Hotel PortAventura — Hotel in Salou

This is an honest review of our stay at Portaventura, good and bad points.|We had a 10 night stay, we’re a family of 5.||Negatives:|This was our first time going self catering on holiday, we usually do all inclusive and thought we’d try self catering, big mistake! This hotel is a 20-25 minute walk to Salou, it’s a solid 10 minute walk before you even get out of the drive way of the hotel, it’s so secluded, which makes it hard work carrying water, juices, snacks back. There’s a golf buggy at reception and if it was used to transport people up and down to the gate it would be fabulous but it wasn’t used.||Taxis seem to set the meter before you get in and seem to charge per person as everyone I spoke to had different prices, ours varied from €13-19, others €6 for 2 people. I think the hotel really need to reassess the situation, they’ve no supermarket on site, being so secluded they definitely need one, but instead they’ve 2 snack bars and the prices as the exact same prices as the theme park which give nobody a chance around the pool, family of 5 getting an ice lolly to cool down in the afternoon cost €19.50! Little small rectangle pizza cost €7.50. We had to walk into the park at lunchtime to get lunch as Salou was just too far. We averaged 16-26k steps a day between Salou during the day and the park at night. |We were told lots of people were offered to upgrade to half board on arrival for an extra €100 and when we approached reception the manager refused to speak to us, said he was busy and we went again the next morning and manager again wouldn’t come out of the room at reception but there was a friendly lady on for once and she agreed to upgrade us at the cost of €1149 for 7 days, a far cry from what everyone else was offered. ||The staff are so rude, on our first day a waitress pushed past me at the bar to set a tray down and rolled her eyes when someone ordered food. You queue at reception to speak to someone which I did one day for 10 mins and the receptionist called a Spanish man ahead of me, I refused to let him and told her she could see me waiting where I was supposed to queue and she shrugged her shoulders. If you’re Spanish you’re treated very nice, other nationalities not so much. They don’t speak good English.||Being self catering all we had was an empty mini bar fridge, I requested a bigger fridge as seen in reviews and was told no, no kettle either.|Room was big enough, 2 double beds and a sofa made out into a bed. Balcony tiny, saw one silver fish and a few ants, nothing much to speak of. Maids arrived whilst we were at the pool first few days then they started coming at 4/5pm, whilst we were coming from the pool for showers, and forgot to come one day, reception had room cleaned when we got back from the park after I spoke to them.||I’ve been to Salou many, many times, I’ve stayed at El Paso next door also and in my opinion Portaventura Hotel is cleaner and a much nicer hotel to stay at for your eyes but El Paso offer all inclusive which is definitely better when you’ve kids.||Positives:|The pool is beautiful looking, it has a lovely sense of calm around it. It’s not packed, nobody fights for beds and always has beds available. Lots of life guards which I think is great. They’re very strict, no sunglasses in the pool unless you’ve a sunglasses chain on which I knew about before I went. Kids weren’t allowed floaties or ball’s but I think that’s a positive and probably why the pool is so peaceful. My kids had little sinkers and dived for them which kept them and other kids entertained for hours. Lots of little gekkos and lizards around the pool which my kids absolutey loved! There’s bushes around the pool by the sunbeds so lots and lots of mosquitos which loved me.||Access to the park is literally from the back of the hotel and your straight into Mediterranean which is brilliant. As I’ve said I’ve been here lots and this is the first time I’ve seen Portaventura’s numbers dwindle. It’s not as packed as it used to be, lots the self serve food places are closed down. Marco Polo in China was an all you can eat buffet completely closed. We were shocked at the amount of places closed. If we ate lunch or dinner in the park for 2 adults and 3 kids it averaged between €70-90, it’s very expensive. ||I don’t think we’d return to this hotel, although perfect access to the park it’s just too secluded, if the hotel offered lower prices for food and drink for their guests it would’ve been better. If the staff were nicer to their guests it also would’ve been nicer. ||When we checked in we were told absolutely nothing and had to figure everything out for ourselves. |We made friends with people around the pool where we got to know things and same with them. We found out that you use your room card to collect points throughout your stay and on the last day you use your accumulated points to get money off something, reception don’t tell you this, you have to use the same card all the time or you don’t get money off. Use when buying drinks, food, toys etc in hotel and park. We got £15 off an item at the end of our stay, you get 1 point per €0.10, again we only knew this after about 3 days. A girl who worked in the park also said go to a blue t shirt worker when purchasing as manager in white top won’t give as much points.||They didn’t tell us about mini disco either, happened to stumble upon this one evening where Woody Woodpecker makes an appearance then quickly taken off stage. During our stay last time in El Paso we were told of absolutely everything on check in, and kids got to get photos with Woody, Winnie and Sesame St characters whoever was available so you didn’t have to queue for meet and greets...

We had a very good experience at this hotel and would recommend it for a few nights to make the most of the PortAventura theme park - just be prepared to handle the heat if going in the summer and it does get very busy.||This hotel is by the main entrance to the theme park (also the water park and Ferrari land) although we arrived by train and it wasn't clear if it was accessible from the station. We did manage to walk there although it was about 15-20mins, it seems more geared towards people driving. ||There is an online check-in which was a bit of hassle entering in passport details but it did mean we could pre-pay and then use the online kiosks in the hotel reception. This was quick and a very helpful staff member then gave us details about our room being ready and how to reserve the restaurants for our half-board stay via a web site - we did this straightaway as time slots were already being booked up. To store luggage there are large lockers which cost about €5.||They texted us when the room was ready about half 2. The room itself was large (2 double beds) and had a small balcony, useful for drying clothes. It was a bit tired looking but clean. Don't expect anything useful like a kettle and only one plug was accessible. It was quiet and air conditioning good enough to escape the heat and have a decent night's sleep.||The hotel is large and spread out over several buildings so it did seem like you could be walking for miles to get out. The corridors were a bit shabby but the selling point is the outside area which has a chilled-out Mediterranean vibe with lots of palm trees and a fabulous pool that goes on for ages through the middle of the complex. It never seemed to get that busy and very quiet first and last thing (opened 10am - 9pm) while people were in the park. Lots of sun loungers were available.||Food was very good for a buffet. You do have to book time slots and you get 40mins for breakfast and 60mins for dinner but this was always plenty. If you get there a bit before you're time you don't have to queue much and with kids they don't want to hang around anyway so we never felt rushed. One evening the resaurant was getting full so they directed people to a different one, similar food although they had more sea food choices like sushi. Overall the food was good with decent selection of meat, fish, salads and things like paella. Kids liked the huge vats of Nutella! You do have to pay extra for drinks but we stuck to water and things like coffee and juice during breakfast.||You do get early access to the park at 10am but it's not that useful with only a few rides open and they seem to stagger rides starting between 11am-1pm. So one morning we went in at 10 but still ended up in a very large queue (over an hour) for the Uncharted ride. The main problem is that the entrance is the same as people coming for the day and you have to trek round the whole park to get to the Wild West area. It might have been better staying at a hotel on that side of the park like Gold River to make more of early access.||My main tip would be to try and adjust the kids to the Spanish day! Nothing really gets started until 10am and it's slow from there. The park is open until 10:30pm when there's a parade and fireworks at 10:45pm which are well worth seeing. So there's no need to rush in the mornings, better to book a late breakfast and dinner to get in sync.||I would recommend budgeting for at least one day with an express pass to make sure you get on all the big rides and don't have to suffer too much from standing for too long in the queues which could be well over 2 hours. Being a hotel guest you did get a bit of a discount on express passes and the water park which is a small mercy given you're paying for something whichever way you turn! There's a touch-screen kiosk in reception for buying these tickets.||The hotel did help us with a taxi into Salou although it was over €10 which is a bit crazy as it's only about a mile but there aren't many other options. To get to Barcelona airport there is a coach (BusPlana) service that goes around Salou and the PortAventura hotels which is cheap but does take over 2 hours.||Overall we had a very nice stay at this hotel, decent food and amazing pool. The staff were very friendly and helpful. We might consider the other hotels on a return visit which might be better for the train station and also access at a quieter end of the park.||It was good value for money with the half-board given you got access to the main park and also access on the day you arrive and leave, which you will probably need given how busy it can get and there's...

Notice: read the bad reviews, you will see a pattern.

First day, check-in and park. We had a meal plan, so booked the in-park restaurant options instead of the hotel buffet. Turns out, those "restaurants" are just the fast food joints... and you don't even get the choice of their full menu.

The next morning, hubs got up a bit earlier than me to take a lazy bath. Some time later I wake up to someone furiously bonking on the door... he got locked in the bathroom. We are not small people, but no amount of force could dislodge the door. Reception sent someone from maintenance, who did not speak a word of English. He eventually realised it wasn't the lock and hammered a screwdriver in to use as leverage, to break open the door. After ten minutes trying to figure out why the door was jammed, he managed to communicate that we shouldn't close it again and they'd come replace it. To nobody's surprise they never did.

When I'm done with my shower, I find that my towel is still wet from last night's shower. Not damp, WET. I guess I shouldn't have been surprised, since that musty smell never vanished, and the entire room is just humid. No wonder the door gets stuck,in a room that feels like Tokyo after a monsoon.

After getting ready we finally moved to breakfast. The buffet is mediocre at best. Bread and cheese selection are limited, and the sliced "cheese" in particular is closer to industrial glue - not even the cheapest, crappiest supermarket sells cheese this horrible.

We then head out into the park... Only to find that our passes are no longer valid. On our first full day. Back to reception, where we pushed through the line and managed to get the attention of Pad, who is easily the most competent person we saw there and deserves a raise and a promotion. He understood the problem and printed us new ones immediately.

With those we got into the park, but with all the bs we lost hours and it's already past noon by now.

We wander the park, get into some attractions, and then drop into one of the stores to buy something. We present our pass for the points program... And the lady can only inform us that our passes DO NOT EXIST in the system. We choose to skip the points and get it sorted out later, we've already lost enough time.

Time for dinner - this time the hotel buffet. Instead of the advertised 3 buffets, there was a single location, with a long queue, because they need to individually show you to your seating. You know, like it's fine dining.

Let me assure you, it is everything but. Sure, the selection is pretty extensive. Unfortunately the quality isn't. I would call it mediocre, but that would be an insult to the mediocre breakfast buffet. The calamari are made of rubber. The freshly griddled meat is obviously frozen junk. The pizza is worse than the cheapest frozen you ever had. Haricots are stringy. Potatoes are chewy. I took one single bite of what passes for a cheeseburger and just left it.

At least they can't mess up drinks, right? Well, no... Because they're not even included. All you get is lukewarm water, from the singular fountain that isn't out of order. Everything else is extra, even a simple coke.

We almost got dessert... But then they started to play happy birthday at an inhuman volume, so we just ran.

Don't believe the AI reviews of the food. Even salt and pepper are too much of an expense - none on the table and clearly also none in the food.

We head to reception, get new passes again - our THIRD set in about 24 hours - and go to our room. Where we find that even the minibar doesn't work.

On our third day we decided to not even bother trying to get in, we just want to get out of here as fast as possible, and we do.

So now I'm fully expecting another social media team reply full of weasel words and fake excuses. Don't bother, unless you want to refund our entire stay.

We will never set a foot in this mismanaged hellhole again. The only thing that is of any interest to the owners is to draw as much money as they can out of your pockets, and give you as little in return...