Author's product rating: 
| Advantages: |
Great value for money, clean, friendly staff, quiet, large rooms, varied menu, close to beach |
| Disadvantages: |
Paper thin walls, gym and sauna located in another hotel |
| Recommend to potential buyers: |
yes |
From the moment you pull up outside the Punta Dorada Princess, a 4 star hotel located in Cap Salou you start to nod your head and agree with the excited voices in your head that yes, deciding to stay here was a good decision to make and this is further reinforced when you see the hotel in all its glory in the full bright light of a sunny Spanish morning.
My wife and I decided that as we hadn’t had a holiday in 2006 due to the purchase of our flat we deserved a few days rest and recuperation in the sun, and not being one to pay overly inflated package holiday prices only to be lumped in with a merry band of English people and their screaming kids I took it upon myself to set a few criteria and went forth with the help of Expedia to find a suitable hotel with the flights being booked directly. Living in London I desperately wanted some peace and quiet, a hotel with a number of facilities, it had to be close to a beach and sufficiently far enough from any lively areas so not to disturb me but at the same time close enough should I wish to partake in an evening of drunken debauchery. So as you can tell, when I made my booking I took Expedia on face value and worked on the basis that this was the place for me to enjoy myself in the sun. The cost for Half Board equated at the time of booking to £54.04 per night for 2 adults in a standard double room.
Located 12.5 miles from Reus airport and only 96 miles from Barcelona, the 100 roomed Punta Dorada Princess is part of the Princess chain of
hotels and sits opposite the Negresso Princess hotel. On the top of an outcrop the hotel overlooks the Mediterranean and a stretch of golden sand. As I had wanted somewhere a little secluded being positioned some 2 miles from the centre of Salou Town meant that the chances of being kept awake by rowdy revellers who had enjoyed too much Sangria was virtually zero and a taxi into the centre of the town cost only 7 Euro.
Arriving in the early hours of the morning we really didn’t get to appreciate the hotel in all its glory until the following day when it is obvious that no expense was spared when it came to the main reception area with its solid marble floors and solid wooden furniture. Actually checking in was an experience in itself as the hotel staff can only speak limited English, my Spanish is non-existent and I couldn’t hear anything following the flight. Much gesturing over a 10 minute period resulted in me handing over our travel documents to the receptionist who in turn gave us an electronic key to our room, a remote control for the television and a card confirming that we were eligible for breakfast and evening meal in the hotel restaurant. Despite the late hour the hotel night porter informed us that as we were eligible for the evening meal we had missed he could arrange for a cold meal to be prepared by the kitchen and brought up to our room. A very nice first touch and my first impression of the hotel reception even in the early hours was that it was spotlessly clean, bright and welcoming.
To the right of reception are the only two lifts that serve the 6 floors of the hotel. 5 floors are above ground, with the restaurant located in the basement area. The lifts themselves were quite small and cramped. It wasn’t possible to fit more than 4 people at a time in them and it was literally rammed once we were in the lift with our bags. At certain times of the day it could take up to 5-10 minutes for a lift to arrive and the stairs were a much speedier way of moving around the floors.
Once into the room I was astounded by how much space each room was allocated. The double bed was actually 2 oversized single beds pushed together which wasn’t an issue and as you will see from the photographs I have attached, the main room contained a huge wardrobe, a safe, two sets of draws, storage space underneath the television along with a small table and chairs. A large set of patio doors at one side of the room led onto a balcony which overlooked both the swimming pool area and out to sea. Even in the middle of the night in the dark I could make out the waves crashing on the beach and could almost taste the salt in the air. As a smoker I had requested a smoking room and unlike most smoking rooms in hotels, as soon as we entered there was no aroma of stale cigarettes which was a welcome relief for my non-smoking wife, in fact if it wasn’t for the small ashtray positioned by side of the television I would have thought we had been given a non-smoking room. Again my first impressions of the sleeping area were that it was very clean, airy and thanks to the air conditioning very cool despite the warm temperature outside.
As a downside there was no Internet access directly from the room, however 2 computers with access to the Internet could be hired at a cost of 1 Euro per 10 minutes. These computers also doubled as games consoles with a large selection of PS2 games to keep the children staying at the hotel amused – at a cost.
After jumping onto the bed I nearly broke my back. They were rock solid and nothing like the soft cushion like properties of my own bed, needless to say actual sleep on the first night was uncomfortable but over the course of the week I managed to work in my own rut and I progressively slept more with a better quality of unbroken sleep.
The bathroom was also on a scale to the room and apart from the WC, hairdryer, sink and oversized bath there was an extremely powerful shower. When I say oversized bath, I actually mean and enormous bath. It could easily fit 3 people it was that wide, long and deep. Decorated in pale brown marble whilst not to my taste, it was again spotlessly clean with ample amounts of soap, shampoo and toilet paper.
When we first arrived and unpacked we had a few issues with the room. The patio doors to the balcony would not lock and the safe for some reason would not allow me to enter my own security code. After a very quick trip to reception and much more hand gesturing to overcome the language barrier I was advised that the patio doors didn’t lock as they could not be opened from the outside and that the safe had to be rented at a cost of 15 Euro per week before it would allow me to enter a security code. After paying for the safe I returned to the room very much satisfied that my queries had been dealt with.
Despite overlooking the pool and positioned on the first floor we never experienced any problems with noise coming from this area unless the patio doors were open but over the course of the week and with the arrival of new neighbours discovered that the walls between rooms were paper thin and at times when they were having a chat we could hear them perfectly within our room. This became increasingly annoying as they insisted on having the television on from dawn until dusk every day. I pity a person who stays in a room next to a honeymooning couple. Although it was annoying I found that everything about the room was uplifting and was a credit to the hotel.
The restaurant area of the hotel was on a par with the other areas and even though located in the basement was amply lit, bright and the staff cheerful. Breakfast consisted of a choice from the buffet of cold meats and breads, cereals or the traditional greasy bacon, eggs, sausages and beans. After sampling the bacon and sausages on the first morning of our stay I stayed away for the rest of the week as the bacon was fatty and stringy whilst the sausages were so spicy they turned my stomach and I am a big fan of spicy food. Toast was the order of the day from that moment on.
As we had booked Half Board we were given the option of eating for free in the evening and again this was done from the buffet rather than a waiter service. We arrived on the Saturday but didn’t go for an evening meal until the Wednesday as throughout the hotel a menu was published each day outlining the evening meal. The dishes we saw didn’t really appeal as only one dish was outlined on it. At no point did it mention that it was a buffet and it was a stroke of luck that we opted to give it a try. Instead of being one main dish there were 5-6 main dishes, salads and soups available. The main dishes tended to be salmon, lamb, chicken or steak with fresh vegetables or chips and every time we tried the food we were not disappointed by the taste, texture or quality of the food provided. The salads and pastas prepared as starters were also fresh and tasty. Still suffering from a hangover I tried only the soup one evening and found this to have been of the highest quality and obviously cooked onsite rather than coming from a can.
The pool area of the hotel rarely became busy, even on the hottest days. The pool was of a fair size and 1.7 metres deep in areas. With 35 free sun lounges for use by residents we did think that we would awaken to each reserved by a lovely looking German beach towel but alas, the hotel operates a policy that lounges cannot be reserved and if they are not in use towels can be removed. We only sat by the pool once during our stay and there were only 6 other people around so there was no danger of confrontation with an angry German, in fact most of the guests tended to be Spanish or Russian who were all quite friendly. There was a pool bar however this was never staffed during the day much to my dismay and one of the reasons why I decided that I would rather go and tan my pasty body on the beach.
The hotel advertises that it has a sauna and a gym which can be used by guests however they neglect to mention that these facilities are not onsite and are in fact located across the road within the Negresso Princess hotel. We decided not to utilise these facilities during our stay so I cannot comment on how well equipped the gym was. As far as amenities go, the Punta Dorada Princess had a large smoke free bar area that I never saw more than 6 couples in despite it holding over 200. The bar prices were reasonable with bottled beers costing 3 Euro and bottles of wine costing 13 Euro. In addition to this, the hotel had a games room with an air hockey and pool table, a shooting game and a cuddly toy grabber. The games room was something of an afterthought in my opinion as it was positively tiny considering the way everything else in the hotel was done on a grand scale.
In conjunction with the Negresso Princess hotel there was a kids club to keep children out of their parents hair for the day. As we don’t have children I can’t tell you what the kids thought of this facility but looking at the board that outlined their activities such as shooting, magic lessons, horse riding and dancing lessons I kind of wanted to go along and see what it was like. On our final evening we actually went along to see the entertainment provided by the hotel and the children from the club along with the child minders put on a disco on stage for the adults which was actual quite well done and the children seemed to be having fun and had a genuine affection for the two women tasked with keeping them entertained.
What can I say about the main entertainment? Well, from the acrobats we saw I have to say we didn’t miss anything. They weren’t acrobats and were more of a cabaret, a poor cabaret at that. The entertainment is advertised each day in the bar area and from what I saw magicians, cabaret, acrobats and bingo usually taking place at 10 in the evening I’m delighted I didn’t stick around earlier in my holiday to watch. In all honesty I can say that my wife and I did chuckle throughout the entertainment but this was down mainly to the alcohol consumed and the fact they were so poor it was funny.
The walls in the rooms may have been paper thin which did rile me a little, everything else about the stay in the hotel was perfect and considering the
price I feel as though I stumbled across an absolute bargain and would not hesitate to visit again in the future. The hotel was clean, the staff friendly and everything was designed and geared up to leave me, the guest completely relaxed which is how a good hotel should be run. With taxi’s available, a regular bus service into Salou Town and the beach literally spitting distance from the front doors of the hotel this is the perfect venue to visit if you are looking for peace and quiet in pleasant surroundings I would highly recommend this hotel to people wishing to visit the Costa Dorada.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
Thanks for taking the time to read and rate.
Steve :o)
PS – Ciao in their infinite wisdom have created this category for me and stated that the hotel is located in London. It isn’t and I have informed them that this needs to be changed. There is no Punta Dorada Princess, or any Princess hotels in London.
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