Spanish resort goes to war on ‘beach hoggers’ as Brit tourists face fines for nabbing prime spots by the sea
BEACH hoggers who rise early to nab spots on Spain’s sandy shores could face massive fines.
One Brit holiday destination has revealed that any belongings found on their beaches before 9.30am will be removed – and the owners fined.
The Calpe Council has introduced an ordinance which prohibits chairs, hammocks and umbrellas from being placed on the beaches early in the morning.
Calpe Beach Councillor Pere Moll said: “We want to guarantee the uninterrupted work of beach cleaning staff and we appeal to the civility of beach users to ensure beaches are not occupied with gear without anyone present.”
If your beach gear is confiscated by police, you can retrieve it at the municipal building – for a fine.
While it remains unclear how much the fines could be, visitors to the beaches are warned to only leave their things on the beach while there.
The move comes after Calpe received countless complaints about beach hoggers reserving large swathes of sand.
Calpe’s crackdown is the latest in a series of ongoing sunbed and beach hogging wars in Spain.
Holidaymakers were previously filmed lining up for sunbeds before 8am at one resort.
Tiktoker Thomas Clifford (@thomaswclifford) captured the footage during his holiday and shared it online.
In the video, people are seen queueing up around the pool, before darting towards the best spots, to make sure they get their towels down.
The footage starts with a close-up of Thomas’ watch, revealing that the charge towards the sunbeds is taking place at 7.47am.
Other tourists were fuming after holidaymakers hogged every chair in a resort with their towels.
At a hotel in Lanzarote, a woman filmed a string of empty sunbeds that were reserved with just a hotel towel.
In a video on TikTok, holidaymaker Sophie (@sophieannmc) revealed how most of the sunbeds at her hotel were reserved by other guests.
As she panned around the pools, she revealed how the loungers were reserved with towels, bottles of suncream and books – even though a sign banned guests from reserving the beds.
In the caption, Sophie explained that she’d spent over half an hour hunting down a sunbed without a towel.