Germany’s obsession with Mallorca – and other curious European holiday colonies

There’s something of a scene surrounding the Tennis Academy Mallorca. German children practice their serves on its clay courts, while returning families chat to holiday acquaintances by the palm-fringed pool. Some of them have been visiting the wider resort town of Peguera for decades, earning it the nickname “Deutschland am meer”. It’s a gentle place, for them, with comforting hints of home.

Along its tree-lined main boulevard, you can dine on schnitzel in a restaurant done up like a ski chalet, or grab a late-night currywurst and a litre of beer. Divert towards the sea and you’ll find Schwarzwald Cafe, a Peguera stalwart since 1986. Once making a star appearance on the TV series Goodbye Germany – Die Auswanderer (in which Germans attempt to forge new lives abroad), this café serves, as the name suggests, Black Forest classics including bockwurst, apple pie and waffles.

Peguera is one of several German-leaning resorts on European islands. But there are Dutch and Scandinavian ones too – British tourists may be notorious for having colonised holiday towns from Magaluf to Malia but, because other countries share our unpredictable weather and uninspiring cuisine, they too have a penchant for sunny islands that are just a quick hop away.

Mallorca’s German takeover

“You’ll find Germans anywhere that offers good hospitality at an OK price,” says Dr Helen Cummins, who runs a property and lifestyle website focused on Mallorca.

“I would say that 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 with a higher budget include Port Andratx, Puerto Portals and Son Vida, especially for golf.”

Meanwhile, close to the Mallorcan capital Palma, the Germans have their own version of notorious Brit-magnet Magaluf. Scroll Tripadvisor and you’ll see confused reviews from UK tourists who’ve inadvertently found themselves in El Arenal, a German-focused party town complete with its own rowdy strip, the Schinkenstraße (“Ham Street”) which leads to lively Ballermann beach.

On this stretch, wurst stands pack the gaps between bars filled with football-shirted beer swillers while live music seeps out into the balmy air. There’s been hand-wringing in the German press about El Arenal, and the resort is trying to clear up its image – quite literally, with extra rubbish trucks deployed this year to tackle the excess waste from summer tourism.

But even El Arenal has a better reputation than Brit-heavy Magaluf. The latter has become a poster child for the anti-tourist movement, so synonymous with a certain kind of visitor that it’s even tried to change its name to Calviá Beach. A concerted campaign by the local government means that, away from the strip of Punta Ballena, the resort 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.

Gran Canaria’s ‘Little Norway’

Over in the Canaries, Gran Canaria is an enduringly popular spot for Nordic travellers, with a handful of hotels sold exclusively to tourists from the region. Six out of ten Norwegians visiting the Canary Islands opt for Gran Canaria, according to the tourist board – and many end up in the Mogán area.

The coastal region is a popular spot for over-wintering OAPs escaping their homeland’s perpetual darkness. One of its towns, Arguinguín, is even known by some 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-trimmed stretch of Patalavaca trailing like a ribbon at its edge.

But clues to its Nordic bent soon reveal themselves. Norwegian adverts for boat tours and bars are scrawled on the chalkboards above the beach, near the Norwegian hairdresser, and Arguinguín is also home to the Sjømannskirken – the Norwegian Church Abroad. It’s reportedly the only place on the Canaries where couples from Norway can legally marry.

Many Dutch tourists, meanwhile, join Scandinavians and Germans in Maspalomas. This sprawling town hemmed by shifting sand dunes is home to Los Tulipanes, “the one and only Dutch supermarket on the Canary Islands”,  and neighbours the lively, LGBT-friendly beach resort of Playa del Inglès.

British holidaymakers favour 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. For the moment, lots of British youngsters still congregate in Playa de las Americas, a place whose fortunes were forged in the Club 18-30 era.

Its main drag is a mish-mash of neon clubs, Irish bars and fast-food outlets, while kebab shops and curry houses radiate from its edges. Though it’s a different story in neighbouring Los Cristianos, beloved of many older travellers and labelled “a bit quiet” on Facebook forums. The British influence remains strong, and you can go for a roast dinner at The Market Tavern or drop into Harriet’s for a cream tea served up on floral crockery.

The many faces of Crete

Speaking at the beginning of 2024, the Tui group’s head of communications Aage Dunhaupt told the Athens-Macedonian News Agency that he expects a record-breaking 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 headed to the island, compared with 780,000 tourists from the UK according to the website argophilia.com. Travel agency and tour operator group DERTOUR cites a couple of their 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] attracts Scandinavians and Germans who head for Plakias, Agia Galini and the like,” says Telegraph Travel’s Greece expert Heidi Fuller-Love. From these laid-back little seaside villages they can head inland for hikes or explore ancient ruins, head out by boat – and stay as far away as possible from the once hectic 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 revellers post-pandemic (for a busier scene full of Euro DJs, sports bars and Dutch, British and Scandinavian clubbers, head to nearby Hersonissos). Fuller-Love notes that the British over-40s now head for the area around the Akrotiri Peninsula, where some slick hotels have sprung up in the rather barren landscape.

Increasingly, it seems that visitors are looking for a taste of the local culture rather than a little slice of their homelands.

“We’re seeing high demand for high-quality travel experiences in beach destinations, with travellers being 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 other places.

“In our markets, we’re also seeing trends ranging from sports and outdoor travel to immersive holiday experiences – demonstrating an overall growing preference for more individual travel.”