Holidaymakers have been warned they face fines of more than £200 if they try to hog the best spots on the beach before breakfast as the sunbed wars rage on. Police in the popular Costa Blanca resort of Calp - which is 25 minutes from Benidorm - will remove sunbeds , towels, parasols and any other belongings placed on the sand before 9.30am.
Tourists and locals who breach the ban will have to pay to retrieve them from a municipal depot and face a penalty charge of €250 (£210). A similar approach is being taken to sun seekers who try to keep the best spots by going for a long lunch followed by a siesta, leaving their belongings unattended for more than three hours. A council spokesperson wrote on X: “This measure prohibits the indiscriminate occupation of the public domain, especially the beach, with items such as chairs, hammocks and parasols at the start of the day.
These bad habits make it difficult to clean the beaches. “The by-law establishes that all these items and others installed on the beaches before 9.30am can be removed and the owners reported.
It also states that those umbrellas, chairs or hammocks that are left for more than three hours without the presence of their owners throughout the day may be removed and transferred to a municipal depot. “For some years the council has received complaints during the summer about the reservation of space on the beach, with people arriving in the middle of the morning to find large parts of it already occupied withou.