Boozing, fighting and nightclubbing – Tenerife is host to scores of British visitors who come for just these things.
But it’s not just the youth who are indulging in this holiday hedonism.
The Spanish party isle is now seeing an influx of pensioners who see retirement as a chance to live it large.
Tens of thousands of OAPs are heading to the destination to escape the British weather – with some admitting to blowing their winter fuel allowance on letting their hair down.
A Channel 5 documentary called OAPs Behaving Badly has revealed just what goes on when the over 60s let loose.
One nightclub is described as ‘God’s waiting room’ - because there are so many elderly partygoers.
Club manager Marc Craig admits he’s now dealing with rebellious pensioners instead of teens.
He said: “We’ve gone from catering for 17, 16 and even 15-year-old kids to your 65 and 70 year olds – and they get quite raunchy when they’ve had a few drinks.”
Gordon and Marie Steele, 74 and 70, holiday in Tenerife every year for a boozy break.
The couple, from Merseyside, says their motto is ‘party non stop until you drop.’
Marie, a retired Cadbury’s factory worker, said: “At home we never have any alcohol in the house whatsoever but we go from teetotal to practical alcoholics over night.
“Our golden years are now. We’ve worked hard all our lives and we’ve brought up four children. I feel like now it’s time to look after us.”
Gordon, a retired docker, and Marie are shown throwing a 50th birthday party for their daughter Tracie – who admits she struggles to keep up with her parents.
Tracie said: “When mum and dad fly out to Tenerife they’re completely different.
“They go back to their childhoods – they’re like teenagers. They know how to party hard and long and drink lots. They party harder than I do.
“To party with these OAPS I’m going to have to holiday to get over it.”
Gordon, who admits his winter fuel allowance helps fund his holidays, added: “It doesn’t matter if you’re the richest man that lived in the world - you couldn’t buy one ounce of time and time to me is the most precious thing we ever possess.
“So you’ve got to party non-stop until you drop.”
This is believed to have happened quite literally - with one of their fellow partygoers dying after doing the Hokey Cokey at a bar known as 'God's Waiting Room'.
Gordon said: "When you see the ages of the people down there you realise why it's called that."
Marie added: "It does worry me about dying. Every time we come out there's somebody gone from year to year.
"Sometimes they're a bit younger than us, sometimes a bit older. Of course, when you get to our age, you don't know what's waiting around the corner."
Another OAP is 74-year-old 60s singer Lee Graham, also known as Leapy Lee, who wasn’t ashamed to admit he had a healthy sex life with his 49-year-old girlfriend, Bettina.
Lee was a one-hit wonder in the 60s with single Little Arrows before moving from his West London Home to the island where he now plays gigs.
He said: “Tenerife is a Mecca for OAPS and it suits me because they all remember me. I’m one of them. It’s grey power.”
Grandmother Cheryl Williams is shown downing Tequila Slammer shots on a girls’ night out and even breaks up a fight outside a nightclub.
The 56-year-old moved from Nottingham to Tenerife after her marriage of 30 years broke down and admits she’s never looked back.
Now her motto after a booze-fuelled night is ‘if you can’t remember it, it didn’t happen.’
Cheryl said: “I met my husband when I was 18 and I was with him for 30 years – it was just an existence I think in the end.
“When I decided to leave that was it. I was here on holiday and when I went home I just said I don’t want to be married anymore.”
She added: “When I was married I never went out with the girls, I never had girly things.
“I had to learn to be somebody else. I wasn’t a married woman anymore. I found my youth that’s why I enjoy going out and partying.
“It’s nice to mix with younger people, you get a different outlook on life. “
She added: “I’d never look back. Life is for living no matter how old you are – just enjoy it and live it.
“Don’t go home and have a cup of cocoa, have a glass of wine – it’s much nicer.”
Pete Lackey worked in communications in Leeds before moving to Tenerife 20 years ago after his business went bust and his marriage broke down.
Despite being 60 years old, he landed a job as a bar promoter and is shown spending his break getting drunk in a nearby pub.
Pete admits he tried to come back to the UK three years ago – but couldn’t hack it.
He said: “I couldn’t stand the rain on the windows every morning, I couldn’t stand putting money in the electric meters and gas meters.
“You could not live the lifestyle we live here, back in the UK.
“I’d have to be up in the morning and be at work by 7am and I’d be depressed.
“Here it’s a blue sky when you wake up.”
OAPS Behaving Badly is on Channel 5 on Thursday July 10th at 9pm.
