Padel Holidays in Spain: Region-by-Region Guide
Ask Google where to go for a padel holiday in Spain and you'll get the same four answers every time: Valencia, Marbella, Murcia, Barcelona. Costa Brava never comes up. Not because the padel here is worse, more that nobody running a padel holiday out of this region has bothered writing about it, us included, until now.
So here's an honest look at how the regions everyone does recommend actually compare, and where we think Costa Brava fits into that picture.
The short version
| Region | Notable option | Coaching style | The trip is built around |
|---|---|---|---|
| Costa Blanca (Valencia) | Active Away, Oliva Nova Beach & Golf Resort | Grouped coaching, named lead coach | A big resort with padel as one of several sports |
| Murcia | La Manga Club | Padel courts alongside a larger tennis academy | The training complex itself |
| Girona / Costa Brava | Us | Small groups, matched by skill level | The region, padel plus coastline |
All three include accommodation in the headline price (La Manga's padel courts sit inside a wider tennis academy whose padel-specific pricing isn't separately confirmed), so it's more comparable than it looks at first glance, what actually varies is coaching style and how big an operation you want around you. Details below.
Costa Blanca (Valencia): resort-scale padel
Active Away runs its padel holiday at the Oliva Nova Beach & Golf Resort, about 50 minutes from Valencia airport, or 90 from Alicante if that connection suits your flights better. The coaching is genuinely structured: 11 hours across the stay, coach ratios of 1:4 in the morning and 1:6 in the afternoon, and a named lead, Louie Harris, the 2025 LTA Padel National Champion, who designed the program himself.
It's a big operation. Seven padel courts share the grounds with an 18-hole golf course, a gym, an equestrian centre, six restaurants, and three bars, padel is one strong offering inside a much larger resort, not the whole point of the trip. Rooms run across six tiers, and packages start from £819 per person based on two sharing, with a £100 surcharge if you're traveling solo.
This suits someone who wants padel folded into a full-scale resort holiday, with everything, including which coach you'll have and where you're eating that night, decided in advance. It suits less well if what you actually want is a trip built around the sport itself, not around the resort.
Murcia: padel as part of a bigger academy
La Manga Club's primary identity is tennis, 28 courts, official LTA winter training base, Davis Cup and Fed Cup history. Padel sits alongside that as 7 dedicated courts plus pickleball, an add-on to a much bigger complex rather than the headline act.
The coaching structure is more rigorous than most holiday formats bother with. A 10-hour academy gets you 2 hours of on-court coaching a day; step up to 15 hours and you add an hour of video analysis daily, using their own V1 digital setup. There's a junior pro track for tournament kids and private lessons if group sessions aren't your thing. Tennis packages start from £599 per person, padel isn't priced separately on their public page, worth a direct call if that's your main sport.
Makes sense if your group is split between tennis and padel and you want both under one roof, or if the video-analysis style of coaching is specifically what you're after.
Girona / Costa Brava: the region nobody's written about yet
This is us, so take the rest of this section knowing that. We run out of Costa Brava, the stretch of coastline from Barcelona up to the French border, clay courts, real Mediterranean weather, and genuinely open ground for padel. None of the operators above mention this region. Neither does Google's own AI answer for this exact search. That's not us being modest, it's just true, and it's a fair chunk of why we wanted to write this guide in the first place.
We run two set formats, plus a custom option. The Weekend Escape, 3 days from €629, includes your accommodation, 6 hours of court time, 3 local meals, and 2 coastal activities, kayaking, biking, or a hands-on workshop, we mix it up depending on who's in the group. The Week Getaway, 7 days from €1,899, is the fuller version: accommodation, 21 hours of coaching with tactical clinics and real match play worked in, 7 meals, and 4 coastal trips, snorkeling, a boat day, a wine tasting. Your room comes from local partners so you land somewhere that fits your group's budget, shared apartment or private villa, rather than one fixed hotel everyone's stuck with. If the fixed formats don't fit your dates or group, we also do custom retreats built around whatever you're actually planning.
We split groups by skill level rather than throwing everyone on court together, so someone who picked up a paddle last month and someone who's played for years both land somewhere that actually fits. Getting here's easy: Girona airport is about 30 minutes by car, Barcelona around 90.
Valencia and Murcia built padel into resorts that already existed. Nobody's built it into Costa Brava yet. We'd like that to be us.
So which one's actually right for you?
If you want padel folded into a big resort with everything, including your coach and your dinner reservation, decided before you land, Costa Blanca's Oliva Nova is built for exactly that.
Rigorous, structured coaching with video analysis appeals to you, and you don't mind padel playing second fiddle to tennis? That's Murcia's whole model.
Just want tennis and padel both available without picking a padel-only trip? Either La Manga or us work, it comes down to whether you want a big complex or a smaller regional retreat.
And if what you're actually after is somewhere padel tourism hasn't caught up to yet, with a real coastline built into the days off instead of a resort perimeter around a pool, that's us. We're not going to pretend that's not the pitch.
Frequently asked questions
Is padel or tennis easier to learn on a first trip?
Padel's smaller enclosed court and simpler serve make it faster to pick up, most people are hitting real rallies within a session or two. Tennis has a steeper first day but more room to grow technically over a week.
Do I need padel experience to join?
No. We split groups by skill level, so first-timers get technique-focused coaching separate from anyone who's played for years.
Do I need to bring my own paddle?
You can rent one from us if needed, but your own is always more comfortable if you've got it.
How much does a padel holiday in Spain typically cost?
Room-inclusive packages start around £819 per person at Active Away's Oliva Nova, and from €629 for a weekend with us, accommodation, coaching, and meals all included. La Manga's tennis academy starts from £599/week, but their public page doesn't separately confirm padel pricing or what it includes. Worth checking what's bundled before comparing headline numbers.
Can I come alone?
Yes, and it's common. We set up a group chat before you arrive and match you by skill level, so you're not meeting everyone cold on day one.
Which region has the most padel courts?
By court count, Costa Blanca's Oliva Nova and Murcia's La Manga are the bigger operations, around 7 dedicated padel courts each. Ours is smaller and newer, which is also exactly why it's quieter.
What if the fixed dates or group size don't work for us?
Ask us about a custom retreat. Same coaching and setup, but built around your dates and group instead of the standard weekend or week format.