I am Mrs Fussy when it comes to hotels but this one was "ACE".... We had an interconnecting room and they were huge and clean! Every day we had clean towels and our beds made up, The food was great and plenty to choose from, my youngest son is a poor eater but even he managed to eat plenty!

The pools were spotless as was the resort area.

A walk into Salou itself is 15mins, and a killer coming back as its uphill but we got the reception to phone a taxi a few times and it only cost around 6 euros!

If I had to rate something down, it would be that some of the rides at the park were off, and the prices are a little steep otherwise my kids were thoroughly pleased with all the rides and shows.

We will DEFO go back to this hotel again!

we arrived at out hotel for 9am to be told we couldn't have our rooms until 3pm, we arrived in jeans and couldn't change as they took out luggage and stored it away until the rooms became available, and it must of been 25c that morning. there was fluff running along the corridor the day we arrived to the day we left so they didn't clean that, plus a huge cobwed hung above our bed on the ceiling throughout our stay. The theme park is huge, it takes sometime to find your way out. there is only a handful of rides for the little ones. the cost of living over there is well expensive. walkers crisps cost 1.50 euros, a burger is 9 euros...the sun news paper is 2 euros.etc...just to give you a rough idea. The entertainment isn't much good either, the mini disco every night is the same time and time again. the food wasn't that bad.

Ok, So we have revisited again this time our eldest is 4 and youngest is nearly 2. Reus airport is under construction, is it bigger with the same effiency and cleanliness as before.
The flight across was good food was fine, having to buy earphones for

We went to Port Aventura on the recommendation of a friend who had gone with his son and had a great time. The room we had in the hotel Portaventura itself could have been a little cleaner with regard to the mould around the bath and some of the bedroom walls needed a lick of paint, but other than that I have no complaints. The food was fantastic. At night, due to the large turnover of guests, which was handled pretty well - we never waited more than a few minutes to get shown to a table - the food ws readily replaced, and for a buffet, was usually always very hot. The choice was fantastic and the quality very good indeed. I didn't like the idea of the sittings in the morning, but there was sufficient times to choose from and since the parks didnt' open until 10:00, getting up and about too early wasn't a problem, so we always did the 09:15 - 09:30 slot. We found that there wee too many kids running around corridors late at night. Don't people put their kids to bed at 08:00 on holiday? Even if not, try to keep the noise down. Having the hotel next to the theme park and water park was great. We enjoyed ourselves that much that we've already booked up again for next year. It would be nice if the rooms had a balcony to sit out on though, particularly once you've got the little ones tucked up - but I guess you can't have everything.

After spending the last 15 years going to France we decided to have a change so as my husband and son love theme parks we decided to give Portaventura a try as it wasnt to far to fly and the weather was gonna be warm. Our first visit was in 2006, we all fell in love with it for different reasons ie weather, food and hotel and the theme park, we have done Disneyland Paris every time we have been in France but we found Portaventura way more relaxed but equally entertaining and the hotel and food lived up to all our expectations and I am fussy, we returned in 2007 amd again in 2008 went back to France last year but have been drawn back once again for 2010. Its possibly one of the only holidays where i come back truly feeling like i have relaxed and chilled out. Well recommended for those who want a mixture of excitement and relaxation. The staff are very friendly and go out of their way to assist you in any way possible. Cant wait to go in August once again.

I can only assume that the people who disliked this holiday as much as we did dont write reviews !! i dont consider myself a fussy person but i think this hotel was completely over rated , the staff were tired and the majority could not understand any English let alone speak it we were really disappointed

Hotel

Rooms are advertised in brochure as with a balcony, our first allocated room didnt have one , we complained and in fairness we were reallocated a room with a small balcony the next morning. We enjoy sitting on the balcony in the evenings/morning this is not an option with this hotel, 30% of the rooms dont have balconys just big windows that open into the room and are very claustrophobic, we got one in the next catorgory which is a small thin narrow balconey standing room only not wide enough for a chair 60% of the balconies are like this, the final 10% have balconies wide enough for a chair but no patio furniture is provided which is a shame as the surroundings are really nice.

Bedrooms

Clean basic standard, good fridge , good storage, TV has 41 channels only number 27 & 28 are English which is BBC 1 & BBC 2 although u dont go there to watch tv we did have 5 days of torrential rain, we booked a family room and i think it would of been much better if the rooms have one double and bunks or 2 x singles but they dont its two doubles which was disappointing. Fresh towels every day . nNot a 4 star bedroom more a 2 star. The problem is the hotel is a maze of corridors as there are 500 rooms so be careful with the kids running off in the corridors.

Staff

If you need to know anything use Guest Services only , only 2 of the staff on reception can speak English, i think to work on reception in an international hotel used by mainly English speaking guests , basic english should be a requirement of the job, one of them couldnt understand what a toilet was , all in all it was very frustrating PARTICULARLY IF YOU HAD A PROBLEM AS THEY JUST COULDNT UNDERSTAND

Food

As per various reviews on other sites , the dining facilities are totally insufficient for the amount of guests . the breakfasts are in 2 sittings which u can change at recption if u can get them to understand you, fresh & tinned fruit , cerreals , donuts , croissants meats cheeses and pancakes with full english which was very very greasy and luke warm , breakfasts were so mediocre thet we didnt bother going for the last 5 days. Evening meals were a nightmare as there were major queues outside waiting to go in , staff were not quick at clearing tables which added to the problem, restaurant was buffet style called A LA CARTE but more canteen standard , meats under cooked , choices of a roast , pasta , veal stew or some fish dish in sauce , chips at every meal also cheese and biscuits ice cream and desserts. Pork was raw all meats cooked from frozen on the griddle very repetative after 2 weeks. We used the dine around option twice , u just go to guest services before 6pm and get your evening meal changed to a different hotel , we used the Italian at the Portaventura which was awful, and the Mexican at the El Paso that although wasnt restaurant standard was better quality than the other restaurants. Staff in all restaurants were surly apart from a few.

Entertainment

Kids club ok u could book them in free between 9am - 7pm only watching DVDS colouring or face painting on offer though, daughter thought it was ok , son hated it at 11 there was no one his age there

Evening entertainment ok , daughter loved the mini disco with the hotel dances , small stage area though , patio heaters didnt work , not enough seating and midges every where take your repellant , we all said there the evening entertainment for kids is too late , they are knackereed from the parks and the disco starts at 9.15 pm , adults entertainment which they can still watch starts at 10pm . i liked the fact it was in the Village square part of the complex i just dont think its big enough in July/August it is going to be horrendous

Facilities

Gym good eventhough we all caught conjunctivitus from the jacuzzi, my husband slipped on the wet tiled floors be careful they are lethal, we all had stomach upsets and a flu virus was going around the complex.

All in all, hotel facilities are too small for the amount of guests, cleanliness in pools communal areas and food hygene is poor, staff cant communicate , we didnt like mainland Spain as we felt it was dirty over commercialised and full of tat shops, we hired a car and all of the coast is the same drab dull and dirty but that is a personnal opinion , park ok under 1.2 metres and kids wont get on anything, food and drink prices very high, massive queues , hundreds of screaming kids and Spanish school children its the value brand of Theme Parks , as in what supermarket value brand chocolate is to Thorntons. Would not go again , recommend it or visit it again even for free basically a 2 star hotel 25 minutes walk from the nearest shops that rip u off as a captive audience , character costumes need replacing , hotel needs decorating , new staff and bigger rooms would love the heath and safety to visit the kitchens loads of people were ill , take insect repellant and be glad if u are not stuck there for 2 weeks like we were the best part was the beach club

we stayed in el paso last year,but found this hotel much better.location was brill,and you could just come and go in the park as you please,by showing your hotel room pass.food excellent,plenty of it.staff great,safe in room was broken,and was fixed within the hour.entertainment bit repetitive,but kids loved it and this is a kids holiday really!!!

hotel was ok d`ont feel it is 4 star was clean i found the food was repetive but would suggest to use the other resteraunts on the site locatio was great for the theme park we had a 4yr old girlwith us who loved the rides.entertainmet was quite good in the evening great for the kids they had there own disco every night for anhour.take the theme park away and the hotel becomes average.overall it was ok

Hotel is well placed,however security is really really bad.

Breakfast was good but the other meals very not.

Not enough staff at check in/out.Had to wait an hour once just to ask a question.

Food: Definitely 4* star and Very Good Indeed!

A wide variety of food in the half-board buffets for breakfast and dinner. It was of very good quality.

Meat cooked to order, and this was openly advertised in many languages, so all guests could take advantage of the service.

The food choices catered for the western European palette. (no complaints there, though some British people seemed put off by the local names, without venturing to try things. For example, the white fish was called perch and tasted like cod - so could have been enjoyed).

The only junk food there were chips (fantastic, becuase 'children's menus usually mean rubbish in breadcrumbs and chips in most places!).

Virtually all the choices looked restaurant cooked, not bought in. Another nice feature.

Salads well prepared and gave no adverse side-effects.

It's a one week menu, which was a little deja vu but meant, I could have my favourites of the first week again.

I didn't like being given a sitting for breakfast, very holiday camp, I thought, not 4* star hotel. However, you could ask to change (which I did after getting up at what was 6am bst on the second day, just to eat). It turned out the later sitting was full of Spaniards and Americans, even though there were a very good number of British people staying there. hmmm!

We ate a good breakfast everyday and didn;t get hungry until about 6.30 in the evening, despite energetic days in the heat.

I didn't like having to queue to get in to dine at either end of the day.


Hotel Cleanliness:

I think the whole of the Costas is built on an anthill, but none in my second floor room, just in the lobby by the windows - which cut short a relaxing time with the papers the first time I spied a troop of them being busy near my chair.

Other than that, cutlery and croclery is clean (I'm really fussy about this), rooms are clean, though:
- the tiles did require regrouting to get rid of the mould spots,
- and the maids not to keen to sweep the floors everyday (However, the floors are tiled, so no dirty carpets to make you wonder what you are walking in), and
- the maids didn't remove the mugs from our late night hot chocolate we bought in the hotel the night before.

The Swimming pools and jacuzzi were clean, and the pools were constantly watched over by lifeguards on a rota.

The female changing room in the fitness centre was clean, as were the sauna and steam room.

The camp aventura building was well kept, inside and out.