It certainly wasn’t on the To Do List when I landed in Mauritius… but after a lazy morning baking on the sun lounger at Le Meridien Ile Maurice, there was only one thing for it – a ten-minute burst in the island’s first and only snow room!

And the unusual new addition to the Explore Spa certainly didn’t disappoint. Yes, it was an icy shock to the system – but a welcome one that I braved far longer than my wife, who was back out in the heat within a minute.

The hot-cold therapy has many health benefits, including improvements in joint and muscle function, blood circulation and immune system. 

But I was glad I did it just to get out of the scorching heat.

And it was a fitting way to end a trip of phenomenal weather contrasts. The blazing sun and clear blue skies were regularly – and quickly – replaced by awesome, intense tropical downpours, especially late at night, explaining how the island is so lush, green and fertile.

We were always going to feel spoiled on our first holiday in Mauritius, with the sensational sandy beaches, tempting turquoise waters and sweeping views of the Indian Ocean. But there was icing on the cake – our five-star hotel’s £50million refurbishment. 

Le Meridien Ile Maurice – positioned along a kilometre of sandy beach in Pointe aux Piments on Mauritius’s  northwest coast – is one of the island’s leading resort destinations with 261 newly designed guestrooms and suites, that world-class spa and fitness centre, three pools and a choice of four restaurants and three bars.

For those who don’t want to be surrounded by kids, Nirvana is the adults-only wing of the resort housing 51 guestrooms and suites, with a private infinity swimming pool and pool bar, a complimentary poolside tea, coffee and soft drinks service, and daily sunset cocktails and canapes.

A mouthwatering prospect, along with the main dining options. 

For international dishes there’s Nomad, with its open kitchen, expansive terrace, and 180-degree panoramic views. Whilst for Mauritian flavours, head to the beachfront Zoli Mamzel.

This restaurant was where we spent an hour cooking a traditional Mauritian curry, with the wonderful chefs helping me produce a colourful dish that suited even my delicate taste buds.

Other cuisines on offer include Italian at Paparazzi Restaurant and perfectly spiced Indian fare at Kumin restaurant. Or dine on the hotel’s jetty under the stars, with the lapping of the waves providing the perfect accompaniment.

For those with a yen for excitement, there’s so much to do. Guests have access to a huge range of complimentary activities including kayaking, pedal boating, snorkelling, windsurfing, beach volleyball and tennis.

Or you can go further afield on the island, with the memorably friendly resort staff able to organise activities including catamaran cruises, dolphin swimming, fishing, water skiing, scuba diving and mountain biking.

More than 70 British holidaymakers say they were struck down with a parasitic infection from a four-star hotel – and were so ill they vomited blood.

All of the affected tourists stayed in the Hotel Aqua Mirage in Marrakech, Morocco over the summer and autumn of 2022.

Guests reported pool toilet cubicles were covered in diarrhoea and vomit after many were diagnosed with E.coli, salmonella and cryptosporidium. 

Among those affected was Chelsea Hagan, 29, and her daughter Darcey, 6, from Anglesey, North Wales.

Chelsea began vomiting blood and was taken to hospital where she was diagnosed with cryptosporidium, a parasitic infection commonly transmitted to humans through contaminated water.

A year on, Chelsea, a trainee painter and decorator, continues to suffer from diarrhoea and mild gastritis, which is where the stomach becomes inflamed.

Sarita Sharma, the specialist international serious injury lawyer at Irwin Mitchell representing the group, including Chelsea and Darcey, said: ‘The first-hand account we’ve heard from Chelsea about her illness and the similar symptoms suffered by Darcey as well as others are deeply concerning.

‘Chelsea was diagnosed with cryptosporidium following hospital tests, and what’s particularly worrying is that she continues to be affected by her illness a year on.

‘Chelsea and Darcey are just two of among more than 70 people who stayed at this hotel over the summer and autumn of 2022 only to be struck down with gastric illness.

‘Others we represent suffered illnesses including cryptosporidium, e.coli, campylobacter and salmonella, all of which can have long-term impacts on health.

‘Understandably our clients continue to have question and concerns about what happened to them.

‘We’re now investigating those concerns to provide them with the answers they deserve.

‘If during the course of our investigations, any issues are identified, it’s vital lessons are learned, and other travellers are spared the suffering and distress that holiday illness and its impact can cause.

‘As part of our ongoing investigations, we are still keen to hear from anyone who stayed at the Hotel Aqua Mirage last year and suffered similar symptoms.’

Chelsea and Darcey’s holiday, booked through TUI UK Ltd, took place between 9 and 16 September, 2022.

On the day they returned to the UK, Darcey fell ill with gastric symptoms including diarrhoea and vomiting.

Chelsea took her to the GP on two occasions. During the second appointment she was referred to hospital. 

Chelsea’s illness began around 24 September. She suffered diarrhoea, headaches, fatigue and stomach pain.

When she also began vomiting blood, Chelsea called NHS 111 and was advised to attend A&E.

Darcey’s symptoms eased around 7 October, however Chelsea has ongoing health issues.

Chelsea said: ‘When Darcey started being sick, I thought maybe it was from the heat on holiday, but after a few days I ended up taking her to the hospital as she wasn’t getting any better. It was awful seeing my little girl so unwell.

‘Then I fell ill, and I couldn’t believe how bad I got. I’ve never felt stomach pain like it. I spent almost a day in hospital vomiting. It was horrendous.

‘To find out I had a gastric infection was a huge shock and not something you expect just after returning from holiday.

‘However, when I think back I can recall that the hygiene standards at the resort weren’t what I’d class as great.

‘I remember raw meat was put next to cooked meat and people would pick at the food with their hands.

‘At one stage, one of the toilet cubicles by the pool was covered in diarrhoea and vomit; it was disgusting.

‘Almost a year on, I’m still not 100 per cent. While I know there’s nothing I can do to change what we’ve been through, I want some answers. I feel it’s the least we deserve.’

A couple from Hull have been left angry and upset by the ‘depressing’ state of their four-star hotel during a trip to Bulgaria.

They described the hotel as being like ‘an abandoned building from the 1970s’, claiming to have spotted live cables at a child’s height and dangerous paving.

Chris Sunman and his partner Nicky booked a holiday to the eastern European country in May and were looking forward to their stay in the upmarket Fenix Hotel at the Sunny Beach resort on the Black Sea coast. They booked through TUI, but the break was offered by Balkan Holidays.

However, upon arrival, they were ‘mortified’ by the state of the hotel, which they claim looked nothing like the images in the brochures.

Chris said: ‘The room was totally rundown with shabby furniture, skirting boards coming away from the wall, chips and stains on the coffee table and furniture. The shower enclosure was rusty and old with cracked and broken tiles.

‘Outside and in the communal areas, which were equally rundown, we identified safety issues with light fittings taped up, with plastic cups covering the poolside light fittings. There was a disgusting pool shower area, broken and uneven paving around the pool area, exposed live wires on light fittings hanging from walls at a child’s height and unkempt garden areas.’

He added: ‘This was absolutely not the four-star experience we had expected. To say we were upset is an understatement.

‘This experience ruined the whole holiday, it was a depressing place to be and we couldn’t wait to get home. We had booked half board, but based on the condition of the hotel there was no way on earth we were going to eat the food there, so we spent as much time as we could away from the hotel.’

The couple, from Wawne, near Hull, made a complaint on the second day of their holiday, not only because they felt that the hotel looked shabby, but also because they feared that some of the issues might be potentially dangerous.

Chris said: ‘When booking we asked for a four-star hotel and was offered the Fenix Hotel, Sunny Beach, Bulgaria. We were shown images on screen in the store where we booked and paid for the holiday there and then. On arrival at the hotel we were horrified by the exterior appearance. It looked nothing like the images we were shown on screen, it looked more like an abandoned building from the 1970’s.’

Chris listed a number of issues that he claims to have noticed at the hotel, which included: external light fittings hanging off walls with exposed wires, poolside lamp posts with taped up fittings, and ‘dangerous’ uneven paving on two separate sets of steps.

He also listed: bodged cementing around the poolside, much of which was already breaking away, unkempt footpaths and grass areas, rusty railings on the balconies, and sheets of glass not secured to the balcony correctly, as well as stained carpets in most of communal areas and a large sheet of steel with exposed edges on the poolside.

The couple have since been left frustrated by their attempts to complain about the state of the hotel.

Chris said: ‘I was astonished by the response from Balkan Holidays, saying none of the issues we raised were safety concerns and that their own findings confirmed that the hotel was to four-star standards.

‘We booked with TUI, face to face at a TUI store and paid TUI for a package holiday. We did this on the assumption that using a reputable company we could rest assured we would get what we asked for. 

‘We complained to TUI customer service on the first morning of our holiday, sending photographic evidence of the condition of the hotel. They responded saying they would “look into our complaint” and to please bear with them. The following day they offered to move us to another hotel, but explained there would be extra costs, at our expense.

‘When we asked for confirmation of the costs and an explanation why it would be at our expense they didn’t respond. Instead they said the hotel was not a TUI hotel, therefore any problems had to be taken up directly with the hotel owners, Balkan Holidays.’

He added: ‘We were left exhausted, angry, frustrated and upset by the whole experience. We have drawn a black with both TUI and Balkan Holidays, neither of which are accepting any responsibility or wrongdoing and left us with no option but to report the case to ABTA.

‘I would understand to some extent if we had booked a two-star budget hotel, but we booked a four-star hotel with TUI and paid TUI for a four-star package holiday. TUI have completely exonerated themselves from any responsibility at the first sign of a problem.’

A spokeswoman for TUI said the company had no say in the hotel’s rating and acted only as a booking agent. 

She said: ‘This hotel isn’t a TUI hotel and is a Balkans Holiday property. The holiday wasn’t booked as part of a TUI package holiday, or a TUI third-party package holiday – we were just the booking agent for the trip and not the holiday operator.

‘The four-star rating in question is Balkan Holiday’s rating, not ours, and we do not sell the hotel on our website.’

ABTA confirmed it had received a referral from Chris, but said it could not go into detail.

A spokesperson said: ‘It is not appropriate for us to comment on individual cases, Mr Sunman has lodged a dispute with us and we responded accordingly on the August 30, via our portal. Mr Sunman can log in to his case and view our response in detail and we hope that the matter will be resolved amicably with our member.’

Balkan Holidays said it was aware of the complaint, but said it would deal directly with Chris to address the issues. 

A spokeswoman said: ‘We take all customer complaints seriously and are committed to ensuring the highest standards of safety and service for our guests. We are already in direct contact with Chris Sunman regarding his concerns and are actively working to resolve the issue.

‘While we cannot discuss the specifics of an individual customer’s experience publicly, please rest assured that we are taking all necessary steps to investigate the matter thoroughly. We believe that the most constructive way forward is to resolve this issue directly with our valued customer.’

By Carlton Reid For Mailonline

Updated: 05:30 EDT, 31 August 2023

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Scotland’s Gleneagles hotel has the art of hospitality down to a fine art – and that’s official.

The luxury hotel, spa and golf resort has been named the hotel with the best service in the world in the prestigious The World’s 50 Best Hotels awards 2023.

The hotel, which lies beneath the Ochil Hills in the heart of Perthshire, has been bestowed the ‘Art of Hospitality’ award based on a vote by 580 hoteliers, travel writers, consultants and seasoned luxury travellers who were asked to name the property where they have received the single-best hospitality experience during a two-year period.

The judges took into account the ‘ambience created in the hotel, the delivery of unique experiential elements and the overall warmth of the hospitality and environment’.

This coveted award ‘celebrates a hotel’s outstanding service and attention to detail’ and is designed ‘to reward a property and its entire staff for the professional standards they uphold and the way they interact with guests, from the reception desk to housekeeping and its food and beverage teams’.

Tripadvisor reviewers agree with the judges’ verdict. User ‘CLP’ recently branded the service ‘delightful’ while ‘Mimi A’ said it was ‘outstanding’. Reviewer ‘Christopher W’, meanwhile, wrote: ‘This hotel is truly magical! The level of service is second to none.’ 

Gleneagles first opened in 1924 with a grand opening ball and, because of the beauty of its location, was soon nicknamed the ‘Riviera in the Highlands’ and the ‘eighth wonder of the world’. 

It has been a ‘must-go destination for discerning travellers for nearly a century’, a statement from the awards notes, adding: ‘A playground of country pursuits and activities, the 850-acre estate epitomises the natural beauty for which Scotland is famed.’

In 2015, Ennismore, a London-based owner and developer of hospitality properties and experiences, purchased the hotel and launched a four-year renovation programme, the biggest investment in the hotel’s history.

Post transformation, now the hotel boasts 11 different restaurants and bars including an afternoon tea lounge and the only two-Michelin-star restaurant in Scotland, Restaurant Andrew Fairlie.

On top of that, there are children’s adventure spaces; a beauty lodge; spa and wellness facilities and 232 ‘beautiful’ bedrooms and suites.

‘Its three golf courses are considered some of the best in the world, with one hosting the Ryder Cup in 2014,’ a statement notes.

Guests can also enjoy a programme of ‘country pursuits’ that includes everything from falconry and clay pigeon shooting, to fly fishing and horse riding.

Naturally, rooms at the five-star hotel don’t come cheap, with rates starting from £495 a night. 

Gleneagles’ win is the first of two special awards to be announced in the weeks leading up to The World’s 50 Best Hotels 2023 awards ceremony, which is taking place on September 19 at London’s historic Guildhall municipal building.

At the ceremony, the inaugural ‘World’s 50 Best Hotels’ list will be unveiled.  

Commenting on Gleneagles’ win, Tim Brooke-Webb, Managing Director for The World’s 50 Best Hotels, says: ‘Gleneagles has been a mainstay on the hotel scene since its original iteration in 1924 and continues to prove itself as an example of what it means to be truly hospitable.

‘We are leading with the Art of Hospitality as our first special award announced ahead of the inaugural awards ceremony, as we believe that it is the staff who bring one-of-a-kind experiences and hotels to life. In a world that is fascinated by the new, we are especially pleased to be celebrating the people behind this historic hotel – led emphatically by Conor O’Leary.’

And Conor O’Leary, Managing Director of Gleneagles, says: ‘It’s an incredible honour to be the first recipient of the Art of Hospitality Award, part of the inaugural The World’s 50 Best Hotels 2023. It’s all down to the incredible people that make up the team at Gleneagles, without them this wouldn’t be possible, and this award is a celebration of their hard work and commitment to making each and every guest’s stay a truly unique and memorable experience.

‘Gleneagles is unlike anywhere else in the world and we strive to offer service which is also second to none, so to receive this recognition is very special.’

A hotel security guard has described finding a young British woman who was allegedly gang raped by six men in Magaluf on Monday morning.

Spanish police said on Wednesday that they had arrested five French tourists and a Swiss holidaymaker on suspicion of sexually assaulting the 18-year-old at a hotel, reported to be the self-proclaimed ‘party hotel’ BH Mallorca. 

The assault is alleged to have happened at dawn on Monday at the hotel in the town found on the on the holiday island of Mallorca – renowned for its rowdy parties and cheap alcohol as much as its white-sand beaches.

A security guard found the young woman crying on the floor in the hotel’s lobby – 400 yards from Magaluf’s party strip – at around 5am on Monday. 

The alleged victim received immediate medical attention and counselling. A medic checked the woman over and is said to have found grip marks on her arms.

‘I came in for the morning shift and found her downstairs, she was so upset,’ the security guard told The Sun. ‘It was awful.’ 

He told the publication that he immediately alerted the local police who raced to the hotel. ‘They dealt with it very well. The police came within five minutes and quickly helped her,’ he added. 

The woman met the suspected rapists on Monday night and later went to the hotel room of one of the suspects, where she was allegedly sexually assaulted by the six men, the police press office in Mallorca said, citing the alleged victim’s statement.

Police detained the suspects, all of whom are over 20, shortly after. Later, all the suspects were seen being escorted into the court building in Palma in handcuffs. 

Meanwhile, detectives inspected the room where the alleged assault occurred and reviewed CCTV footage of the hotel entrance as part of the ongoing investigation. 

Yesterday it was also reported that police said there were video clips of the alleged rape on at least one of the suspects’ phones. 

In the first pictures of the six men, one of the suspects held his head down and stared at the ground as he was led into a court in handcuffs by a Civil Guard officer. 

But the other five, all wearing the same shorts and t-shirt they were arrested in, made no attempt to disguise their faces as they were taken into court for a remand hearing held behind closed doors.

A judge has ordered the six men to be held in custody while the investigation into the sexual assault continues, a spokesman for Spain’s Guardia Civil police force said without giving further details.

None of them has been formally charged as yet, as the investigation is ongoing. There were no details released on their identities nor that of the alleged victim. 

Under Spanish law, sexual assault takes in a wide array of crimes from online abuse and groping to rape, each with different penalties.

The BH Mallorca has racked up a list of shocking incidents over the years.

A number of young British tourists have either been killed or injured falling from the hotel’s balconies, and in 2018 four Brits started a huge fire at the same complex.

Also in 2018, police were probing two separate alleged sex attacks on British holiday makers in Magaluf, one of which occurred at the same hotel.

Monday’s shocking incident comes days after a British teenage boy was allegedly sexually assaulted by a taxi driver in the back of a cab in the same town on August 11.

The 17-year-old is understood to have gone to a police station with his mother where he told officers the driver began touching him on the way back to his hotel, before demanding the youngster perform a sex act on him.

He was then physically assaulted as he tried to flee, reports said.

Elsewhere, earlier this month, a 21-year-old British woman told Greek police that she was raped by an Israeli man after meeting him in a nightclub in Athens. 

The young tourist was allegedly attacked at the man’s home in the early hours the previous week after a night out in the Keramikos area. 

She told police that during the sexual assault, the man’s three friends appeared out of nowhere and filmed her with their mobile phones. 

The woman, who had been partying with her friend from Portugal beforehand, told the group she was leaving but the man refused to stop the act, according to local media. 

After a struggle the woman managed to escape the property and told police of the incident. A case has been filed against the Israeli man for rape. 

Just last month another British tourist accused a 47-year-old Greek man of raping her in a hotel while on holiday on the island of Rhodes, according to local media.

The 21-year-old said she was attacked at around 2am on July 3 in Pefkos and made a complaint to the local police hours later, prompting a case to be opened.

According to Greece‘s ANT1News, the young woman’s lawsuit claims the older man took her from a ‘health care store’ in Lindos, found on the south of the island, to a hotel in Pefkos – the main city on the island that sits around 15 miles from Turkey.

There, the outlet reports, the woman claims the man forced her to have sex with him through threats of physical violence.

Upon making her complaint, the police asked a medical examiner to carry out an assessment, ANT1News said.

She handed over the clothes she was wearing on the night which were reportedly sent to Greece’s Directorate of Criminal Investigations for DNA testing.

According to the same publication, a second British woman made a complaint over an incident in Faliraki – seven miles south of Pefkos – 24 hours earlier.

It reports that the 18-year-old British tourist was attacked in the early hours on Sunday, July 2, at a nightclub in the popular destination.

In yet another grim case, a 21-year-old British tourist was allegedly raped after she was dragged into bushes on a popular Algarve holiday beach last month. 

The woman told police the sex attack took place on the sand by a walkway at Praia da Rocha beach in the municipality of Portimao.

And last month, two Irishmen were arrested on suspicion of raping a British tourist in a hotel in Magaluf – the same resort town as Monday’s alleged incident.

The Briton, who has not been named, told police she had been sexually assaulted by the two men in a hotel room in Calvia by Magaluf in the early hours of July 19.

Dozens of Brits have been pictured queueing up from 7am to secure a sunbathing spot at the Spanish resort where ITV‘s Benidorm is filmed.

The Sol Pelicanos Ocas hotel, which is called The Solana in the show, has been playing host to real-life drama as tourists compete for the best spot. 

Frequented by the likes of the fictional grandmother Madge Harvey in the popular sitcom, the resort is now seeing sunbed wars play out between British tourists.

Holidaymakers pulled up chairs to wait as long as two hours to secure loungers, sprinting to claim them as soon as the pool opened at 9am, The Sun reports.

And now staff are cracking down on sunbed hoggers, warning sunseekers that their belongings could be thrown in lost property if they leave them to reserve a bed.

They have been putting notices on empty loungers, warning guests ‘it is not allowed to reserve sunbeds with towels or other belongings’.

Guest Guy Gibson, 46, from Newcastle, said that trying to relax at the hotel has been a ‘nightmare’ amid the sunbed crackdown.

‘All day long we’ve got to keep an eye on the beds and watch out for the ‘fun police’.

‘Even if you’re in the pool they try to take your towels.’

It is just the latest example of rules being brought in to tackle the so-called sunbed wars, which have been taking place across the Med this summer.

Footage published today showed families, including young children, racing out of the gates at another resort in Benidorm – as VIP loungers watched on in hysterics.

Tourists carrying towels and bathing gear sprinted past one another to make sure they secured the prime spot after the doors were opened to the Spanish resort’s pool first thing in the early morning.

Last week, MailOnline revealed how sunbed wars have become so intense at one hotel on the Costa del Sol that they have introduced a parking ticket style system – with towels left on beds unattended removed after a time limit.

Staff at the hotel, which has seen tourists go to extreme lengths to secure a sun lounger, have brought in new measures to curb the madness.

Guests at the Estival Torrequebrada in Malaga, who have often paid thousands to enjoy a break, have been warned they can no longer leave towels as a marker on a sunbed to claim it for a whole day.

Management instead began leaving cards on sunbeds with towels, handbags and other personal belongings on them, warning they will be removed after 45 minutes if they remain unoccupied. 

At the nearby three-star Parasol Garden hotel, Britons are being given the green light to ‘grab’ a sunbed only when a whistle has been blown by staff.

Meanwhile at a resort in Tenerife, tourists have been spotted reserving sunbeds at 6.30am – three-and-a-half hours before the hotel pool opens. 

As sunbed war season grips the continent, locals have had to take matters into their own hands.

In Benidorm, residents were seen erecting parasols in the dark in front of the ocean, while Greek coastal crusaders have declared a sunbed war on British tourist hotspots, pledging to fight back against the ‘abusive occupation’ of beaches.

The so-called ‘Towel Movement’ was set up in Paros by jaded residents, tired of not being able to find a free space on beaches due to aggressive sunbed firms.

They argue that illegal operators have been rinsing holidaymakers, who are paying over the odds to secure a spot – and leaving nowhere for locals to go.

Nearly 38.5million tourists visited Spain in the first six months of 2023 – and these were predominantly, British, German and French travellers. 

Wildfires are continuing to ravage large swathes of Portugal with over 1,000 firefighters battling to prevent them spreading further into the popular tourist hub of the Algarve.

Dramatic images from the neighbouring Alentejo region show plumes of smoke rising above poolside sunbeds as infernos raged in the distance, before the hotel was engulfed in flame.

Fires first hit nearby Odemira, a picturesque town which is home to a large community of foreigners, five days ago. 

They then spread south towards the Algarve, helped by scorching temperatures and high winds, with properties said to be under threat last night.

At least 1,500 people have been evacuated over recent days from homes, campsites and holiday resorts.

More than 1,100 firefighters, 360 vehicles and fourteen aircraft were deployed at fires near Odemira on Wednesday morning, according to The National Civil Protection Service.

More than 100,000 Brits are set to visit the Algarve in the coming weeks, it is estimated. 

Holiday companies are continuously monitoring the situation following the devastation caused to resorts by fires on the Greek island of Rhodes last month.

On Saturday, one of Portugal’s top rural hotels fell victim to the most intense fires in the south of Alentejo, not far from the Algarve.

The owner of Teima Alentejo SW laid bare the destruction of her holiday getaway overnight as she criticised authorities’ response to the drama.

Luisa Botelho and her ex-husband Paulo Camacho turned it into an award-winning country hotel after buying the property nearly ten years ago.

Now most of the main house is understood to have been destroyed by flames.

Nearly 10,000 hectares (25,000 acres) have been blackened since Saturday, Vitor Vaz Pinto of the civil protection agency said, adding that the blaze was still spreading ‘on two fronts’.

Local media reported that one home as well as a rural tourist lodging had been destroyed, which had not yet been confirmed by authorities.

Hélder Guerreiro, Odemira’s mayor has described the situation as ‘critical, difficult and complex’.

Nineteen villages, four lots of tourist accommodation and a campsite have been evacuated and roads have been blocked off, authorities said. 

Ana Costa, a farmer in the region, said of the fires: ‘It was terrible, there were flames everywhere and we had to scramble. Nobody was there to help us, thankfully I had three friends who came to help.’

Around 40 people, including 28 fire officers, have been given emergency medical treatment.

A separate wildfire that has already destroyed around 7,000 hectares (17,300 acres) in Leiria, central Portugal, calmed somewhat overnight on Monday.

Across the country, nearly 2,800 firefighters and 16 water-bombers were in action on Tuesday.

Weather warnings remained in place in both Portugal and Spain.

Much of the southern half of Spain was on orange alert on Tuesday, with the weather service saying temperatures were expected to top 44C on Tuesday and Wednesday, which are predicted to be the fiercest days of this heatwave, the third in the country this year.

The Spanish met office (AEMET) issued maximum red alerts for parts of Andalusia in the south, the Madrid region in the centre and the Basque Country in the far north.

More than 1,000 hectares of land were destroyed by flames in Spain over the weekend.

A fourth large wildfire broke out on Monday in Estremadura, central Spain, near the border with Portugal. Firefighters were unable to contain it overnight.

In total, wildfires have destroyed 100,000 hectares of land across the Iberian Peninsula this year, according to preliminary estimates. This is on top of the record 400,000 hectares destroyed last year.

Quirky. Bohemian. A little bit bonkers. That’s my summing up of The Tempus, a new hotel on an expansive Northumbrian country estate a few miles from Alnwick.

The property is inspired by Lewis Carroll’s fantastical Alice-in-Wonderland world, but it’s not Alice themed.

I flew my drone up over the hotel’s grounds in the early evening, but all I could see on my screen were sheep. No white rabbits. Or Cheshire cats. Or mock turtles.

And there are no Queen of Hearts suites or hookah-smoking caterpillar statues in dimly-lit corners.

Instead, this is Alice in Northumberland, an altogether different kettle of crocodiles, not so much Jabberwocky as Geordiewocky.

The hotel opened in May and fizzes with flora and fauna wallpapers by Manuel Canovas and ‘Fabulous Ruby’ zigzag-striped woollen carpets from rug and flooring specialist Crucial Trading. The restaurant has leaf-covered cocktail tables with glittery floral walls, sports curved couches upholstered with flamboyant prints, and there’s a bar with disco balls.

The complex is mainly new-build, but it also incorporates some original 18th-century farm outbuildings, including a roundhouse that would have once featured a plodding horse powering a threshing machine. This roundhouse, known as a gin gang, is the hotel’s reception today, and instead of a bored, dizzy horse, there’s a circular couch hugging a room-filling tree adorned with LED lights.

There’s an original stone fireplace in room 203.

The 15-room destination hotel, just a mile from the A1 as the crow flies, is a satellite of Charlton Hall, a luxury wedding venue owned by 30-something property developer Richard Shell. He lives on the estate in a stable cottage with his wife and two young children. ‘We live at Garden Cottage,’ says the hotel’s welcome letter, ‘give us a wave when you drive past!’

Shell grew up on the tenant farm next door. His father, Tom, owns the sheep I saw on my drone flight.

Studying business studies at Edinburgh University, Shell did an MA dissertation on how farmers can maintain viable businesses.

Starting his post-university career in a customer experience division for part of the Royal Bank of Scotland, Shell left to progress in property development following the sale of his Edinburgh flat. He made yet more money from Bitcoin trading. In 2014 he converted part of the family farm – Doxford Farm – into a rustic yet hip wedding venue after noticing the Southern England trend for barn weddings. Doxford Farm’s large oak-beamed barn quickly became one of Northumberland’s most magical tying-the-knot spots.

Three years later, nearby Charlton Hall came on the market. Shell bought it for £1million, commissioning his Edinburgh designer friend Jo Aynsley to give the Grade II listed Georgian mansion an off-the-wall makeover.

Aynsley is head of design at Jeffreys Interiors of Edinburgh, and she and her colleagues were given free rein to turn what had been a fusty stately home into a funky wedding venue with rooms. The playful aesthetic can be best described as eclectic: urinals are red kissy lips and there’s a steampunk-hatted stuffed giraffe called George sticking out of the wall above the main staircase. Out of Africa? Nope, Clitheroe.

Original hall cabinetry and artefacts — such as auction notices from the 1870s and sports trophies — are mixed with bold artworks and furniture from designer names such as Diane von Furstenberg, Mulberry and Edinburgh-based textile designer Lynsey Jean Henderson.

The hall was reimagined as a kind of cheeky Kinder egg: plain on the outside but full of surprises inside.

Charlton Hall was the first part of Shell’s property empire inspired by Alice in Wonderland. The aesthetic was extended to The Tempus, steps away from the mothership. Charlton Hall’s logo is a top-hat-wearing owl, and the owl weathervane atop The Tempus’s clocktower continues the crossover.

‘Imagination is the only weapon in the war with reality,’ the Cheshire Cat told Alice, and at both Charlton Hall and The Tempus, Aynsley has used this weapon to great effect. The nearby Alnwick Castle and Gardens have been the area’s honeypots to date, and they are now joined by The Tempus, a country estate hotel coursing with colour-clashing nervous energy. Staying there was mood-enhancing.

The plan is to be first in line as dawn breaks. But sloth (and setting my alarm for the wrong day) gets the better of me and it’s not until 7.45am that I drag myself out of bed, throw on some shorts and a noisy shirt more suited to Hawaii than the Costa del Sol, and head for the battlefield.

But I’ve forgotten my armour — in the form of a rolled-up towel and heavy hardback book. Without those, I won’t stand a chance. So, it’s back to my room and then quick march for what I assume will be a bruising sortie.

There’s no time to lose, but, even so, I’m still in position nearly an hour before the gates to the pools open — the sangria from the night before (a litre of the stuff for £5 in a bar down the road) making its presence felt in a pernicious but predictable way.

The rules of engagement are unclear at this point — because a huge sign states clearly: ‘It is forbidden to reserve sunbeds.’ Either rules are going to be broken, or this particular rule is like the traffic lights in Naples — a suggestion rather than an order.

I imagine at this very moment similar scenes are being played out all across sweltering Europe, where simmering tensions have raised the temperature further due to what’s been dubbed ‘sunbed wars’.

There have been reports of beach bandits at the Costa Blanca resort of Torrevieja, near Benidorm, spreading out their towels on the beach as early as 5.30am — and then not appearing until several hours later, much to the chagrin of a local councillor. ‘By-laws mean police have the power to act when items are left on the beach in this way and it leads to conflict between beachgoers,’ he announced.

Here at the four-star Estival Torrequebrada, in Benalmadena, there was pandemonium last weekend when the gates to the pools, where the sunbeds await, did not open until 10am.

‘It was a stampede,’ says Jessica Russell, from Hertfordshire, on holiday with her husband Chris, a property developer, and their three children aged 16, 14 and ten. ‘People were barging past a woman in a wheelchair. It was horrible.’

But, on Tuesday, the hotel announced that the gates would open an hour earlier in the hope of avoiding such scenes. And it has worked — to a degree. The queue to grab a sunbed around the two pools where children are allowed is less than 50 yards long on Thursday morning. Mrs Russell is second in line — and chuffed about it. Her plan is to head to the far corner nearest the seafront where there are five, four-poster cabana-style sunbeds under swaying palm trees. They even come with blinds. She wants to bag them all.

‘The problem is that the Spanish man in front of me has the exact same idea. I would call it a friendly rivalry,’ says Mrs Russell. We will see about that.

Meanwhile, Tony Rogers, 43, from Birmingham, is first in line for the adults-only area — and, despite my tardy start, I’m not far behind him.

‘I’m here with my mum and her partner,’ says Mr Rogers. ‘Mum has got a bad leg, so I want to find her a nice sunbed for the day while I head off somewhere.’

I get the impression that although these various pincer movements are stressful, they are also a highlight of the day. A pre-breakfast adrenaline rush that adds a competitive edge to an otherwise lackadaisical day.

A challenge at which the British normally excel, especially when, as in the case here, there are few Germans about — not that, perish the thought, we want to indulge in national stereotypes.

Part of the reason for this early-morning scrummage is because the hotel does not have any sun loungers on the beach — for the simple reason that there is no dedicated beach.

The twin-towered, 14-storey hotel, with a casino and spa in the middle, stands imperiously on a rock face. All the tanning, all the shrieks from excited children as they drop into the water from twisty flumes, all the teenagers on the prowl for a holiday snog, and all the myriad activities (aqua gym at noon, water volleyball at 5pm etc), happen around four pools.

So it’s location, location, location on the sunbed front. Hayley Morris, 49, from the West Midlands, is here with her husband Jim, who introduces himself as a ‘continuous improvement manager’ for a floor company, and their two boys.

She suffers from transverse myelitis, a neurological condition which means she is paralysed in her right leg and uses a wheelchair. ‘On Sunday morning it was like the opening day of the New Year sales at Selfridges,’ says Mrs Morris.

‘As soon as the gates opened it was carnage — but things have calmed down now and, so far, I’ve always managed to get the spot I want near the pool, the toilets and the bar.’

In other words, to her and her husband’s delight, there seems to have been ‘continuous improvement’ since the implementation of new opening times.

But, similar to how Bob Dylan sang ‘you don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows’, you don’t have to be a statistician to work out that in a hotel with 385 rooms — of which at least 350 are likely to be double occupancy — you’ll require around 700 sunbeds to keep everyone happy. There are only 600 here.

‘It’s a difficult situation,’ concedes the hotel’s assistant manager, Miguel Angel Sanchez. ‘By law, we have to fence off and close the pool areas when there are no lifeguards on duty and at night. So there is bound to be a slight rush in the morning — but as you can see the queues are orderly.’

They are orderly. Respectful and admirably jovial, too, thanks in part — and let’s take a bow given that we’ve not much else to celebrate — to the majority of those in the queue being British. ‘Show us a queue and we’ll join it,’ as Mrs Russell puts it.

‘Which way are you heading?’ I ask head-of-the-queue Mr Rogers, with a minute to go before the off.

‘Not sure,’ he says, clearly reluctant to divulge his strategy. ‘You?’

I’m going for the grassy area down the end because I’m an evening-light man and I’ve been following the sun’s movement, but I know that four women from the Wirral hope to be in that very spot.

I had engaged those four friendly women in conversation the day before when I made a recce after arriving at the hotel at lunchtime — and particularly admired their towel clips in the shape of flip-flops which, in the case of Lindsay Hayes, holds in place her pink, fluorescent Gucci towel.

‘We like it here because we’ve got a couple of umbrellas. We’re having a brilliant time,’ says Mrs Hayes.

‘There’s nothing wrong with queuing in a situation like this. It’s part and parcel of a holiday.’

She might be right. Every moment is precious on a peak-time break in August, so you want to be in prime position. And let’s be clear: there’s no social divide about queuing. After all, elderly, well-heeled members of the MCC line up in their egg and bacon ties outside Lord’s cricket ground from 5am to grab a seat in the pavilion, especially when the Aussies are in town.

It’s a similar story at Wimbledon, with tennis fans camping out to buy tickets — just as some people waited in line for hours before the recent Bruce Springsteen concert in Hyde Park in the hope of being up front and personal with The Boss. I know that because I was one of them.

The problem comes when people try to hog their sunbed for the whole day. That’s why Hotel Estival has introduced a 45-minute rule. It works like this — in theory: you bag your sunbed and put a towel, book or some other item on it. Then you can disappear for breakfast or lunch or go anywhere you like but must be back within 45 minutes.

Indeed, a member of staff from time to time places a laminated note on unoccupied sunbeds which reads: ‘Please do not leave the towels on the sunbeds for more than 45 minutes without your presence, otherwise the towels will be removed.’

But there’s no evidence to suggest that this threat is enforced any more stringently than fighting petty crime is taken seriously by the police back home in the UK.

It’s now almost 9.30am and those of us who joined the queues before breakfast have been rewarded.

Mrs Russell has reserved a couple of four-poster cabanas (although the Spanish man managed to grab three adjoining ones); Mrs Morris is near the pool, bar and loos, and Mr Rogers has sorted out a prized spot for his mother. Me? I’ve secured a sunbed next to the women from the Wirral and will be well-placed for sunset refreshments.

It feels immensely satisfying, especially when a few late-comers breeze in and realise that this has been a game of musical sunbeds — but without the music.

I dare say that one day, great minds will work out why the British are prepared to go to such lengths. It’s one of life’s imponderables.

For now, we might as well borrow a crowning principle that served our late Queen Elizabeth II well — even though, admittedly, Her Majesty never had to stand in line to bag a sunbed at a sprawling Costa del Sol hotel.

But good advice all the same. ‘Never complain, never explain.’