I'd Call That A Bargain

So, still on "The Sunday Times", as I was yesterday, one of the more objectionable things about that newspaper is the regular column of the 50-most-pretentious-and-50-most-expensive-holiday-destinations-for-people-called-Jacinta-and-Gideon variety, i.e. not for those from Basildon called Chardonnay and Dazza. It came as something of a surprise this week, therefore, to find 50 villas that don't cost 10,000 euros a day; indeed, they were 50 "bargain villas". Well, there's a first time for everything, even a bargain from Rupert Murdoch. And amongst these 50 bargain villas - defined as less than 200 pounds per person for a week at the most expensive time of the season - was one in Pollensa. Even the journo seemed surprised - "our budget won't stretch far on Mallorca" was his admission. It wouldn't stretch anywhere in Pollensa; well not normally.

Now, no doubt this villa (or townhouse to be more accurate) has the appropriate licence, but there are those properties that do not. The accommodation police take a keen interest in places without licences. One local agency heard the sound of heavy boots, had its collar felt and copped a five-figure fine for promoting holiday lets that didn't have the requisite licences. Last year, they (the authorities, that is) started to delve more into what was being offered via the internet, and one can imagine that they will be just as assiduous, if not more so, this year. Whatever the legality or possible illegality of some holiday lets, there is the mighty force of the hotels pressurising the tourism polizei into getting rid of as many lets as they can. And yet in somewhere like Pollensa, take away the private accommodation - the flats, the villas, the townhouses - and you would cut out a good half of the total industry. Compared with other parts of the island in close proximity to it (such as Alcúdia), Pollensa's hotel stock is not that large.


And it is the villa-dwellers who are just the sort of holidaymaker that, as part of that market so horribly described as "quality tourism", would head off to the nearest golf course. Sorry to keep banging on about golf. For someone who doesn't play the sport and indeed finds it a largely pointless and tedious past-time, I do - I confess - give it a fair amount of houseroom. And here is some more; and some pretty surprising more, too. A German golf magazine, according to the German weekly paper "Mallorca Zeitung", says that Mallorca is the top destination for golf. More than that, it says that the best golf course in Europe is ... Alcanada. Can this be so? Is Mallorca actually better than, say, Portugal? And is Alcanada better than, for example, any of those courses used for the British Open? Not having read the original, I cannot vouch for the objectivity, or otherwise, of these conclusions, though in both instances I am inclined to sense the influence of a touch of subjectivity. Alcanada? Best golf course in Europe!?


QUIZ
Yesterday's title - Patti Smith, "Because The Night" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xACZHv-sLCg). Today - not unknown to this blog, their name is a question.

(PLEASE REPLY TO andrew@thealcudiaguide.com AND NOT VIA THE COMMENTS THINGY HERE.)