We booked a package deal with EasyJet Holidays for the beginning of May 2021 with a £60pp deposit which was fab. This package deal included 7 nights half board in our hotel, return flights from Glasgow to Barcelona, transfers to our hotel and 22kg luggage each.

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My only complaint would be the super lengthy transfers. We didn't realise there was actually a closer airport to Salou - Reus which is serviced by Jet2 which would've saved us loads of time however, it meant the overall trip turned out cheaper.

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We stayed at the H10 Delfin which was okay, the room was clean enough and had all the amenities we needed and we quite enjoyed the half board breakfast and dinner buffet options too.

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I would recommend looking to pay for a pool view room as our room looked out onto the courtyard where the kitchens and bins were and we were woken up in the middle of the night with noise coming from here which wasn't ideal.

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The area was nice enough, close to the beach, local shops and restaurants and we could see Ferrari Land right from our balcony!

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HOTEL TIPS

If you're looking to stretch your budget, I'd recommend looking into the Hotel Olympus Palace which our hotel overlooked and looked GORGEOUS or staying in one of PortAventura's on-site hotels. My family stayed here in July 2021 at the Caribe Hotel which they loved.

Activites in Salou

I can't write about Salou without talking about PortAventura!
 
HISTORY OF PORTAVENTURA
PortAventura World opened it's first park in 1995 and is the sixth most visited theme park in Europe and the most visited theme park in Spain. They opened Ferrari Land in 2017 as their second park and have since added Caribe Water Park and six resort hotels. Owned originally by Tussauds Group until their stocks were sold to Universal in 1998, making it the first Universal theme park in Europe. In 2004, Universal's parent company NBC sold all shares in the park and it is now owned by Investindustrial KKR.
 
PortAventura are expanding with a new indoor rollercoaster this Summer 2023 with the Uncharted IP in the Far West section of the park so keep your eyes peeled for that.

OUR TRIP
We paid for a 3-day ticket which allowed us to access PortAventura on all three days and Ferrari Land on one day of our trip. Due to the time of year, the Caribe Water Park wasn't open yet so we couldn't visit on this occasion. We booked our tickets through Attraction Tickets which we also used for our Siam Park tickets on our trip to Tenerife. 

We didn't go for the Express Passes on our trip as we didn't think the price was reflective of how long the wait times were so we decided to just wait in the normal queues instead. On our first day, we got there for park opening and headed to the back section of the park where Shambhala and Dragon Khan were as these two open first. We managed to ride them a few times before queues started to build up and was definitely a good wake-up call!

By around 12pm we were getting hungry and didn't realise most of the food locations don't open until 1pm so we ended up eating waffles and Nutella as a pre-lunch snack before heading to the Mexico area to queue up for one of the quick service locations. The theming felt as if you were in a small village in Mexico and there was loads of food options to choose from, everything from tacos to quesadillas, chicken strips to rice and salads there was so much choice and you paid for what you chose which was good too. They then had a show which was performed whilst you ate and ran every hour, a great way to get out of the sun and into some air-conditioning for a while!

Due to the weather, we decided to skip out the water rides as it just wasn't warm enough to endure. We did find on a number of the rollercoasters that there was a lot of queue-skipping and it was just allowed to happen which annoyed us but unfortunately nothing we could do about it.

The theming of the park is unbelievable, you could tell Universal had a hand in making the park what it is with even the plants and music in each section being so well themed such as bamboo in the Asia section and palm trees in the Polynesian section. There was also a number of additional entertainment to enjoy including parades, games, live shows and fun transport around the park including a monorail, boats and more.

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In terms of Ferrari Land, I'm not sure I'd bother if we were to go again. The park is small in comparison to PortAventura and has around 3 proper rides. There's a few kids rides but overall the wait times were ridiculous throughout. We waited around 45 mins for the drop tower rides which was just okay and lasted about a minute in total and didn't bother with the 112mph 112m tall Red Force - the park' signature attraction as it was over an hour and a half wait due to it being really the only decent ride in the park. We did like going through the museum section to learn about Ferrari but overall didn't feel worthwhile to add on the extra to go here. What's good though was we could enter PortAventura directly from it so didn't have to exit and queue again to get in.

Overall, we had a really great time and I didn't think the prices were too bad for tickets considering how amazing the park was in terms of entertainment offering, rides and theming. In comparison, I had been to Alton Towers not long before and PortAventura absolutely blew it out the water in terms of looks, size and theming and it wasn't much dearer ticket wise. If you're planning to go to the area, I absolutely recommend booking a trip, PortAventura was the sole purpose for us going to Salou and I'm so glad we went!

PORTAVENTURA TIPS

• PortAventura Express Passes

When my family went in July, they decided to purchase the fastpass on their last day of the trip so they could get round all the rides with minimal waits to get as much out of the day as possible. This might also be worthwhile if you're looking to do a one day visit to the park to ensure you're able to experience as much as possible.

• PortAventura Caribe Water Park

Due to the weather, the water park is only open June-September so if you'd be planning to visit make sure to check opening times for the season before booking!

• Staying On-Site

Unlimited access to PortAventura theme park
One-day access to Caribe Water Park
Discount on Ferrari Land Tickets
Close to the parks with some having direct access right into the park!

• PortAventura Wait Times & App

The app to be perfectly honest, is pointless. The wait times either don't show or are super in-accurate so we found viewing the wait time boards outside the rides to be better and more up to date. I quite enjoyed using the paper map to find out way around and enjoyed not having to rely on phone battery to find locations, wait times and show times.

• Opening Times

Upon arrival in the park, only some rides are open from gates open. When we went these included Furius Baco, Dragon Khan and Shamballa at 10am. Some opened at 10:30 and others not until 11 including Stampida. I would definitely recommend checking this out and planning your time based on this as the park is a circle so you could end up walking quite a distance to find a ride that's open!

• Food & Drink

There are loads of food options at PortAventura that we found to be good value for money. There are loads of small stalls selling hotdogs, ice creams and beer (of course lol) for a quick on the go option. There are also a number of quick service locations in the Far West, Polynesian and Mexico areas of the park complete with full production stage shows to enjoy while you eat. The Mexico one in particular is fully indoors with air-conditioning and it was so so good.