Ibiza beach identified as the most crowded in Europe

Exhausted clubbers looking for a spot to rest after a sleepless night have known it for years, but research has now confirmed that Ibiza has Europe's most crowded beach.

The sands at San Antonio barely have enough space to lay out a beach towel during high season, the Thomson holiday firm found. Its calculations, which involved measuring the beach, dividing it by the size of a beach towel and then dividing that by the average number of visitors per day, showed there was room for just 1.1 beach towel per person.

The results compared poorly with the most spacious beach in Europe – Isla Canela on the Costa de la Luz in southern Spain, where sunbathers could each stretch out in enough room for 14.5 beach towels. The company suggests tourists mark their territory by getting children to build a sand castle or putting up a windshield – even if it's not windy.

No British beaches featured in the research but a separate survey by Eurotunnel found that Britons who stay at home fare no better than in Ibiza.

Researchers at Brighton beach found half of the people who went there to relax felt "browbeaten and uneasy" because of the crowds. One third said visiting a British beach was much like going to an overcrowded gym on a hot day.

In contrast, 35 per cent of sunbathers on the beach at Le Touquet in northern France said they could always find a deserted beach in the region.

TOWEL SPACE PER PERSON

San Antonio, Ibiza 1.1

Alcudia, Majorca 1.5

Nerja, Costa del Sol 1.7

Kalithea, Rhodes 1.9

Puerto de la Cruz, Tenerife 3.8

San Stefanos, Corfu 4.3

Protaras, Cyprus 4.6

Olu Deniz, Turkey 5.1

Chania, Crete 11.9

Isla Canela,

Costa de la Luz, Spain 14.5