Winner of this week’s No Surprises There Then Award must go to Anna Coogan of the Irish Herald who reports that alcohol consumption and neglecting to use a condom results in an increased chance of contracting an STI while abroad.

Ms. Coogan’s article on ‘Hellish Holidays‘ includes figures from a study of holidaymakers to Tenerife which documented that half of those under 25 who visited the island had it off with a new partner while the same could be said of a quarter of those over the age of 25.

Well duh! Lay off the Sex on the Beaches and maybe you won’t go home with ‘Spanish Tummy’.

Although I always appreciate receiving email through eTenerife.com, one kind of message always makes my heart sink. It usually starts along the lines of, “On my recent holiday in Tenerife I was approached by a young man/woman who offered me a scratchcard…”

The email goes on to describe more or less the same scenario as the I-Got-Scammed email before it. And the one before that one and the one before that. What is so depressing is that there really is not much that can be done to help. The victim may well have the power of European consumer law on his side but the Timeshare/Holiday Club scammers know that law inside-out and upside-down and more often than not can scrape through the cracks by delaying mail, ignoring phonecalls and such like until the mandatory ‘cooling off’ period has slipped by.

Even more depressing is that the same company names come up again and again. If I know who the culprits are, so for sure do the powers that be. Why are the scammers allowed to continue to rip people off?

If you are tempted to go along for a timeshare or holiday club presentation while on holiday in Tenerife (or elsewhere in Spain) you should at least know what to expect before you go.

Tenerife Timeshare – Know Before You Go – Rights and Protections