MAGALUF, Mallorca — A fit and ruddy 19-year-old with blond hair and a sheepish smile, James Henderson is tanning on a beach in Magaluf, a town on the Spanish island Mallorca that has long been the destination of choice for young Britons in search of a boozy holiday in the sun. Asked to recount the revelry of the day before, he grins like a man who has just completed a decathlon and is pretty psyched about his performance.
There were a few hours of “pre-drinking,” as he put it, at his hotel, then on to Punta Ballena, a crammed and gritty strip of pubs, tattoo parlors and lap-dance emporiums that bursts with action until dawn every summer day. By the time he and his vacation buddy headed to bed, at 3 a.m., they had each knocked back roughly 20 drinks over the course of 15 hours.