There is something of a scene around the Tennis Academy Mallorca. German children practice their serves on the clay courts, while returning families chat with holiday friends by the palm-fringed pool. Some of them have been visiting the wider resort of Peguera for decades, earning it the nickname “Deutschland am Meer”. It is a peaceful place for them, with a reassuring hint of home.
Along the tree-lined main boulevard, you can eat schnitzel in a restaurant decorated like a ski chalet, or grab a late-night currywurst and a litre of beer. Head towards the sea and you’ll find Schwarzwald Cafe, a Peguera stalwart since 1986. Once a star in the TV series Goodbye Germany – Die Auswanderer (where Germans try to build a new life abroad) this café, as the name suggests, serves Black Forest classics such as bockwurst, apple pie and waffles.
Peguera is one of many German-oriented resorts on European islands. But there are also Dutch and Scandinavian resorts – British tourists may be notorious for colonising resorts from Magaluf to Malia, but with other countries sharing our unpredictable weather and uninspiring cuisine, they too have a penchant for sunny islands just a short hop away.
The German takeover of Mallorca
“You will find Germans wherever they offer good hospitality at a reasonable price,” says Dr Helen Cummins, who runs a property and lifestyle website focusing on Mallorca.
“I would say there are more mid to high-end German speaking holidaymakers (including Swiss and Austrians) on the island than any other nationality. Favourite areas for those on a higher budget are Port Andratx, Puerto Portals and Son Vida, especially for golf.”
Meanwhile, close to Majorca’s capital Palma, the Germans have their own version of notorious Brit magnet Magaluf. Scroll through Tripadvisor and you’ll see confusing reviews from British tourists who’ve inadvertently stumbled upon El Arenal, a German-centric party town with its own rowdy strip, Schinkenstraße (“Ham Street”), which leads down to lively Ballermann Beach.
On this stretch, sausage stalls fill the gaps between bars packed with beer-drinkers in football shirts, while live music fills the balmy air. El Arenal has been the subject of complaints in the German press, and the resort is trying to clean up its image – literally, with extra garbage trucks being deployed this year to deal with the excess rubbish from summer tourism.
But even El Arenal has a better reputation than British-heavy Magaluf. The latter has become a poster child for the anti-tourism movement, so synonymous with a certain type of visitor that it even tried to change its name to Calviá Beach. A concerted campaign by the local government means that the resort, away from the Punta Ballena strip, now has its plus points. And around the headland, once-maligned Palma Nova is “becoming very trendy”, notes Cummins. “It’s a very good place to buy at the moment,” she adds.
‘Little Norway’ of Gran Canaria
In the Canary Islands, Gran Canaria is an enduringly popular destination for Nordic travellers, with a handful of hotels marketed exclusively to tourists from the region. Six out of 10 Norwegians who visit the Canary Islands choose Gran Canaria, according to the tourist board – and many end up in the Mogán area.
The coastal area is a popular wintering spot for elderly people escaping the eternal darkness of their homeland. One of the towns, Arguinguín, is even known as “Little Norway.” At first glance, it looks like any other Canarian beach resort, with low-rise 1970s apartment blocks curving around a black-sand beach and the white, palm-fringed stretch of Patalavaca hanging like a ribbon along its edge.
But clues to the Nordic slant soon emerge. Norwegian advertisements for boat trips and bars are plastered on blackboards above the beach, near the Norwegian barber, and Arguinguín is also home to the Sjømannskirken – the Norwegian Church Abroad. It is reportedly the only place in the Canary Islands where couples from Norway can legally marry.
Meanwhile, many Dutch tourists are joining Scandinavians and Germans in Maspalomas. This sprawling town, surrounded by shifting sand dunes, is home to Los Tulipanes, “the only Dutch supermarket in the Canary Islands,” and borders the lively, LGBT-friendly beach resort of Playa del Inglès.
British holidaymakers love Tenerife: there were more than 2.1 million arrivals from the UK in 2023 and the tourist board has been working hard to attract those interested in local and sustainable tourism. At the moment, many young British people still flock to Playa de las Americas, a place whose fortunes were forged in the Club 18-30 era.
The high street is a hotchpotch of neon clubs, Irish bars and fast food outlets, while kebab shops and curry houses radiate from the corners. It’s a different story in neighbouring Los Cristianos, though, favoured by many older travellers and labelled on Facebook forums as “a bit quiet”. The British influence is still strong and you can head to The Market Tavern for a roast dinner or Harriet’s for a cream tea served on flower china.
The many faces of Crete
In early 2024, Tui Group’s head of communications Aage Dunhaupt told the Athens-Macedonian News Agency that he expects a record year for German tourists to Greece. Crete, Rhodes and Kos are expected to be the top destinations for the company’s customers.
German holidaymakers love Crete. In 2023, 1.15 million of them went to the island, compared to 780,000 tourists from the United Kingdom, according to the website argophilia.com. Travel agency and tour operator group DERTOUR cites some of its clients’ favourite spots as the popular resorts of Platanias and Agia Marina, in the north of the island near Chania.
However, “the rugged south coast of Crete [also] “It attracts Scandinavians and Germans who head to Plakias, Agia Galini and the like,” says Heidi Fuller-Love, Greece expert at Telegraph Travel. From these laid-back little coastal villages, they can hike inland or explore ancient ruins, set off by boat – and stay as far away as possible from the once-bustling British party town of Malia on the other side of the island.
This was the setting of 2011’s The Inbetweeners Movie but it has struggled to attract partygoers post-pandemic (for a busier scene, packed with European DJs, sports bars and Dutch, British and Scandinavian clubbers, head to nearby Hersonissos). Fuller-Love notes that Britain’s 40-somethings are now flocking to the area around the Akrotiri peninsula, where a number of sleek hotels have sprung up in the rather barren landscape.
It seems that visitors are increasingly looking for a piece of local culture, rather than a small piece of their home country.
“We see a great demand for high-quality travel experiences in beach destinations, where travellers are keen to explore nature, wellbeing or local cultures,” explains Leif Vase Larsen, International CEO of DERTOUR Group, which has tour operators in Germany, France, the UK and Eastern Europe, among others.
“Across our markets, we are also seeing trends ranging from sports and outdoor travel to immersive holiday experiences – demonstrating an overall growing preference for more individual travel.”