OLIVE PRESS
The
MALLORCA
JUMP!: Di Caprio takes the plunge from his yacht
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Vol. 6 Issue 162 www.theolivepress.es August 11th - August 24th 2023
SUNBED WARS Select celebs
FROM new love to old love to bro love, the Balearics seem to be the destination of choice for the world’s celebrities this summer. For while Shakira has been enjoying the summer at her luxurious Ibiza villa, renowned for its privacy and grandeur, she has also been hosting visits from F1 hotshot Lewis Hamilton. Hamilton has been touring the Balearics aboard a yacht with a bevy of buddies, but he’s still found time to make discreet trips to see Shakira, either in the villa or out for dinner. While the rumour mill has stopped short of declaring them as romantic trysts, their dalliances have certainly been raising eyebrows. Just a short island hop Zeta-Jones relaxes away, Hollywood power couple Catherine Zeta-Jones and Michael Douglas have been basking in the mountainous tranquillity of their Mallorcan vacation home. The mansion boasts a heliport for swift arrivals and departures, paired with sweeping ocean vistas that extend down to a private yacht at their disposal. Meanwhile, keeping a lower profile, Hollywood icons Leonardo DiCaprio and Tobey Maguire have been spotted cruising the Balearics aboard a luxury yacht. The Wolf of Wall Street and Spiderman have been bros since starting out their acting careers in 1990 at just 12 years of age. Shakira and Hamilton
Visitors to Mallorca in thick of the fight to reserve poolside spots By Alberto Lejarraga
WHEN it comes to the sunbed wars, Mallorca is at the forefront. While mainland Spain is awash with reports of burgeoning unrest as tourists fight and push children to get their coveted poolside spot, weary mallorquinos will know they were well ahead of the curve. Images of hundreds of people queuing at the swimming pool gates of their four-star hotels in the Costa del Sol and Costa Blanca at the crack of dawn have been beamed around the world. And when staff do open the gates, at 8 or 9am, it’s as if a starting gun has been fired and the mostly middle-aged visitors scramble their ways to the plum pool positions. And Mallorca is no stranger to such scenes, with hotels forced to close their pools overnight to stop people leaving towels on the sunbeds before going to bed. Special measures were brought in after people were filmed reserving an entire row of poolside seats for the next day in one Camp de Mar hotel - at 7pm the evening before. One English mother filmed tourists sneaking out as early as 5am to lay down their towels, and likened it to ‘a British hybrid version of musical chairs meets the Hunger Games’. In response to overnight pool closures, cunning tourists - thought to be mostly Brits due to the expert nature of the queuing technique - came up with a new strategy. “In an effort to control the sunbed madness, the door from the hotel to the pool area was kept locked until 8am,” one witness reported. “So people were lining their towels up on the floor in a queue order by the door before it opened. “I must add this wasn't youngsters, but mostly elderly and middle-aged people,” he added. Meanwhile, bosses at Zafiro hotel in Can Picafort introduced a ‘40 minute’ rule for sunbeds left unat-
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RESERVED: Towels block sunbeds by the pool
tended with just a towel. The move was an effort to reduce reported tensions between Brits and Germans, who it seems chose the swimming pool arena to resume their customary rivalry. Instead, the towels are replaced by a note, written in English, German, and Spanish, which informs holidaymakers that their belongings have been taken to ensure ‘all our customers can benefit from the sunbeds.’
Bouncers
And as hotels in the Costa del Sol have taken to hiring bouncers to keep a lid on deckchair disputes, hotels in the Balearics had already taken the step at the start of the season. Sunset Beach Club in Benalmadena caught onto the trend this week when they hired poolside security. The resort had become a focal point for the sunbed wars after global media broadcast images and video of hundreds of people sprinting for their favourite sunbeds at
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9am. “There is literally a queue of over 100 people waiting to access the pool in the morning and, at 9am, when the gate opens,” holidaymaker Katherine Green, 35, told the Olive Press. “And some people even just jump over the fence to get the best beds,” added the Yorkshire mum, who admitted her family had been forced to join the scrum or face losing out. “We’ve had to get down there shortly after 8am to guarantee a spot as there are just not enough pool chairs and beds. “Incredibly as soon as the door opens people start pushing as well as running and jumping over the sunbeds to get to the best spots.” A Scottish family staying at the resort, that caters for around 2,000 guests a week in summer, had a similar experience. “My daughter was first in the queue but grown men started jumping over the fence, behaving as if they were the kids,” the Glaswegian grandma, who asked to remain anonymous, told the Olive Press.
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