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Daily Mirror
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Mirror
Grown adults seen pushing kids in shocking sunbed wars at four-star resort
Mark Hunter, from Ireland, was on holiday in Hotel Playas de Torrevieja in Costa Blanca, Spain, when he witnessed the sunbed wars unfolding around the hotel pool Spain: Holidaymakers barge past children to secure sun beds Dozens of holidaymakers have been spotted sprinting to bag a sunbed – with even a 12-year-old boy joining in to nab the first one. Mark Hunter was shocked to see the chaos unfold from his hotel balcony. The 38-year-old watched on as determined holiday-goers raced for a lounger with their towels in tow as the pool gates opened. One woman tripped over a chain barrier near the edge of the frame but quickly recovered, while others weaved past her in the dash. Mark was particularly surprised to see children pushed and jostled in the desperate rush for a prime pool spot. The madness unfolded after a tourist related their surprise at how empty the sunbed scene was at their resort in Spain. Have you been swept up in a sunbed battle? We'd love to hear your war stories. Email webtravel@ Mark, a corporate manager from Ireland, filmed the clip at Hotel Playas de Torrevieja at around 9.54am on Friday (2 Aug), while on holiday with his wife Tara and their son Jake. 'I was shocked to see grown adults reduced to scrambling for sun beds,' he told Luxury Travel Daily. 'It is exactly the same every morning — there are grown adults pushing past children to get a sun bed by the pool.' After watching the chaos unfold, Mark's 12-year-old son asked if he could take part the next morning. He added: 'My little boy did want to be involved in the chaos the next morning as he thought it looked fun. We did let him queue and he was the fastest to a sunbed!' Mark shared the clip on TikTok TikTok, where it has left viewers stunned with over 2,400 likes so far. He is not the only one to have found himself on the frontlines of the sunbed wars. Laura Smith and her fiancé Eric Whittaker recently labelled their holiday morning routine 'chaotic' thanks to the poolside skirmishes that were breaking outing. Laura revealed that guests armed with towels start queuing an hour before the pool opened at 9am. Lines of over 100 holidaymakers would stand around waiting for hotel workers to open up the pool. The couple, who got engaged last September, were staying at the five-star RIU Funana resort in Sal, Cape Verde. The hotel costs upwards of £1,000 per person a week and implemented a one-hour bed reserve policy to help stop the chaos. This involved pool workers placing a ticket on an unoccupied sun lounger and coming back an hour later to remove the towel if it was still unused. Last month we reported on an incident at the four-star Spring Bitacora hotel in Tenerife where Liam Pourhana and his friend, Paul Nygaard, had front-row seats to shocking scenes of sunbed chaos. They witnessed a hotel worker almost get trampled by a 'stampede' of guests rushing to secure the best poolside sun beds. Footage showed the security guard unlocking the gate before dropping his keycard. He was almost knocked over by clambering holidaymakers as he tried to retrieve the card before retreating to safety.
Daily Mirror
29-07-2025
- Daily Mirror
'Sunbed wars at our Cape Verde hotel were actually quite comical - and here's proof'
Laura Smith and her fiancé Eric Whittaker, from Coventry, West Midlands, encountered sunbed wars at the five-star RIU Funana resort in Sal, Cape Verde this month An engaged couple were forced to queue for over an hour with hotel guests rushing to grab the best spots by pool. Laura Smith and her fiancé Eric Whittaker have labelled their holiday morning routine "chaotic" due to the so-called 'sunbed wars' taking over. Laura, 30, revealed that guests armed with towels start queuing an hour before the pool opened at 9am. Lines of more than 100 holidaymakers would stand around waiting for hotel workers to open up the pool. The couple, who got engaged last September, were staying at the five-star RIU Funana resort in Sal, Cape Verde. The hotel, which costs upwards of £1,000 per person a week implemented a one-hour bed reserve policy to help stop the chaos. This involved pool workers placing a ticket on an unoccupied sun lounger and coming back an hour later to remove the towel if it was still unused. The couple, from Coventry, West Midlands, were forced to take part in the morning rush in order to grab beds for their week long trip in the sun. Laura said: "The whole morning routine became both chaotic but comical. There were four entries to the pool and I'd say there were up to 40 people in each of those queues. "People did run for the beds however most people opted for a quick walk to the area they wanted. Queuing started from 8am as long as you were in the queue by 9am when it opened, you were normally OK to find a sunbed. "The umbrellas are fixed so if you needed shade you'd want to be in the queue before 8:30am. The hotel would place a card on the bed and an hour later remove the towels." Laura, who shared footage of the encounters on her social media page, continued: "It wasn't consistent though and beds could have been left a while before they had a ticket put on them. I think there should be enough sunbeds for how many guests are in the hotel. "The hotel brought this in to stop the 5am bed reservers and was only put in place after I'd booked my holiday. If I had been staying for two weeks, I would have gotten really fed up with the mornings." The experience mirrors similar drama on the island of Majorca where Clare Wright, from Nottingham, filmed dozens of tourists race for sunbeds yet she insisted she got one every morning without trouble. The 44-year-old woman said she "had a little giggle" at the holidaymakers who she watched scramble for loungers each morning. The battle for prime spots at Protur Playa Cala Millor Hotel in Majorca, Spain, was "like something out of The Hunger Games," she added in her TikTok.
