You can get bad neighbours in any country in the world I should think.

What does suprise me is that some buy in a tourist area and then expect people on holiday to keep quiet. Some friends rented an apartment on the coast, hot July and they usually sat on the terrace until late talking, just the two of them. After 11pm an elderly German next door kept coming out and shouting at them.

I like the idea as in Florida where in many urbanisations no rentals are permitted under 6 months, and boy do they enforce it!

At home she would've just called the police to shut them up

But while on your €499 holiday in paradise, I reckon all you can do is bitch at them and hope they quit.

On the other hand, your €499 holiday in paradise does entitle you to reasonably enjoy it without interference from bitchy neighbours dunnit?

Yes of course, bad neighbours can be any nationality

Buildings in Spain have a set of rules that the community has signed up to. e.g. no noise after 11pm. It seems entirely reasonable to me that people should adhere to that, especially on a work night

Even in somewhere like Benalmadena, most people are not on holiday, and have normal jobs, children etc. If you want to sit up all night, then go and stay in a hotel, not in a residential block of flats

Not unusual to see elderly Spanish people giving toddlers dancing lessons at 1am on summer nights in Spain. This is Spain. This is the culture.

Seeing as the area is reliant on tourism and many of those apartment blocks were built and advertised for the second home market as holiday homes sounds a bit unfair.

In July and August sure

The rest of the year no, and its not the culture, even for Andalucians

And even then, people will be up and making noise in the appropriate areas i.e. on the paseo maritimo or the plaza del pueblo. Even Andalucians are quiet and respectful when they return home at 2am in the morning.

Foreigners dont understand the cultural norms

Not to mention about blocks with teenagers in who don't go out till 2 am, and are shouting from the balcony to the waiting friends below who are revving up.

I guess in my 7 years in Spain I must have been very lucky with my Spanish neighbours, and very unlucky with my British ones

We can't complain too much as a lot of goings on like that involved people staying with us.

We are not Suprised to hear you say that

Problem with Spain is the walls are so thin. I could count on one hand the times we have had a quiet hotel room. Worse one I awoke in the night to loud snoring from the next room. We had to move the bed to the other side of the room....that didn't go down well with the staff!

I'll bet you are one of those annoying types who mow your lawn during siesta.

Who knows, I have never had a lawn

I prefer to live in flats. And they dont really do siestas up here in the North anyway