A British couple’s luxury getaway to Ibiza turned into a nightmare when their five-star resort was flooded by torrential rain last week.
Mara Lee, from Guildford, Surrey, and her partner Sam, both 25, had splashed out on a relaxing week at the Grand Palladium White Island Resort & Spa – but by day four of the holiday, they were wading through water to get to the buffet.
After 24 hours of consistently turbulent weather, the army and firefighters were forced to intervene as the hotel lobby was drenched.
At one point, an emergency phone alert had even told them to ‘get to higher ground’.
Speaking to The Daily Mail, Mara said: ‘We looked outside and thought, “there’s no way”, we just assumed it was being dramatic. We really had no idea what was coming.’
Taking to her TikTok @tamarajaynelee, the fitness trainer documented the torrential downpour and flooding.
The couple were not prepared for the extreme weather caused by the tail-end of Hurricane Gabrielle. Ibiza was placed under a red warning, the highest possible alert level, for heavy rainfall.
The party island was plunged into chaos, with taxis unavailable, queues for transport taking hours, and emergency services declared a state of alert, with military personnel flown in by helicopter to support local teams.
Despite the disruption that would later unfold, Mara shared that their holiday began like any other-with clear blue skies and sightseeing.
‘The first few days were amazing we really made the most out of it, we went out, went to a beach club, went to the old town, there was beautiful blue skies,’ she explained.
‘My boyfriend always looks at the weather ahead and he saw we had a day of rain. The next morning we had a phone alarm come through but the first one was in Spanish so we thought “what on earth is this”.’
‘Luckily, a second one came through in English which said “get to higher ground because there is flooding due”, we looked outside and were like there is no way, we thought it was probably a bit of rain, it’s just being dramatic.
‘We looked outside and it didn’t look too heavy, it was like normal rain but gradually throughout the day it started flooding out the back.’
Ironically, Mara had paid more for a ground floor room with private sunbeds and easy pool access, but they had a lucky escape.
‘Our room was luckily on a slight incline, so it didn’t flood, but it was close,’ she said. ‘We kept thinking if it gets any worse, it’s going to come in.’
By midday, the water in the hotel lobby was up to her ankles.
She recalled: ‘We went for a late lunch at the buffet and the hotel had every single staff member out with buckets and mops and they kept chucking water out of the restaurant, but as we were eating the water did start rising more.’
By nightfall the hotel bar and restaurant were completely shut down, with staff frantically mopping and using buckets to stem the flow as floodwaters crept in.
Despite the chaos, Mara and Sam were determined not to let the weather ruin their holiday.
They still went out to the Hi Ibiza nightclub, walking 10 minutes through flood water in the middle of the road barefoot and carefully avoiding drain holes just to find a taxi.
‘It was really dangerous and really stupid but we really wanted to go out. We managed to get a taxi about 15 minutes down the road,’ she shared.
‘No taxis were coming any closer it was a bit chaotic, there was a car stuck on the roundabout because the area was flooded.
‘When we were out it was definitely in the back of my mind about how are we going to get back to out hotel.’
After the event, Mara said they queued for an hour to find a taxi, then waded through knee-high floodwater back to their hotel when the driver could take them no further.
The next day, a hotel staff member knocked on their door and told them they had to pack up immediately.
The flooding got so bad that the venue was forced to close the bar and restaurant, with guests evacuated to the nearby Grand Palladium Select Palace Ibiza, where the couple spent the final two nights of their holiday.
‘By that point all the water was in the hotel lobby and they just couldn’t serve anything, the staff seemed really stressed at that point,’ Mara recalled.
‘At that point I was a bit stressed, I was trying to sort the booking out. You could tell the staff were really stressed, they were still trying to check in new guests at the same time.’
And getting home wasn’t guaranteed either. With taxis scarce and roads still waterlogged, she feared they might miss their flight altogether.
‘They couldn’t get taxis down the road, so I said to Sam, “we might have to carry our suitcases down the beach”.’
Despite the chaos, she praised the hotel staff for being ‘absolutely amazing’ throughout the ordeal.
‘The hotel were great, all the staff were hands on deck, they had plastic bags over their shoes to stop their trainers getting wet, they still supplied all the food for us which was amazing,’ she explained.
‘They were having a laugh about it because it was also unexpected for them, they didn’t expect it to get as bad as that.’
Mara also said guests remained in surprisingly high spirits, even when wading through water just to get lunch.
She explained that the hotel did not offer a partial refund, but she hadn’t expected one, noting that staff were clearly doing everything they could to minimise disruption- including providing food and alternative accommodation at a nearby sister hotel.
Despite the unexpected turn of events, Mara remarked that she would ‘rather be in Ibiza in floods than back in the UK’.
She added: ‘We missed one of the events that we had planned because the water started to become a bit smelly and we didn’t feel safe walking through it so that was a bit disappointing but we had a bar near the hotel pool so we made the most of a bad situation.’
Taking to their Instagram account, the Grand Palladium White Island Resort & Spa reassured guests that they were back open and operating as normal.
The statement released last week, read: ‘On Tuesday, September 30th, Ibiza experienced an episode of unprecedented rainfall, which caused significant flooding in certain areas of the island.
‘We can confirm that there have been no personal injuries, and material damages have been limited. The properties managed by Palladium Hotel Group in Ibiza are operating normally and continue to provide services to guests.
‘The only property significantly affected is Grand Palladium White Island Resort & Spa, located in a low-lying area near sea level.
‘Thanks to the extraordinary efforts of our hotel teams, the support of the Unidad Militar de Emergencias (UME) and the collaboration of local authorities, water drainage and recovery works are already well advanced.’
Last week videos posted to social media showed water rushing through popular tourist spots, with sewage bubbling up through manhole covers.
In some areas, water poured through the roofs of shops and even the terminal building at Ibiza Airport.
Residents and tourists received mobile phone emergency alerts warning them not to travel.
The storm chaos began in the early hours of Tuesday morning, caused by the tail-end of Hurricane Gabrielle.
Despite the weather improving slightly by Wednesday, floodwaters remained in parts of the old town.
The freak storm was caused by the remnants of Hurricane Gabrielle, which had weakened as it crossed the Atlantic but still carried enough force to cause widespread disruption across Ibiza.
Meteorologists say more extreme weather could be on the way as the storm system interacts with other tropical cyclones.
