If there’s one thing I try to avoid when picking out a hotel for vacation it’s the ‘resort factory’ – the kind of large place where you have to get down to the beach or pool before 8 a.m. and place a book or towel out to have any hope of getting a chair.
The term for this first struck me years ago at the Ritz-Carlton Grand Cayman. It was supposed to be a nice property, commanding room rates over $1,000 a weekend night in peak season. But if you didn’t put out that book early, you’d wind up four rows back from the beach.
One group of Brits took things to new extremes at the GF Fañabé Hotel in Tenerife, Spain. Instead of reserving loungers by leaving towels on them very early in the morning or maybe a book, they slept overnight on the chairs to guarantee a spot for the next day. They brought pillows and blankets, turning the spots into makeshift beds, and settled in. (HT: One Mile at a Time)
A couple of decades ago I won a four-night stay at the El Conquistador Resort in Puerto Rico. It was part of Wyndham at the time, and later a Waldorf Astoria Collection property. I enjoyed dozing off at night on the balcony of my junior suite down by the water. But I couldn’t imagine sleeping on a beach chair just to ensure I had one for my holiday. That’s dedication. It’s also… not a holiday.
Indeed, I’ve never understood buying a plane ticket and paying for a resort – and then having to get up at 6 o’clock in the morning just to reserve a pool or beach chair in order to ‘relax’. That puts me out of step with many travelers who flock to resorts where this is the standard.
Just this. Its 7 AM and everything is “taken”.
byu/Krytykx2 inmildlyinfuriating
And how did placing your belongings on a chair to reserve it, when you won’t be back for hours, even become a norm? It’s one thing when your stuff is on a chair and you go to the bathroom or to get a drink. “Saving chairs” for hours with towels or belongings is not acceptable. If hotel staff won’t address it, vigilantism seems like an option – just remove all the towels from loungers.
Otherwise you get scenes like this one. At the Spring Hotel Bitacora in Tenerife here’s video of guests literally lining up at 6:30 a.m. – waiting 90 minutes for the hotel’s pool gates to open at 8 a.m. – so they can storm this relaxation area like it’s Black Friday at Walmart in order to avoid missing out on a chair for the day.
@chloeturner_1 Another day another sunbed war 😂 #holiday #tenerife #playadelasamericas #sunbeds ♬ original sound – Chloe Turner
In Tenerife, Spain I suppose this would be called “the running of the guests.”
Here’s one dad trying to be a Vacation Hero for his family’s relaxation by the pool – by sprinting from lounge chair to lounge chair, putting a towel on it to mark territory.
If you’re like me, and this isn’t how you want to spend your vacation, research your spots carefully and avoid places where this is necessary – or acceptable.
What’s the downside of removing a towel from an otherwise unoccupied beach chair? Is someone going to call the chair police on you? Or try to remove you by force? Or rant at you while you film them for a soon to be viral video of unhinged Euro? I’ve heard of Germans doing the reservation by beach towel, I didn’t realize it had taken over all of Europe.
Spain’s Canary Islands are overrated… it’s like a Cancun or Cabo, but for European pensioners.
I admit I was guilty of this before smart phones- but at Ocean City Beach in NJ. By noon, the beach is PACKED, people upon people. But at 10am, it’s relatively desserted, and you need to know the tide times so that you aren’t washed out before you want to leave.
The community minded solution? I would spend an hour building a gigantic sand castle, with a moat around it (where do you think the sand comes from?) basically forming a moat from my other beach goers with our family in the middle.
In a sea of umbrellas, we had our 15’x20′ space carved out, but I would dig a deeper pit, where my kids (4 of them under the age of 8), would play and guess what? Other kids wanted to join. And of course the answer was yes.
Now those same kids are all 19+ old.
It was worth it.
Ah, hotel life. A lot of people seem to love it.
In my younger days I would go to the beach a lot and usually show up fairly early so I almost always got a place fairly near the water. I was actually there to body surf and swim as well as catch some sun. The waves are smoother and without choppiness earlier. By the afternoon a lot of times the choppiness had increased a lot and made swimming and body surfing less fun. I would often leave mid afternoon. Some people would start coming about that time and take up the places of those leaving. Those people would often stay until dark.
There is no point in booking an expensive hotel room if you’re not going y to sleep in it. You may as well booking the cheapest hotel with sun beds.
Corrected version: There is no point in booking an expensive hotel room if you’re not going to sleep in it. You may as well book the cheapest hotel with sun beds.
@1990.
Agree except that the European pensioners own property on Tenerife. It’s the poorer British families/couples that do the fly and flop for one week vacations.
My wife and I go every year but we stay 4-6 weeks at a time (Jan/Feb), rent a large condo and stay away from the riff raff.
The food and weather are very good.
@Steve M. — You are wise. Lesson learned. Avoid the ‘all-inclusive’ properties. Enjoyed driving around Gran Canaria and Tenerife. Was fun to walk the dunes at Maspalomas. I suppose the volcanism is also interesting (Tamadaba reminded me a little of parts of Hawaii, like Maui/Big Island).
And because I enjoy tangents, here’s some other ideas. As long as you don’t take their airline, the Azores (Portugal, I know) are also ‘fine’ for a visit, too. At one point Delta flew JFK-PDL, so I took them and explored São Miguel island.
Further north, I’ve been to Faroe Islands are very quiet; fun route to get there via CPH (part of Denmark after all). Lot of salmon farming done there. Nice hikes. Probably akin to Newfoundland (I believe you’d mentioned before you may be based in CA.)
Haven’t been but, for more adventurous destinations, further south, at some point, I’d like to make it to the Cape Verde Islands, too. Also, TAP flies from LIS to Sao Tome; looks wild there (see Pico Cão Grande). Even further, South African airline Airlink flies from Namibia to St. Helena (where they sent Napoleon.)
I have no desire to stay at a resort again. No part of me thinks sunning on a lounge chair is a good use of my remaining time above ground. Chacun ses goûts.
The Dermatologist’s love you suckers cooking your skin in the sun all day. Put some more coconut oil on.