Padel weekend abroad: the five things to book first

First: dates and flights

Nothing exists until the dates do. Put two weekends to the group with a deadline, take the majority, and book flights the same week. For Mallorca, a Friday-to-Monday in May, June, September or October gives you the best weather for three sessions a day and an island that is not yet full. Agree an arrival window rather than a single flight: London is around two and a quarter hours away and there are direct routes from a dozen UK airports, so let people fly from wherever is closest.

Book the return for the Monday morning rather than the Sunday night. It costs one more night and gives you the whole of Sunday, which is usually the best day of the trip.

Second: the courts

Before the hotel, before the villa, before anything else, block the courts. Good clubs sell their evening slots to locals who book the same ninety minutes every week, and a group that arrives without bookings plays at three in the afternoon in July or not at all. Reserve every session you intend to play, in ninety-minute or two-hour blocks, and add balls and hire rackets to the same booking so the kit is waiting.

The number of courts follows the group: one court per four players, plus a spare slot for the pair who never wants to stop. This is the step people leave until last and regret first. It is also the whole point of a padel-only package, where the courts are blocked before your flight is.

Third: a base near the courts

Now book the beds, and book them close. Ten minutes from the courts is the rule; twenty is the limit. For eight or more, one house beats a row of hotel rooms: breakfast together, the evenings on the terrace, one vehicle to move everyone. A private finca with a pool and a chef is the version people remember. A hotel near the club is the version that is quickest to arrange.

Check three things before you pay: how far the courts really are by car at seven in the evening, whether there is a pool, and whether the group can eat in without a taxi. Those three decide how the afternoons and the last night feel.

Fourth: transfers

The airport transfer is the first thing the group experiences and the last, and it sets the tone twice. Book a minibus with a driver for the arrivals, the departures and the runs to the courts and to dinner. It costs less than a weekend of taxis and it removes the one argument every group has, which is who is driving home after the paella.

Match the transfers to the arrival window you agreed at step one. Two waves in, two waves out, and the late flight has somebody waiting at arrivals rather than a stranded pair with a phone on three per cent.

Fifth: coaching or a tournament

With the bones of the trip in place, add the thing that makes it a padel trip rather than a trip with padel in it. For most groups that is one of two things. A morning or two of coaching with professional players, which sends everyone home a level up. Or a tournament against local pairs at your level, with a draw, an organiser and prizes at the bar, which is the story everyone tells afterwards.

Book these last but not late. Good coaches and busy clubs have diaries too, and for the popular months the diary is full a couple of months out.

The mistakes we see most

Booking the villa first and discovering the nearest good club is forty minutes away. Assuming courts can be booked on arrival. Planning the biggest night for the last night, when everyone flies at nine the next morning. Forgetting the two people who do not play and letting them find out about the boat trip after it has left. Collecting money in dribs and drabs so the organiser is out of pocket for a month. Trusting a single WhatsApp thread to hold flights, addresses, court times and banter at the same time.

Every one of these is fixable in advance and painful on the day.

What to delegate, and what to keep

Keep the decisions that shape the trip: the dates, the budget, the group, how much padel and how much everything else. Delegate the execution: the club bookings in Spanish, the finca that actually has a court nearby, the chef, the drivers, the tables, the tournament draw. An organiser who does both ends up refereeing a chat group instead of playing.

That split is the reason we exist. You choose the mix, we book every piece of it for one fee, and there is somebody on the island while you are here. The questions people ask first are answered on the FAQ page.

The short version

Dates and flights within an arrival window. Courts for every session, with balls and rackets. A base within ten minutes of the courts. A minibus and driver in two waves. Then coaching or a tournament to give the weekend a spine. Money collected once, a plan pinned in the chat, and the last night a dinner rather than a club. Do it in that order and the weekend organises itself; do it in the other order and you spend Saturday morning on the phone to a club that has no courts left, in a language you learnt for the holiday.

If you'd rather send one message

Tell us the dates, the group and the level, or tick what you fancy in the escape builder, and we will come back with a plan and a single price. Everything above, arranged in the right order, without you learning the hard way.