I have just returned from my first staycation break in Majorca for years and it was absolutely first class - despite having to rebook on three separate occasions due to hotels deciding not to open.
So, we ended up in Illetas, one of my favourite spots on the island, and despite being only 15 minutes away from home in Palma, I felt a million miles away and it made me realise how extremely lucky we are to live here. It also brought home to me the true extent of the damage the pandemic and third parties (the UK) is having on the tourist industry. Being one of the better hotels in Illetas, there were a few Britons when we checked in just a few hours before Boris’s quarantine bombshell.
The following morning over breakfast many were busy booking flights back to the UK that very day, some had only arrived a few days before, while others were constantly watching their phones awaiting instructions from their tour operators as to when their holidays would be cut short and flown home. As the week passed, the number of foreign guests steadily dropped and at dinner on our final night, there were no more than 20 people in the restaurant and the following day even fewer around the glorious sea front swimming pool.
What hit me the most was the way in which the hotel staff, who were excellent, continued to go about their business as if the hotel was fully booked. They put a very brave face on a dire situation and it must be soul destroying not knowing what’s going to happen next.