PortAventura Hotel Gold River

“Best place to stay while visiting PortAventura parks”

If you want to spend a few days at "PortAventura" World park, the Gold River hotel is a very good choice. It is located few minutes walk from the park, allowing you free access to the park(for the hotel's guests), allowing you maximizing the time in the parks. The rooms are really basic. Don't exp… more

If you want to spend a few days at "PortAventura" World park, the Gold River hotel is a very good choice. It is located few minutes walk from the park, allowing you free access to the park(for the hotel's guests), allowing you maximizing the time in the parks. The rooms are really basic. Don't expect anything above the minimum. If there was an extra closet in the room it would be really great, since the current one is really small, and 80% of it are hangers and not shelves. Breakfast is really good, tasty and with a lot of variety. You have to book your slot at least a night before. It is nice, since it is balancing the ques that usually you have in hotels during breakfast time. I would recommend to arrive with a car. There is a free parking space attached to the hotel. There was plenty of space there.(I believe that during July/August it would be much more crowded). With a car you can drive 10 minutes to Salou, enjoy the restaurants there, or walking near the beach. We had dinner once in the hotel. It was nice, but there is a long que, so come early in you want to dine in.

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“It was quite a confusing aventura”

We spent one night/2 days at the park. It was French holidays so it was very busy. We arrived early and were checked in but we had to store our bags in a lockeroom round the corner from reception which we had to pay for and it was very confusing to do! We had booked B&B so our only option was to pa… more

We spent one night/2 days at the park. It was French holidays so it was very busy. We arrived early and were checked in but we had to store our bags in a lockeroom round the corner from reception which we had to pay for and it was very confusing to do! We had booked B&B so our only option was to pay for dinner as there was no where else to eat unless you wanted junk food in the park all day and night. We paid £58 for dinner for two and were shown to a table but it was a free for all at the buffet and the food was not hot only luke warm. Quite varied though. There were no drinks only water if you wanted a drink you had to buy them from the bar and bring them through. The room was like a colonial room in America with a metal framed bed. Half the programmes on the tv didn't work. The shower is over the bath which you have to climb into and is quite slippy so becareful. We read on line that guests can get into the park at 8.30am before it opens at 10.30am and this was confirmed by reception so we booked breakfast at 8am and was told to do it on a QR code but it didn't work so I had to do it at reception. Breakfast again was a free for all and so we ate and went off (there is orange juice and coffee available this time). We went to the park entrance and the gates were closed. I went back to reception to be told we could only go at 10am not 8.30am so reception is very confusing. We had got up early for nothing. We packed and paid to store our bags again and went into the park and by 10 we had to queue to get in and it was packed. The staff at the front of the hotel didn't look like they wanted to be there. If you are going to the parks you would be better off staying off site and getting a taxi to the parks you will then have more choice for dinner and drinks and not have to store bags. The grounds of the hotel are themed on a wild west town and the attention to detail is amazing. We went to Ferrari Land at night and had to walk from the hotel across a large car park to get to it which was quite nerving.

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“Only Consider If You're Planning To Do The Park, Daily...”

PROS: Adjacent to park (5 min walk), which you can enter multiple times throughout the day. Comfortable beds and clean rooms. 3 good swimming pools and plenty of sunloungers. Good choices for breakfast. Friendly and helpful staff. CONS: No exclusive ride time for guests. No A la carte restaurant o… more

PROS: Adjacent to park (5 min walk), which you can enter multiple times throughout the day. Comfortable beds and clean rooms. 3 good swimming pools and plenty of sunloungers. Good choices for breakfast. Friendly and helpful staff. CONS: No exclusive ride time for guests. No A la carte restaurant option (in May). No balcony. No tea/coffee making facilities in room. No free luggage storage option. TV has only one English language station. Hotel Gold River isn't a bad hotel at all. The beds are comfy, the pools are good and the staff are friendly and helpful. However, I wouldn't say it's a 4 star hotel, at least not by British standards. There's no tea/coffee making facilities in the room (a big negative if, like me, you value your afternoon cuppa). There's also no balcony, so one has to find space within the bathroom rail to dry towels and swimming cossies. Also, if you forget your toothpaste, like we did, then there's no complimentary mini-toileteries available (but you can buy some for 9 euros in the shop - like that's going to happen!). Meals are varied. Breakfast is fine, despite what we read in the reviews, here. There's bacon, eggs, breads, spanish omelette, cereals, fruit and lovely churros! We also paid for the evening meal, 3 times (26 euros per adult), and there were dishes such as sushi, baby octopus, salads, pasta dishes, chicken burger, fries and fish. Drinks are an additional charge, but dining onsite is a convenient option at the end of a tiring day in the park, if you can't be bothered to go out. The negatives are that you have to book a slot for breakfast (so forget about your lie-in, if you wanted it), and it can get all very 'samey' after a few days. Basically, it's geared to serve young families, and it does that well. If you do want to 'escape' the hotel, then at the time of writing an evening taxi costs 36 euros return. Uber is effectively 'banned' in Salou, but Reception will call you a taxi, and that takes just 5-10 mins to arrive. Because of this, we opted 3 times to pay for the evening meal, when figuring the maths, although on a couple of occasions, we just had to go into Salou for the sake of our sanity! Also, despite it being May half-term and also full of plenty of Spanish and French families, apparently it's low-season, so the only A la carte restaurant, The Grand Opera, was closed. Go figure! The biggest negative for me is that although you're a PA hotel guest, all that grants you is to enter the park 15 mins earlier than the general public (i.e. 10:15 cf 10:30). Basically, you get to queue first. There is no exclusive ride time, not even 30 mins, for hotel guests. Consequently, by the time you've done that first big ride, you have no advantage over jose public, so you either put up with the queues, pay for Express tickets, or go back in the evening (the latter option does allow you to come back to the hotel for a siesta/swim, until the queues die down a bit for the last hour of the park's operation). Another annoying thing is that there's no free luggage storage facilities, so once you check out at 11AM, you have to pay 6 euros per normal suitcase, whilst you wait for the taxi to the airport. It doesn't seem expensive but 12 euros just to store 2 suitcases just cheapens the experience, especially as you've paid so much for your stay in the first place! To conclude, if 75% of your holiday's focus is PA, then it makes sense to stay here, especially if you have young children. However, the cons outweigh the pros for me, and so for all that I've listed here, I wouldn't stay here again. I would stay at a good hotel, off-site, and just buy ride Express tickets on the the days I visit the park...

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“It’s nice but has more potential”

Nice hotel, nice pool, however the pool closed so early it left us with a very disappointed child! Terrible food in the all inclusive restaurant.