To want to holiday like a normal person

[Bimgy85]

Popular places in Spain have been ruined and are now so tacky and commercial... Benalmadena, Salou, Benidorm is a no go completely.

Ruined by these typical lager lout holiday makers usually consisting of a large British family who drink cans of San Miguel beside the pool at 1 in the day smoking cigarettes and or drinking beer with their breakfast...

Aibu to want to relax by the pool like a regular person without taking over the entire place, reserving sunbeds, allowing my kids to scream their heads off from 9 am until 9 pm

Parts of Spain have been ruined and taken over by these type of people! Lager lout beer bellies up for a fight most of the time, poor fuckers

Can you recommend a nice spot in Spain that hasn't been ruined? And become tacky central?

It is a pity that the EU cannot insist on those the OP describes having some restrictions as part of the Brexit deal.

Choose somewhere that is not a package holiday destination. There are some lovely parts of the south of France and Italy, for example. Even better if one of you speaks the local language.

We love Brittany and Italy. Sardinia ( for a hotel based holiday with beach, sea and pools)
Not hard to find places where the visitors are not from the UK.

Any of this sounding feasible, OP??

We were just in Guardamar and never heard one other English voice. The sea was lovely and warm.

We then went on to marjal costa Blanca in crevillant and there was very little Brits and none of the behaviour you mention.

Not sure what the point of this thread is? OP is presumably aware of how to avoid tacky, overcrowded resorts in Spain - and any other European holiday destination.

1. Don't book a package holiday. It's never been easier to out together your own combination of flights, accommodation and duration.
2. Avoid destinations that mention the lively nightlife.
3. Try somewhere inland/less popular/where the locals go.

Easy peasy.

Looking for advice on quieter parts of Spain so placemarking.

I'd really recommend the city of Malaga @Izzidigne. Very Spanish, with very few English tourists. Lots of culture and lovely restaurants.

Izzi

Malaga is a good choic if you are happy with cities rather than countryside. If you want rural, then try the Ronda area. Spectacular scenery, lovely unspoilt villages with a good choice of accommodation - hotels, b&bs and self-catering houses/apartments.

Anything less like Benidorm is hard to imagine.

*choice!

Seconding Pollenca in Majorca. The old town is beautiful and then you have Porta Pollenca with the beaches and the Pine Walk. Very family oriented but not loutish. There are beautiful places to visit like Formentor, Calle San Vincente, Valldemosa, Soller. Alcudia is a bit like what you are tryIng to avoid but there are so many other places near there that are very lovely indeed.

We went to la Carihuela, between benalmedena & torremolinos. We thought it was beautiful there. Had bars, restaurants, lovely beach. People were in the bars drinking but didn’t see any larger louts as you say. We were in a hotel just off the front, few other Spanish families there.

Maybe try Greece, Cyprus, Croatia. Italy

🤣🤣🤣op moaning about the lager louts and then asking of Croatia, “are there plenty of swimming pools, bars, and restaurants?” 🤣🤣🤣

Ffs, the world is a huge place and google has pics of every corner. It doesn’t take a genius to search the internet for a corner free of larger louts and screaming kids!

So many lovely areas of Spain which aren’t like that at all. Costa Almeria, Costa Tropical, small villages & towns on the inland side of the Mar Menor, Costa de la Luz are all gorgeous & you only hear Spanish spoken. We are often the only foreigners in hotels full of Spanish. It’s fab - you get the pool to yourself at siesta time!!

Go to Italy you don’t get chavs there.

Those package holidays cost A LOT of money - not to mention the cost of all those beets and eating out at cap tourist bars. It's naive of you to think that they are cheso breaks. Sheep being herded into the resort transfer bus, never leaving the resort in fact. Sightseeing? Why would we do that - we're only here for the sun and booze.
Does this not make you embarrassed?

We stayed in loret de mar a few years ago - wouldn’t recommend it however we got a boat a few miles down the road to tossa de mar and that is a beautiful little town. It is built around a castle and it’s close enough to loret de mar and Barcelona to make a day trip of it you could also go to salou if you wanted to hit the theme park!! If you want Spain Tossa De Mar is highly recommend!! :)

starlight I'd be embarrassed to be you! Your post is ridiculously snobby. I have lived in Spain and I speak Spanish fairly fluently so I can get around Spain with ease. I also book my own holidays to off the beaten track resorts. However I am also happy also book packages depending on my needs and the needs of my teens.
My dear father always booked his own tours/holidays until he had an accident abroad. Although he is now fit we both agree that a package deal gives him better access to assistance and therefore more peace of mind. I'd hate for some stuck up cow to judge him.

What’s wrong with a package holiday?! Some people would just love to be able to afford to take their little family on a package holiday.. and not so they can behave badly either. Talk about mass generalisation.

It’s thread like this that give MN the nasty, classist reputation that (mostly) it does not deserve

*excuse typo

The blind snobbery on this thread is astonishing.

It's got to be about 20 years since a 'package holiday' was anything like what many people on here are claiming. It's just a way of booking accomodation, transfers and flights all at the same time and can look exactly the same as anything you can book independently.

The last package holiday we went to was to a boutique B&B on an island that doesn't even have an airport or any all inclusive hotels, but we booked the package because it was cheaper and easier than booking the exact same flight and hotel separately and having to sort out the road/ferry/road transfer.

You can also book pretty much any hotel direct or through Expedia etc including exactly the same AI hotels used by Thomas Cook, First Choice etc.

I'm not judging you - I have booked package holidays myself. I mean the type of places run down apartments with lots of loud mouth drunks - usually where the rest of us don't want to go and get a really cheap deal for some dingy block behind a few bins. Nothing wrong with package deals. But some places have been tarnished.

Well worth investigating is Galicia - the west facing coast of Spain to the north of Portugal between A Coruna and Vigo.

Thanks for all the recommendations, of course I can search myself but we all know word of mouth is a lot better !

I've had a lovely week in a beautiful 5 bed place in Wales with indoor swimming pool and hot tub in garden in Wales. Fabulous holiday.

OP - you are saying a whole country is like a few lively resorts? If you think this you obviously have only been to these resorts and not authentic Spanish ones.

Playa D’Aro north of Barcelona is lovely and where the young trendy Spaniards go.

We’re actually just back from Salou and we had a fantastic time, DS is obsessed with Ferraris and wanted to go to Ferrariland. The DC absolutely loved it.