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?

I have heard Croatia is lovely. That will probably be the new “It” place to be so get there before it is overrun with people you described above!

Anywhere South of Malaga is amazing, (if you avoid Torremolinos and maybe Fuengirola). The further south you go the quieter and more civilised it is, try Estepona, Duquesa or Torreguardiola etc. Mostly apartments not hotels though, I suspect. There is an amazing beach just past Gibraltar called Tarifa - don't know the town but I doubt it has many lager louts. Probably really hot in July/August though.......

Sorry - and avoid 'Marbs' too, obviously.......

What outrageous snobbery. OP clearly knows what and where to avoid for her holiday requirements.

@lunchboxloony

There's absolutely nothing wrong with Torremolinos. The reputation it has is long gone. Mostly Spanish tourists visit now and it has a great beach promenade and seafront area.

Benalmádena just along the beach is a little more 'British' but even then it's absolutely nothing like Benidorm or similar.

Sorry Sunshades - we love Torremolinos (the seafront and the waterpark!!!!) but I was guessing the OP might be looking for something a bit quieter. (And haven't been to 'Marbs' so that comment was based solely on an awareness that rich TOWIE people seem to party there.... )

Op have a look at La Zenia, around an hour from Alicante but closer to Murcia airport. It's absolutely stunning and was nothing like I expected ( family member booked it as a present )

The people that return there year after year are not lager louts. They simply love the area, it's gorgeous beaches, fabulous restaurants and authentic Spanish culture there.

I've been to Benidorm, 18 years ago. Wouldn't go again if you paid me.
This place couldn't be more different.

There's so many places out there- it is really not hard to get away from Brits on tour!! Italy has lots of places where only Italians go on holiday. Greece too and Croatia.... There's a world out there

@Zoflorabore la zenia is fantastic! It's Cabo Roig ten mins down the road that's the killer. Spent many an afternoon wandering around their lovely shopping centre

The Almeria Coast in Spain is beautiful, MOJACAR is a lovely resort beautiful beaches, no high rises, and unbelievably cheap when you get there

Cala D'or is lovely. Really nice marina and a few cove-style beaches. There are brits there but it's far from tacky and is just a 45 minute drive from Palma Majorca airport.

Completely agree OP
We went to Cambril last year and walked up to Salou!! God it was grim!! Fat, sweaty, gobby loud mouth Brits. Utterly embarrassing, needless to say we stayed in Cambril for the entire holiday.
I hate me fellow countrymen abroad, if they could see themselves as everyone else sees them, I'm sure they'd be mortified.

I can highly recommend Torrevieja (about a 30min drive from Alicante). Some nice bars, great restaurants, gorgeous beaches, scenic, lovely town centre, history & museums, walking routes, short drives to lots of attractions (caves, waterfalls, salt lakes, water parks, animal parks, casino, theme parks etc). And no lager louts / rabble!

We've been a couple times. We love it.

I'd also recommend a lake-side holiday in The Jura in France.

try Puerta Pollensa in Mallorca

Formentera - a little bit of paradise in Spain! Currently in Mykonos and wishing I’d gone back to Formentera (yet again!).

Try the amalfi coast in Italy stunning.

We go to spain have small kids so do the eurocamps around cambrils and tarragona great holidays and not a drunken brit in sight

I think it’s a little amusing (or perhaps sad) that so many people’s idea of a good holiday is to avoid all other British people!

The fact is our little island is cold and damp (for the startling exception of the last three weeks lol), it’s no wonder we head to our relatively nearby European neighbours for some sunshine.

Having lived in Spain (in a very Spanish town) I can attest that the majority or Spanish people have no problem with tourists on a 2 week holiday...they just really mind drunk and disorderly people of any nationality!

We lived near Puerto Banus/marbella and there is a small stretch that is the TOWIE crowd but it’s not all British people! Far from it, in June/July there are far more Scandinavian, Russian and German tourists, August/September more British.

It’s also a myth that all areas are ‘colonised’ by British bars etc. English is a common European language and so gets put up on a lot of signs but near marbella there’s a Russian shopping centre and private schools for other countries.

Multicultural yes but not all Brit abroad. Where we lived everyone would have been upset by loutish behaviour. I do think people should stop tarnishing an entire country’s reputation with stories that it’s all grotty high rises and sports bars!

I know, clyd. The Russians and the Scandinavians also have a bit of a reputation for excessive drinking, especially when the Scandinavians can get it cheap than at home and perhaps getting sunburnt too. Are places popular with those nationalities to be avoided too?

Completely by accident, DP and I discovered Paguera in Mallorca. We had been to Port Andrax but it was a bit too 'Yacht Club' and expensive for us, so we dropped into Paguera on the way back to Palma, where we were staying and liked it so much that we've been on two holidays there since.

As well as there being three lovely beaches and the usual restaurants, including some Spanish and Italian there are lots of restaurants aimed at German people, as probably 90% of tourists who go there are German.

It seems very much a 'family' resort rather than one where people go to get pissed and get rowdy, but might it just be the German equivalent of Palma Nova or Santa Ponsa, which I believe are where most of the AI family package holiday hotels used by UK tour operators are?

Should we be looking down our noses at it because there are too many Germans to make it authentically Spanish? Or shall we just take it as it is with it's lovely beaches, relaxed atmosphere and DP can get half a metre of sausage with chips and we can laugh at the restaurants selling knoblauch?

Very good points BarbaraofSeville, just because somewhere is popular doesn’t mean it is to be sneered at - drink all day, tatt filled shops and partying all night just isn’t my thing but a lot of people (of all nationalities) do. My dads lived in tenerife countryside for the last 18 years and it astounds me how many people make assumptions about the entire country based on outdated preconceptions.

I have friends who practically compete to go to more and more exotic destinations and only came to Spain reluctantly because they were visiting us. Essentially though all their holidays are resort beach style relaxing holidays they could do pretty much anywhere (without the long haul price tag).

Exactly. Look at all the people who go to places like Mexico or Goa and do little except lay on the beach or drink by the pool?

Yet that is somehow more worthy than a holiday to Spain that may include visits to the great cities of Granada, Madrid, Cordoba, Seville etc?

Bimgy85

Anfi. Gran Canaria.

Try Calella de Palafrugell or Llafranc.

I think it’s a little amusing (or perhaps sad) that so many people’s idea of a good holiday is to avoid all other British people!

I agree Clyd. All the protestations here of 'never heard another British voice' are hilarious. As if they are the only adventurous, intrepid Brits to have discovered the South of France or Southern Spain

It’s not “British” people are avoiding, it’s the Union Jack short brigade, usually found with shirt off, despite very large belly, sunburn, Sun newspaper...in search of a pie and chips emporium, lager and a telly showing the footie.

I'm not sure such a massive brit abroad stereotype actually exists outside of tv/newspapers. Im thinking of all the summer beach holidays I've had over the years. Numerous Greek islands, Italy, France, Ibiza, Croatia and further afield Caribbean, India, Dubai, Florida and I've not encountered one of these mythical creatures. So if they're knocking around they can't be that hard to avoid!!