worrying times in pp

[eleanor]

I think the prices in the supermarkets in the Port are higher. I was told that the locals tend to shop in Mercadona (not sure of spelling, sorry!) in Alcudia. A friend who has lived in the Port for many many years said that she wouldn't think of doing a weekly shop in the Port and would only go to Mercadona or Lidl in Inca where prices are very much lower.

 

[kate1]

You're right Eleanor - also locals don't eat in the touristy restaurants. Locals we know in PP will go for a MDD lunch at maybe 9 or 10 euros - such as that at El Posito - and in the evening tend to have a very simple meal at home. They buy fresh produce at local markets etc rather than in the PP supermarkets. Which is what we do now whenever we come to PP.

I also agree with the poster who said that 25euros for a main course was becoming almost standard in the UK - can confirm that during our summer hols on the Suffolk coast we visited a couple of pubs (pubs, mind you, not restaurants) where virtually every main course was more than 20 euros. And frankly they were nothing special - nothing like as good as most places in PP - in fact in one of them the service was so atrocious that we walked out, which I have never had to do in PP... It's human instinct the world over to want to make as much money as possible out of tourists.

 

[alcanadakid]

With many restaurants closing down it doesn't sound as though they are exploiting the situation. I suspect that their costs have also increased significantly. Don't forget that rates went up about 30% at the end of last year and different places will have different rateable values. Food in the supermarkets has increased and so has wine. It is a sign of the times I am afraid

 

[Rab]

I think the prices in the supermarkets in the Port are higher. I was told that the locals tend to shop in Mercadona (not sure of spelling, sorry!) in Alcudia. A friend who has lived in the Port for many many years said that she wouldn't think of doing a weekly shop in the Port and would only go to Mercadona or Lidl in Inca where prices are very much lower.

I have been to Mercadona before and didnt notice a great deal in difference in prices. Certainly not for the holiday essentials such as bread, milk etc. How can Spaniards afford to pay so much for the basics?

 

[Smiddy]

I've only skimmed over some of the posts on here but they all seem to be similar. As Bonnyslad said you can still get by reasonably cheaply in PP if you do your homework. Lesson No1, the days of a bucket of wine and 200 fags for a fiver are long gone!

I spent a total of 5 weeks in PP over the summer, ate in what i reckon are the best restaurants in PP, ate out every night and never spent more than 5o/55 E for 2 including wine and all drinks. It can be done cheaper but i refuse to lower my standards on MY holiday just to save a few bob. Considering the quality i received that is not a lot of money. I dread to think what a similar standard of meal in the UK would cost

As i've stated previously i achieve this by shopping locally for breakfast items (no need to spend 3 e on a loaf, when superior local bread is .45E) and very little money during the day. As BL said the sunshines free!

Apologies, i have no wish to offend any families or people on a budget, i too am on a budget, but it's not all doom and gloom, a wee bit of homework and simply don't frequent those you feel are ripping-off!

 

[lollipop]

Just to comment re prices in Mercadona. 1 litre of fresh milk is 83cents and it lasts until the sell by date. I suspect if you buy long life prices don't vary much. I live her and always shop her unless emergency. I agree that prices seem higher but we are all affected by the exchange rate and it pays to look around . I know of one restaurant on the front who is being charged €7000 per month all year round.

 

[Gommar Goffer]

Rab - regarding the question of how do the locals afford the cost of living, I think the answer therre is their style of living. They will use the markets and of course buy products that are not familiar to us at much more resonable prices. They do also invariably travel out to Mercadona Inca and the likes of Al Campo, which many of the visitors to PP can not, or do not want to.

In general, every resort will have it's front line expensive restaurants many of which are not good, some are, then you have the second, third and fourth lines where prices generally tend to get lower.

I do not think that PP is any different in it's pricing to any other top Mediterreanean resort. Having been to Barcelona in February the prices were no different to PP, which is supposed to be the Jewel in the Med, and I am sure the situation is just the same in places like Nice and Rimini, etc.

PP has been getting expensive for years now (having been coming since the late 60's) and the exchange rate has just compounded the effect.

It will not stop me coming back but I will adjust my cloth accordingly.

GG

 

[pollensafan]

Smiddy, Your post makes one of my main points. It's all well and good for us veteran pper's to say you can get a better deal here and a cheaper meal there but your average family going to pp are not going to spend their holiday doing an impersonation of sherlock holmes. They are going to form an opinion on what they are confronted with in the main arena. Also i forgot to mention in my first post the comment made by Jason moore of the Majorca Bulletin. He say's it's the british peoples fault that majorca is suffering because and i quote, "If they had joined the euro along with the other countries then the prices in gb would have gone up and majorca would not seem so expensive" So there you have it, the ramblings of someone obviously destined for the "Home for the terminally stupid".

 

[alcanadakid]

I have been to Mercadona before and didnt notice a great deal in difference in prices. Certainly not for the holiday essentials such as bread, milk etc. How can Spaniards afford to pay so much for the basics?

Mercadona is much cheaper than other supermarkets and even cheaper than Alcampo. We live here and compare prices regularly. Eroski is expensive by comparison, especially for wine. I know one well known PP restaurant owner who seems to buy his wine there.

The only issue with Mercadona in Alcudia is the very tight car underground park, but if you go during the siesta hours it is much better. However they are digging up the road from Port DÁlcudia and the road is closed coming from that direction which seems to have reduced the number shopping there.

 

[Jackie H1]

Having just returned from a week in PP, my 2nd visit, I for one will definitely not be returning any time soon.

We found the cost of virtually everything from drinks to meals to lunches to cab fares absolutely extortionate. And not once we did we have a meal that we felt was value for money. One lunch time my husband ordered tuna salad and I ordered prawn and avocado salad. He had a table spoon of tuna on a plate full of lettuce and I had 5 small prawns and 3 thin slices of avocado on a pile of lettuce. With a beer and a coke and 2 x not nice cheesecake the bill came to €37-unbelievable. Toasted sandwiches were dry and unappetising to say the least, undercooked chips to go with them at ridiculous prices. Most places were charging 3.10€ for a cheap draught beer-not on!

A downpour of rain one night caught us out 2 streets away from our hotel-a cab charged us 7€ for the journey back-total rip off. Car from the airport was 73€ each way yet others in the hotel got a cab from airport and were charged 90€!!! In the Canaries where we usually go the same journey would be €35.

I do not wish to offend any PP lovers but from our point of view the place is not that special that tourists are going to suffer these sort of rip off prices-they will take their money elsewhere.

 

[WRIGHTSTUFF]

Question for you Jackie, We are all regularly on this forum because of the love we have for the place (warts and all) what confuses is me is why would you be on a forum about a place you hated so much...

Personally I wouldn't have the time or inclination..

 

[eleanor]

Jackie this is so awful! Another report whereby the word rip off comes to mind. There have been many posts referring to the exchange rate being the cause of high prices, rents, leases etc etc. Yes many are suffering BUT that doesn't give any business the permission to believe that they can just rip off people. The ingredients as quoted by Jackie are not expensive especially if bought in the market and not the tourist supermarket. These people are just having a laugh here. The British will put up with it and so they will continue to rip off. Many posts refer to high prices v low quality both of which are destroying PP. It is a worry that there have been so many people feeling that they have received bad value for money and saying they will not return - this is a great worry for PP. If it was quiet this year then next year we should be very concerned. It is such a shame as Pollensa is a lovely place to be and not all restaurants and businesses do rip off. That is why this forum is so good as it does give the opportunity to exchange knowledge and thereby gaining an insight of places to visit or more importantly, places to think twice about. Feedback is important. Perhaps it would be worthwhile to make feelings known at the time to the appropriate people if unhappy.
To conclude, I would like to say to anyone thinking of visiting for the first time to please do so. The majority of people fall in love with the place and return time after time - just read up and take on board the feedback on this site of peoples experiences of places to eat - you will see there are many that don't rip you off.
Eleanor

 

[Sparky]

Hi Jackie, i am sorry you hate PP so much but could i ask you to help others who don't know the place as well as i and many of us do, to please tell us the names of the places where you had such awful experiences. It sounds like they need to be named and shamed.

 

[pollensafan]

Hi Sparky, When i started this thread my intention was to get over to folk what the average holidaymaker thought of pp. Well jackies post is typical of the point i was trying to make and she got it over perfectly. I could have reeled off reams of names of good and bad eatery's but i avoided this because i did not want it to turn in to a "plug your favourite restaurant thread." To me it does not matter where her experinces took place and nor should it to the rest of us. The thing we should all take on board is that her experience is the lasting memory she has taken away with her about pp and that my friends makes me more sad than i can tell you and to the post by wrightstuff i can only say i hope the bar owners dont have that attitude or they will all be joining the spanish equivalent of the "Job Centre".

 

[WRIGHTSTUFF]

hi Pollensa fan,
My post was not meant to offend if it was read correctly it said we all have a love for PP (warts and all)... This forum helps us all to avoid the bad places and hopefully the bar owners will have to up their game and the shop owners lower their prices to avoid the job centre Q

 

[eleanor]

Having read Pollensafan's and Jackies post again. I can see what they mean and they are so right. It is the impression left which is so sad. That impression will probably never fade. The truth of the matter too is that if we were to take off our rose tinted glasses it is easy to agree that what has been said is so very true. It is easy for us to stick up for the place we love but the bottom line is that the negative is stronger than the positive and the fact that Jackie and some others have found they have been ripped off or overcharged will stay with them in memory much longer than the beautiful mountains or how lovely the beach was in the wonderful sunshine. Such a shame.
Eleanor

 

[susiejb]

I agree with the comments made by Del RFC earlier in this posting. It isnt just the cost of eating in/out, it is the total cost of holidaying in PP.
Look at Turkey - a two bedroom apartment with two en-suite bathrooms and a glorious sea view £350 per week - is it any wonder people are tempted. You just can't compare that to the cost of renting in PP - I appreciate as Eleanor says prices are high for maintenance and cleaning, but it is still only a small percentage of the rental price charged.
I stand by my previous postings that the only way to survive a recession is to cut prices to the bare bones, and to give even better value than you have ever done before.

 

[Jackie H1]

Well Wrightstuff and Sparky-I never said anywhere that I hated PP. And WS I took the time to respond as other 1st time visitors have the right to get as many opinions of PP as they can.The regular PP visitors that love the place warts and all are fine, but you won't keep the resort alive on your own. With new visitors looking at the place differently and not liking what they see it will soon be like a ghost town. Last year was my first visit and I thought the port was very nice with beautiful views-hence the 2nd visit this year to see more of it. Despite some awful weather I still think PP itself is very pretty but simply do not feel it warrants the cost of another visit there.

Normally we would rent an apartment or a villa and eat out virtually every evening. I did some research over the past months and the cost of either is in my mind far too expensive by the time you include flights and transfers. So we booked an hotel, the Pollensa Park, as a base but still intended to get out regularly for lunch and evening meals.

I agree with Pollensafan that it doesn't really matter what restaurants I used as it is enough that I left with a bad opinion of the resort and will not return. Probably couldn't name more than one anyway as not familiar with any of them. Sitting in the hotel at times and chatting with other guests it was obvious that many people feel the same as we did and some had been going for between 10 and 20 years and vowed not to return.

We all know the exchange rate is bad at the moment but that does not mean the local bars and restaurants have to increase prices and lower standards to make up for the fact head count is low. I got the impression they were milking the short season for all it's worth while they could but think they have only shot themselves in the foot by doing so.

An example is the afternoon we decided to go to the beach for a couple of hours, arriving at exactly 3.20pm with another couple. There was row upon row of empty sunbeds and we all sat on one each with 2 umbrellas. The guy was over like a rocket demanding 11€ per couple. When I suggested at that time of day it should be half price he wouldn't budge-so we did and he took nothing. Have none of them heard of small profit big turnover-seems to me it would work there.

The walk from the hotel to the port passes many cheap and tacky shops selling nothing but tat, as does the market. Where are all the nice leather shoe,coat or handbag shops? I always carry enough spending money to treat myself to something nice while on holiday but came home empty handed from this trip-there simply was nothing for sale that I couldn't get better and cheaper in the UK.

A 2 hour flight from the UK is a huge advantage and goes a long way to attract us. We have done all the long haul flights over the years and don't want much from a holiday except some sun and nice food now and were potential regular visitors but will pass on PP in future.

PS-Well done Eleanor for taking a second look at the posts and being honest enough to admit newbies can see what regulars often overlook as they are enamoured with the place.

 

[pollensafan]

Hi elanor, Thanks for that, you have hit the nail on the head and what folk need to realise is jackies thoughts are not in the minority believe me i'm a nosy so and so and i'll talk to anyone to get their opinion on pp. Some folk feel it's owners passing on rising costs. Well how about this. On one cloudy day i took a bus round to can picafort to see a restaurant owner i had not seen for 13 years. Well never mind being in another resort i thought i'd gone to another island. There were people everwhere. So i asked the owner how things were and he said his trade was up on last year. Having looked around the place i'm not suprised. Beer at 2eurs, snacks3-4eurs. This resort over the last few years has been mostly german but this year he said the brits were back on mass. So near yet so far as it were. Before anyone states the obvious, no i'm not saying can picafort holds a candle to pp but no one is going to convince me they source things like beer etc- from different companys to make that sort of price difference.

 

[pollensafan]

Well Wrightstuff and Sparky-I never said anywhere that I hated PP. And WS I took the time to respond as other 1st time visitors have the right to get as many opinions of PP as they can.The regular PP visitors that love the place warts and all are fine, but you won't keep the resort alive on your own. With new visitors looking at the place differently and not liking what they see it will soon be like a ghost town. Last year was my first visit and I thought the port was very nice with beautiful views-hence the 2nd visit this year to see more of it. Despite some awful weather I still think PP itself is very pretty but simply do not feel it warrants the cost of another visit there

Hi Jackie, That says it all and thats my real fear for the future and if that keeps happening ( sorry to use a pun ) It will still be pp jim but not as we know it.