Hotel PortAventura

This was by far the best Holiday we have been on ...2 adults& 1 child age 5 , you could not fault the place for the food and for the location to the park and water park, but be warned that prices have gone tru the roof, 2.50 euro for an ice cream. 2 euro fo a small water, 12 euro ror a vodka and coke plus 1 beer.....on the 2nd day i went into Salou and got a case of water a case of coke and a litre of vodka all for less than we spent on the 1st day.....This saved us a fortune over the week.

Do vist the beach club the 7 pools are fantastic, the kids club is great, we could not fault the food, and the rooms were massive....all in i think it was well worth the money and would book again next year

Just got back yesterday from 2 weeks at Portaventura Hotel in Salou. We'd been to the park itself 10 years ago, so was looking forward to seeing how it had developed -- and was not disappointed.

The Hotel itself is in apartment blocks over 3 floors which is better than a big towering hotel. There was myself, hubby and children (4 & 7) sharing a room with 2 kingsize beds... but it was adequate... unfortunately we didnt have a balcony, but we had a lovely room overlooking the pool (as requested). The room also had a free fridge, FREE safe, hairdryer, tv, and complimentary packs for us and the children (which were lovely).

The pool areas wasnt very busy whilst we was there, and contrary to other reviews we was all allowed inflatables in the pool (including balls), but only in the shallow areas. There are lifeguards around the pool and they range from being extra-vigilant, to just sat chatting and not paying attention to whats going on. The main pool is a big area with shallow bits sloping into it, there is a nice waterfall also. The other pool is a deeper pool and has a lovely jacuzzi. There is also a health club/gym with 3 jacuzzis in.

The food had such a vast amount of choice on for both breakfast and evening meal, but its like everything, you do tire of it after a week... we used the Dine Around pass to go to the Port Regatta (Italian) restuarant twice which was nice, and also the El Coyote (Mexican) restaurant one night -- which was very very lovely but expensive and the portions where a bit small. You get to pick a timeslot for breakfast, and unfortunately the later ones had all gone so ours was 8.45-9am... after the first couple of days setting the alarm to wake-up, we were late in one morning, but they let you in with no problems, thus every other day thereafter we had breakfast around 10am!

The Kids Club was good as you got to leave the kids there for 2 hours whilst you went on the big rides/shopping in Salou, etc. And the kids loved it there.

The evening entertainment is a bit sparse, there is games with the kids reps from 4pm, then the mini-disco at 9.15, and a show at 10pm - but the show finishes at 10.45pm and then there is nothing else to do. Some of the shows were great - Magic, Puppet Show, Sesame Street... but there was a few shows that (in our opinion) were rubbish - an "alternative" Red Riding Hood, Pinocchio and Wizard of Oz bored us to death!!! The entertainment reps were good with the kids and my little boy especially loved one of them.

The Shows in the park are fantastic -- defo see the Bubblebou show (we saw it twice), also the Fort Frenze and the Aloha shows are very good. The park itself has fantastic rides - the Furious Baco and Dragon Khan are great, and be prepared for a LOT more of a Splash on Tutuki Splash! With the Hotel we had 2 express passes each (8 in total) for the top 8 rides, which were great as you literally walked straight onto the rides thus avoiding the queues.

The Caribe Aquapark was fantastic, all the slides were great, although the indoor ones are a bit lethal!! And the wave machine, omg 7ft waves!!!

The Private Beach Club was quite good, approx 7 swimming pools overlooking the beach. The beach itself isnt private, but it is a little quieter than the main Salou one.

Salou itself, especially Port Aventura, is a bit pricey at the minute with the £ - E rate not being very good.... we spent an absolute fortune on gifts for the kids from the shops on site, espeically all the Sesame Street stuff.

Don't go to Bonavista Market with the Reps as it would of cost us £50, we got a local bus instead and it only cost £12. The Market itself was a let-down though, mainly clothes and shoes... none of the usual African Ceramics, Paintings, etc... and no cheaper than the shops.

Overall a fantastic holiday, none of us wanted to leave, and we are planning on going again in a couple of years.

Just back today from Hotel PortAventura. This is our third trip here, we have also stayed twice at the sister hotel - El Paso. It is perfect for a week away as the flight (from Gatwick) is under 2 hours and transfer to this hotel is approx.15 minutes. Arriving early morning meant that unfortunately our room would not be ready until 3pm so we checked in and went straight to the theme park which is literally through a turnstile. The hotel is beautifully designed and maintained. By having the half board option, you walk up to a fantastic relaxed buffet style breakfast with hot items being cooked freshly in front of you. The choice for dinner was different every night, you really cannot fault the choice on offer and the quality was definately 4 star. The only thing that upset me was that the coach pick up this morning to the airport meant that we had to miss our breakfast, I 'm sure I'll get over it! Look you wake up, have a great power shower, go and enjoy your leisurely breakfast and if you do as we did, on the days we were going into the park (it opened at 10) so you put your feet up until opening time. Otherwise we relaxed by the pool which is so picturesque but be warned - the water is not heated. The hotel eateries were great so lunch was easy and then you just had to shower, relax some more and then it was dinner time! Evening entertainment is never up to much and the area nearer the beach is not very nice, which is a shame because the beach at Salou is beautifully sandy. If you do as we did and stay on site you will not be disappointed. Enjoy!

This was our second time to stay at this Hotel. It was even better this time. Breakfast is great start to the day with a huge choice. Staff are very friendly. Convenience of the hotel being in the park is priceless. Night time entertainment for kids is excellent.

We stayed at the port aventura hotel for the second time last June. we went back because we couldn't fault it the first time. the rooms were clean and tidied every day. the cleaners left sweets for our two girls aged three and four every time and even folded their nighties!

the pools are really clean and the lifeguards vigilent. we weren't allowed to play with balls in the pool though but i can see why. just a short stroll from the restaurant, under the waterfall to the theme park which we could visit an unlimited number of times. Brilliant for our flighty kids. The beach club is a short land train ride away and you don't have to take towels, they are provided free of charge, as are life jackets for the non swimmers so you don't even have to carry arm bands.

The food was superb, always plenty of choice and always fresh. the only downside is queues, but it's to be expected when you're half board. You can eat in certain restaurants on the theme park if you give notice to the hotel staff. they give you a voucher for a certain amount of euros and anything more than that you pay the rest yourself.

The water park was fantastic with unlimited free access too. the only pain is having to pay for your loungers when you get in there. (the deckchairs round the children's area are free).

We loved it, our kids loved it and we are going back to Port Aventura for a third time this year and trying out the El Paso for the first time.

We stayed at Hotel Portaventura on 20 October for 1 week. It was a very enjoyable week, with something for everyone to enjoy. We had good weather for all but two days where one day it was cold and the other was cold and rainy.

The hotel - very clean, staff very friendly and helpful, food was good (we had meals at the other two hotels, El Paso and Caribe and found Portaventura to be the best, although the other two weren't bad). Hotel very well laid out. Entertainment at hotel very good. Hotel was decorated for Halloween, the kids thought this was great! Characters (Betty Boop, Pink Panther, and Woody Woodpecker) wandered around the hotel and were very friendly and (not like Disneyland Paris). Stayed in a Standard room with 2 double beds, plenty of room but not massive. Location to the park was fantastic, from our room it took about 1 min to walk to the park gates! although couldn't hear noise from the park. Also only a 15 minute walk into Salou for the beach, bars and souvenier shops (if you want them) Plenty of bus trips available from Salou to explore other places Barcelona, Monserrat etc.

The Park - During the week the park wasn't very busy at all and could get on the rides straight away without queuing, although a few rides not open, mainly the water rides (Rapids were open). Halloween parade on Saturday night10 pm worth watching, fireworks show good, although on saturday they don't start til 12.15 They also have them on Sunday at 9.30pm. Some of the scary characters were a little too scary for the younger kids. The park at the weekend was very busy and we tried to avoid in the day although we did use the fast passes to get on some rides. Found the park to be very clean, set in lovely surroundings.

A good week had by all. We went to Disneyland Paris (stayed at Hotel Cheyenne) last October which we all enjoyed but if I had to compare would say Portaventura was better because the weather was warmer and hotel a lot nicer, and our children aged 8 and 13 said the rides were better!!

From start to finish, this hotel and holiday was fab. We went with our 4 year old son. We checked in at 10pm and there was no queue. Staff very friendly and because we had missed dinner they gave us a voucher to get something to eat at Cafe Aventura instead. I had read some negative reviews about the food here and asked if we could exchange for drinks instead. This was no problem and when we went to Cafe Aventura they gave us as much drink as we wanted!!!

Our room was large and had a super king size bed and a single bed and still plenty of room to move. There is a fridge, safe and hairdryer. It was cleaned every day and they had even left a woody woodpecker toiletries bag full of goodies for our son which he loved.

Breakfast was great. Full english, fresh pancakes, selection of ham/cheese, croissants, loads of fresh fruit. Evening meal - we loved the buffet at the hotel. Loads of variety which changed daily and cakes to die for!! We did eat at the Italian at the Hotel which we enjoyed and just used our dine around vouchers (20 euros per adult, 10 per child).

Characters in hotel grounds every morning and evening - Shrek, Princess Fiona, Pink Panther, Woody woodpecker, Betty Boop,Popeye, Sesame Street. Loads of photo opportunities. Mini disco at 9:15pm every night and a couple of the characters dance at the end and then get photos taken with the children. At 10pm there is a show - magician, acrobats,pinnochio - all very good. Wine only 8.50 euros for a full bottle, 5.25 for a half and 2 euros for a glass. Beer was 3.25 euros per pint.

I cannot fault this holiday in any way. Room, hotel and food amazing, Portaventura theme park on your doorstep (literally!), constant characters to cuddle and get photos with and weather fab. We walked into Salou in 15 minutes and often went and sat at the Caribe pool as it was quiet and VERY picturesque. Great place to sunbathe and only 5 minute walk away. If you have booked this hotel you will not be disappointed. If you are swithering....just do it!! My son was always amused and we even got to go into barcelona on a day trip ( 11/2 hour away). FAB FAB FAB!

My family and i visited this hotel on holiday from 16th August to the 26th August 2008. After reading so many mixed reviews about this hotel we were actually quite nervous as to what we would actually find.

Firstly the reception was fine we actually checked in at 10.pm and there was no queue at all, however the staff could not have been more polite friendly and helpful and we found this throughout the hotel. The rooms were clean and tidy and our room overlooked the pool which was fine.

It is well worth paying the extra to stay at this hotel as you can walk straight into the park without queing with thousands of other people. The park is great fun and with this hotel you have fast pass which cuts down the queing time greatly. My children aged twelve and ten loved the rides though my ten your old was not tall enough for some of the rides. The park we found is often a bit less busy in the evenings. You only need two days to do the park it is not as big as Euro Disney and you will get tired in the heat!!.

The help yourself buffet in the hotel is fine though it can get a bit busy in the evenings, it is lovely to sit and eat outside as it is a bit quiter. They have a half decent wine list with some very nice Rioja which we enjoyed.

The other super feature of this hotel is the Beach Club,lovely swimming pools and a nice beach, though the prices to eat are hefty!!.

I had very few complaints about the whole holiday, we hired a car for a few days and visited a few places around Reus. Salou is a complete dump full of chavs and tat. Cambrils is a little better. We drove out to Mont Blanc lovely old walled town with interesting caves and a Monastery nearby, once you get away from the coast Spain is so much nicer. We also visited Tarragona a lovely town with some interesting roman ruins.

My only complaint about the hotel Port Adventura is that they never seemed to have enough bar staff especially in the indoor cocktail bar and you always had a long wait for a drink!, this was annoying in the evenings when you wanted a drink before dinner.

This was a great holiday it is worth paying the extra to stay in this hotel as you get a better class of tourist, this may sound a bit snobby but i have never seen so many awful British tourists as there are in Salou!. It is embarrasing to be British!!.

Just back from an excellent week long break in this resort. It was better than I expected. The Hotel was excellent in every way. The staff couldn't have been nicer. Great quality food at both breakfast & dinner and plenty of variety. Yes our room was also miles away from reception but was large & leading out to the pool which was fantastic. We were in and out of the theme park every day. It was great to have it on your doorstep as our 2 year old could come back for his nap or just to take a break. The evening entertainment was very good.

All in all I can't fault it and we'll be returning

I stayed here with my daughters aged 10 and 11 for two weeks. We had a fabulous time. The hotel is in the park really which meant we could wander in and out all day, avoiding busy/hot times. The hotel itself was great, the room was good, bigger than I thought it would be, we had no balcony which we were dissapointed in at first but never really missed. The room seamed miles away from the main reception down some very long winding corridors and was quite confusing for younger guests who easily got lost. We saw quiter a few.

The hotels bar was never very busy, waiter service outside only at night. It has a small cafe for buns and coffee etc for mornings when you miss breakfast. Breakfast was a good continental breakfast plenty of choice, clean and well organised. We had an early breakfast time which we discovered we could have changed to a later one but we found it okay. We are vegetarian and the buffet at night was good with plenty choice and we could always find something. You can use some of the speciallity restaurants throughout the resort instead of going for a buffet, we found this limited, at guest services you can ask to see the menus, which we did and found only one, the Italian within the hotel itself was any good for us. We went quite a few times and really enjoyed it.

The shows at night are okay, a bit twee but entertaining. The pool was good, clean and well maintained, only odd thing was being fair Scottish women we were trying to cover up our shoulders to stop them burning, they wouldn't let the girls in the pool with a t shirt on. I also saw them stop a heavily pregnantwoman who was sitting in the shallows of the pool from reading her newspaper?

We were quite exhausted by the time we got back, the park was great, hilly and not good for those with walking problems, you can hire a motorised wheelchair at the entrance I believe. We went on almost everything,(not the big big scary rides) You get some fast pass tickets when you arrive, we kept ours for the last couple of days to do all the things we liked. At times the queues could be over an hour long, we just never queued that long, after nine your hotel door key/card can be used as a fast pass, we did that a lot. You can also use your card to buy gifts etc from the site shops and have them delivered to your hotel,

Salou is okay, hot Blackpool really, We went in a few times, we took a taxi in as it turned out cheaper than the trolley train that runs from the park, and it was quicker, lots of shops selling tat, a few nice shops down Barcelona Street, selling clothes , shoes swimwear etc, Their is a really nice cafe down at the harbour at the side of the road, the name escapes me though, They sold the most lovely fresh fruit slush drinks, mandarin, mango lemon etc and one of my girls loved their yoghurt slush drinks,(she is still talking about them) It has blue and white signage if you are down that way.

All in all great holiday would go back tomorrow which is a good sign. Just as good as Euro Disney if not better.

Only gripe, queues at reception, They took so long to see you. Go to customer services usually smaller wueue and they can answer the same questions. All the staff we came across in the hotel was very helpful.

We have just returned from a lovely break at the Hotel Port Aventura. The hotel is massive and takes a day to get your bearings, but it is fantastic. Reception staff and guest services staff are all really helpful with excellent english - nothing was ever too much trouble. When you check in, you are select a time slot for breakfast, and reception were always really accommodating on the few mornings we wanted to change our time. I think it's like anything, if you're nice and polite and respectful, people will try and help you. You can hire pool towels from the fitness centre. The rooms were good, well cleaned with plenty of towels and toiletries. The buffet evening meal became a little bland over 7 nights, but we simply went to guest services each day, and reserved other restaurants at the Port Aventura, in the park or at the Caribe and El Paso hotels. Occassionally we had to pay an additional 10 or 15 Euros as we'd chosen food which took us over our limit, but it was worth it. We also ate at Lumine at the Beach Club one evening, and that was an absolute treat - pricey though, but highly recommended. For a theme park holiday, you really cannot beat this hotel of the 3 "resort" hotels - the location of the Caribe and the El Paso mean its a hike to the parks, or fight to get on the free transport. With the hotel Port Aventura, the theme park is literally in your back garden. The resort of Salou is exceptionally run down and dated, but staying on the park itself, meant it didn't really matter where you were, as everything was on site. We would definitely visit again. Highly recommended.

It's very interesting to read some of the reviews for this hotel and I guess everyone will have a different experience but we found this hotel to be fantastic and our & year old son would agree 100%. It is geared very much towards children so not sure how couples with nokids would get on.

Yes our room was some way from reception but it mant it was closer to a swimming pool and entrance to the theme park. Rooms were clean and roomy and yes walls are paper think so it just depends how noisy your neighbours are!

The food was great considering it was mass produced in the buffet apart from a couple of dishes being slightly cold we had no complaints. It's worth trying the other restaurants as well as they are very good and you get money towards these if you do not use the buffet. I've read about queues for meals but even when the hotel was nearly full there were no signficiant queues for the buffet eeither at breakfast in the evening. Any queues moved pretty quickly and no complaints re this.

Hotel staff were excellent and everyone one of the recption staff spoke very good English (certainly better than most of our Spanish I would guess!) They were very attentive to any queries.

Pools in the hotel were lovely and we never really struggled to get any sunbeds.

Lack of a supermarket was the only small issue as water at 1.5 Euros for half a litre was expensive. I'd recommend a visit into Salou as you can get 5 litres of water for under 1 Euro!!

The theme park was fantastic and the express tickets came in very handy as queues were long but whcih theme park doesn;t have long queues?! One useful thing we found out was that you could use your room card as an express ticket after 21.00 every night. Food is very expensive for what you get in the theme park so be aware.

The Caribe Aquatic park is worth going to if you have kids but they do charge for the use of inflatables etc so bring your own towels to save a few Euro's!

The Beach Club was good to see but one visit was enough for us but the beach was lovely if your into that.

All in all this was a great holiday and we will definitely be back to this hotel as any faults I could find would be minor and very picky hence not worth mentioning!

Have recently returned from a week at Hotel Portaventura. The hotel was excellent, rooms were clean and spacious. The buffet package was very good. Pools and grounds were well kept. Direct access to the theme park was very good.

Check in took about 40 minutes as there was lots of other guests arriving at the same time.

Transfer time from Reus is about 20 minutes.

Beach club is delightful and very relaxing, for best results aim to get there soon after it opens.

Trains to Barcelona run from local station. Timetables from reception. Return cost for 2 adults and 2 children was 40 euros, tickets have to be brought when you get to Barcelona. The tourist bus is about 60 euros for the day (family of 4). Aim to get to Barcelona early to get most from the day.

The park was good but did get busy during the day so try and do the popular rides early. Bear in mind that some of the park only opens at 11.00.

Caribe water park was enjoyable but again did get busy.

Hotel was very peaceful at night.

Would recomend this hotel for families.

We, a family of four with a daughter aged 6 and a son aged 2 spent seven nights at this hotel which exceded all our expectations. The hotel was clean, the staff were friendly, although we were kept waiting a long time at reception checking out, checking in was no problem, and the food was excellent and varied. There were a lot of people doing surveys, and I think they have taken action where there has been criticism in the past. There were sometimes queues for breakfast, but if people were standing for more than about 5 minutes they opened up a room in another restaurant with all the same choices. The main problem was people with tickets for the first sitting (8:00-9:15) arriving after the second sitting (9:30-10:30) had started, so not the hotel's fault. When we were leaving they had changed this to 5 sittings, you only get a time slot of 15 minutes, with gaps of 15 minutes between sittings, but you are able to choose your own times. We weren't affected as we still had the old style ticket so I don't know how this worked. Choice was excellent, from toast, croissants, bread, cold meats and cheese to a full English breakfast. We never even needed to buy lunch! Dinner was just as good, standard choices were rice dishes, 2 or 3 types of pasta with a choice of sauces and hamburgers, and each day there were 4 or 5 other choices of meats and fish, always freshly cooked and never seemed to run out. The Mexican themed buffet on the Saturday evening was excellent. You have the option to eat in the other restaurants but we didn't bother with 2 young children and with the variety available it wasn't necessary. The only problem was the fact that the restaurant doesn't open until 19:00, sometimes we would have preferred to ea earlier, but id does stay open until 22:30. Kids' entertainment was excellent, our 2 year-old made himself the centre of attention at the Mini Disco, not much for adults, but then who needs it with all the excellent shows in the park. Good swimming pools on site and even better at the beach club; they say the busses run evry 40 minutes, but don't worry if they're full, they run much more frequently than that. You are a little isolated in the hotel/park however, they tell you that Salou is 10-15 minutes walk away but that is from the entrance on the main road and they forget to tell you that it takes the same time to walk from the hotel to the main entrance! Apart from visiting a supermarket, there's not really much to go to Salou for anyway, the small beach at the beach club is far better. As for the park itself, it is second to none that we have been to, excellent shows, good selection of rides and a superb fireworks display each evening in ths summer. Our only criticism is that there are no shortcuts, you have to follow the route right through the park wherever you are trying to go. You get passes to avoid the queues for 8 major rides, you can only use them once for each ride, unless you arrive just as the ride is about to leave and they haven't time to mark them off, or if you ask a willing member of staff if he would be so kind as not to mark the ticket so your daughter can have just one more ride on the Stampida on the lats day, but you get two tickets each (even the smallest children) so you can pool them. Also, after 20:00 don't use the tickets, just show your hotel passes and you can use the express service as much as you like. This isn't very well publicised and if you show your express tickets, even though they are cleary marked as hotel tickets they will mark them off. All in all a very enjoyable holiday, this is not so much a hotel as a mini holiday village with an excellent theme park attached. I would give this hotel 6/5 if that were possible!

Booked through First choice and feel got an amazing deal. Travelled with husband and 2 young children (aged 4 and 6). Went in the school holidays for 11 nights. Hotel was really clean with picturesque pool area with pools to suit all the family. Our rooms were closest to the theme park and despite this were quiet - they had a firework display late each night, but the only time any of us heard it were if we were still awake. The theme park was excellent with plenty of rides specifically for younger children as well as a large number being suitable for all the family. There are also some fanastic 'white knuckle' type rides. Plenty of 'universal' characters, and although quite not as well known as those in the Disney parks the kids enjoyed nevertheless-they came back begging for Sesame Street DVD's! Shrek was there however, and the kids were delighted when both he and Fiona attended the hotel's mini-disco. The buffet restaurants in the hotel were good enough although once we tried both the Sea food restaurant and Pizza restaurant also part of the hotel we found it hard to go back. As half-boarders we could book these or a variety of other restaurants in the other hotels near the park and some in the park itself. You receive vouchers up to the value of the half board to offset against the overall bill. The Seafood restaurant (La Cascada) was amazing-and our bills were very little more than the drinks bill in the buffet bar. The Italian restarant is great too, but a bit more relaxed. As the vouchers exchanged can be used for anything - whereas the buffet doesn't include drinks, so the cost was either the same as but often cheaper than using the buffet-with good quality food too! It's also located right next to where they were staging the nightly kids disco so ideal for dining with young children.

As well as unlimited theme park access we also had a days pass for the water park by the hotel which was good for a change.

There is an exclusive beach club for hotel residents-more pools right by the beach, with a complementary shuttle service.

We also enjoyed a day out in Barcelona - football and La Ramblas-First Choice offered a large variety of trips and many different ones for Barcelona.

This holiday wanted for nothing and we'll definitely be going back when the kids are a bit older.

Can't believe it isn't as well known as Disneyland Paris - it's less than 2 hours away and the weather's warmer.

how can i say it amazing....

hotel ten out of ten....private entrance to portaventura park a real plus...best of all beach club amazing absolutely breath taking....

my children are 4 and 12 and they loved it...

best of all we went in summer holidays and the pool is empty most of the time never had to worry about a sunbed get one anytime of the day...food great entertainment fantastic you wont be disapointed i will go back in a few years time for sute....

caribe water park not great but that wasnt a bother as you get free entry and its a two min walk from the park....

Having experienced Disney on a number of occasions we decided to try PortAventura. We were not disappointed. On arrival, despite large queues, we were efficiently dealt with at reception and were allocated a lovely lower ground floor room with a door out to one of the pools. The room was spacious and clean, all that you could want.

The meals at Hotel PortAventura were reasonable, the dinner buffet got a bit samey after a couple of nights, so i would recommend eating at the Italian restaurant a couple of times, you are provided with vouchers for this by the hotel, which more than covered what we ate. The breakfasts were great, and there was always plenty to go around.

The both the park and the water park were only a few minutes walk away from the hotel. The park itself was great, with amazing rides for both adults and children. Some queues were long, so i would recommend a fast pass to avoid spending half your holiday waiting. The mass throngs of Spanish teenagers were loud and annoying, but try your best to ignore them, if you can!

Me and my Husband stayed here for our honeymoon we LOVED it, had a great room overlooking the larger pool, the whole complex was so clean, lots to chose from for meals, easy access to the theme and water park, staff were friendly and helpfull lots of characters good evening entertainment, fast passes were great as the park was very busy, pools were clean and never overcrowded. Overall an excellent stay and want to go back.

No matter what Hotel you stay in, you'll always encounter problems, but its how these problems are dealt with that make a lasting impression.

We arrived at 1pm to Hotel Port Aventura, our bags were collected at the door, and we checked in (a bit of a lengthy process - obviously they have to go through a pre-ordained speech about what all the 57 passes you get are for!!). We then trotted off to our room about half a kilometre away through the corridors - (This Hotel is MASSIVE!), and our bags were delivered.

We were just relaxing and unwinding in the room when I heard somebody at the door, I opened it to find two other tourists just after checking in with the same room number. Obviously we were there first, so they went back (the half kilometre!) to reception. Reception phoned twice to check who we were etc... which I found bizarre, but later that night a note was pushed through the door to say that we would be getting a big basket of fruit and water to apologise for the inconvience - it wasn't even an inconvenience, just a bit irritating. This gave me an immediate positive feeling about the place.

The pool to the lower end of the hotel (called the beach club, not to be confused with the main external beach club) is fantastic. Enormous - it took me nearly 5 mins to swim from one side to the other around all the corners. Here there are plentiful sun loungers available, and our room opened onto the pool - always a bonus.

The cafe in the middle of this pool is excellent as many have commented on, and the staff very helpful and bi-lingual.

The cafe aventura has got some bad press here - take some advice, if you stick to orange juice and croissants you won't go wrong. My wife and I skipped breakfast every morning - 9:15 was the latest we could go according to our booking (each hotel section designated a different brekkie time - a bit odd), so there was no way we were getting up for a buffet. Instead we went to the Cafe Aventura every day. Internet access is available here too. I will say the sandwiches looked a bit un-appetising, and I avoided them.

The rooms are large, clean and our air-con gave no problems as others have been reporting, perhaps its the luck of the draw. The walls are a bit thin, and we had a noisy family beside us, but the kids were young and they were quiet by 11pm, so we had no issues.

As for the main event - the park itself, well its just fabulous. Theres a dizzying array of rides, too many to mention, suffice to say though there is definitely something for everyone. The food in the park varies from cheap fast food muck (at countless kiosks) to more formal sit down type meals. I would reccomend the Raco Del Mar just inside the park for lovely sea food, and La Hacienda in Mexico land for Mexican food (fajitas a bit small portions, but still good). Be warned - you will pay for food in the park, cheap it ain't. Unlimited access from the Hotel is a bonus.

The external beach club is beautiful - we skipped the 7 pools and went down to the beach itself - it seems semi private down there, the water is spotless and maintained excellently.

Security is top class in the Hotel, you need passes to go eveywhere, and god knows in this day and age if you have young kids you want to feel safe, the Hotel delivers.

A few downsides (nothing major). As others have pointed out the main roundabout of Port Aventura is a good 10 to 15 min walk from the Hotel, making train / bus connections difficult. The internal Hotel Resturaunt is very very expensive and only to certain tastes. You can't get big bottles of water and must buy the smaller bottles at 1.50 a pop, not a major big deal but it adds up.

Overall though I can't complain - we had a lovely time, and I recommend this resort to everyone and anyone, from young to old, there is something there for everyone. You can be negative and pick faults if you really really want to, but the positives far far outweight the negatives here.

We,2 adults and 2 kids 7&4,have just returned from a 2 week stay at hotel portaventura,and had a fantastic time.

The hotel itself is fabulous,its like a spanish village the way its set out.

There were only a few negative things about the hotel but nothing that would put me off going back(and we plan to do so next year!!)

some of the reception staff were very unhelpful but there is a reception for guests to get info from and these were always extremely helpful.

The buffet was never very hot,but was not really a problem for us as we ate in the restaurants available,which you are given 21 euro per adult and 11 euro per child(66 euro in total) and we found this to be quite enough as the kids were not big eaters over there what with the heat.

The rooms are basic but clean.

I really loved this hotel and the fact that we had our own entrance into the theme park was excellent,you can come and go as you please which is such a great thing when you have kids that tire easily!!

The fireworks are 2nd to none,i highly recommend that you see them at least once during your stay.It can be quite expensive to eat in the park,but its like that in most big parks.

The fast passes are a god send during the day but most nights we didnt need them as you could get off and then get on the ride before it starts again.

We would have liked a bit of entertainment in the hotel,the kids are well catered for with the mini disco every night.

I would recommend this hotel to anyone,we really loved it and are planning our trip there next year already.

Just returned from a week at the PortAventura Hotel. We were a little apprehensive as my son has several food allergies including an allergy to nuts but I cannot sing the praises highly enough of all the staff in the restaurants within the hotel. Either at breakfast or at dinner the chef would come out and personally go through the buffet with us informing us of which dishes my son should avoid (which were few). All the food was splendidly presented throughout the service with a very good choice which would suit all tastes. There was entertainment every night for children in the square as well as every afternoon in one of the many supberb pools. Our room was very clean (as was everywhere within the hotel and theme park) and had a fantastic view over the pool. Access to the theme park could not have been easier (although eating with allergies was somewhat limiting within the park). The Caribe Aquatic Park next door to the PortAventura Theme Park was a little disappointing. Although we visited it during the week it was completely packed but the children were well catered for with a pool for the little ones as well as big slides for the older ones. If visiting, make sure you hire a double ring in the morning as by the afternoon they were all gone.

Went with hubby, daughter 16 and her friend as a treat for finishing GCSE's. Had a great time, park was easy for the girls to come and go as they pleased, leaving us free to relax. We stayed half board and thought the food was excellent for a large hotel catering for so many, I am usually very fussy, hate the chips and burger thing, so really enjoyed different fish, Mexico theme night etc. Room was OK clean, except a bit of mold in the bathroom on the tiles, yuck! Beach club was lovely. Water park was a rip off especially if you've been to Florida water parks. 4 euros for sun beds! Good value for money. Take your own tea bags, No kettle in the rooms.

Myself, my partner and son spent a week at this hotel. After reading some reviews I was a bit worried about it. This is advertised as a 4 star hotel and it certainly is. The room we were allocated was big, with two big double beds, which were actually quite comfortable. We had a view of the gorgeous pool, which I had requested when booking. The staff at the hotel were very friendly and helpful. The hotel is set out like a medetteranian village. There were a couple of places to eat, a cafe where you could get snacks and also a poolside cafe. Woody Woodpecker and Betty Boop were regular visitors to the hotel too. Place was nipping clean. Rooms cleaned every day, fresh towels provided every day and bedding changed every other day. Access to the PortAventura theme park without having to queue, or pay, which is a bonus. you could come and go as you pleased. All in all, had an excellent holiday and cannot fault the accommodation.

A fantastic hotel with very little to find fault with. Starting with the only negative.....typical cold (ice cold) spanish swimming pools!

Now for the positives......A lovely hotel, friendly and efficient staff, fantastic attached and included theme park and water park plus a truly stunning beach club.

We were a family of four with an 8 and 6 year old who loved everything about the place. We were bed and breakfast although we did eat in the hotel a couple of nights which was acceptable if a little expensive at 22 euros for adults and 11 euros for kids! All other evenings we ate out in Salou (generally avoiding the english themed bars and the people who try to drag you into restaurants). We would reccomend La Quina and Venice Beach as being the best places we ate in Salou. Taxi's are around 6 - 8 euros from town to hotel and we generally walked in (10 - 15 mins) and taxi back!

Back to the hotel...best located rooms overlook the pools (request these before arrival), cafe at pool offers decent value lunches (particularly the chicken sandwich & chips)...service there is excellent particularly from a guy called Ba!

A word about the waterpark (costa caribe)........fantastic in small doses although bizzare (and a little cheeky) that they charge 4 euros for locker, 4 euros for sunbed and then try to get you to hire a ring which most slides and attractions provide anyway!

Finally the beach club........trully stunning including a fantastic sand based pool with free sunbeds and plenty of them. Only issue is the over zealous (but incredibly efficent) lifegaurds who won't allow balls and inflatibles in the pools!

All in all a fantistic 11 nights and in our humble opinion........much much better than eurodisney! Happy to answer any questions people may have!

What a great Family Holiday Hotel!! Myself, my husband and our two boys 8 and 4 stayed for a week and could have stayed for longer! I work in the hotel industry myself in a 4* hotel and this hotel lived up to british and irish standards. For breakfast the hotel is divided up into different times for different areas of the hotel. We were in the blue are and our time was 8am to 9:15 which suited us perfectly. There was an excellent range of food at the b'fast buffett, from cooked, to cereals, to cakes/pancakes to cold meats and cheeses etc. The staff were so friendly and helpful.

The hotel give you a pass to the park and expess cards for the most popular rides so you canskip the ques. So after b'fast each day we headed off to the park. Monday to Friday the ques to the toddlers rides are quite small, but Sat and Sunday is quite busy for these rides and the express cards don't cover these. The park has so much to do from Rides to Shows to Restaurants, you won't get it all covered in one day.

About 4 or 5pm each day we headed back to the hotel, got ready and headed down to the buffet which opens at 6.30. There is a que at 6.30 but it moves quite quickly and the food is replenished regularly in the restaurant. Choice again is plentyful, from hot foods, cold foods, meats, vegetarian, desserts, cheese and crackers. Drinks are extra to half board but a bottle of wine is only 8 euro and you can bring it out of the buffet with you if you don't finish. Staff are quick to attend to you and very helpfull and friendly. If you are half board you can also book to eat in the restaurant in the hotel or in any of the restuarant's in the other Portaventura hotels or theme park. You get 20 euro per adult and 10 per child allowance against the restuarant menu which is great. Again drinks are extra also.

Then there is evening entertainment in the main courtyard, kiddies disco at 9:15 and a show after. There is a lovely atmosphere and the characters (woody, betty boop, pink panter) all visit the couryard before hand. These also visit the park and the hotel at different times during the day and you can take pictures of them with the kiddies. Kiddies love them.

I have to mention the Beach Club, which I loved. Its a 5 min bus ride away (details from guest relations) and it is so lovely and tranquil. lovely tapas bar at the very far end and a lunch restaurant and lovely evening restaurant at the other end. lilttle quite beach below which children love for a little paddle in the sea.

I would say, the theme park isn't suited to familys with babies only, the theme park is best suited to 3+. However, for a nice hotel with a lovely pool area, great food and entertainment for kiddies, this hotel is a must. We're back 3 days and I already want to book for next year!

We first went to this hotel in September 2007 and booked to go back again straight away when we got home.

Everyone at the hotel is really helpful and friendly. Most of them speak some English and,even though I don't speak any Spanish, I didn't have any trouble getting answers to any queries.

The lady in the shop in the morning doesn't speak any English but I had some really nice encounters with her, she even put the stamps on my postcards for me!

The hotel is beautiful and very clean, the rooms are bright - OK so there's no tea/coffee, so we took our own kettle the second time.

We never had to wait too long for a table at mealtimes, the restaurant is very pleasant and the food is good with lots of choice.

Of course the main attraction is the theme park. I want to live there, it's just perfect. Sigh!

Beach club - gorgeous

Water park - great

Brilliant holiday, lots to do and then a nice relaxing laze by the lovely pools in the hotel. How can you fail to enjoy it?

Booked again for next year already

Fantastic time had by 10 of us at PortAventura. I booked a holiday here back in 2007 for 10 of my extended family to celebrate my 50th birthday. We travelled on 25th May and stayed for a week at the Hotel. I have to admit i read a few reviews on here and had my reservations but they were totally unfounded. Our age ranges were between 18 months and 50 with 3 other kids of 8, 10 and 13. Adults were 22, 23, 24, 26, 38 and 50 and all of us had a great time. It could be said that the company helps make a holiday but bar a few minor irritations (the pillows were hard and some of the staff could not speak English well but heh they are Spanish!) I couldn't find much to fault. The hotel rooms were good and we had three all close together in the same block and same floor. The rooms were cleaned daily and towels and linen were replaced if necessary, You even had english tv if you wanted a dose of eastenders the footie or the Apprentice.The buffet style breakfasts and dinners were good value and there was a lot of choice. Lots of Salads, fresh fruit for the health concious and chips and burgers if that was your thing. The soup is especially good. The evening entertainment was adequate and the Chi Chi Wa routine at the kids mini disco is a riot. I can't remember laughing so much for ages when the whole family did it. The kids thought it was terrific.

The added bonus to this hotel is that you get free access (you can come and go as much as you like) to the Theme Park, The Water Park and The Beach Club and they entertained us throughout the week. The hotel also gives you free fast track tickets so you dont even have to queue for long! Go on the Furious Baco (awesome ride - the DVD of me and my daughter is hilarious but will set you back 16 euros) and the Dragon Khan - our 8 year old loved the Stampida and went on it numerous times and it is quick. The water rides are all good too but probably the big one is the Hurakan Condor a ride similar to the Tower of Terror in Florida (I didn't have the bottle) but it scared my sons and partners to death. My nephew nailed it in the picture but I think he is bluffing.

The Water Park is also good (great flumes and a really good rapid ride which even the youngest child will enjoy). The Wave machine also goes off regularly (not just once an hour like some places). The Beach Club has 7 pools and is for hotel guests only which makes that quite selective. There are trains and mini buses that take you there (about a 10 min ride at most). All in all I'm not sure what some of the reviewers on here have to moan about because even though our weather was not great (only 2 good days out of 7) we always had something to do. In an ordinary hotel you would have been gazing out of your window watching the rain fall. Salou itself is about a 15 to 20 minute walk away but we never went into town although the younger members of our party did frequent some bars in the late evening and enjoyed themselves.

This holiday cost me £4000 for the 10 of us which works out at £400 each but a day at Thorpe Park or Alton Towers is expensive so i reckon that's good value.

I would highly recommend this hotel to all kids and adults who are young at heart. We absolutely loved it.

we stayed at the el paso last year and fancied a change.hotel brilliant,very clean,staff very friendly and helpful.food gorgeous and lots of it.does get busy,but we found getting there 10 mins before it opened was best time (6.20pm)the park is excellent,my 12 yr old son debated all week whether to go on furius baco,left it til last nite,went on twice,then straight on dragon khan twice!!!lots of rides for smaller kids as well.for bigger rides use your fast passes you get if you stay in these hotels or you can buy them in the park,saves a lot of queueing.we would definitely stay here again

Must say I really enjoyed my stay at this hotel. Rooms are clean, big, bright and airy!!! Hotel grounds and pools are lovely although it is a pity that the pools are not heated! They are absolutely freezing!!!

Reception staff are friendly and helpful however it is an unbelieveable pain to check in and out!!! They are so slow to do this from some reason, be prepared to que!!

When you stay at this hotel you have free entry to PortAventura Theme Park and Caribe Aquatic Park which is great and from the hotel they are not even a minutes walk away!!

I was disappointed however that the beach club was not open nor were they showing Aquamusic in the Park, I asked reception they advised that they would be open/on during peak season only that due to the recession everthing had been cut!!

All and all its a great hotel, with entertainment every night although its really only suitable for families with kids, the entertainment is a bit kiddy!! The buffet food is great in the restaurant and the staff are all very helpful and friendly!!

This is quite a lengthy review and although it may seem that I am being over critical it is just because I want everyone who reads this to be fully informed and I really enjoyed my trip to Salou and the Hotel PortAventura.

Our Room

Once we had checked into the hotel and we were given our room key (which doubles as your theme park & water park entrance ticket, and initially we were situated on the ground floor with a terrace. The room was very nice, clean and very spacious, although there was a tree completely obstructing the view from our terrace. We weren’t too keen on staring at this tree for the next two weeks so we asked at reception if we can change to a room on the upper floor and this was no problem and we were in our new room within 5 minutes. Once again the room was large with a king-size bed, good sized bathroom, TV, safe and a fridge, although there were a few items you would expect in a 4* that were missing. For instance there was no kettle, no iron or trouser press; however there is a laundry service at additional cost. The view from the balcony of our new room was super and very pleasant when you just want to relax and enjoy a book and drink. On the negative side of things, the walls must be made out of paper because sometimes, especially on weekends when the hotel is really busy, the noise was frankly ridiculous. One such noise incident started at around 6am when the couple next door decided that it was a good time to get intimate, on the plus side it the noise only lasted around 10 minutes, poor bloke. On the serious side though, if I had children I would have been quite annoyed.

Grounds and Location

The grounds of the hotel were very impressive in my opinion, the grounds and buildings were well kept and the hotel had a feel of a village which makes a change from just having one main block that houses all of the rooms like a lot of the hotels in Salou. In terms of location with regards to both the theme park and the water park it is perfect, literally a minute from the hotels private entrance to the theme park. The hotel is also just a short walk from the other two on-site hotels (El Paso & Caribe) both of which are also very nice and worth a look. Getting to Salou is a bit of a walk as the drive way leading up to the hotel is quite long and in total it’ll take around 10 the 15 minutes to get into Salou and the beach. The first time we walk into Salou we initially thought that it was quite a long walk but after doing a few times it isn’t that bad and is pretty much a straight road all the way. We initially thought that the hotel provided a shuttle service into Salou but in turns out that it is to the beach club, which wasn’t open when we visited, although all the reviews I’ve read on it are positive.

We decided that we wanted to spend some time in Barcelona (1hr 30mins away) and so headed out to Salou train station, which was a bit of a trek as we didn’t really know where we were going but it all turned out alright. Trains tickets were reasonably and easy to use and the journey was pleasant as we travelled along the coast.

Facilities

The hotel facilities were on the whole pretty good, there was an average size pool and one massive pool but these were both really cold, although most of the kids we saw weren’t particularly bothered by it. The hotel also boasts three Jacuzzis (two in the health club and one by the small pool), a gym, stream room, sauna and tennis court. All of which were really good, although you may find it tricky to get access to the Jacuzzi whilst the hotel is in peak season. The Hotel also had wi-fi but I am not sure if you had to pay for it as I did not take my laptop with me, however I couldn’t access the internet through wifi on my iphone. There were computers with internet access in the cafe area charged at 1 euro for 10mins.

Food

The food both at breakfast and dinner was varied in terms of choice with something for everyone but the food was not always hot. In most cases it was warm but in some it was cold but there was a microwave that could be used to warm up the food. You are allocated a time for breakfast when you check in and this can be changed if you fancy a later or earlier breakfast. We didn’t have any problems really with breakfast except during the last few days when we were told that breakfast was being served in one of the other restaurants. This all seemed a bit make shift and the food was being ferried from the kitchen to the serving areas by which time it was going cold. On the whole the breakfast was good enough and the additional of characters walk around and having pictures taking with the kids was enjoyable.

Dinner is served between 7 and 10 and we found that the best time to eat was at 7-7.30 as the Spanish tend to eat later on in the evening and between 8.30 and 10 it gets really busy. The food was ok and changes from day to day but we still got a bit tired of it. The benefit of staying within one of the resort hotels is the ability to eat in one of the other hotels simply by visiting guest services. We did this once and eat at the El Paso hotel in El Coyote, Mexican food. It was a nice change but the food was nothing special, not bad but not great. I have been told by friends that the food temperature is pretty much the same any where you go in Spain.

We also ate in the theme park which was a bit hit or miss. In the first instance we ate in the Mexican area of the park where there was a Mexican band on and that was great as was the food. On the flip side of that we also ate at a place where they have a can-can show on, we order some food which included chicken wings. After eating two each my girlfriend noticed that they were not very hot in the centre and when we looked the chicken was not nearly cooked enough and there was actually blood in the middle. When we told the waitress all she did was shrug and had the item removed from our bill. I could not believe her reaction to such a potentially dangerous problem, it certainly did not give the impression that this was a once off. Other than that incident all of the food was as you would expect in a theme park, fast and standard quality.

Service

On the whole we found the service to be good and friendly, al the hotel staff where pleasant and answered our queries as best they could. Our rooms were cleaned daily to a good standard. No complaints here.

Entertainment

The entertainment at the hotel was primarily focused at families and this should come as no surprise seeing as that is their largest market. Even so we found it to be quite good, most of it was in Spanish but it was easy to follow and had audience participation which was very funny. Some of the shows within the theme park were also very good.

In conclusion, we found this to be a good holiday with great weather, lovely hotel and great theme park and waterpark. There is no doubt that you will want to venture away from the hotel if you are there for more than 3-4 days and although Salou beach area is nice, some areas are a bit run down and there are numerous annoying people littering the street trying to get you to eat in their restaurant or drink in their bar or buy their fake sun glasses. I would recommend a trip to Cambrils via glass bottom boat from Salou and a day at Aquapolis in La Pineda. We had a fab time and would certainly recommend this hotel and destination to families.

My partner and I stayed in Portaventura from 8-15 September. We booked with Thomas Cook and flew into Reus airport. We were a little apprehensive when we got to the hotel as we had read so many reviews on here about long queues and rude staff, so we were pleasantly surprised to find we were served straightaway by a very polite guy called Angel, who spoke excellent English. We were booked in and had our express passes (he gave us double the normal allocation) within 5 minutes.

The hotel is huge and it does take 5 minutes or so to walk to your room, but that also means that you are away from the most crowded areas, and the bellboys will carry your cases. Our room was lovely – superking bed, clean and tidy, with its own little patio area and literally 20 feet from the pool. It was cleaned everyday by the very friendly cleaning staff.

The food is pretty average-to-poor if you stick to the buffet. My feeling was that they were trying to cater to too many nationalities and tastes and the sheer variety of food inevitably led to a loss of quality. Breakfast in particular was pretty poor. However, we took full advantage of the Dine Around offer, getting 20 Euros each to use at any of the other hotel restaurants and had some lovely meals, particularly in La Cascada. Again, really polite and friendly staff – especially if you make the effort to try a few Spanish words – just please, thank you and hello seems to make all the difference.

The location of the park is excellent; however the gates are staffed by the rudest people I have ever met. It felt like they had divided the staff up and put all the nice ones in the hotels and all the rubbish left over in the park. I ended up at Guest Services a couple of times having a whinge! The Express Passes were a godsend, although it was a shame they didn’t cover Furious Baco as the queues were never less that an hour all the time we were there. Dragon Khan is brilliant, as are the water rides, although prepare to get thoroughly drenched. Be warned though – the locals will push and shove you to get to the front of the queue.

The beach club was the best part of the holiday for me – great pools and an absolutely lovely beach. Again, polite staff and a nice little restaurant on site. The shuttle trains take you from outside the hotel up to the beach club, it is supposed to be half hourly but they are a little bit erratic.

Salou is a good 20 minute walk away along main roads, so from the second day onwards we used the shuttle train at 3 Euros per person. Salou is not very nice at all – it tries to cater for the typical English lager lout so all you can find is greasy spoons, sleazy bars showing constant Sky Sports and tacky souvenir shops. We felt like we were in Blackpool! The tobacconists on the seafront is excellent though (and always full of English people stocking up at just over £2 a packet) and there are a couple of nice places to eat or drink if you hunt hard enough.

My biggest whinge is probably about the rep. It was really hard for her to sell any day trips as we had everything around us (and the trips is how they earn their commission) so she just didn’t have any interest in us. She gave very little information about the hotel, incorrect details about the transport into Salou and then wasn’t seen again. If I went again, I wouldn’t bother with a travel agent.

We had high hopes of this holiday and we were not disappointed! On arriving our bags were taken off us and delivered to our room for us, which was a good start to the holiday. We didnt have a long wait at reception as some people mentioned but I guess thats just luck of the draw. Reception staff and most staffs english was not very good, i know we were in Spain but you think good English would be a requirement to work at the hotel.

We were given rooms on the 2nd floor and not that far away from reception, the room was nice although slightly disappointed at there not being a balcony, there was a nice window seat and we had a good pool view though. We had interconnecting rooms with my parents which was ver handy.

Food at the hotel was really good, breakfast was nice, no english bacon I know that is only minor thing and I am only mentioning it as we had it in our holiday the month before in Majorca. Everything else was excellent, there was pancakes every day that were made infront of you, delicious! My two year old had them every day! There was a large fruit selection, infact there was a large selection of just about everything you could want for breakfast. Dinner was just as good if not better! A different carvery every night, and different selection of foods e.g lasagne, paella etc, then your usual burgers chicken, beef in sauce etc, loads of salad. Desserts were the best buffett ones we hve ever had! Dined in the italian one night and it was really nice however the buffett was more convenient for us with having a two year old with us.

Now for the park, it was really excellent! Loads of rides for little children...too many to name. Had a fantastic time every day. Only thing that was slightly annoying was the amount of rude and ignorant people who were there! Some people have NO manners! They dont know how to que and constantly barge in to you and look at you like your the idiot, quite frustrating at times! Wouldnt stop us going back however, think British people are just too polite sometimes! This is the best theme park I have been to for years, the selection of rides for adults and children really was very good! The shows were good too.

The water park was good the indoor and the outdoor part both had sections for small children, one grip was the temperature of the water....FREEZING seriously. They need to start heating them as it makes it unpeasant even my two year old had reservations aout going in. The beach club was the same, very nice but freezing pools!

The characters coming in the park was good although on a few occasions they blatantly gave priority to Spanish people over us which was quite frustrating as my two year old didnt understand and thought it was his turn!

The mini disco and the childrens entertainers were good, my little boy really enjoyed this on a night.

Overall I think this is real value for money with your passes and food being included in the price. We used it as a taster for Florida next year to see if our little boy would like the rides etc, and he did Woud go back in the future, it had a few faults but where doesnt!

My boyfriend and I (aged 22 and 23) stayed at the PortAventura hotel for 1 week on 18 July 2008. We encounted afew problems that were more annoying than problematic. The day we got there we were advised by one of the Reps that we were the only people on the coach not to have a Welcome Card which told you when you're Reps Meeting was. We were told that we would get this information on a Notice Board at the hotel. We later found out that this Notice Board didnt exist. We therefore had to find out via Guest Service who only knew what time the meeting was but managed to find out where the meeting was being held after speaking to reception. When checking in, I was pushed out of the way by a very angry Spanish girl who started having ago at me in Spanish. When I shouted "what are u on about?" she bypassed me and went to the receptionist who I was just about to speak to. I assumed she had been waiting ages and wanted to be next, even though she was on the other side of the reception desk so I never saw her. When we eventually got to check in, it took the receptionist about a minute to understand that my surname was Walker! She didnt speak much English nor did she understand much. We couldnt check into our room until 3:00pm (got there at 12:00pm) so we had to hang around for 3 hours when we were absolutely shattered after being up since 2:00am for an early flight. So we went to nearest cafe which is called "Cafe Aventura" - all I can say is AVOID!!!! The guy in there couldnt speak nor understand a word of English. My boyfriend managed to order a cheese and ham sandwich but when I asked for just cheese, I was told quite abruptly "No". Im vegetarian so was rather annoyed at this. I got the impression that the food there is pre-prepped but it wouldnt have taken 2 minutes to put abit of cheese on some bread! So, instead, I just ordered a drink which also proved to be task as the guy couldnt grasp that we wanted a coke AND a fanta! Checked in and had to carry our bags ourselves to our room which was about a 5 minute walk! The room however, was lovely. We had a king sized bed and was smack in front of the pool. We used this pool instead of the one near reception. There is a cafe there aswel where the guy who worked there was bilingual! So we went there for food during the day instead of that rediculous one near reception. Another thing about that cafe, the food is terrible. My boyfriend said the sandwich, which was supposed to be a panini, was only half cooked. There was alot of food left on other tables so I assume no one else enjoyed the food either. The other one however, was great. Not much choice for vegetarians but I was never that hungry during the day so mainly lived on icecreams but my boyfriend said the food there was great. The walls in the hotel rooms are very very thin! Beware if you are staying with babies as if you end up being next door to a very loud Spanish family, like we were, it's more than likely that you will be woken up. Buffet service, both at breakfast and dinner time, was fine. Again, not much for vegetarians and the cards explaining what the food was wasn’t always in English so I had to guess what was meat free most of the time. We exchanged our buffet dinner pass for a meal at the Italian one night which was lovely. The Beach Club - unless you plan on going there at 9:00am, don’t bother going! We got there about 11:30 and there was not one spare sun bed in sight. We walked around for half an hour, eventually got fed-up and left. The park is really good. I had my picture took with Pink Panther hehe. The park is more child orientated which is fine but after reading reviews that it was as good as Disney World, I was expecting something amazing as I have been to Florida twice. PortAventura theme park is nowhere near in comparison to Disney World so don’t be fooled by that review. We did enjoy the park though however. The best ride is definitely Furious, however the second time we went to the park, that ride was out of order! Dragon Khan is good but I went on shortly after eating so felt abit sick when I got off. The Hurricane something ride was good. It's similar to the Playstation ride at Blackpool, only it drops you from the top instead of shooting you up. When at the theme park, just beware of angry Spanish people pushing in front of you and suchlike. We went on a couple of trips, one being a cruise of the Costa. We really enjoyed this and we got to jump off the boat into the sea. Be aware of the very salty sea tho hehe. We also went to Barcelona for the day. Again, enjoyed this but I was really wanting to see the Gothic Catherdral and didn’t get to go near it as it was under construction. We drove past it so I got to see it but didn’t get near it. The unfinished church is a fascinating piece of art and a must see. There is a small mall near the acquariam so you can grab some sourveniors in there. There is a cool underwear and PJ shop where I bought 3 pairs of PJ's for 42 euros. Only problem with going on trips when staying at this hotel, the coach picks you up from the main roundabout, and not at the hotel entrance. The main roundabout is a 10 minute walk which is abit of pain when being dropped off as we had to walk uphill for 10 minutes with lots of bags after our Barcelona trip. Overall, even though we got off to a rocky start, we enjoyed our stay at PortAventura. We did think that we had paid quite a lot just for one week but it was our first holiday together so will learn from that. Probably a more family orientated hotel rather than for couples.

Stayed here for 2 wks in June with hubby and 2 boys aged 2 and 4. Everyone loved it. Had been reading reviews since we booked this holiday last Nov, and must say, was a bit worried about the things some people had to say! But we found everything to be great. Friendly staff in the buffet restaurant, food was lovely for breakfast and dinner. We swapped our buffet dinner for dinner in some of the other restaurants a couple of times, but to be honest, with 2 small kids- the buffet suited us better- they could get food as soon as we went in with no waiting around. We ate in the chinese restaurant in the park- the only meal we didnt enjoy- its not chinese food! The sand pool at the beach club was great for us- went to it every day, the kids loved it.

Overall had great hol, and would recommend this hotel to families- lots to do every day without having to go near Salou!

This is a very good hotel, but we made the mistake of booking just when the Spanish schools were breaking up for summer. The theme park was full of school trips, the hotel was very busy at meal times. The show on the lake is excellent Sunday night was much quieter than Saturday. The Beach Club is Excellent and very relaxing. We found the park better in the evening than during the day. I loved the stunt show in the wild west. Also take advantage of the dine around option, we had some very nice meals, Iron Horse the best steak.

Stayed here for two nights. Rooms adequate, clean. Breakfast good enough, plenty of choice. Huge place, it takes a while to find your way around. Great for the theme park, you can go in and out as you like . Nice pools for lounging around. Ate in the buffet restaurant. Big choice of food. It was ok. Sort of like tourist restaurant if you know what I mean. Would only stay here for the theme park with kids, if i was on my own I would be looking for something a bit more up market. Couldnt fault it though

Having just returned from a week's holiday I thought it best that I write this review.

When booking the holiday I found the information available on the official website sketchy (at best) and it wasn't until half way through the holiday did we start to get the best benefit out of the upgrade to a club woody room.

Special Advantages...

What we did find from the website was the following advantages of our choice of room:

- Special check-in area

- Character breakfast in a designated area

- PortAventura Express Premium: unlimited access to the best rides and shows without waiting

- Free daily papers

- Dressing gowns for the whole family

- A menu of pillows to choose from

- Mini-bar service. Free refreshments (subsequent bar refills will be chargeable)

- VIP luggage delivery and pick up

Taking each of these in turn...

The special check-in area was very good - I was directed here by a porter and checking was swift and effecient.

The breakfast was a bit confusing... I was given a ticket for a character breakfast on one of the seven days. For the rest of the week I was asked to go to the buffet. It wasn't until the fourth day that a helpful hotel members pointed out that I need to go to a different restaurant where table service rather than buffet was available. It was here that I found free copies of UK papers!

The special pass for the park was a massive benefit especially with young children - not so much for the young children rides but more so it took 45 seconds to queue for the major ride - not 85 minutes!

Only the adults get dressing gowns not children so it's not the whole family (at least not three year olds).

There was no pillow menu - although we could have done with some because of the stone floor under the girl's bed!

The stocked mini bar was a nice touch and provided some water/soft drinks/chocolate and crisps.

As for the choice of restaurants...

The website leads you to believe that you will be eating in the "Cascada Restaurant". However, you are herded like cattle into a large buffet. We quickly realised that you can switch the vouchers to other places to eat both in this hotel and the other two related hotels. Be warned - not all restaurants are open every day. The Asian food in Puerto Viejo is some of the best I've had and was by far the best food all holiday... Cascada was shut on both the days I tried to book... The Mexican, El Coyote, was the worst meal (more disappointing than then buffet) with soggy fajitas! Everyone I spoke to said the same.

Now for the pools...

None of the pools - from any of the hotels are heated. Although it was nice and warm, the pool temperature was very cold and our young children got chilled very quickly. We were told that the water park would be open but didn't open until the day after we came home. I have no idea why they didn't open the inside pool in the water park just for hotel guests???

The actual bedroom...

It was very nice - the only problem was the location! It was so central the night shows were right outside our room. They finished at 11pm so with the young children we had to make sure they either stayed up or were very very tired! The noise from the show wasn't the worst thing - it would have been the kids running up and down the corridor. Overall - not a big issue - but one to bear in mind.

Finally the park...

As I said above, very good. More rides for young children than Disney or Alton Towers. Hardly any queues for the kids rides (when we were there). Plenty of shade. The food is expensive - even more so with the current strength of the Euro. I did like the idea of a beer at lunchtime in the hot sun. That worked well!

As with all them parks - I suggest going against the flow. After the opening "street" the park is a bit loop. The majority of people go anti-clockwise. Go the other way and you'll find the queues shorter all day!

In summary...

A good choice of hotel - you could do a lot worse - just make sure that you fully understand the benefits and pitfalls. Make the most of the benefits and you'll have a great time.

We had 2 days in Barcelona then took the train for 1 hour directly to the station at the resort, and had 3 days in Portaventura Hotel.

Value for money

We stayed 2 nights but access to the theme park for 3 days which was great bonus.

The Hotel is modern, very clean and the room was very big with 2 full doubles and still plenty of room. Nice touch were the 2 free bottles of water and the empty fridge.

Be warned the hotel is massive with lots of long corridors, so remember where you are staying!

Breakfast is your normal Pan European Buffer style with every Nationally catered for, and was also very good, and kept us going to Dinner time! Even our cynical 6 & 8 year old were entertained when Shrek & Fiona cam round at breakfast time, which added a extra fun element.We also booked dinner with the same buffet style food offering but was fine.

The best thing about the Hotel was that it is inside the resort so you can be there in 5 minutes after breakfast, and if you need a nap pop back to your room for an hour and go back in again.

We went in April and whilst the hotel pools were closed (as was the waterpark and the 3 big water rides) we still had a great time and I can reccomend seeing all the big shows (China & wild west were our favourites).

We had a great time and by having 2 days in Barcelona made it feel like we had seen some cultural and kept the whole family happy with 3 days in Port Aventura as well!

We have just returned from a week in Salou. We spent the first 3 nights at the Portaventura Hotel and the next 4 nights at the Negresco Hotel in Cap Salou.

This review relates to our stay at the Portaventura Hotel and theme park.

We paid approx £160 per night for 2 adults and 2 children (7 and 8) which included breakfast and access to the theme park and the water park. Having stayed on site in Disneyland Paris and Disney in Florida we had high expectations expecting the hotel and park to be on a par with them. We were disappointed as in no way was the hotel or theme park in the same class as Disney.

The hotel was definitely not of 4 star standard. It was dated and in need of a refurb. The corridors were tatty and in need of new carpets. Although there were signs not to hang washing or towels on your balcony everybody was doing this which lowered the tone of the hotel somewhat.

Everything was so expensive. The food in the restaurants was expensive but good and very repetitive each night. Entertainment was poor and tedious with strange re-writes of Red Riding Hood and Wizard of Oz.

As regards the park, there was a few good rides but on a quiet day you could do the whole park by lunch time. The best asset for the whole venue was the water park. This was very good with some really fun rides. The indoor water slides were quite scary and really took my breath away when I went on them.

We had an enjoyable time but feel the resort is too expensive for the level of quality on offer.

Best for location to theme and water parks but the hotel simply isn't up to standard. Rooms are basic but adequate and clean. The hotel grounds are dirty and were not cleaned during our stay.

On arrival a time is allocated for breakfast but be prepared to queue to get into the dining area and then queue for just about anything because there aren't enough facilities to cater for the guests. The food quality is okay.

Not much in the way of entertainment and not enough seating area if you wanted to watch it anyway. We came with another family and their teenage children and the only thing to do in the evening was sit in the reception area where you will find the only bar.

The swimming pool is very nice and there are lots of life guards with a beach club cafe.

Our family went for a 4 night break and having stayed in the other on-site hotel the El Paso were expecting the same standards. On arrival we were given our room straight away. The room was on the ground floor down a long corridor which stank of damp. The carpet and walls were filthy. As soon as we got into the room we could see it was filthy and had not been half cleaned. It also stank of damp. We went straight back to reception and made it clear that we wanted an other room. Thankfully we were then given a beautiful room on the other side of the hotel which we could see had been well cleaned and had a lovely big bathroom. The Portaventura rooms are not very big but some like ours have a balcony with a nice pool view. Over all the hotel is very good but really needs a good lick of paint and a good cleaning.

The breakfast is the same in all the on-site hotels. We found no ques for the first 2 days but the 3rd day we qued so long just to get into the restaurant we gave up. By day 4 they opened another restaurant and got into breakfast right away.

It costs about 5euros each way for a taxi down into the resort but as the bar in the hotel is cheap enough it's fine to stay there for a drink

stayed at this hotel twice now. The hotel it self is pretty basic wide range of food too choose from, swimming pool was always kept cleaned and beautiful views from the room. Best thing about the hotel is the theme park is so clsoely located great rides aswell if you like fast!!! also take a trip to the beach club as this is amazing here sunbeds inside the swimming pool what a fantastic way to cool down!!! i must say though i would never return to salou as the locals are sooo rude the amount of arguments myself and members of the party had out. they push past you and if looks could kill welll..

We have just returned from a week at this Hotel. The hotel is very nice and very close to the theme park. My children aged 5 & 8 had a great time and we would go back again.

The beach club was lovely, you get a free shuttle bus there which does get busy and the beds get taken very quickly so get there early.

We went half board and there was a very large selection and variety of food to choose from which was good. The only downside was the price of the drinks to go with your meal and lunch prices should you wish to purchase on site was quite pricey too.

We encountered a few problems whilst there. But overall the holiday was very lovely. The Sun was shinning most days which was great. My review may seem like a lot of moaning but there is just a few things that I would like to share with people so that they are aware of things that may occur on their visit.

On arrival at the hotel we had to queue at reception to get all our information packs and room cards. (Queues were always very long) Receptionist was very quick to tell us all the information so we ensured we kept asking further questions to make sure we had all the correct info.

We had to choose a breakfast slot which had to be the same time each day with only a 15 minute slot.

Our room was very nice, but quite away from the reception.

Room passes are also your passes to the theme park and the beach club. Our passes did not work at either of these, therefore we had to get them changed by reception. We then walked all the way back to our hotel to find that they no longer opened up our hotel room door! 10 minute stroll back to the reception and this was then sorted out.

Cleaners are not very good, come and go whenever they please, we went 2 days with no cleaner and no clean towels. When we put a please clean sign on the door and went out, we later returned to a letter under our door that said, we did not clean your room as you had the do not disurb sign up!

There was a safe in the room which was good, when it worked.

Most local people liked to push in and did not believe in forming any sort of queue and most people lay out their towels very early to get the best spot by the poolside, which was not too much of a problem as there were many beds scattered around.

The most upsetting thing is that we have been to the Salou before and visited the theme park which shuts at midnight. However on 31.08.08 a sign was put up to say that from 31.08.08 the park would now close at 8pm! No notice atall, we asked another companies rep when then found out and they said 1 month ago and that we should have been informed on arrival. Therefore we had to spend the hot afternoons at the park. Good job we never booked any day trips really. People that we met there had booked trips and missed 2 days of the park. The waterpark was good, even though you had to pay for your rings and sunbeds and a locker.

Overall we had a fab holiday as the above were only minor problems which did not ruin our holiday atall. The rides are great in the theme park and there is something for everyone to go on.

We stayed in the Hotel in late July early August and found it to be a really nice, clean and friendly place.... except for the reception staff. We stayed here last year also and found identical problems. It takes nearly ten minutes to check in each individual party and the queue was long. More annoying was the fact that the queues were not set out and when some people reached the top the lady at the desk simply walked off into the office leaving them bewildered. It was also sweltering in the reception and the atmosphere was hostile. A simple sign marking out the queue would help along with some proper airconditioning. The result is that we tried to avoid having to contact the reception.

The other issue was that the airconditioning in the room was poor and the room was hot.

There also is no room service.

Overall I would agree with comments that this is not a four star hotel... a good 3 star yes.

We stayed for a few days at the end of April & start of May. I'm a Travel Agent and have been lucky enough to sample a wide variety of Hotels of all standards so would hope to be able to provide a fair summary.

The location of this hotel is obviously the biggest selling point with very easy access to the park and the benefit of having express passes included meaning very little waiting for the rides which is great. The theme park itself was impressive with loads to see & do so would certainly recommend for all ages. The park is split into different themed areas and offers exceptional quality and everyone seemed to be having a great time.

To me the hotel, although attractive from a distance wasn't really up to scratch. The rooms were quite basic but OK. Cleanliness was again just OK really. For a large hotel the facilities seemed very limited to me with just 1 bar, 1 cafe etc. Obviously the park is on the doorstep and I think this affects the effort that the hotel puts in. Families would probably want to spend quite a bit of time at the park but equally may also want to spend some time at the hotel but there's not really much to see or do.

We booked on BB and the real gripe for me was the quality of the breakfast. This was without doubt sub-standard and there were a few issues with something that should be pretty easy to manage.

Breakfast was, on all occasions cold. All of the items which should have been hot were cold. Cold eggs, cold bacon, cold sausages, cold beans etc etc. Coffee was just about impossible to obtain. They had coffee machines where large queues gathered so 10 minutes was normal to get a coffee. The machines also rarely distributed the correct selection or enough of it which made it even worse. The juice dispensers were generally empty meaning several laps of the room to get everything. Even if the breakfast had have been kept warm by the time you had managed to get a drink it would have been cold. All of this would have been so easy to fix with some decent management.

We didn't eat in the evening - the nightly buffet would have cost around £50 for 2 adults + 1 child and no reason to believe the quality would have been any better because if you can't serve a warm sausage what chance would they have with even more options.

We were allotted a breakfast time of 8:45 - 9am which was fine but noticed every day as we came out there was a lengthy queue for the next sitting. It must have been even worse on this one.

All in all, a good location but only stay if you don't care what the quality is like and are happy just because it's close to the park. Lazy management spoils what could be a really impressive opportunity. There's such a difference between hotels who try really hard to make your holiday special and those who just know because of where they are another bus load will turn up next week.

We took a stroll down to the Caribe hotel where we spent a couple of hours, this one looked really attractive and very well laid out and look's worth a try but as we didn't use any of the services I couldn't comment on the standards.

We stayed here for 4 nights during this October Half Term, Monday to Friday. The park is themed for Halloween and this is definately no Mickey Mouse Halloween!!! The park is quite adult themed for halloween, so if you bringing younger children, think again! Our 5 year old was terrified and he usually not scared of much.

To Summarise the Hotel -

Reception - quite cold and unfriendly, we asked if we could use pool at sister hotel (it was raining constantly during our stay) and were told no. Guest services however said it no problem, they would ring and check how busy it was for us. In the end we went to local Public swimming pool (indoors and very nice) at Vila Seca up the road (1km). Was a godsend! My advice - go to guest services for help not to reception.

Beds - Hard as rock.

Room - clean but basic. We did get BBC 1, 2 though on request.

Food - lukewarm (this included the eat around option which was same kind of food but took ages to get served and was not enough to satisfy!) the buffet is very good selection but is not hot. Meal times bit crazy with everyone wandering around in chaos. As it was Halloween, I enjoyed my breakfast to the sound of JAWS theme tune, quite bizarre!!!

The park is very good, rides are excellent and the park is very pretty. THe shows are fantastic. The express tickets given by hotel were great help as queues long - as all theme parks. Food in park awful and pricey. Sorry!

One last warning, as it was halloween, we experienced groups of kids roaming corridors late at night and banging on doors to scare us. I scared them by answering in my nightdress!!!!

Having never been to Spain before we were looking forward to this holiday,thinking it would be a nice mix of local cultures and then the excitment of the themepark.

We arrived at the hotel at 10am to be told that our room would not be ready till 3pm, which was fine.We were handed numerous passes for everything (breakfast,rides at the park etc) They held our suitcases whilst we went off to explore.

The hotel grounds were spotless and very pretty,the pools looked amazing.Going through the hotel entrance into the park we found the park also to be spotless,I was thinking this is gonna be great.

Back at the hotel we were allocated our room at around 2pm.

Then the sense of dread started to set in. As we were walking down the maze of corridors to our room we started to notice that the interior of the hotel was not as well kept as the outside and was extremely smelly (fusty and damp) and dirty.

When we made it to our room and opened the door we were gutted,the smell was awful the bathroom was mouldy and at this point I was wondering why we had had to wait 4 hours to be allocated this room which clearly hadnt been cleaned for god knows how long. Overall it felt tiny.dingy,and definately NOT 4 STAR QUALITY......

To cut a long story short we complained about the room and the next 3 rooms we were given were no better. Much of the carpet in the corridor is covered in mouldy fur which obviously adds to the fusty smell. This is not good for anyone with any respiratory issues such as asthma. We finally settled for a room on the 1st floor as we felt we had wasted enough of the first day and things were not improving dramatically. This room was still substandard.

The facilities at the park however are excellent...the fireworks were on par with Disney and the rides at the park in some cases were better than Disney. You are given fast passes for some of the rides which is a bonus. The convenience of having the park so close to the hotel was great.

The beach club was nice with a short bus ride provided by the hotel...although if you want to use the beach sunbeds and parasols they are chargeable (4 euros beds 5 euros a brolly)

RIP OFF.....also charges for using the beds etc at the caribe waterpark.

The buffet breakfast at the hotel was plentiful and not bad which was a relief considering there was no where else to eat without a walk into Salou.

The evening buffet was very poor quality and after the first day we opted to use the "dine around " vouchers. This was the best thing about the hotel.We got 22 euros each towards an evening meal and this covered the bill for the most part. It gave us the opportunity to dine at the other 2 hotels in the park. The most we had to pay was 14 euros and usually it was around 5 euros.

The quality of the food and service in some of the finer restaurants was great. The food at the mexican restaurant in El Paso was not so great.

Check the menus before booking though because we did find that "La Piazza" at the Caribe was the same menu as "Port Regatta" at portaventura hotel. The food at some of the stands within the park also leaves a lot to be desired. Cold and tasteless at 6.80 Euros for a burger.

Be careful when purchasing the refill cokes from the park,my son drank his and wanted to keep his cup so when we got it back to the room and I took off the lid to wash it.....it was full of live ants and so was my sons tummy.......YUK..!!!!!!!!

They had obviously got into the cup before it was filled with coke.

Salou town is a 20 to 30 min walk from the hotel and in my opinion the place is a dump....full of tacky british eateries and shops...had nothing going for it at all,unless you want to find yourself a fry up or chiken nuggets...(thought we were in Spain and wanted to sample local cuisine). We struggled to find Paella, one of the dishes we wanted to try the most.

A day trip to Barcelona was a highlight and we did the Neu Camp tour, a little overpriced but a must for a footy fan. We found Paella here. A word of warning for anyone planning on buying a shirt.....69 Euros before the printing..another 18 if you want name and number...70 pounds sterling. Buy one at a store in UK and take to have the Barcelona name and number badges..for authenticity.

Overall our holiday was spolit by the filthy hotel rooms,compared to the cleanliness of the park. Our room was not cleaned adequately for the whole of our stay and the bathroom sink was left dirty and the plastic cups provided in the bathroom were not changed all week either. The towels were changed daily as we left them in the bath for the maid to change, however they came back smelling of industrial cleaner with a delicate vinegary scent..

The weather and the park were fantastic....would we return....

NO.

I read all reviews prior to departure and was expecting a great holiday for myself, wife and 11yr old son.

Check-In: Arrived at hotel at 8am and was told that we could not get a room until 3pm. The desk staff don't speak english well, so it took us a while to understand what were being told about the hotel, park and contents of the pack we were given.

Room: Spacious, basic, air con poor, nicely located overlooking pool and v. close to park.

Restaurants: we went half board. Plenty of food at the breakfast buffet. Staff very efficient and restaurants very clean. Only went to dinner buffet once, food was slop and too rushed. Took decision immediately not to dine there again. We discovered that we could transfer from buffet to two other table service restaurants in the hotel. Had to go to guest services before 6pm to get "dine around "ticket, value 22euro per adult and 11eur for child. Dined in La Cascada twice, service excellent, food superb, and not rushed. Dined in Port Regetta twice, very clean, food ok, service ok.

Pool and Beach Club: Shortage of Sun umberellas at all pools. People typically put their towels out as early as 7am to get the best spots at the Hotel pools. You also need to get to the Beach Club very early for best spots. Beach at the Beach Club is quite good, and very clean. Much better that Salou beach.

Other: good pool table for kids. Tennis court good. Lots of Internet kiosks and computer games for kids.

Park: Very good. Express passes made a big difference. The avg. queue time for Furius Baco rollercoaster was 90mins. , with no Express pass option. It often went to 2hr queue time. Discovered that Spanish people don't like to queue and generally try their best to skip. The Bubblebou show in China was very good. The night show in Polynesia, not sure of name, is excellent.Fire eating etc. Marco Polo Buffet in China is complete rip off, 21euro per adult, 10.50 for child. You are basically paying for park food. We took the option to have photos from the rides emailed to us instead of carrying them around. Thought this was excellent idea, however we only received half of the photos. Cost 4.5euro per email.

Overall: The hotel is categorised as 4 star, so with the reviews that we read we expected more. I would see it as more a 2.5 star.

The lack of english speaking staff in the Hotel is a pain. Reception and bar always understaffed. Always big queues at the reception desk. Our room was never cleaned well and they often forgot to leave replacement towels. Very difficult to then get anybody on the phone due to busy reception.

Has potential to be really great resort if Hotel Management get their act together.

Just arrived back from a week at the Portaventura Hotel, my first impressions of the hotel were WOW, the reception area and grounds are very nice. However the room i was less impressed with, The rooms are very tired, mouldy tiles in bathroom, shower curtain had dried bood on it. The bed spread was very worn, only one very long pillow to share on the double bed and the air con did'nt seem to work very well. We were there only on a bed and breakfast basis, breakfast was plentyfull but not very hot.

I felt they could have had more thing's in the hotel to entertain the kids seeing as it is really for the kids, no pool table etc to keep them amused.

On the positive side it's fantastic that you can come and go from the park when you feel like it, also you have to go and see the fire works at least once while you there, there's a very nice little wine bar just past the gates to get into the park from the hotel.

The beach club which is part of the hotel's is a short drive away on the shuttle bus,there are 7 stunning pools and very nice restaurant serving good food, they also put on a BBQ on a wed night, the food was of high quality and as much as you want along with anything you want to drink, value for money, i highly reccomend it

Completely overrated hotel couldnt wait to leave everyones kids are knackered from the days trudging around the themepark add that to the late kids enterntainment times - mini disco starts at 9.15pm and u have wailing children tantrum throwing and moaning everywhere.

Hotel - impossible to sort out any queries unless guest services is open hardly anystaff speak or comprehend English. Dining facilities like a works canteen , not big enough, large queues outside to get a table , debris strewn floors and tables, food lukewarm we all had stomach upsets as did many others. Good choice of fruits and salads though, drinks mega expensive 1 pint of lager 2 kids cokes and a water equivalent to £14 !! Bedrooms basic, enough hot water & towels but no tea/coffee making or any luxury for a 4 star , balconey tiny, Staff rude and surley very unhelpful

Area - 30-40 minutes walk From Salou, 30 mins from nearest supermarket where u pay 1 euro for 5 litres of water instead of 2 euros in hotel for half a litre ! take your mags and books as papers only sold at hotel. Salou clean but full of tat shops stag and hen partys July August will be a nightmare

Parks

Kids under 1.2 m WILL ONLY GET ON 3 RIDES THEY EVEN HAVE TO BE ACCOMPANIED BY ADULTS ON THE TEA CUPS, wild west show good , food and drinks expensive 3 euros for a coke . Loads of spanish school trips going on , totally average i thought

Water park

Take optrex we all caught comjunctivitus from the pool snever had it before, didnt ever see pools or surroundings being cleaned , 4 euros to sit on a sunbed lockers 7 euros , total rip off as we were staying in one of their hotels

Overall

Weather when not raining was lovely and hot, good location for park , 2 weeks too long , teenagers would go stir crazy , drinks and food prices unless in macdonalds in Salou mega expensive , rooms basic beds hard , fridge ok , no place to relax . El Paso pool good , Hotel Caribe nice setting , Portaventura Hotel needs new staff a re vamp a reassement of food/drink prices , pools and gym cleaned more frequently. Buses needed to Salou so u can escape . Food tasteless and lukewarm

Would not recommend to anyone