Thousands of Celtic fans filled the pubs and bars of Santa Ponsa on Sunday as Brendan Rodgers’ side hammered St Johnstone to move a step closer to another treble success.
The Mallorcan resort is a special place for many Celtic fans, the gaffer even has a gaff nearby, alongside Jurgen Klopp, Robert Lewandowski and Rafael Nadal.
Tucked away in the south-west corner of the Balearic Island, a 30 minute/50 euros taxi from Palma Airport, Santa Ponsa is the essential holiday destination for thousands of fans who tend to have their next trip back booked up before they fly home.
Hampden was also bathed in sunshine but if you don’t get a ticket for next months Scottish Cup Final a long weekend in Santa Ponsa should provide a very decent consolation with the bonus of almost guaranteed great weather, around the 25 degrees mark in late May.
If you haven’t visited you really should treat yourself, first timers are taken aback by how Celtic friendly the resort is, there are Celtic colours everywhere with the bars going out of their way to provide a relaxed and friendly atmosphere.
Three pubs stand out above the rest, Brennan’s, Celts Well and The Dubliner are well known to regular visitors, each passing season they raise the standards to give fans exactly what they want with social media overflowing with videos and pictures of fun in the sun.
Harry’s Big Telly at The Square is rapidly becoming one of Mallorca’s leading tourist attractions, serving up the action to the overflow from Celts Well with outdoor seating for around 400 fans. At this time of year it is best to get along half an hour before kick-off to secure a seat in the sun.
The regular bar staff duo of Marina and Katie are joined on matchdays by a full team of extra staff to keep thirst at bay as fans of all ages enjoy a unique viewing of the match.
At night time Karl Byrne is centre stage, back for his 16th season he remains as sharp as ever with a detailed knowledge of every town in Scotland and Ireland to catch out the regulars and visitors.
Every night a few ‘victims’ are selected for good natured banter, getting the treatment is taken as a badge of honour in among a strong repertoire of tunes, many specially adapted to add a Celtic flavour.
Along on ‘The Strip’ at Brennan’s Sports Bar Michelle puts in epic shifts as she spins the plates of serving drinks, clearing tables, chatting away and ensuring that the thirsty fans are all well looked after. Only Daizen Maeda puts in similar shifts, both of them also like to smile.
Brennan’s has a great outdoor set up with a singer on until 11pm, after that the action switches indoors and goes on until late o’clock. Outdoors the acts tend to change every 7/10 days with younger singers from Derry especially popular.
Further up the road on the Ramon de Montcalm is The Dubliner which has multiple screens as Sonia, Sofia and Ciaran leave no stone unturned to make matchday that bit special.
The Dubliner is more of a night time venue, from the start of April through to mid October the brilliant Mairtin O’Huigin is putting in 10 out of 10 performances, ably assisted by Darrin Cahill and Cammy (on the fiddle).
From 9.30pm through until 3.30am the music flows, The Dubliner is also popular with all ages with the Management Team spending their winter looking for the best acts on the circuit to entertain holidaymakers.
Una Dunne, Kaitlin Tierney, Ciarin from Errigal and others appear in The Dubliner for 10 to 14 days at a time with Chris from Erin Go Bragh booked in for the whole of July and August.
As well as the obvious Celtic attractions Santa Ponsa has a brilliant beach and great variety of restaurants offering up Spanish, Chinese and Italian food with a few Steak Houses and Burger places also popular.
Nearby are the resorts of Magaluf, worth an afternoon visit, Palma Nova and Camp de Mar to add some variety.
There are no shortage of flights from Glasgow, Edinburgh and Prestwick all heading to Palma, you can sort of guess who else on your flight is heading on to Santa Ponsa where you won’t walk past a pub playing Simply The Best, Penny Arcade or any of the other desperate anthems that blight other resorts.
Una Dunne this month in The Dubliner.
Outdoors at Celts Well, The Square
As it says, The Dubliner on Ramon de Montcalm
Brennan’s Sports Bar, also on Ramon de Montcalm
Looks and sounds pretty awesome indeed – Must try sometime !
Ta for the heads up !!!
Celts Wells best bar in santaponsa the owner harry is the best as all the staff look after us every year be going there for 35 years the atmosphere is special my daughter has being going all this time now the grandchildren they just love it