I live in a large town which is capital of the Axarquia and we don't have a single British run bar or restaurant - although there are a couple in Torre del Mar which is part of the same municipality. You are right about all the Brits congregating in one bar, though, and them thinking the bar owners are their mates!

You could be forgiven for thinking you had wandered into a Northern working men's club from 40 years ago in the one favoured by our local Brits - all the men sit together at one end of a long table, with all the women at the other!
That wouldn't have been my idea of an enjoyable night out in the UK and it isn't here, either.

Walk through again tomorrow and list them.

In all of the large towns surrounding us there is not one Brit bar except the nearest coastal town where there is one. We thought, being the fools that we are, that we would call in one day, stepped over the threshold only to see the dirtiest grottiest bar I have seen since leaving the UK and that was one next to the abbatoir in Sheffield complete with sawdust. In all honesty the sawdust would probably have improved this place. Needless to say turning around and leaving was probably the fastest movement we have done since arriving in Spain. It is proof that H and S is not alive and kicking in Spain.
Back in the eighties I used to holiday in Denia in a friend´s house and met so many Brits that started drinking at ten in the morning and finished when they fell down. I was introduced to many Brits and warned that most fell into two categories,( yes I know generalisations), drunks, bottle of whisky or more a day and the "oh I have the biggest villa with all the latest technology ten cars excetera."
Having been to Benidorm a few times over the last five years and listened to a few on the forum who obviously came over on the skills plane has proved to me that not much has changed.

I suspect I was lucky in that when I worked in Madrid, most expats I came across either worked in teaching, or worked for various IT companies based there (like IBM, Microsoft and Sun). There again, I used to socialise with a few of them on a Saturday down an Irish pub called Triskel - run by a Derbyshire (or was it Staffs) girl and her Spanish hubbie. The expats enjoyed a pint, whilst watching the football and/or rugby, but it was the Spanish clientele who drank the most. Not beer - they tended to hit the copas. You don't see too much drunken behaviour in Madrid (well you do, but nowhere on the British average), but I suspect and fear there are just as many alcoholics. And in Spain you can see them on the hard stuff at all hours.

Here's a clip from Triskel (down in their basement area) from earlier this year - don't worry if you see a football highlight or two first. Some of the clientele speaking in Spanish may surprise you!

Good on your for putting this forward. I worked for a certain local city council for a couple of years on the ASBO team and a high percentage of the perpetrators has very English surnames.

Lynn we have a little place just inland from Torre and last winter were walking on the seafront at Algarroba we don't know that many people and tend to avoid Brit bars etc. Anyway on this day we were looking for a coffee and a snack and said we will try this Brit one may get to know someone, Brit barman when we asked about food "none on mate the cooks got a day off" so off we went to get tapas. Is it me or is it only Brits running a business that act like that.

In this thread and others like it there is much cherry-picking of factoids going on.

Yes, I have seen behaviour as you describe above but I can balance that with having seen the Spanish boys starting three hours before that and then climbing onto their mopeds/cars to go to work.

Also there's been talk of trouble being caused by Brits (might have been in a different thread). In our village (many Brits) in five years here I can honestly think of NO trouble caused by Brits. It's all been caused by Spanish - robberies and muggings (almost certainly drug related) one Spanish man banned from the village because he beat up his English girlfriend, a (male) friend of mine badly injured by his Spanish girlfriend.. I could go on but I won't because these are merely anecdotes which do not prove, nor even demonstrate, anything whatsoever except that you can "prove" anything you like with anecdotes.

No, many Spanish bars take days off or parts of days off and have set(ish) times for the kitchen to be open. Around here anyway.