Sunbed wars in Europe have holiday-makers losing their mind

Tempers flare on beaches as resorts fail to provide enough sun-loungers for their guests.

There’s one travel trend Aussies can be thankful is unlikely to ever make its way Down Under – sunbed wars. Australians never feel sun-starved, like those poor shivering Brits, Scandinavians and Germans, have generally outgrown wanting to lie on a sun-lounger for eight hours straight lest they bid goodbye to their skin, and are spoiled for choice when it comes to beaches and pools, so sunbed wars are a phenomenon not known on these shores.

Even with the odd – contentious – beach club popping up on sands around our nation, they’re unlikely to trouble anyone wanting a dip anytime soon. Not so in Europe. There, lounger wars are escalating. All summer, holiday-makers have been losing their minds and towels, even turning violent.

So if you’re planning next year’s European vacation, you’d better start training now. You need to be able to sprint, squat, lift and flap if you’re booking into a resort, particularly in Spain. We’re talking guerrilla warfare – poolside skirmishes from dusk to dawn. Hostilities have only just subsided and not because the UN brokered peace talks, but because the sun has gone, the season ended and, presumably, everybody’s sanity has been restored.

Bitter battles between hot-headed holiday-makers have been fought from Majorca to Mykonos. Every morning, there’s a race to bag the best sun-loungers around a resort pool, or on a beach, with sun-seekers lining up at dawn to wait for the pool area to be opened, before sprinting faster than Usain Bolt to fling their towels down on a premium possie. Thus, by 9am, all the loungers are taken and those amateurs foolishly enjoying a leisurely breakfast discover they have to sit on the ground. This proves especially galling when the super-sprinters reserve their sunbeds by the pool and then go to the beach all day instead. So hacked off have punters become, they’ve taken to tactics such as stealth-throwing rivals’ towels in the pool or, like TikToker Laura Jayne Lowe, packing an inflatable lounger in their suitcase.

Things turned violent in the Canary Islands when guards were called to a hotel after two bird-brained British blokes physically tipped a Spanish mum out of her chair. And in Majorca, a French couple and a British couple were filmed having a tug-of-war over their daybed.

Thanks to overtourism, some public beaches have become so packed, it’s hard to find anywhere to sit down. Picture: istock.

Tensions even spread to public beaches. Thanks to overtourism, some have become so packed, made worse by expensive beach clubs taking all the space, it’s hard to find anywhere to sit down. In Spain’s Benidorm, footage emerged of beachgoers staking out their spots the night before – yes, the night before – and by sunrise, the whole beach was covered in umbrellas and towels.

In Greece, locals began to fight back against the proliferation of pricey sunbed rentals taking over their island beaches by starting a Towel Movement to reclaim free spots on the sand.

I can proudly say I have never partaken in such solar silliness. First, I’m not running anywhere in my bikini and, second, I’d rather retain my dignity than dash to a deckchair.

Seriously, what is wrong with everybody? I read one woman’s proud account of how she packs several beach towels so she can reserve multiple places all day and rotate through different pools and the beach, following the sun. She and her party race down from their room at 5am to secure all the spots. She declared she “couldn’t deal with the stress” otherwise. The irony that there’d be no stress for her or anyone if people didn’t do this and simply wandered down to the pool when they actually wanted to swim was lost on her.

Hotels should make sure they have enough sun-loungers for their guests, which seems common sense, but not many actually do. Picture: istock.

Inevitably, sunbed-reserving companies have popped up, such as Queen of Clubs’ Hold My Sunbed concierge service in Ibiza where punters pay up to €500 to reserve a daybed.

There are solutions, of course. First, hotels should make sure they have enough sun-loungers for their guests, which seems common sense, but not many actually do, including the Maldives resort we visited. Like the Titanic’s lifeboats, there were too few, so every morning we had that sinking feeling as we circled the sandbank, failing to find a seat.

Second, they could operate a numbered token system so there would be enough for everyone. Or – and many resorts already do this – they could employ “sunbed controllers” who regularly remove towels that haven’t been used after a certain amount of time. Some Spanish resorts also run a parking-ticket type system where you get your chair for a few hours, then have to give it up.

The most effective solution to the sunbed wars, however, would be not to go anywhere near these resorts and if you find yourself accidentally checked in to one, like Martin and Kate in the British comedy series Benidorm, then the only way to copa with your cabana would be to cha-cha out of there and head to the least-occupied beach in the region. Or, like Copacabana showgirl Lola, lose your mind...

Originally published as Sunbed wars in Europe have holiday-makers losing their mind