We went to PortAventura for 2 days, as we wanted to enjoy our stay to the full. As a travel agent I got a pretty good offer. The offer includes 1 night stay, half-board during the stay, admission to PortAventura Park throughout all the stay, plus one-day access to Ferrari Land. Such offers usually are roulette. It means that you don´t know in which hotel will stay till the reservation is made.
Once, making the reservation, we found out, it is a 4 star hotel El Paso. Then, we found that it is a Mexican theme hotel with enormous pools with sunken pirate ship.
In Salou, the city where is PortAventura are plenty of hotels to book. It is your choice to go with PortAventura themed or any other from the city. Other hotels are pretty close to the theme park.
Location:
7 minute walk to the entrance of PortAventura, Caribe Aquatic Park and Ferrari Land. 1.7km to the beach. 1.5km to the resort centre of Salou.
Once there:
We went early in the morning to the hotel. We knew that we can access the rooms only after 2pm. But, we could take our passes to the theme park early in the morning at the reception of the hotel.
I stayed in a really long queue till I was attended at the reception. A lot of people came to enjoy the resort and not only to go to the theme park PortAventura. Once, I was attended, they checked all the information, gave me 4 passes, and told me that during the day I will receive a sms message with the room number.
I received the message with the room number at 1pm, and that if we wanted we could enter the room as it was ready.
We thought to stay at the theme park till the end of the day and only then to go to the hotel. At 5 pm, Ferrari Land theme park was closing, so we decided not to go to PortAventura theme park, but to go to the hotel to enjoy some pool time.
Pool at El Paso PortAventura. Pool is closing at 7pm. So we had enough time come to the room and then to enjoy all the evening by the pool. Kids were more than excited. They love playing in the water, and the pool was a great time to relax.
Dinner. As I told you, we had a half-board included. That means, we had buffet dinner on the first day and buffet breakfast on the second day. After some pool games, we went for the dinner. I have stayed in a 5 star resorts that has buffet dinner included, and comparing with those resorts, I would say that buffet was poor enough. I took some salad and fish, and kids ate pizza and soup. It has not been a lot of variety of food. But, all that was exposed seemed to be fresh enough.
Evening activities at El Paso PortAventura. After dinner I was ready to go to the room and enjoy some relaxing time, and to prepare for our second day of excitement. But, we found out that there are activities for kids. So, we were waiting to the activities that began in minutes after we had our dinner.
Damian and Marc danced a lot. Monitors from the hotel made a great job to entertain all the kids there. Lots of music and dancing. Once finished, we had a great Flamenco Show. First time, we have seen a Flamenco Show, and we liked it a lot.
Our room in El Paso PortAventura. I would say a normal 4 star family room. But what I liked the most, was a huge double bed. King size, not Queen size as usually you will find in Europe :). I liked the fact that it was super clean and we had a little balcony with view to a labyrinth, a kids area to play within the hotel.
Bathroom. I liked the fact that it was really clean in there. While travelling with kids, I always look into cleaning details. It really matters to me as a mom. And if we stay in an apartment, I look at the kitchen as well. We didn’t take any of the bathroom facilities, and there was only a shower gel, that was almost finished and nothing else.
Parking at El Paso. Parking was included in the price of the booking. But, they do not guarantee the place. So, first come first served. We were lucky enough and had a good parking place at the resort.
Final thoughts.
We liked the hotel, as we didn’t have any expectations. We enjoyed the pool, reception, playing area, the room. But the buffet and bathroom amenities could be much better for a 4 star property.