km run along the seafront promenade.
That format matters more than it sounds. A sprint is short enough that a reasonably fit first-timer can finish it, and the laps mean spectators see the athletes come past again and again rather than waiting forty minutes between glimpses. Race packs are collected on the Saturday afternoon, so Figueretes on Saturday evening fills up with nervous athletes and last-minute bike mechanics — an atmosphere in itself.
If you are staying in Ibiza Town, Sunday morning is a good excuse to walk down to the promenade with a coffee and watch the swim start. The sea here is still sitting in the low twenties in late October, which is warmer than most visitors from northern Europe expect.
Open water: IbiziOWS, 23–25 October
Running alongside the race weekend is IbiziOWS, Ibiza's open-water swimming meet, spread across Friday to Sunday. Swimming events here play directly to the island's real advantage. In late October the Mediterranean is clear, flat and still holding the summer's heat, and the coves give you sheltered water and good visibility without the summer boat traffic.
The full competition programme is listed from around €210, with associated free sessions also on the schedule. If you swim at all, this is the best weekend of the year to do it in Ibiza.
Tuesday's social run and Formentera on foot
Not everything this week needs a race number.
Tuesday 21 October — Group Social Trail Run. Four euros, a meeting point that changes every week, and a pace that is sociable rather than competitive. It is the simplest way to meet the island's running community and to find trails you would never locate from a map.
Thursday 22 to Sunday 25 October — Walk around Formentera in 4 days. A free guided circuit of the neighbouring island on foot: four days, the whole coastline, and almost no traffic. Ferries leave Ibiza Town frequently from 07:00 and the crossing takes about half an hour.
What else is on in Ibiza this week
The cultural calendar has not stopped for the athletes.
- dTapasxIBZ tapas competition, 21–25 October. Restaurants across the island compete, each tapa costs €5, and your job is to eat your way around the entries.
- Eivissa Clàssica, Friday 23 October. The classical festival continues with Quintet Zèfir performing Los mundos idealizados; tickets from €8, with free associated concerts at MACE.
- Marine Forum Ibiza and Formentera, 19–22 October at MACE. Free sessions where scientists, institutions and local organisations debate the future of the Mediterranean — oddly relevant if a weekend of swimming has you thinking about water quality.
- Trobada de Pobles, Saturday 24 October at the FECOEV fairground. Free. Traditional island culture, villages represented, food, folk music.
- Fiestas de Sant Rafel de sa Creu, Saturday 24 October. A village patron-saint festival: free, small, and entirely the real thing.
- Markets: Las Dalias on Saturday and Sunday, Sant Jordi on Saturday morning, Forada on Saturday, Sant Joan on Sunday, Es Canar on Wednesday, and the farmers' Mercat de sa Cooperativa in Sant Antoni on Friday morning.
- Fiesta del Cine, through Thursday 22 October — cinema tickets at €3.50 across the island's screens.
Practical notes
Weather. Late October in Ibiza means roughly 22–24°C by day, around 16°C at night, and a real chance of one heavy rain day in the week. For trail running that matters: the red earth here turns slick within minutes.
Entries. The big races cap their numbers and generally fill before race week, so check the organisers' own sites rather than turning up hoping for a late sign-up. The smaller things — the social run, the Formentera walk, the markets, the tapas competition — ask nothing of you but showing up.
Getting around. Expect road closures around Sant Antoni on Saturday morning and around Figueretes on Sunday morning. The buses keep running; just allow extra time.
Eating afterwards. The inland village restaurants are open and quiet this month, which is precisely what you want after 48 km of hills.
One last thing
This is the week the island reminds you what it is underneath the season: a small Mediterranean place with hills, pine forest, clear water and a community that goes outside the moment the heat drops. Whether you are racing, swimming, walking the Formentera coast or simply eating €5 tapas while other people suffer up the hill roads, late October is a very good time to be here.
Full dates, times and ticket links for every event this week are on the Ibiza Calendar events page.
