There is something that happens a lot with padel and is not talked about enough: you start looking for a match and end up finding friends. Sometimes even something more, but we will leave that for another chapter.

This sport is not only played inside a 20-by-10 court. Padel continues on the club terrace, in WhatsApp groups, in tournaments, in coffees before the match, in beers afterwards and, if the day goes well, also in the tardeo.

Because in Mallorca there are official sports and unofficial sports. Padel is official. Tardeo in Palma, especially in Santa Catalina, should be federated.

Padel: The Sport Where You Come In to Play and Leave with a Social Calendar

I came to padel after many years connected to basketball. I thought I was simply coming to practise a sport. But I soon understood that padel was also a social network, only with a racket, glass walls and far fewer filters.

In the same week, you can play with someone you have just met, end up sharing a table with that person, join another group of players, sign up for a tournament and receive the classic message: “we’re missing one for tomorrow, are you in?”

Padel has that ability to mix people: locals, foreigners, newly arrived residents, friends of friends, mixed pairs, company groups, players who come from tennis, others who come from the sofa and some who seem to have been born hitting bandejas. And in Mallorca, that multiplies.

The island is small, but the world of padel spreads in a huge way. In the end, you run into the same people on court, at another club, on a terrace, in a tournament… or in Santa Catalina on a Saturday afternoon.

And that is when the great Mallorcan truth appears: sometimes you do not find the padel player you like on court. You find them at tardeo.

What Tardeo Is and Why It Is So Addictive

For those who do not know it, tardeo basically means going out in the afternoon for drinks, music, bar-hopping and socialising without waiting until midnight to start living. It is a brilliant idea.

Especially for those of us who have already moved past the stage where going out at one in the morning seemed like a reasonable plan.

Tardeo has something very practical about it: you start while there is still daylight, you get ready without drama, have a drink, see people, laugh, dance if the group gets into it and, with a bit of luck, get home at an hour that is still compatible with being human the next day.

Perhaps that is why it has fitted so well among people in their thirties, forties and all those who still feel like going out, but also have a certain affection for sleeping — like me, who needs to be in bed before midnight like Cinderella.

In Palma, it has become a very common Friday and Saturday afternoon plan. And if there is one neighbourhood where it works especially well, it is Santa Catalina.

Santa Catalina: Where Tardeo Plays at Home

Santa Catalina has that mix that hooks you: the market, bars, restaurants, terraces, lively streets, local and international atmosphere and the feeling that something is always happening.

You can start by having a bite near the market, continue along Calle Fábrica, move towards the Sant Magí area, have a drink at Bar Cuba, head to Kaelum if the group wants music and end up discovering that “just one drink” was a completely false sentence. It has happened to me.

Once, I went out for tardeo with teammates from my padel team. The idea was calm: have a drink, talk about the season, laugh about some matches and go home at a decent hour.

Of course, none of that happened exactly like that.

We started by talking about padel, as always: how we needed to improve our bandeja, how in the last match we did not cover the middle well enough, how one pair played cross-court really well, how one of us needed to train the wall exit more. But tardeo has its own rules. And by the time we ended up at Kaelum, the tactical analysis had definitely moved into the background.

We danced so much that one of my heels broke. Literally. And that confirmed something I had suspected for a long time: I am made for padel shoes, not high heels.

Like a good athlete, I did not give up. I kept dancing barefoot. It was not very elegant. It was not very practical either, but it was extremely fun.

The problem came later, when it was time to go home limping, with the broken heel in my hand and that dignity you try to keep when you know perfectly well that the next day your legs will not know whether they are sore from the match or from the tardeo.

And that is also Mallorca.

The court, the terrace, the friends, the music, the laughter and an anecdote you know they will remind you of for a very long time.

Tardeo as an Optional Part of Grip and Trip

For me, this is one of the charms of experiencing Mallorca from the inside.

Not everything happens in the most touristy places. Local Mallorca is lived through plans that begin in a simple way: a morning match, a slow lunch, a quick shower, a message to the group and an afternoon in Santa Catalina that nobody really knows how will end.

That is why, in our Grip and Trip packages, we offer the option of experiencing tardeo on Saturday afternoon. Not as an obligation, because we completely understand anyone who, after playing, prefers a shower, a siesta and relaxing at the spa.

But for those who want to keep discovering Palma, tardeo is a very local way to do it. After a morning of padel, the plan can continue in Santa Catalina: a drink, some tapas, music, atmosphere, conversation and that feeling that the trip is starting to create its own stories.

Because, in the end, that is what we aim for at Grip and Trip: for padel to be the starting point, but not the only memory.

The Mallorca That Does Not Appear on a Postcard

When we think of Mallorca, we sometimes imagine only beaches, coves and beautiful hotels. But the Mallorca locals know is also found in other places: on a club terrace after playing, in a WhatsApp group where someone is always missing to complete a match, or on a street in Santa Catalina on a Saturday afternoon.

In that moment when someone says, “just one and then we’ll go,” and we all know it is not true.

That authentic Mallorca, the one that does not appear in tourist guides, is the one we love to show at Grip and Trip. Because playing padel in Mallorca is already a fantastic experience, but playing, meeting people, laughing on court and ending the day in Santa Catalina understanding why tardeo should also count as a sport… that is experiencing Palma from the inside.

And be careful. Because you may come for the padel, but end up coming back for the group. Or for the tardeo. One thing is clear: if you come with me, bring trainers.