Pulsating PortAventura
As the park is only an hour away from Barcelona, we flew into Barcelona and hired a car and drove to the city of Barcelona, which is only 20 minutes from the airport. We spent a day walking up and down La Ramblas being entertained by the street artists and we also visited the food market which is massive, before driving about an hour and a half down to Salou. We didn’t have time to visit the Nou Camp so we have saved that for another visit!
There are two hotels attached to the theme park and another two which are within walking distance (which is where we stayed) and they all give added benefits such unlimited entrance into the theme park and 65% of the price of a fast pass, exclusive early entrance to the park on certain days, entrance to the park on your last day (even after you have checked out of the hotel) and they also offer a free shuttle bus to and from the parks.
The theme park kept us amused for 3 days solid, we kept going back in and re-visiting the extreme rides and one of the rides called Stampede has a red side and a blue side and they compete against each other. We kept switching cars until we finally won on our 5th attempt! There are lots of good restaurants in the park as well as Wild West shows and cartoon characters putting on shows for the kids.
There is a fantastic new kid’s area called Sesamo Adventuro and the attractions in there are fun and are designed to make families work together, which is great. Toddlers can go on slow trains or tractors as well as slides and ball pools. I wanted to go some of their rides, they were great!
Next to the PortAventura theme park is the aqua park, we went on all the water slides and also the ones where you can use single, double or group rubber rings – great fun! But we have decided we do not like the completely enclosed water slides, we also managed to chill out and have a well earned sunbath and a swim in the wave area.
The resort of Salou is large and has a long stretch of beach with a lovely promenade, there are plenty of places to eat and there are lots of bars and shops. There is also a shuttle bus from Salou to the theme park with quite a few drop-off points in Salou.
If you are looking for an alternative to Disneyland Paris and don’t have the time to go to Orlando, then PortAventura in Spain is an ideal alternative.
I have visited plenty of theme parks in different countries and PortAventura is easy to walk around, it has distinctive areas and follows a natural path around the park. It also hosts some of the top rides in the world.
You have got to give it a go!!