The same ten Spanish cities appear on every padel travel list. They are on those lists for good reasons. They also now have full courts in October, price premiums that did not exist three years ago, and a tourist padel infrastructure — booking apps, English-speaking coaches, standardised half-day clinic packages — that has smoothed away a lot of what made them interesting in the first place. Here are seven places where the padel is excellent and the tourist padel apparatus has not yet arrived.
Gothenburg, Sweden
Sweden's second city has been building padel infrastructure since 2019 at a rate that rivals Barcelona, and the culture that has formed around it is distinct from anything in Spain: more technical, more focused on drilling over social play, and organised around a serious league system that runs year-round indoors. Gothenburg Padel Centre in Hisingen has sixteen indoor courts and a coaching programme that has produced three national-level players in the past two years. The level ceiling is genuinely high. The city is beautiful, the seafood is excellent, and almost everyone speaks better English than most padel coaches in London.
Bologna, Italy
Italy has been slower than Spain to build padel, which means the courts that do exist tend to be newer, better maintained, and less crowded. Bologna's Circolo del Padel, opened in 2023 on the southern edge of the city, has eight courts, a bar that serves proper aperitivo, and a community of players that skews highly educated and moderately obsessed. The level is 4.0 to 6.0. The city is one of the great overlooked European food destinations. A four-day trip combining padel, the Quadrilatero market, and the two-Michelin-star restaurant that everyone at the club will recommend to you is one of the better weeks available in 2026.
Braga, Portugal
Portugal's third city and arguably its most interesting padel destination. Braga has been building courts faster than Lisbon for the past three years — it has lower land costs, a younger average population, and a university that supplies a constant intake of serious players. The city's best facility, Braga Padel Hub, opened in 2024 with ten courts and a competitive programme that runs from October to April. The level of the regular membership rivals anything outside Estoril. The city itself is beautiful, inexpensive by any European standard, and completely unbothered by tourism.
Antwerp, Belgium
Belgium does not appear on padel travel itineraries. It should. Antwerp's padel scene is small — perhaps eight clubs in the city and its immediate surroundings — but it is run by people who take the sport seriously, which has produced a playing culture that is methodical, competitive, and genuinely welcoming to visiting players. The Padel Factory in the port district has six courts and an open-play programme on Friday evenings that draws forty or fifty players of mixed levels. The port neighbourhood has also become one of the best restaurant districts in Northern Europe, which is the correct context for a padel trip.
Bordeaux, France
France's padel boom has been louder than almost any other European country's over the past three years, and Bordeaux has been among its primary beneficiaries. The city now has over sixty padel courts spread across a dozen clubs, a municipal programme that subsidises court time for under-25 players, and a competitive league that runs from September to June. The best club for visiting players is Padel Bordeaux Lac, on the edge of the city's lake park — twelve courts, excellent coaching, and a social culture that is recognisably French in the best sense: competitive, convivial, and very serious about the post-game glass of wine.
Málaga, the non-obvious choice
Everyone goes to Marbella or Sotogrande. Málaga city, fifteen kilometres to the east of the tourist corridor, has better padel for serious players and almost none of the seasonal tourist premium. Club Padel Indoor Málaga has twelve courts and a competitive programme that runs year-round. The city itself is in the middle of a cultural moment — the Picasso museum, a serious restaurant scene, a regenerated port district — that makes it a considerably more interesting destination than its neighbours. The level at the top clubs matches anything on the Costa del Sol. The prices do not.
A note on timing
All seven of these cities are best visited between October and April, for the same reason that Spain is: the padel is indoors or in the cool of the evening, the serious players are playing rather than on holiday, and the social game is at its most concentrated. June through August, even in Gothenburg, the court quality stays but the community thins. Plan accordingly.