Amazing hotel its like 4-9 minits away from the theme park and the workers are nice like the vodka…read morelemon lady and the owner

Hotel El Paso is part of the PortAventura resort. Although it isn't actually inside the gates of…read morethe theme park, it is a short 5-10 minute walk to the entrance. We stayed for two weeks, on a package holiday arranged through Thomas Cook. We stayed full board all inclusive which included unlimited theme park access. Reception and welcome On arrival at around midday there was a long queue of guests waiting to check in, and the check-in desk had three members of staff working through the guests. We had to wait 20 minutes to get to the head of the queue, and once there we were given information about the theme park, basic information regarding the hotel and facilities, a couple of maps, and our room keys. We were asked to nominate a preferred time for arriving to breakfast each day. This is a daft question to ask as of course it depends on what you plan to be doing each day, but nonetheless you have to make a choice. We chose 9.30 and then were given "tickets" which allowed us access to breakfast in half hour windows ranging between 8 am and 10 am, and mostly not 9.30, as we were told the hotel is very busy and all the 9.30 allocation had been taken. We were informed that our room was not available to access and will be available by 3pm. The receptionist took my mobile number and said they would send a text when the room is ready, or return back to reception at 3pm if we haven't heard. This was all disappointing as we had a very early start that day. We were then invited to take our luggage to a luggage room where it will be kept for us, and could be collected (by us) when our room is ready. So no concierge/bellhop to deliver our luggage to our rooms then. If you choose to use this facility do check to ensure your insurance will cover any losses. (see http://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/travel_news/article-3688180/Do-leave-bags-hotel-reception-checking-luggage-stolen-left-pocket-insurers.html) Pool and entertainment The large pool area is excellent. No shortage of sun beds although there is the usual scramble to get towels on beds in the morning. We never failed to find somewhere to lie though. There are some fixes areas with shade cover but no moveable parasols. Shade is limited. The main pool is 1.4 metres at the deepest. The kids pool is very shallow and includes a "galleon" play area with water jets that the kids can use to irritate other kids with. Keeps them occupied for hours. There is also a round jacuzzi pool although the jets are not very powerful. The temperature of all the pools were perfect during the 2 weeks we were there in August. The pool area has a variety of grass, concrete, AstroTurf and sandy areas. The sand is really unpleasant though, it's coarse and hurts your feet, it also gets really hot in the midday sun. A lot of sand seems to end up in the pools too. Stay away from the sandy areas if you can. There are several lifeguards keeping an eye on the pool at all times. They are vigilant, some may say over vigilant, love blowing their whistles for every tiny infringement. Some banned behaviours include: somersault diving, wearing sunglasses in the pool, standing on some of the edges, not climbing on the galleon. It's actually reassuring to know someone is keeping an eye on the kids but I know some people got frustrated with the semi fascist lifeguards. As well as the pool there is a games area with a pool table (2 euros per game) ping pong table, a couple of air hockey tables and minifoot/table football. There is also an area for beach volleyball and a small sandy football pitch. Inside the main reception/bar area there are some pay-per-play xboxes available. Food and drink A self service buffet restaurant provides breakfast, lunch and dinner. Breakfast consists of cold meats, cheese, bread, jam, and pastries, as well as hold food - mini hotdogs, two types of sausages, fried eggs, scrabbled eggs, beans, bacon, pancakes plus various syrups. Fruit and cereals are also available. And chips!!! For dinner there is a variety of hot and cold options. The food quality could have been better, and got pretty repetitive after two weeks. For kids there was always pizza, pasta and hot dogs available. And chips of course. But you don't want to be eating that stuff every meal. The best part of dinner are the desserts, lots of mini desserts such as mouses, pastries, brownies, plus icecream, fresh fruit, yoghurt, an We didn't eat lunch in the buffet restaurant but we did take a look in and it looked pretty similar to what was on offer at dinner time.

Best all inclusive holiday ever! Staff were friendly and always helpful. Food was great!…read moreThe pool in the sun made the holiday too!

We stayed at the San Juan building where they have a premium service/lounge area. Her they serve…read morebreakfast and have a nice sitting area. The rooms are also a bit bigger then the other buildings. Since we were 3 people that was perfect. A great thing about the hotel is that they have high speed free wifi internet in the rooms, breakfast area, and the hotel beach. Entrance to the PortAdventura park is included, that also goes for Express access to the parks attractions. That is a must if you visit in peak periods like the summer. The food was ok, but not great. There are not other options close by then the hotel restaurant. There is a shuttle train that take you from the hotel to the park every 15 minutes. The watermark and teampark are accessible from the same area All in all highly recommended.

Overall I really enjoyed staying here. The staff were amazing and very attentive. The food was…read morevery good, and the hotel itself with the surrounding amenities were lovely. They have a nice pool with a bar, a shaded deck area, and a nice indoor air conditioned bar area as well. Now I can't give them five stars because there were a few issues. First, the pool bar was only open when they had someone to work it. So some days it was open, other hot sunny days it was closed. The food was good, but quite dear and they only had the three places to eat. We stayed here for five days which I must say was way too long. Even the staff seemed surprised when I explained to them how long we were staying. We saw the entire park in two days (could have done it in one), and then spent two days at the water park (not included in the price so this is another expensive cost not factored in originally) and then a day out in the surrounding area. The other issue I had was like Disney they have a few hotels here all in the same area. However you cannot go to them. They are very strict on this. We wanted after sampling the three restaurants in our hotel to check out the food in the hotel next door, and they refused to even allow us in. I thought that was very odd, we just wanted to try out the other kitchens. Overall we did enjoy our stay but we also quickly found out you could stay in other resorts not part of the park for much less that offered many more options, especially around dinner which we discovered the last day there. We will be back, but we may only stay here a day, two at most, and then will go to the other resorts in Salou and eat out at many of the local restaurants which cater to tourists and families.