Gold River

Absolutely loved our 5 days here. The food choices in the buffet hall are endless and a constantly changed every night so there was no risk of getting bored. Cocktails were great, I would recommend the 'Portaventura'! The rooms are decent and have standard amenities. The pools here are good, I would recommend a trip to the lower level pool if you are after some peace and quiet. Access to the park is very close and convenient, means you can just pop in for an hour or two at a time when you feel like it. All in all a great place to stay!

We'd had plans to visit Florida for over a year. Hotels booked, tickets booked... that was all before Covid19. As the year progressed we realised that the holiday of a lifetime wasn't going to happen. In June we took a chance on a potential holiday to Spain, with us planning to drive through France. We weren't sure whether we'd be allowed in, because at that time, it certainly wasn't guaranteed. Regardless we booked three nights full board at The Callaghans, and three night bed and breakfast at another on site hotel. Luckily for us July came, and we were allowed into Spain, and Portaventura was open... it was always touch & go, whether Covid19 would kill off revised holiday plans. We arrived at the hotel, and because the Callaghans reception wasn't open we had to check in at Gold River. There was a fairly large queue to check in. From start to getting to the desk, I was stood for an hour. Not great but when I got there, I was met by Silverio (I believe that was his name), who was very helpful. Since booking our 2nd stay at Colorado Creek had been cancelled, and we'd moved to Gold River. We asked if it was possible to stay at the Callaghans for the full six days, which they allowed, and at no extra cost, which was really great of Portaventura. Silverio was a real credit to the hotel. We had to renew our key cards for the second part of our stay, and he remembered everything about our situation :o) Anyway I digress, the hotel itself was really done well. Theming was excellent, as was build quality. In fact I was blown away by the attention to detail right though the Gold River complex. Things were done properly. There are cheaper ways to pull off a western theme, but everything was done at seemingly great expense, timber singles cladding hotel external walls, brickwork that looked old and worn out. The design team really did an excellent job... I've always been impressed with Disney, but the quality in design here was ways ahead of Disney. The room was spacious, clean, and very little signs of use. I believe the hotel is coming up to three years old, and to us it looked like it'd only just opened, everything looked so pristine. The entrance lobby was very impressive, just a shame that they didn't open it. That said we were compensated with discounts, and express passes for the lack of reception, and fancier deluxe aspects of the stay. The on site restaurant was closed also, which meant we had to walk to the Gold River restaurant for breakfasts and evening meals. More on that later. The room had a window which I believe looked across the closed restaurant and a man made river... and then the mountains in the distance. Blue skies met out eyes each morning we pulled back the curtains, a welcome view to British eyes. Housekeeping were great, leaving us fresh towels daily, making the beds etc. That said on our last day, there was zero housekeeping, which meant we had to call down for towels and toilet rolls. I don't know whether this was an oversight, or by design. On our last day we'd walked from FerrariLand, which is a far old walk in 35C heat... so we were a little disappointed to find the room unmade, and no fresh towels for much needed showers. This however is my only gripe. Food on full board couldn't have been better. Breakfast and evening meal, as mentioned were in the Gold River restaurant, and lunch meals were at a number of self service places in the parks. Being in a area with sharply increasing numbers of Covid19 cases, we had some concerns. Yet saying that, in the restaurants Portaventura were doing everything, and I mean everything to minimise risks. Food was being served by staff wearing masks, and head coverings. Staff were constantly cleaning surfaces with alcohol sprays. As soon as a family left a table, straight away the table was cleared in it's entirety, even unused pots, and they cleaned, and reset. Handrails, chairs, bottoms, backs, and sides were constantly being cleaned. I was really impressed by the standards of cleaning. As an aside we visited Europes most visited themepark across in France, and I saw people sitting back at tables that hadn't been cleaned at all. DLRP need to up their game, and follow Portaventuras' standards. Food was fine, varied across days, we certainly had no complaints, staff were helpful... and understood our mixture of poor Spanish, English and pointing :o) Coupled with the food in the parks under the Full board dining option, we were all having to slacken our belts by the end of the stay :o) Lots of food for sure. We used the swimming pool on one of the days, and it was very very busy. That seemed to be slightly out of skew with Portaventuras otherwise excellent Covid19 protocols. It wasn't a comfortable experience really. All in all we had an excellent time at the hotel and in the themeparks. It was a worthy last minute replacement to our planned Miami holiday. Our younger children loved their time there. I'm turning 50 shortly, hence the planned big trip to the US, and I'd not been to Spain since the late 70's as a child. Back then the hotels we stayed in were awful, and I was a little sceptical about what kind of quality we'd be getting... but without question this is a great place to stay. I'm not going to labour the point, but the quality of the hotel was as good as it gets really. Just a final note, we had a phone call a night or so before we left the UK from a helpful lady who explained about the changes, and the discounts been offered. She called us whilst in the hotel room too, asking if everything was fine, and I told her what we thought, that it was an excellent hotel. We don't know where things are going with Covid19... but we really hope that we get the opportunity to go again at some point in the future. Unfortunately for us our government felt the need to impose a quarantine on all returning visitors from Spain... so officially we're quarantined as a type. That said I wouldn't change a thing, we had an excellent time. Here's hoping we get to visit again at some point, and maybe next time we'll go for the Lucy Hotel :o) Thanks for reading.