Hotel El Paso

Overall the hotel is fabulous! We had a great holiday. The themepark is amazing, Ferrari land is incredible. Both themeparks were included in the price(1 day ferrari land pass) of the holiday which was great value. The hotel is spotlessly clean and there is an amazing smell in the lobby and the corridors. We stayed half board and ate every morning and evening in the buffet restaurant. Food selection was very good, even for my fussy eater son. The breakfast was exceptional with plenty of hot and cold options, great coffee. Any staff member we dealt with were polite and helpful. Prices of drinks, snacks, etc. were a bit pricier than in the local town but is to be expected in a resort. There is a big supermarket about 10 mins walk away so easily accessible. We didn't bother much with Salou as it is not a pretty or particularly Spanish town, it is very touristy. The pool was perfect for some relaxation. My daughter enjoyed the kids pool which was very safe and had a pirates ship to play in. Again, very clean. The one complaint I have was that the air condition was turned off, probably due to the cooler temperatures this time of the year, however the rooms were stifling at night time which made it hard to sleep. We kept the balcony doors open in order to circulate some air but then were eaten alive my mosquitoes and even had a bird flying around the room one morning! We did ask at guest services about the air con but were told that it was off for the whole hotel and that it couldn't be just turned on for one room. Maybe we were the only ones who found the rooms warm. Apart from the lack of air con, everything else was great.

We expected that in 4* hotel usually bath things are provided: hair conditioner, body cream, shower caps, etc. NOT AT ALL. In the room there is no fridge (minibar), so we couldn’t keep milk for kids. No napkins, which is normal basic thing to be provided. But moreover(!), we checked out, forgetting mobile phone in the room, when we returned, the staff at reception said there is nothing found. We went through “My IPhone” program, it was shown that the phone is in the hotel. We asked to put question to cleaning staff, to view cameras, something to do... But the answer was very formal: we do not do any investigation, call to police, without trying to help. So, if you loose or leave belongings, the hotel doesn’t support you and isn’t responsible for their staff(( For this declared level of hotel (and for that price) we expected better service...

Assuming you are staying here to visit PortAventura/Ferrari land then is absolutely fine. This is exactly what we did, 4 nights in total which is more than enough. Couple of days at the parks and a day at the beach which is a short walk.. each night we walked to town for dinner and drinks and got a taxi back. The park is a 5 minute walk to the entrance and it is a very nicely themed/clean hotel. Breakfast was good and well managed considering the amount of people utilising (we thought the allocated time was a good idea, others don’t seem too) the bed wasn’t too comfy in all honesty and the children’s entertainer was outside our room very loud until 11pm, not too much of a problem for us but if you had very young children it would be a hindrance. The pool wasn’t open when we visited which we couldn’t quite understand as was still pleasant outside October half term (for us brits at least anyway) The two parks (or one and a half parks) can be done In 2 days, luckily we are fortunate enough that we can afford fast passes as you do definitely need them, having visited numerous theme parks worldwide this is definitely the most biased towards fast pass holders so if you can, bite the bullet and add them into your budget before hand otherwise like we said we would of come away feeling a bit deflated. They are actually reasonably priced considering. I don’t feel the need to come back to PortAventura or at least not for a fair few years. It is a good park, Halloween theming was excellent and rides are good but we have done it now. If I do come back I would stay at El Paso again but only if visiting the park due to pure convenience.