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Costa Dorada Smaller Resorts (A-Z)

Calafell - Costa Dorada

Costamar Apartments - Calafell

Operator and Date: Independent July 2006

Opinion submitted in August 2006 by : Sarah Odor - Huddersfield (41,41,10)

Resort Rating: Very Good

Accommodation Rating: Good

My/Our Holiday Opinion: 

I booked the holiday and flights independently on the web. We flew to Barcelona and picked up our pre-booked a hire car.It takes about 45mins to drive to Calafell on the motorway and you have to use 2 tolls (very easy just drive up to the manual checkpoints and hand over your money).

Calafell has a beautiful beach area very well managed with good facilities and lifeguards. The main promenade is flat with many restaurants and bars and ice cream parlours streching along the seafront. It can be very busy at the weekends as the resort is very popular with Spanish families. At one end of the promenade there is a small river which runs onto the beach and a large footbridge crosses this to link the areas together with fountains which come on at night and a few market stalls. Ducks and fish in the river like to eat bread thrown into the water. The town is very Spanish with few British holidaymakers but English is spoken at a large number of bars and restaurants but a grasp of the language helps. Catalan is also widely spoken and many signs and menus were written in Catalan also. 2 small supermarkets on the main promenade towards the fountain end meet every day needs with a larger supermarket on the edge of town if you have a car. The town has many shops selling lots of things ranging from cheap tat to very expensive leather and designer goods.

Our accomodation was one street back from the sea and only a short walk from the beach. The one bed apartment was small but the kitchen and bathroom were roomy with a washing machine which was a great help. The outside space let it down with only a very small balcony looking out onto the street.

The main draw backs

1) Many typically Spanish restaurants did not open for dinner until 8.30 in the evening as the siesta hours are the norm for nearly all businesses. This is too late for our austistic son who is very particular what time he eats so this left us with a restricted choice of the more "tourist focussed" restaurants although we did not have a bad meal in the 2 weeks we were there and the all you can eat buffet is good value with a mix of Chinese and Spanish food on offer for those on a budget. Lunch is the most popular time for locals to eat large meals.

2) Parking
the town is very busy and there are very strict parking restrictions. Most of the main town is pay and display and so the residential streets soon get full up. We did not get to park in our street once in the fortnight we were there. Many of the streets are very narrow which meant you could not even pull in for a few minutes as you blocked the road completely. The Costamar apartments are owned by the Hotel Solimar who do have a carpark but it is 10 euros per night which we found to be too expensive and it is not located very close to the Costamar anyway.

We would go back to the area again as we really enjoyed it.It is bustling but not rowdy and very suitable for younger families who enjoy the beach. Tarragona is really worth a visit if you enjoy Roman history and Sitges is a nice resort with very good shopping. We also visited Aqualeon water park and Zoo, which was good value and not far from Calafell although it is small in comparison to some there is plenty to keep you occupied for one day.

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Private Rental - Calafell

Operator and Date: VILLA SERVICE.COM            JUNE 2004

Opinion submitted in July 2004 by : CORRIGAN FAMILY       44,44.12,10

Resort Rating: Excellent

Accommodation Rating: Excellent

My/Our Holiday Opinion: 

We booked flights and accomodation separately and arrived in the beautiful resort of Calafell a wee bit apprehensive as we had never heard of the place what a delight.we rented apartments from VILLA SERVICE.COM it was on the beach slept 8 had 4 bedrooms 2 bathrooms and a pool what more could we ask.The resort was spotless there was no English spoken we had fun with the phrase book, the locals welcomed us( AH SCOTIA).you didn,t have a clue what you ordered for food but got a surprise when it arrived.NO LAGER LOUTS. NO OPTIC MEASURES.The prom was busy at weekends with locals out for walk through the week it was quiet but lively,we had a lovely relaxing holiday.plenty of wee bars along the front(no british bars),lots of history in the town, and a train service running north or south.

BEACHES - SPOTLESS
PORTAVENTURA - 45MINS ON TRAIN
TARRAGONA - 30 MINS ON TRAIN
(Roman City)
Barcelona - 40mins on train.
discos and clubs- were there but we didn,t see any. All goes quiet at midnight

My children came home with their holiday money as they were too busy playing on the beach,play areas(outside bars) and trampolines too spend their money. plenty of shops in the back steets .market days oh and a MCDONALDS.

IDEAL RESORT FOR FAMILYS,HONEYMOONERS,AND ANYONE LOOKING FOR A QUIET RELAXING HOLIDAY,LAGER LOUTS AND PARTY ANIMALS STAY AWAY AND KEEP THIS A WEE HAVEN FOR THE REST OF US.

Total cost for 14 nights family of 4   £1000,you could make it cheaper or dearer if you want...i would go back TOMMORROW:

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Coma-Ruga - Costa Dorado

Hotel Casa Marti - Coma Ruga

Operator and Date:2006

Opinion submitted in August 2006 by : anonymous - Liverpool (15)

Resort Rating: Good

Accommodation Rating: Average

My/Our Holiday Opinion: 

I went on holiday as part of a languages trip, the holiday was fairly cheap so i wasnt expecting a palace! when the coach pulled up outside the hotel we all thought it looked okay, the reviews i have read for this hotel are all very poor, but if you pay little money then you cant expect the whole world!

when we entered the hotel we all looked at eachother - it was a retirement home!!! it felt like we had all come to spain to visit our grandparents . we thought o well we ay as well get on with it its a holiday isnt it. 

Some of the rooms were not ready when we got there so we had to wait an hour but most of our friends rooms were ready so we waited in theirs. when we got to look around we thought there must be some other young people there but ... nothe youngest person that was staying at the hotel must have been 60!!! 

none of the staff spoe english very well but they did try thank god our teachers could speak spanish. on out second day another school arrived from scotland and thank god they were all around our age so we all got talking to them and we always sat at the bottom of the corrior were there was seats. but one ight it was about nine o clock and we wer all finally starting to enjoy oursleves a woman came out from one of the rooms and startedshoutiuing at us in spanish and then english saying "my people are trying to sleep". 

further into the holiday we started going into the disco at night wwere all of the oldies were dancing and we all had loads of fun, they turned out to be very friendly even thought we had the language barrier between us . the swimming pool was comapred to a puddle which is a bit of an exxageration, we were al happy wth the size of the pool , we all fitted it it. 

overall we all realyy enjoyed the holiday , its the best ive been on , but i advise you if you plan to go to this hotel learn a bit of spaniosh beacuase all of the people try to make converstaiions with you when you are in the lift and you just have to smile oiltely at them haha.

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Hotel Casa Marti - Coma Ruga

Operator and Date: (Airtours Direct) Airtours - September 2004

Opinion submitted in Oct 2004 by : Marion & John - Bristol

Resort Rating: Poor

Accommodation Rating: Below Average

My/Our Holiday Opinion: 

Well what can we say........? other than don't go here if you're looking for a value for money holiday.  The staff were unhelpful, rude and wouldn't speak English.  All the other guests apart from the miserable ones who also travelled with Airtours were Spanish..... Entertainment.... well they could be had under the trade descriptions act for this one as it's not what we would call entertainment.... however it must be said the Spanish liked it (what does that tell you).  Drinks were overly expensive in the hotel that's if you could get one of the rude bar staff to serve you but unfortunately there is nowhere else in the vicinity to go.

Highlight of the week was a trip to the village square where they had a pond full of Coy Carp..... (whooooh, too much excitement).
So as that was the highlight of the week unless you travelled 40 minutes by train to Salou everyday you can imagine what sort of place this is.........

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Hotel Casa Marti - Coma Ruga

Operator and Date: (Airtours Direct) Airtours - September 2004

Opinion submitted in Sept 2004 by : Geneive and Martin - Manchester (19, 20)

Resort Rating: Below Average

Accommodation Rating: Poor

My/Our Holiday Opinion: 

We booked an allocation on arrival holiday with airtours somewhere on the costa dorada. It was booked about a month before and we paid £290 for half board in a 'guaranteed' 3* hotel.

When we arrived at Reus we were met by a rep who told us we were staying in the Hotel Casa Marti. She did not tell me where it was, i had to ask, she said it was in coma ruga then hurried us onto a coach. At this point my boyfriend and i were a bit confused as we had never heard of the place, but when she got on the coach and said it was a beach resort with no children it didnt sound bad. However, she then got off and the coach set off past all signs of life!!! 

About 45 minutes later we began driving down dark streets with apartments that had all the shutters down, at one point we passed a bar that was closed and i joked 'wouldnt it be funny if we were here'. oh the reality! the coach pulled up at a nice looking hotel, yet it was half 10 at night and there were people standing on their balconies watching us get off (and laughing to themselves) and it was obvious this place was not exactly full of excitment.

The hotel interior was rather dated, imagine your great gradmas living room, the staff were unhelpful and unfriendly, they didn't speak english, or rather couldn't be bothered to try. the food was served buffet style, breakfast was pretty simple with breads cheese and strange looking cereals. We ended up buying our own jam, as theirs was like a runny sauce, and our orange juice and coffee as the stuff they provided was awful! the dinner was average there was a big slection to be fait but there was nothing to indicate whta the meats were so it was confusing. 

the rooms had no air conditioning and were pretty basic, although we had a lovely sea view. the bathroom was okay but the shower pointed towards the wall and had a window leading to nextdoors bathroom. the sheets were changed twice in a week. oh and things got stolen from rooms including my mobile phone. there was a very entertaing keyboard player. some of his best renditions were of auld lang syne and the las ketchup song. (the spanish loved him). Overall, not a 3* more like a 2*.

Coma Ruga is not a holiday resort. its tiny, you can walk it in 5 minutes. there's a very limited, and i mean VERY LIMITED, choice of places to eat and drink. One place, El Bar, was wonderful though. There was a club....for under 16's....the shops opened for about 2 hours a day and its about as lively as a retirement home. The beach was nice tho and it was clean and well kept. There was a lot of building work going on but it looked like residential projects not for tourism. The train station was very handy, trains went to slaou port aventura barcelona tarragonna, and all for about 4euro return, so you didnt have to saty in Coma Ruga all the time.

As for Airtours, they were awful. Their customer service was non existent, they came once for the welcome meeting, which turned out to be a complaint session. We waited 2 and a half hours to speak to one and even then they did not give any information about the place, excursions or how to get to places. They were supposed to come 4 times a week but i saw them twice, even then they were rude and unhelpful. The cheek of airtours to put us in a 'resort' that they dont include in any brochures, that does not appear on any map of the costa dorada and that no-one has heard of is unbelievable. They were just out to make money. Even when i went to the police station (in taragonna, there isnt one in coma ruga) he asked me why i had booked to go there! says it all!

in conclusion, do not book allocation on arrival with airtours, or any holiday with airtours. and if by any chance you wanted to go to coma ruga and at the casa marti you cant, as it is impossible to even get hold of its phone number and no tour operator even books holidays there!

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Hotel Casa Marti - Coma Ruga

Operator and Date: (Airtours Direct) Airtours - Sept 04

Opinion submitted in Sept 2004 by : Mat - Cardiff 21

Resort Rating: Poor

Accommodation Rating: Poor

My/Our Holiday Opinion: 

Well, what can i say... If anyone is ever offered to stay in this resourt and actually wants to have a laugh and a few drinks, i really wouldnt bother. One thing this holiday forgot to mention is that it would be full of people who did not speak a word of english, a problem with thefts in the hotel, staff who treat you like dirt and entertainment that even if you wanted to have dance to, you couldnt because of the rude spanish folk. Being one of about 10 people who were under 30 it was very hard to enjoy.

The pictures of the hotel looks nothing like the actual hotel and if they call the puddle outside a swimming pool then in all fairness its all a big lie.

All in all the food was awfull the place one big disaster and transport around was shocking, luckily lager and a few great brits helped us through.

If anyone wants to come to this place then bring a CATALAN phrase book and plenty of cash as this holiday will end up costing way more than you would think.

Rooms are unsecure and keys to the hotel rooms issued at random to whoever.

All in all bring a deck of cards and some music.... believe me you will need it!!

Have fun!

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Hotel Casa Marti - Coma Ruga

Operator and Date: (Airtours Direct) Airtours  August 2004

Opinion submitted in Aug 2004 by : Yvonne and Terry  Bristol   (49,49)

Resort Rating: Below Average

Accommodation Rating: Average

My/Our Holiday Opinion: 

This was a late deal holiday.  It is not the place to be if you want any kind of night life.  Lovely beach and clean hotel but you had to cross a busy road to get to the pool.  Not much English spoken.  Able to get around well on the train but you had to be careful that you did not have your pockets picked getting on crowded stations.  Not much information given by rep poorly organiszed trips due to companys not wanting to come out to our resort. Lovely holiday if you just wanted to sit on the beach or by the pool.  Could be boring if you had to wait around for trains on very hot stations.

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Hotel Casa Marti - Coma Ruga

Operator and Date: (Airtours Direct) Airtours - July 2004

Opinion submitted in July 2004 by : Leigh & Phil, Gateshead (23 and 25)

Resort Rating: Average

Accommodation Rating: Good

My/Our Holiday Opinion: 

We booked our holiday only a week before departure, thinking we would get a cheap deal. We paid £260 per person for a week half board in Costa Dorada with a guarenteed 2star rating. We were told we would be allocated on arrival and it could be anywhere within the costa dorada. Fair enough we said.

We flew from Teeside with Spanair, not an airline I have flown with before and being a nervous flyer, I was assured it was a massive airline and completely fine. The flights were fine, but word of warning: DONT bother with the meal if you fly with a spanish airline! You get a tiny cheese sandwich and a chocolate cake! Not what you want at 6am!
Anyway. We arrived at Reus airport and were greeted by the rep who told us our hotel, but claimed not to know which resort it was in! So we were bundled into a taxi with another couple and off we went. We drove straight past all the signs for Salou, Cambrilles and La Pineda so we had no idea where we were going.

We arrived at what seemed to be a very nice hotel in a resort called Coma Ruga. Nothing I had seen in any of the brouchers and what the travel agent had mentioned, but hey, it was a 3 star and we'd only paid to guarentee a 2 star so we'd scored.
The hotel itself was always clean and tidy, the rooms spacious and complete with balcony, shower etc.
The meals: breakfast was served 8-10am and consisted of the usual: cheese, ham, croissants, cereal, toast, fruit. Dinner was served 8-10pm and was buffet style. There was something for everyone really, meat, chips, salad, soup, pasta etc etc.

The pool in the hotel was lovely and you could always get a sunbed.
The resort was a tiny little spanish resort about 20 minutes by car from salou. We were initially disappointed not to be in Salou, as after a walk around Coma Ruga, we soon realised that there was going to be nothing but the hotel bar for us each evening. We met various people quite quickly, who told is it would be about 60 euro (£40) in a taxi to Salou so that was out of the question. Luckily, we met some great friends who really made our holiday and we all had a laugh together in the bar.

We soon discovered that everybody in the hotel was on a allocation on arrival deal and nobody had actually booked to be there. Many of the guests were really angry to be there as their travel agent had said they were bound to be in Salou or La Pineda. I felt sorry for our poor rep Liam who had to deal with these people for a week, he was shouted at and blamed and but the end of the week he actually quit his job as he was so stressed.

Moral of the story is: don't book allocation on arrival holidays if its something specific you want. We were initially disappointed, but soon realised there was nothing we could do as our travel agent had booked us what we asked for and we decided to make the best of our holiday and we had a good time.

There is a train staion in Coma Ruga from which you can get to just about anywhere (7 euro return to Barcelona, you can't complain) and the resort is unspoilt and clean.
It gets much busier on a weekend when the Spanish come and the restaurants get really packed.
It was actually quite refreshing not to be faced with miles and miles of lilo shops.
You MUST go to the theme park Port Aventura, particularly the water park is fantastic!

Overall, good holiday, but we won't be doing alloaction on arrival deals again.

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Hotel Casa Marti - Coma Ruga

Operator and Date: (Airtours Direct) Airtours - 2004

Opinion submitted in Sept 2004 by : deb rich 42 49

Resort Rating: Poor

Accommodation Rating: Below Average

My/Our Holiday Opinion: 

This was a last minute deal to salou. we were given the hotel name at airport no rep came with us to our hotel and we had to wait over 4 hours for rep to turn up on welcome meting. The staf at hotel showed their dislike for brits.food was uncoked raw pork contaminating cooked pork. on complaining to reps we were all told that salou was booked up. hotel supposed to be 3* the opinion of all brits dumped there was below 1*. money jewelery and items of clothing stolen from various guests (all brits). Airtours did not even appologise for any of this. 

The resort is a spanish retirement village where only spanish and germans are welcome. This was said to us on many occaisions we will never travel with airtours again or go to spain this has totally ruined our veiws of spain

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San Salvador - Coma Ruga

Operator and Date: (Airtours Direct) Airtours - summer 04

Opinion submitted in Nov 2004 by : Matt Jones

Resort Rating: No rating

Accommodation Rating: No rating

My/Our Holiday Opinion: 

Hi...I was a repping in Salou but worked in Coma Ruga for 2 weeks and it was the worst in my life. I was trying to do my job and just took a stream of abuse. My advise is to read what you are paying for and treat the rep with respect as they are only doing their job and trying to help you out!!!

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El Perello - Costa Dorada

Hotel Les Oliveres

Operator and Date: Fleetway Travel Sept 2006

Opinion submitted in October 2006 by : Mhairi Morrison 46 and 34

Resort Rating: Poor

Accommodation Rating: Good

My/Our Holiday Opinion: 

We booked a weeks holiday at this Hotel in El Perello.Please don not even consider going here.We were the only British people here with no access to public transpor, trains or taxis.The hotel is very nice however the resort it toally isolated with nothing to see or visit.We could not even get a taxi to take us to the nearest town which is about 20 miles away.Do not even consider visitng here.

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L'Hospitalet de L'Infants - Costa Dorada

Hotel Meridia Mar - L'Hospitalet de L'Infants

Operator and Date: (Airtours Direct) Airtours july - 2004

Opinion submitted in Aug 2004 by : Heather &Trevor - London (44,47)

Resort Rating: Poor

Accommodation Rating: Below Average

My/Our Holiday Opinion: 

booked a late deal assured we would get get salou town,how wrong could they be,stuck in the middle of nowhere.
Food was poor no variety what so ever ok if you wanted chips with everything.
the only good thing was the train was cheap.you really needed to be able to speak spanish even the tourist information really struggled to help you.

entertainment was every other night and see the same 'singer' twice spent most evenings although did find a small bar down the road which was ok.very wary of doing late deal again,would be very wary of being assured that you will be in salou.the only good thing i can say is they kept the pool clean.

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Hotel Meridia Mar - L'Hospitalet de L'Infants

Operator and Date: (Airtours Direct) Airtours - July 2004

Opinion submitted in Aug 2004 by : John   -  Yorkshire  (64, 60)( still young at heart)

Resort Rating: Poor

Accommodation Rating: Excellent

My/Our Holiday Opinion: 

Nothing in the resort of L'hospitalet for teenagers and below.  40 miles out of Salou.  Train every 2 hours to Salou no other transport available and taxis will not bring you back from Salou.  Cannot go on any excursions as you need 20 people and this is the only hotel in the resort unless you make your own way into and back from Salou.
Reps not interested once you arrive at the airport you are put in a taxi and thats that.
No fire regulations posted anywhere in hotel and rooms no meeting points appointed.
Hotel has only being taking English tourist for the last  month.  The resort is not for English tourist unless you like it very quiet.

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Hotel Meridia Mar - L'Hospitalet de L'Infants

Operator and Date: (Airtours Direct) Airtours july 2004

Opinion submitted in Aug 2004 by : Tracy Smith (39, 38, 15, 13), North Yorkshire

Resort Rating: Very Good

Accommodation Rating: Excellent

My/Our Holiday Opinion: 

We took a chance and booked allocated on arrival at the last minute. We booked a minimum three star half board on the Costa Dorada. The travel agent implied that we were likely to be in Salou, although we knew this might not be the case. We were not espcially keen as we have been to Salou before and found it too 'English' for our liking, but decided to go for it anyway. As it turned out we were placed in L'Hospitalet, a little know Spanish resort which is not usually used by British tour operators.

The vast majority of British people in the hotel were complaining the whole of the time that they were there. They, like us, had expected to be in Salou and most of them were very unhappy with the resort. It is very quiet and there is nothing beyond a few bars and resturants for the evenings. The rep was pretty useless, although I have usually found this to be the case on this type of holiday. Their view was that you have got what you booked - three star accommodation on half board - on the Costa Dorada. To be fair they were right, but they were pretty blunt about it all the same. 

Our main gripe was that the rep knew nothing at all about the resort, beyond a few snippets which other holiday makers had passed on. Whilst we are happy to accept that they can put you anywhere, we did think they should have found out a bit about the place. After all, it only takes 20 minutes to go into the tourist information office and have a quick chat about what's on offer. The rep gave the impression that there was only one bar in the whole resort, which on our first walk about appeared to be the case. As it happened there were about 10 bars and resturants just acorss from the hotel down on the Marina. We stumbled on them by chance. 

In the end we found that the hotel staff and the tourist information [in the centre of the town] were extremely helpful and told us everything we wanted to know. We found out from here that there was a market outside the hotel on a Sunday. Airtours information file suggests if you want to go to a market you need to visit other resorts. Pretty ironic that they had not even bothered to find out that there was a market right outside our front door! We were also told that they would not run trips for us unless at least 20 people wanted to go. Pretty annoying if you wanted to go somewhere.

The hotel is excellent for a 3 star. The whole of the hotel is spotless. The staff are well informed and helpful. There is a good choice of food which was always presented very well.

As we really like the Spanish people and culture we were delighted with the resort. A word of warning though, few of the people here, apart from the hotel staff, speak English [no reason why they should, of course]. In the end we had no real problems and managed to eat out and drink in many tapas bars and resturants and picked up a few spanish words along the way. The Spanish were very helpful and even when so few of them here were able to speak english [and we can't speak Spanish] we usually managed to get what we wanted.

Some children may find it boring here. Ours enjoyed the beaches, which are not too crowded [only a few spansih and french holiday makers], but some children may want more entertainment.

You can get about very easily on the trains which run pretty regularly. You can even get to Barcelona which is worth a trip out. It is worth noting that Airtours will take you to Salou for an evening [as long as enough of you want to go, of course] at some expense. It cost 2 euros to go on the train, although we found that we never had to pay each time we used the trains as the conductor never seemed to get round to us in time!

In the end we had a really good holiday. However, we would be wary of booking last minute as you could end up somewhere totally unsuitable. In which case the tour operators are just not interested. You get what you booked and if you wanted named acommodation you should have paid more and booked it, was just about all they had to say on the matter. We have booked like this in the past and never had any real problems, always being in brochured accommodation. I expect that it is probably a praticular problem for this time of the year. 

In the end we were probably the only people in our hotel who were not unhappy, so if you really want to be in a busy resort, like Salou, I would be wary of booking a last minute deal at this time of the year.

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Hotel Meridia Mar - L'Hospitalet de L'Infants

Operator and Date: Air Tours June 2004

Opinion submitted in July 2004 by : Yvonne and Barry Price (60,70)

Resort Rating: Excellent

Accommodation Rating: Excellent

My/Our Holiday Opinion: 

We have just returned from a extremely enjoy able holiday to this hotel.The rooms,all air conditioned,are beautiful clean and furnished and kept that way by very friendly staff.The food is exellent,varied and plentiful.

Directly across the road is a marina with a good selection of bars and resteraunts.Stetching either side of the marina are wide clean soft sandy beaches.
The town itself is a 10 minute walk and all the usual ameneties are to be found there.

Salou is a 15minute train journey away(2.5euro return).Other places of interest are Barcelona, Taragona and Reus.

One word of caution if you are looking for frantic nightlife there is very little but if on the other hand you are like us and want a quiet relaxing holiday then this hotel and resort will take some beating.

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Hotel Vistamar - L'Hospitalet de L'Infant

Operator and Date: Independent May 2006

Opinion submitted in May 2006 by : Dave Miller - North Wales (52)

Resort Rating: Excellent

Accommodation Rating: Excellent

My/Our Holiday Opinion: 

I booked this indpendently having spotted a good deal on flights with Ryanair from Liverpool to Reus. I then picked the hotel at random from the net staying B&B - again a really good price. Being on my own I expected to be put in a cupboard somewhere but I actually got a triple room with sea view. The hotel was spotlessly clean and the staff were really helpful.

I was looking for somewhere quiet with mainly Spanish flavour and L'Hospitalet certainly fitted the bill. It has a clean sandy bay running for about 2km to another sandy bay of about the same size for naturists. In the other direction is Miami Playa with a similar sandy beach running for further than I cared to walk.

There are plenty of bars and restaurants in walking distance. Particularly recommended for food is Safari in the marina. Also recommended is Bar Jamaica II in the main street. There does not seem to much else to do if you're looking for a lot of activity. I wasn't and was able to cultivate the gentle art of doing nothing - a Spanish speciality. I used the local trains to get to nearby villages - if you want to go cities like Barcelona and Valencia stay there, you need much more thn a day trip to appreciate what they have to offer or even to get a flavour.

I don't speak a lot of Spanish either Castilliano or Catalan but it is worth making the effort and it is appreciated and responded to with kindness. you can end up having conversations switching between Catalan, Castilliano, French and English!! I think the best English I came across was spoken by the Dutch couple who run Bar El Capitan.

L'Hospitalet is definitely worth a visit if you're looking for a quiet time, to relax and do not very much and are prepared to make some effort with the language. If you're looking for Salou it's not here.

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Miami Playa - Costa Dorada

El Sol Bungalows - Miami Playa

Operator and Date: Private Rental-August 20006

Opinion submitted in September 2006 by : Jane Withers-Leeds(48,39,14,11)

Resort Rating: Below Average

Accommodation Rating: Below Average

My/Our Holiday Opinion: 

The bungalows are about 10 years old, and on arrival they looked quite attractive, with lovely gardens and a nice pool. However, the inside of the bungalows were a major disappointment.Very drab, not particularly clean and not very well equipped for the price of £560 per week. The linen was a disgrace, as were most of the fittings, fixtures and furnishings. Do not book these if you like a litle luxury on holiday. For the same price we have had a far higher standard elsewhere.  

We do not know why they are so highly priced as the resort of Miami Playa was also a big disappointment. It is a very large mostly unattractive resort, with no atmosphere at all. Even in the middle of August. The bungalows are 2 miles away from the only nice part of the resort, which is the Playa Crystal beach and the smallpromenade. A car is absolutely essential. Thank goodness we discovered Cambrils, which was 20 mins drive away. This was a very bustly, lively, attractive resort which also manages to retain Spanish character and charm. All of which is lacking in Miami Playa.

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Pino Alto - Miami Playa

Operator and Date: Winter sunshine Holidays - May 07

Opinion submitted in June 2007 by : Julie Woodley - Cambridgeshire (52, 40, 12)

Resort Rating: Below Average

Accommodation Rating: Below Average

My/Our Holiday Opinion: 

We went to stay at the Pino Alto rated a four star hotel for a bit of luxury and to celebrate my 40th birthday. 

Lets start with the good, it did have a smart feel to it and the rooms were big, air conditioned, and clean.  That's it for the good I'm afraid.

The hotel considered the end of May low season and there was no entertainment at all, the pool table etc was really poorly maintained and not properly useable.

The indoor pool was murky and not cleaned the entire week.  The outdoor pools were so cold you could only stay in them for 10 minutes or so.  The gym had over 1/2 the equipment not working or rusty.

The poolside bar and small shop did not open at all for the entire week.

Addtionally the food was vile, most of the time.   The dinner buffet consisted of congealed, dried up food and the breakfast was crawling with ants.  We ended up spending a lot of money eating out.

Miami Playa is ok as a resort, and is quiet.  The beach is nice and not crowded, but we found the staff in restaurants, and shops, although not rude, certainly dismissive of us.  we tried really hard to speak some Spanish but they would not meet us half way at all and we felt tolerated rather than welcomed,

Additionally our luggage got lost on the way in and money stolen when we visited Portaventura.  So all in all not a good visit.

Cambrills is lovely to visit and going there kept us sane because there was little atmosphere in the hotel.  Hence we really cannot recommend this hotel unless you do not eat there and do not want facilites while away.  Apparently it comes alive at the end of June, but I will be one traveller not repeating the experience.

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Private Villa Rentals - Miami Playa

Operator and Date: private villa  augest 17 07

Opinion submitted in August 2007 by : shane - dublin 33,33 ,9,10,

Resort Rating: Poor

Accommodation Rating: Average

My/Our Holiday Opinion: 

Miami Playa is the next town south of Cambrils aprox 10km on the coast. Its advertised as a real relaxing and scenic place to go,which could not be further from the truth. Although there are some beautiful beaches, main one being Playa Crystal, which is a nice beach. 

Miami Playa itself is divided by a very, very busy main road,almost impossible to cross.It has lots of small shops and tapas bar, but completey lacks any excitment as they are all spread out and there is no centre to the place.So for eating out at night you are very limited for choice. We ended up taking a taxi to either Cambrils (return price E45) or Hospitale't le Infant ( return price E20).Both of these resorts are worth a visit, they are both ports with their own marinas, with Cambrils been the bigger of the two. 

We stayed in a private villa in an area called Costa Cefir, in Miami Playa. It was advertised as been a 15 minute walk to nearest shop/bar, but it was really 35 mins walk. The house itself was very basic but clean. I  couldnt get over the litter and rubbish that accumalted in Miami Playa. No one seems to know what rubbish bins are for, lots of building still in progress, these wonderful building sites where the views we had from every angle  from the house. The house was a  E10 taxi drive each way to the main area of Miami.!! To add insult to injury,one of our neighbours decided to lock the gates into the villas on our last two nights , which resulted in myself, my wife and two kids having to climb over a high gate tO gain access to our villa. That said on the plus side we did escape to Barcelona for the day and had a 2 day trip to Port Adventura, both a must do!!!!! 

All in all , i would only take my family to the Costa Dorada again,if we were to stay in Port Adventura itself.

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Sitges - Costa Dorada

Hotel Estela - Sitges

Operator and Date: www  expedia  co.uk -  2nd May 2004

Opinion submitted in May 2004 by : Patrick & Philippa Vickery - Glasgow (38,32)

Resort Rating: Very Good

Accommodation Rating: Very Good

My/Our Holiday Opinion: 

Booked through Expedia and get a great rate of 96 euros including breakfast and 7% IVA tax but have a look at the hotel website on www   hotelestela  com. We had a large clean room with king size bed and terrace looking out over the pool. The hotel is in a quiet residential area about 15 minutes walk from the Old Town but only steps away from the very classy Port Sitges. I would go for a couple of drinks in the Old Town but stay here for some great food and restaurants.

In general Sitges offers everything: Tacky burger joints; Very expensive wine bars (11 euros for a wine & a beer); Great seafood restaurants (55 euros lunch for two including salad, langostinos, pescaditos fritos, bread, wine, water, coffees); Tapas (great atmospheric bar - Tolino - especially when Barca are playing); Noisy music bars (mainly gay).

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House Casa Ribera - Sitges 

Operator and Date:  (Apartorent  com - September,  2004               

Opinion submitted in Oct 2004 by : Danny  Reilly -All between 25-35

Resort Rating: Excellent

Accommodation Rating: Excellent

My/Our Holiday Opinion: 

What a great place Sitges is. We originally wanted to stay in Barcelona but the price for the ten of us proved a bit expensive for apartments for us all, so we decided on Sitges which is only 30 mins away by train. We rented a house called Casa Ribera which is on the seafront and near to all the bars and restaurants. What a saving this turned out to be. The price for the ten of us was only £100 each.  The house is a listed building apparently and is on 3 floors, all facing the beach.  It was like living in a mansion with plenty of space for all of us. Sitges itself is a class resort and we will definitely be back.  We found this on an internet site and can certainly recommend it.

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Hotel Los Glosbos - Sitges

Operator and Date: Booked Independantly - June 2007

Opinion submitted in June 2007 by : Craig and Kieran (45, 37)

Resort Rating: Excellent

Accommodation Rating: Excellent

My/Our Holiday Opinion: 

We would recommend Los Globos to anybody. It's a lovely smallish hotel about 10 mins walk down the main promenade, one road back from the sea.Although some people have complained about the distance, it's really not far to all the bars and shops and a very pleasant walk along the promenade.

Every time we have been to Sitges before, I have had trouble sleeping, as it can be very noisy in the centre of town - but I had no problems at all at Los Globos - the hotel is in a nice area and SO quiet.

We had the very top room, right on the roof. Although this is very small, it's well decorated, with air conditioning, fridge and safety deposit box all included in the price. We have stayed in bigger hotels where we had to pay extra for all these things. The sun terrace on the room is absolutely huge and has a lovely view over to the sea.
Breakfast was good with a nice selection of cakes, pastries, fruit and cereals. The staff, especially Eric and Philipe were extremely helpful. On the first day, my mobile phone couldn't get a signal and I asked to use the reception phone to call my elderly Mum. When I offered to pay for the call - Eric refused to take the money - a really nice touch.

We go to Sitges every other year and will be returning on 2009. We will definately stay at Los Globos again.

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Hotel Sitges Park - Sitges

Operator and Date: Superbreak (Accom Only) - Sept 2005

Opinion submitted in Sept 2005 by : Jason (35)

Resort Rating: Very Good

Accommodation Rating: Good

My/Our Holiday Opinion: 

Good Points:
Great central location in Sitges Town
Few minutes walk to beach
Air conditioning in rooms
Satelite T.V
Clean rooms & bathrooms
Safe deposit box (payable locally)
Pretty & quiet terrace area with small pool
Pool bar & seating area
Nice reception area with sofas etc
Lift to all floors
Friendly staff
Plenty of shops, bars & restaurants in vicinity.
Even though central location, hotel was in quiet location & no noise heard in evenings or day.

Bad Points:
Not "wheelchair friendly" as few steps to reception & pool area/various rooms and the lifts not wide enough to take one.

Meals-I would not bother choosing Half Board, as the food was not very good or original.(Lots of glances at each other in the dining room, when served by the waiters). Imagine what the food would have been like in the "70's package holiday era", and you get a good idea what to expect.

Do not cater for vegetarians much.

Handy/Important Information

Sitges has a very big ga  y following and this is easily seen all around.

No lager louts or typical British Tourists around. Higher class of tourists & locals.

Train journey from Barcelona is about 20 mins and costs approx 5 euros each way (and is very regular).

Prices to eat & drink etc are more expensive that the normal "run of the mill" Spanish resorts like Benidorm & Salou etc.

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Terramar Hotel - Sitges

Operator and Date: Independent - August 2005

Opinion submitted in Sept 2005 by : Chris - Derby (75,72,45,45,12)

Resort Rating: Very Good

Accommodation Rating: Good

My/Our Holiday Opinion: 

Hotel Terramar plus points: clean hotel, quiet location, situated on beaches (most clean), excellent helpful staff, large rooms, good quality food, offered vegetarian options by request, situated on clean promenade, parking available next to hotel, regular local bus from hotel to Sitges train station, individual air-con in bedrooms.

Hotel Terramar minus points: very dated hotel indeed, very noisy plumbing, limited food range, a brisk 15 minute walk from Sitges centre, hotel beach not clean.

So, superb staff working in a hotel that needs refurbishing!

Might be worth checking the Sunway Golf hotel next door - as it is new.. or asking when the Terramar will get refurb'ed.

Sitges

Excellent base for Barcelona and beaches (some good ones in Sitges - but loads of great beaches a little further south down coast). Very good train service to Barcelona and southern beaches. Openly ga  y resort - absolutely no problem to us a mixed age hetro group.

We would certainly go to Sitges again - but not the Terramar until it is refurb'ed - unfortunately. 

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Terramar Hotel - Sitges

Operator and Date: Alpha Beds & Easy Jet - May 2004

Opinion submitted in May 2004 by : Peter&Lloyd  - Newcastle

Resort Rating: Very Good

Accommodation Rating: Very Good

My/Our Holiday Opinion: 

The hotel is at the end of the beaches in Sitges a nice 5 min walk into the town centre. Although a bit dated the hotel is very clean and the rooms are all massive. We asked for a high floor overlooking the beach and the view was fantastic. 

We encountered freak weather during MAy 2004 and were lucky to have booked a car. The train station is in the centre of Sitges and the trains to Barcelona leave every 10 mins. Costing 2.50 euros one way. If you travel behind the hotel you will find a La Atlantica hotel and golf course. Follow this around to the main car park and you will find a mountain pass signposted that will take you along the rail track to a nudist beach and a gy beach.

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Tarragona - Costa Dorada

Hotel Husa Imperial Tarraco - Tarragona

Operator and Date: Expedia - Sept 2006

Opinion submitted in October 2006 by : Gail Brooks-Davis (36,35)

Resort Rating: Average

Accommodation Rating: Good

My/Our Holiday Opinion: 

Firstly, the hotel:
The Husa Imperial Tarraco overlooks the sea and the roman ruined ampitheatre, and also the old town and cathedral area. This is the best thing about the hotel and I would say the reason Expedia gave it a 4star rating rather than a 3star, as the hotel itself is really more 3star. Provided you ask for a room on the sea side of the hotel (not the pool side) your excellent view from your balcony of all that is nice in Tarragona is secured. The hotel is massive so chances are you will get a sea view. It's location is right beside everything you'll wish to see in Tarragona and is only 2 mins walk (literally) from the old town and all it's lovely cafes and restaurants, and a minutes stroll to the Mediterranean Balcony, the stunning viewpoint over the Med.

The hotel itself is a tiny bit dated, slightly 80s - marble effects, oldish carpet in the hallways and 80's wiring from the look of it, with only 1 or 2 power sockets in the rooms (so you have to use the really wobbly 3 way adapter provided if you want to plug anything in other than the TV and lamp provided). The 80's feel didn't bother me at all though, it was perfectly clean and not dingy or depressing, rather light and airy in fact. The hotel restaurant, which we used once on our first night was rather nice. Good posh food reasonably priced and best of all it opens till midnight.

The staff spoke reasonable English and were perfectly polite and helpful. We were initially in a twin room and asked to be moved to a proper double room as soon as one was available (the hotel has almost all twin rooms, only 4 rooms with double beds in) and this they did without question on the 3rd night. Unfortunately the shower did not work in this new room, and it did take them a couple of days to sort that out which was annoying, as we had to try and sort of fix it ourselves in the meantime. But they fixed it eventually. This would have been a real bummer if we were only staying there a couple of days though and the shower hadn't worked at all for the duration!

Tarragona itself:
Firstly the positives: Tarragona city has a really genuinely charming Old Town, which has a big beautiful cathedral, lovely medieval back streets and lots of roman ruins (arena, theatre, circus and forum) so if you like looking round roman stuff and cobby streets this is a fantastic place. The old town really is full of character and has lots of lovely outdoor places to eat, particularly in the Placa de la Font, the main square. You will probably need to take a decent phrase book with food translations though, as not all of the restaurants have English versions or English speaking staff. But if you are prepared to gamble once or twice or risk getting something unexpected then the food is pretty good, particularly if you stick to traditional spanish things like Tapas, Spanish Omelette (tortilla) and paella. If you do go for non-Spanish foods like pizza, make sure you go to a proper Italian restaurant run by Italians (we found one down a side street off the Rambla Nova in the new bit of town) or you will end up with quite horrible food - Birds Eye frozen pizza is what I unfortuntatley ended up with one evening!

Now the negatives: Tarragona's main town and beach are divided by an ugly railway which although makes transportation really handy, it is a bit of an eyesore. The track is right beside the beach and has nasty overhead cables in full view and little attempt has been made to conceal them or pretty them up in any way. If you're looking to use this beach in the centre of town, namely Miracle Beach, then you have to cross this railway line and there are only 2 points where you can do this. One is a tricky to find back street slightly out of town, the other is a scary level crossing. So that wasn't great. Also once you get to the beach you'll find it's not very nice either - a ropey old view of the port on one side which is great for port and shipping enthusiasts but not for most holidaymakers! And a nasty covered car park sits almost on the sand too. I'd advise getting the 1 or 9 bus (from practically outside the hotel) to either Arrabassada beach (next beach along and walking distance away) or Llarga beach both of which are far nicer and have proper beach facilities unlike Miracle Beach which has none.

Costa Dorada:
I don't know about what other tourists think of this region but personally I found the coastline to be not that easy on the eye. The railway line to Barcelona runs right alongside the coast all the way down the Costa Dorada, something which if I'd have known before booking the holiday would probably have put me off. We got this train to Barcelona and noticed that at some points the railway line is almost right on the sand, so a lot of the little beaches (and some of the larger ones too) must have looked a bit industrial from the beach viewpoint (though we never went to most of them). Also there were lots of cranes and much evidence of industry and building work going on almost all the way along the coastline, so that didn't make for a particularly nice view either. The area between Tarragona and Salou also is one big industrial zone and really very ugly to look at from a tourist's point of view.

Barcelona Airport:
If you are flying to  Barcelona airport MAKE DOUBLE SURE you know which baggage claim area to collect your bags from. We hadn't realised there were 2 areas, one for terminal A, one for B. Our BA flight dropped us off at Terminal A so we just followed the signs to the baggage reclaim there. Unfortunatley the BA's baggage area is located in Terminal B and by the time we realised this we'd gone out of passport control, so we had to try and find a way back in to Term B by walking round outside of the airport and back in. Luckily we were allowed back in past passport control (those Spanish are thankfully more laid back than us!) and we got our stuff in the end. But I wish we'd known about the 2 baggage areas, A and B. Make sure you find out which one to go to!

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Tortosa - Costa Dorada

Casa de Campo - nr Tortosa

Operator and Date: Bargain Spain - Sept 04

Opinion submitted in Sept 2004 by : Carol  - Harlow 35,32,10,8,4

Resort Rating: Excellent

Accommodation Rating: Excellent

My/Our Holiday Opinion: 

This is a new small mobile home site (only 4 mobile homes) It is set in a working Olive Grove in the mountains near Tortosa. A really beautiful area with lots to see and do. The site is about 20 minutes from quiet beaches or 40 mins from Salou and the theme parks. The Lake at La Senia recommended by the site was one of the best days of our two week stay here. You can go fishing on the Ebro, horse trekking from the local village, which also has great resturants, bars etc. The locals are vey friendly, but most only speak a little English, altough the site is owned and run by British people. Neil the manager was always on site and nothing was too much trouble. THe information we received before the holiday on things to do and how to get to the site was first class.

The mobile homes are modern and well equipped with one double, and one twin room and seating that converts if needed to sleep upto seven. with only four of us we had loads of room. Everything was spotlessly clean and the linen and bedding was stain free and smelt of lemons (wonderful). The bathroom was small but big enough with a toilet, shower and washhand basin. The kitchen had oven, hob,grill and fridge freezer more than big enough for us. We opted to take the welcome pack at 20 euros this was a good buy and as you tend to arrive about lunchtime we would suggest you opt for this, as the local shops are closed when you arrive. I used the free auto  washing machine twice during our stay because of the children and it was no problem. Makes a change for this type of service to be free.

The children were also kept happy on site with the swimming pool and play area, and I could prepare a barbecue while they played and still keep an eye on them. The outside area of each mobile home has a neat pagoda style seating area which is shaded by a large canopy, and makes it very private, although this was not a problem with only four mobile homes on such a large site, neither was noise, either during the day or at night. We booked directly with bargain spain at www  bargainspain  com and got flights very cheaply (24.95 per person each way) through Ryanair www  ryanair  com from stansted to Reus which is about forty minutes from the site by a very quiet motorway. The tolls cost us 5.85 euros

We cannot wait to return and have already booked for May 2005 for two more weeks, as we still have so much to see and do. We have no hesitation in recommending this site to you if you are looking for a quiet well maintained and operated self catering site, which is off the beaten track, but not very far from everything. This is a good central base.

Thanks to John and Sue in England for making the booking process so easy, and for Neil in Spain for helping us settle in and discover wonderful places. Looking forward to being back in May. Hasta la vista

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Vilanova - Costa Dorada

Atenea Park Apartments - Vilanova

Operator and Date: TLC - August 2004

Opinion submitted in Aug 2004 by : Jackie Sharp - Hertfordshire (40, 41, 12)

Resort Rating: Average

Accommodation Rating: Excellent

My/Our Holiday Opinion: 

Accommodation & pool were excellent.  Apartments very clean, spacious with quiet air conditioning, daily maid service and free use of gym, washing machines etc.  Beach clean and close by with safe rock area for crabbing etc.  Night market and restaurants (mostly fish) on sea front were quite expensive.  Very Spanish not many locals speak English. 

Main train station in Vilanova takes you into Barcelona but watch out for pick pockets and scams on metro and Las Ramblas.  Camp Nou definately worth a visit by football fans.  Port Aventura very crowded with long queues - some good rides though but no 3-D ones - an Express Pass costs extra 17 euros each to get you to front of queue.  Costa caribe also packed in August - long queues for locker keys & inflatable rings (they had run out by 11 am so long wait for people bringing them back!).

NB: No kettle, toaster or balconies in apartments (few have terraces).  We liked the Hollywood restaurants in Vilanova and there was a shopping area there which was very lively at night (follow the crowds).

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