Smug Germans slam Brits for getting up early to bag Spanish sunbeds despite their tourists doing EXACTLY the same thing
SMUG Germans have slammed Brits for bagging sunbeds while getting up to their own towel-toting tricks.
We found scores of their tourists joining the rush on Spain’s Costa Del Sol.
One dad crowed: “We set alarms for 6.30am, reserve the beds then go back to sleep.
“We beat the British this morning.”
Fights have broken out in the summer battle for beds.
Some Mediterranean resorts have brought in 40-minute warning notes or security guards with whistles to calm holidaymakers.
At the weekend Bild, Germany’s biggest newspaper, slammed Brits for an “embarrassing deckchair and towel race” in Tenerife.
Another paper Merkur said the sunbed battle had taken on “grotesque features”.
But we found Germans on the Costa Del Sol more than happy to join in the rush — with one dad claiming victory over the British yesterday.
The four-star Iberostar Malaga Playa hotel in Torrox — a hotspot for German nationals — has a rule that beds cannot be reserved.
But guests said it was rarely enforced.
German holidaymakers there told us they sneaked down before sunrise to claim the best spots before returning to their rooms.
By 7am, three hours before the pool officially opened, dozens of families including Germans, Brits, and Spanish had laid out towels.
When others came down at 9am there were few beds left to take.
All loungers nearest the pool were reserved without any occupants in sight.
Jonas Winter, 43, from Bavaria, is staying with his family and said they raced down before sunrise.
He said: “We set our alarms for 6.30am, get up to reserve the beds with the towels, then go back to sleep.
“I think we beat the British this morning, it was quite early.
“We have one disabled person with us so he needs to have a place which he can access safely so that is why we do it.”
More than 2,000 of the 20,000 people who live in Torrox are German. Even mayor Oscar Medina has dubbed it “Little Germany”.
It boasts a German supermarket and three German restaurants.
Birgit, 59, who did not give her surname, and daughter Katharina, 23, visit each year from Leipzig.
Katharina said: “The Germans are down there around 8am.
“It’s tradition.
“If you want to be on the front row you need to get there quick.”
Birgit, who has been to the Costa Del Sol every year since 1979, added: “It is still the Germans who make it down first.”
Back at the Iberostar, guests Andreas Klauke, 59, and wife Vivian, 65, arrived at its pool to find all beds reserved, so they paid for some at the beach.
Sunbed firms there charge five euros a day.
They let tourists reserve the same lounger and parasol for a week.
Vivian, from Hamburg, told The Sun: “It’s silly, annoying and frustrating because all of us pay a lot of money (for a holiday).”
Andreas added: “I don’t understand why the hotel allows it.
“They should step in and stop it.
“If we wanted to go to the pool we’d take the towels down when we want to go, not any earlier.
“It’s ridiculous.
“People are doing this more and more.
“It’s selfish.”
Towel tactics
On Saturday, Bild published a story headlined “Battle for the couches escalates” with videos from Tenerife showing guests putting down towels outside the pool doors before it opened.
A separate story by Berlin-based news magazine Focus Online showed tourists “mainly elderly and middle-aged Brits” using the same tactics in Majorca.
Focus Online said of the chaos: “Vacationers like to reserve loungers by the pool or on the beach with their towels.
“Some hotels then closed the doors to the outside overnight.
“That doesn’t seem to stop British holidaymakers, however, as they have now found another alternative to get their favourite daybed.”
Tourists in Torremolinos and Benalmádena, each a 50-minute drive from Torrox, told The Sun of the sunbed carnage there.
Videos show guests at the Sunset Beach Club hotel waiting for security to unlock a gate to the pool area at 8.40am before they sprint to their desired destination.
Nearly 38.5 million tourists visited Spain in the first six months of this year with British, French, and German travellers visiting the most.
We asked Bild to comment on its story, and Iberostar Malaga Playa bosses about bed battles there.
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