Tired of cold and frozen conditions?
How it all started
www.padeltrips4u.com started in response to a request from players at the founders’ local club. The club offers four uncovered courts that are well-built and drain well, but nonetheless offer no protection against days of rain, intense cold or wind. Even the hardiest of players, who bravely battle snow, rain, and hail, not to mention wind and cold, deserve a break from time to time.
Using the team’s international contacts for the padel trips, an agreement to host up to 24 players over a 3-to-4-day period, was quickly reached with one of our long-standing colleagues, head of a large overseas club. Within two days, 50 club members signed up, with 23 committing to joining an inaugural group.
It became evident that there was an opportunity to provide a service to local players, but would padel trips have a broad appeal? The idea crystallised on the back of two experiences:
While playing at a large indoor padel club one day, we met a fellow player who had travelled one and a half hours to play a padel game! That’s a 3 hour round trip. When we asked him why he had not gone to something closer to home, he told us that there were no covered courts closer to him. The certainty of being able to play was top of his list. But in 3 hours he could have travelled to Spain or Portugal and cleared baggage reclaim on the other side!
While the number of padel courts in the UK has increased from around 80 to 350 during the 2022-3 period, most clubs have calculated that it is not financially viable to cover them. So playing overseas with these padel trips is an excellent opportunity to combine a passion for playing with the certainty of being able to play, regardless of the weather.
Some of our club’s top players were increasingly travelling half an hour away to a larger covered facility, because they could guarantee their game time, and improve their game due to the consistency of conditions. Importantly, especially for those who are vets (40+) remaining injury-free is a BIG factor, and cannot be guaranteed on an outdoor court in anything less than perfect conditions. It is not possible to get even close to those conditions in the UK and Ireland except for a very short period of the year.
Testimonials
I really enjoyed Portimão, it was easy to get around and everything was within 15 mins travelling time once we were there. Faro to Portimão was a 45 min drive on very good roads! The padel club was awesome with a range of quality courts, coaches and locals very friendly and made everyone feel really welcome. I will definitely be visiting again.
Brilliant sense of community brought together by Padeltrips4U. The coaching and playing local players were particular highlights for me.
Our coach was very personable and clearly identified areas where we could improve. His demonstrations of the shots were excellent and he gave praise when it was warranted. PadelTrips4U were clearly working as a good team organising matches and joining in themselves. It was great to play with them and to watch them in action playing with the locals.
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