In August of this year my hubby and our son (14) and daughter (9) stayed in Salou for 2 weeks. We stayed in the AlbatrosApartments, which were situated on a bit of a hill about 10 minutes walk from the main strip. We liked the situation of these apartments as Salou is quite a hussley bussely place and quite noisy at night time, but where we were was fairly quiet.
The flight from Glasgow only took 2 1/2 hours and the coach journey from Reus Airport to the Albatros Apartments only took 1/2 hour, so travelling time was great. Check in was also very quick, there were quite a few people who arrived at the same time as us, but there were 4 or 5 receptionists doing check in.
When we booked we probably left it a little late and could only get a studio apartment for the 4 of us
so we were a bit concerned about the size. When we arrived we were pleasantly surprised. The room was fairly big with 2 single beds joined together and a settee with a pull out bed underneath. The kitchen area was small but was adequate as we only really eat breakfast in the room. The kitchen comprised of a gas cooker, a fridge, a sink and plenty pots, pans, crockery and utensils. The veranda was a good size with a table and 4 chairs. It also had a canopy which could be pulled down when the sun was shining in. The bathroom comprised of a bath with shower above and a separate toilet. The room was very clean. The only fault with the room on arrival was the lack of storage space for our clothes.
There was a small supermarket in the complex which was good for the basics. There was also a restaurant attached, which although we never ate in always seemed to be busy.
There was also a pool side bistro and bar, Big Al's, which we really did like. The staff were very friendly and the food in the Bistro, although very British, was excellent and great value for money.
The pool itself was clean but the area around the pool was very small with the result we spent more time at the beach.
The first couple of nights we were there we slept with the patio windows open as it was so hot, but we were above the bar which is open until 2am so did find it a bit noisy. The rooms had air conditioning in them which we enquired about. It was 8 euros per day, which I felt was rather expensive, but once we tried it once we thought it was well worth the money. We were able to sleep with the doors closed and still be cool. We have learned though that we should have only kept the air conditioning on during the day and off at night as we all came home with very bad colds.
The only complaint we did have with the apartment was the lack of toilet paper! The room did have a bidet but well, we don't use one!! We had to keep asking for more toilet paper as we kept running out, it was like they rationed it as they were very reluctant to give you anymore. If there was even 1 square left on the roll the cleaner wouldn't give you another one! so we started to hide it.
In the resort there is the main beach which is very big. Closer to the apartments were 2 smaller beaches. We went to both of them and found them great. Very clean with lots of water sports and refreshments. We prefered not to go to the main beach as it always seemed a bit too crowded.
Salou itself is very big and busy with plenty of restaurants, bars and shops. There are 2 water parks nearby, Caribe Aquatic Park PortAventura 10 minutes bus ride from Salou and Aquapolis in La Pineda, which is about 20 minutes bus ride from Salou. We went to Aquapolis which we had heard was bigger and better. It certainly was big and it was great, although a bit expensive and once you paid to get in you still had to hire beds and rings for certain slides, but it was a good day.
PortAventura Theme Park is amazing only 20 minutes from Salou and well worth a visit ( I have also written a review about this).
All in all we had a great holiday, Salou is not really a place for a traditional Spanish holiday, it is very British, but it is fun in the sun and there's plenty to do.
The apartments were very very basic but were clean and as we only used then to sleep in very adequate.
A little update - for the four of us for the last week in July and the first week in August this year the price was £1550, which we were happy with. This year however for the same 2 weeks in 2008 we are getting quoted over £2000 which, although we very happy with the apartments, they are definitely not worth that price!
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Sep 14th, 2007
(Oct 16th, 2007)
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