Right i'll try to help a bit as we stayed at the Taurus in June.It's a very nice hotel and don't worry that you went there 20 years ago it doesn't show that it is that old it's very clean and new looking.The entertainment starts for the kids at the Taurus at 8pm with the usual kids songs that are the same every night though

It takes about 30 minutes to get to Pineda by car as we also booked it all DIY with Ryanair and hired our own car.We used carjet.co.uk and they use a small company at Girona who have a small van outside the airport in the car park but this wasn't a problem really though it was quite hot having to ait in the sun for the person infront of us to be dealt with.The sand isn't sand as such so i don't think it would be much cop for making castles.Now Pineda is very quiet hardly anything going on as the Taurus is right at the end of the strip.Santa Susanna on the other hand is alot more lively.We went in and looked at the Onabrava as we was the same as you before we booked the hotel it was between these 2 after reading the reviews and it is very nice looking all clean and quite posh looking too but on the other hand it didn't look that lively for the kids which is why we decided when we looked at it that we had made the right choice as we had 2 kids with us aged 8 and 4.I can't say what the evening entertainment is like at the onabrava as thought we went and looked early evening i didn't see anything going on but the reviews give this a good rating so it must be good.

The Taurus entertainment i thought wasn't very good for a Thomson superfamily hotel.After the kids disco there is the hadning out of the diploma's and then the adult entertainment.We had 3 outside shows during out 7 nights which were to be honest not all that and the shows performed by the hotels team were ok but again i wasn't too impressed.

Anything else you want to know then give us a shout

Thank you for your reply. It was very helpful.

We have decided to go for the Taurus Park after weighing up the pros and cons.

One of our daughters can be quite fussy with her food and the Ornabrave said it did not cater that well for the English although the food was said to be excellent.

I know at the Taurus and from going to other Superfamily hotels that they have the childrens buffet with all the usual favourites so at least I know she will eat something even though it is junk!!

What did you think of the food at the Taurus? I read they have special nights and that the breakfast is very good.

Also you said the childrens enterntainment was OK. As you booked it directly, were you able to us the Thomson stuff like the club or did you us the hotel club?

Was your room OK? Any rooms or floors that you recommend?

Any other pointers from anyone would be great. Thaks for your help.

Hayley

One of our daughters can be quite fussy with her food and the Ornabrave said it did not cater that well for the English although the food was said to be excellent.

there is a huge selection of foods available for adults and children.
Breakfast, Many Cereals, Toast, Full english breakfast, made to order pancakes and ham/cheese omelettes and various healthy option foods.
evening meal/tea: many food options, big choice for everyone and includes most foods during the week or two. another few tables selected for childrens food including sausages, fish fingers etc. The food is very the nice there, always cooked throughouly, hot, and normally freshly cooked every frequent periods. Of course, it is a buffet meal, where its all you can eat within the time limit. breakfast is 07:45 to 10am and tea is 6pm to 9pm.

What did you think of the food at the Taurus? I read they have special nights and that the breakfast is very good.

Breakfast is absolutely brilliant, especially with the cook-to-order ham or/and cheese omelletes and pancakes.
Monday night is the main special night, where one week the food is spanish based (With cheap special offers on in-restaurant sangria) and the alternating week is chinese based. They have special offer on house wine on the friday where the meal is based on a gala buffet, where the atmosphere is more relaxed and more "posh" food. This is because most of the customers go back the day after on a saturday. though also a lot of patrons return on the tuesday. This is going on the basis of thomson customers as most of the patrons at the hotel booked through thomson.

Also you said the childrens enterntainment was OK. As you booked it directly, were you able to us the Thomson stuff like the club or did you us the hotel club?

All you have to do is go to there welcome meeting (have to be a thomson customer) to get information to attend the thomson kids club. if you go to the thomson entertainment, then you have to reserve the place for the next days activities around 6pm the night before at the thomson desk.
To attend the hotels entertainment, then look on the boards placed around the reception and bars area for activities for adults, kids and teenagers. also, look for the people with orange polo shirts arounf the hotel with "animacion" and "entertainment" on the back.

Was your room OK? Any rooms or floors that you recommend?

Room was brilliant, big bathroom and big lounge area. don't worry about your children getting on the balcony, you have to be over 5 feet tall to reach the locking device on the balcony. also you do get a tv in the room, with various channels and always one in english, though it changes every night from BBC to ITV to 4 to 5 to e4 as various other sky channels

for view 811 and 810 was the best for view, but its on the top floor which can be difficult with little children though 3 lifts serve it.

room guide:
_01 - _09: views facing santa susanna and pineda de mar centre and the hotel "olympic" swimming pool
_10: Views solely of the mediterranean, and of both sides of the hotel.
_11 to _20, 21, 22,23: views of the meditteranean, mountains, big swimming pool, lighthouse and views towards calella.

hope this was helpful.

any questions about pineda or calella, or hotel golden taurus i will answer in detail within 24 hous if you email XXXXXXX

Edited to insert quotes, and remove e-mail address as per Terms & Conditions
David HT Mod

Thank you so much for your very informative reply.

We thought we may email the hotel directly with our reservation number and requst one of the rooms with whichever view we decide on and see if they give us our request.

The hotel does sound very nice - lookign forward to it now - just fingers crossed for some lovely weather!!

If I think of anything else I will post a question on here.

Thanks

Hayley

One of our daughters can be quite fussy with her food and the Ornabrave said it did not cater that well for the English although the food was said to be excellent.

This is also why we went for the Taurus over the Onabrava for the food as i'm very fussy also and the kids too.But i found the kids buffet quite poor.Don't eat the nuggets they are awful
You'll find this out when you're there

What did you think of the food at the Taurus? I read they have special nights and that the breakfast is very good.

The food in general was very good.As i said above i'm very fussy with what i like but i found it good with lost of meats and different types of spuds each night though it would have been nice if they did roast once The gala evenings whilst we were there was on Friday though i must admit i don't know why this night was as it wasn't any different to other nights and Monday which was a Chinese night and i don't like Chinese so had the Nuggets
As said above the pancakes are excellent and cooked infront of you while you wait so try them.

Also you said the childrens enterntainment was OK. As you booked it directly, were you able to us the Thomson stuff like the club or did you us the hotel club?

Yes we did book direct with an hotel website so not with Thomson's which by the way in their brochure they say exclusive to Thomson in the UK...err no we didn't go with them.Our kids had their grandparents with us so we didn't use the kids club so don't know if we would have been able to or not but there is no problem with watching the entertainment or anything like that

Was your room OK? Any rooms or floors that you recommend?

We had connecting rooms 220 and 221 which were great with ITV in the room and overlooking the main pool and restaurant area.The thing is though we booked a quad and double.Quad for us and 2 kids and double for my folks but both rooms were the same size so no way were they quad and double but more like 2 triples.On the day we arrived a maid came in and wanted to move the single in the folks room to ours so making one double and 2 singles but this would have left no room so we said leave it the eldest could either sleep in the double with her brother and mum or she could have thw single in the parents.I complained to the site i booked rooms with and they contacted the hotel who told them there wass nothing wrong with the rooms and we didn't complain there and then which we didn't cos we liked the postion of the rooms ie not high up and we might not have got 2 room next door to eachother.

Hi,
we're going to the Taurus Park in October. Can anyone please give me an idea what room no's to request if we want to overlook the pool with Coco's bar, sea to the left and 2nd or 3rd floor (not at all picky am I?? lol)

many thanks
Jules

if you want the sea to the left and the main view of the main freeform public, your best view would be 211, 311 or 411 (511, etc).

212, 312 to 220, 320 also has the sea to the left and good views of the main freeform pool

hope this helps

chengster

thomson 383

*Edit sig removed - Glynis HT Admin*

Thanks for the reply. I will wait a little nearer to the holiday then email the hotel directly, hopefully this will be better than going through Hotelclub.

many thanks
Jules

212, 312 to 220, 320 also has the sea to the left and good views of the main freeform pool

err no 220 doesn't as we stayed in 220 and 221 which overlook the main olympic size pool with the sea to the right and the reception to the left.

oh dear, i'm confused now!

I do have another question though. Is the bicycle rental in the hotel or nearby?

thanks
Jules

bicycle rental..... the entrance/exit fountain, next to the peacock, theres a childrens playground, then a mini-golf, the bicycle rental is in a hut there

btw, i was in 811 and i know 811-821 has views of the freeform pool and pool bar, med sea. mountains.

221 i don't know about

Hi,
thanks for the reply. I do have one final question ( I hope! lol).
We don't arrive until round midnight. Do you know if the snack bar will still be open at this time?

thanks again
Jules

Yes. The snack bar "Torito" next to the pool and front entrance, is open after breakfast to 3am. There are many food, including chips, chicken, pizza, hot dogs and a huge variey available to then.

Ok but you said 220 was on that side when it isn't just wanted to clear that confusion up

hi again,
so is it odd no's on the freeform pool side and even no's on the olympic pool side?

thanks
Jules

No jules though i can't remember exactly what rooms were where i know that we had rooms 220 and 221 and they were both looking over the big pool and adjoining rooms

thanks Dalkirst, guess i'll just ask for a room overlooking the freeform pool and see what I get! lol BTW did you email the hotel before you went to request rooms, and if so did you get what you wanted? or did you wait until you got there?

thanks
Jules

No as we had never been before we didn't request the rooms as such just asked for ones overlooking the pool and the sea which are bascially all of them anyway and yes i emailed the hotel direct

I posted the original message about the Taurus Park and have just retunred from a week there.

We were very happy with the hotel and are glad that we chose this instead of the Ornabrava.

We were given room 148 which was fine and overlooked the Olympic pool. As it was on the 1st floor, it had a very deep balcony which was good, the ones above us were smaller and some of the balconies looked very small, just big enough for a chair.

We emailed the hotel direct the week we were due to arrive asking for a room overlooking the pool and one on a low floor and received a nice email back the next day which said they would try to match our request but cold not guarantee it.

I would say it is worth emailing them to ask. We also wanted to confirm our booking which we did with Hotelclub and this was a good way of doing so.

I will be posting a review in the next couple of days.

Have a great time.

Hayley