We have just returned from a week in the Dorada palace hotel. To be honest I was quite disappointed as was my spouse with a number of things on this holiday.

1) The hotel was located near a building site of another hotel, fortunately we didn't have a room facing this but some people did.

2) At night it was very noisy, our first room was located on the first floor and we asked to be moved it took them three days to do so as they were full. Not impressive!

3) Some nice person had flicked cigarette ash on our clothes from the balcony above. Not very nice or what you'd expect from someone staying in a 4 star hotel.

4) They took 100 euros from us when we got there - we weren't told about this but the reception took this from everyone as a deposit in case you broke anything. This ate into our budget which we weren't impressed about.

5) Also at night we had a room with a pool view in the end, and all we could hear was loud shouting, singing, horns beeping and traffic as it is next to the main road. It was very disturbing and we had our two year old waking saying it was loud.

On a positive note;

the kids club was excellent - really friendly staff and nice to have a break for parents and kids too

there is a good entertainment programme at the hotel

there is a little gym, jacuzzi and pool on the top floor which is for adults only

All in all we had an OK time but I wouldn't revisit this hotel. The resort isn't that nice, the room was small and I've been to better places for less money.

Salou reminded me of Blackpool but a Spanish version.

Most of the reviews people have written are excellent, however, we found the hotel to be good in some areas, poor in others. Here is what we found:

Check-in - we arrived at 11am and had to wait until 2pm to check-in. I was aware of this before we went, but it was a bigger deal than we expected. We had been up since 4am and so were very tired when we got there and believe me, those 3 hours dragged, especially when you have to keep 2 small children amused.

Deposit - we were not aware, however, that we were expected to hand over

We'll get the negatives out of the way first.. staff on reception downright refused to let us to our room before 2pm, despite the maids leaving at 1pm and saying rooms were clean, so after arriving at 10am we had to leave our cases and try to find somewhere to go!
After booking a late deal and requesting a pool side view with little chance of getting it, we were shocked to find we had a massive corner room, overlooking the pool, shops and (in the distance) the sea.
location was good, far enough away from the town centre to get away from the noise, and close enough for walking distance.
hotel itself was gorgeous, nice open reception, very clean with nice bars and restaurant which served OK food (but at 6 euros p/p for breakfast, what do you expect?)...a massive choice of food with a chef who'd cook your eggs any way you wanted.
Overall, lovely hotel, great destination, the town is great with a lovely beach which really lights up at night, definately want to return *HOPEFULLY TO THE SAME HOTEL*.

Just got back from Salou and went straight back on the internet to book this hotel for next year.

We have been abroad on numerous occasions and always said if we find a good hotel we would go back well this is our favourite.

The Room, Food( way too much though!), staff, pool, etc all were excellent see you next year.

This Hotel is fantastic
The size of the apartment rooms were excellent with a seperate bedroom and 3 beds situated in the lounge area very big balcony and had a lovely view of pool and sea (room 507 )

The entertainment was good for familys with a mini disco and a show with another mini disco during the interval for the kids.

We never had a problem with sunbeds and the kids pool was next to the park so you could still sunbathe while watching what they were doing

the hotel is situated close to shops/beach and port aventura without been on top of it all.

we had the breakfast once but was a bit too disorganised for us the food was nice though.

the bar service is very slow but been self catering we took our own drinks down (dont display what your doing!)

i would highly recommend this hotel so much we are intending on going back next year.

We stayed self catering at this hotel, and having been to Salou on previous occasions knew roughly where it was based.

A very late flight into Reus, but efficent and friendly staff soon got us to our room, along with a free welcome pack of coffee, milk, biscuits etc.. which was a nice surprise.

Impressive reception area, very clean, big and modern. Had a bit of a nightmare going up in the wrong lifts, but that was soon sorted.

Our apartment had one bedroom with a double bed (rare in Spain!), and a bed settee in the living room, a lovely modern kitchen, with microwave, kettle, fridge etc.. all clean and working!

Couldn't fault the apartment at all, nice bathroom, and a balcony over looking the pool. Maids who worked really hard at keeping the whole place spotless.

Entertainment looked very organised, and there were good acts everynight, we caught a few, including a Stylistic Tribute band, and a Grease show, which were all very professional!

They had things going on all day, and had music playing for the most part, which made it lively around the pool.. looked like they really took care of the kiddies needs too, although we're way past that stage!

The bars were quite slow, but once they caught on what you were ordering, all was fine! Very nice fresh chickens spit-roasted every morning at the pool bar, just in time for an early lunch after a busy time sunbathing by the lovely clean pool! I did notice there was a lifeguard in attandance constantly, which was reassuring. There were a lot of little ones running around that area.

They have about 4 computers in the basement area, which was nice.. good to catch up on emails, transfer some holiday money etc, well done for that. Also down there were various drink/sweet vending machines, loos, showers, and a luggage room, which was well organised and safe, along with a car park.

We had a late check out (paying

Hi just back from Club Dorada Palace aparthotel after a really lovely 7 day holiday. We are a family of five and stayed half board in an apartment overlooking the main swimming pool which was perfect.

I thought the 9.00am queue for sunbeds was really good. At least it gave the people that got up slightly later (8.45am) a chance of a nice sunbed - although you do have to move quickly. In the past by 9.00am all the sunbeds and parasols have been taken by the people who get up at 7.00am!!!

The evening entertainment was really good. Starting with the mini disco that my five-year-old loved at 9.00pm (we are also still doing the chocolate song!) and then followed by a good show. It was great that the entertainment finished at 12pm.

The food was lovely - a very good choice for everyone and the themed evenings were great.

This hotel is perfect for families and Salou and the surrounding resorts are lovely.

The hotel was very posh in a good way! Maids were very clean and very friendly.

Food was good something for everyone. My children are very fussy and they enjoyed it.

Port Aventura is about a ten minute walk. Very good but height restrictions do apply for even the kids rides.

Bar staff at hotel a bit slow so get a drink when your half way down your other one.

This Hotel was very clean and tidy, maids came in every day to clean and tidy room. Towels were changed twice a week.

We stayed on a half board basis basically because we have fussy children. The food was nice but very repetative. The children's food could have been better, our children like basic food like fish fingers, sausages, chicken nuggets etc but they didn't get that, it always seemed to be pasta, curried chicken, normal chicken, squid rings!!!!! They did enjoy the chips every night and the curley chips followed by chocolate ice-cream and cakes!!!!!

The location of the Hotel was fine, a nice walk to the beach and only a 10 minute walk to the Theme Park and Costa Caribe Water Park. The Hotel is situatedon top of a slight hill which is a real killer but good exercise!!

The staff were friendly but the bar staff were very slow and don't seem to understand what you are asking for, a lot of patience needed!!!

The entertainment at the Hotel during the day and night was rubbish, kids disco lasted about 20 minutes or so and there seemed to be no enthusiasm. Our children seemed to enjoy themselves which is the main thing but we just thought it could have been much better.

We probably would visit this Hotel again but probably on a self-catering basis, the pool was lovely and our children had a whale of a time in there.

Have just returned from a week's holiday at the Dorada Palace hotel in Salou. Overall we had a good holiday but were really disappointed with the hotel.

It was situated about 10 minutes walk from the beach and about 10 minutes walk from Port Aventura (which was the main reason we picked the hotel). The was a huge building site just opposite the main entrance to the hotel and it was very noisy.

On arrival (at 10.00 am) we had to wait until 2pm before we could check into our room. When we got to our room we found that it was really small - obviously intended for two people but they had squeezed a sofa chair in and all three beds were squashed up against each other with a wall on one side and about 12 inches on the other so that you could get out on the balcony. You couldn't move and had to crawl over each other to get into bed. The balcony was laughable. We had a corner room overlookin the pool and the balcony was triangular with privacy screens on each side and about a 2 foot "slit" to overlook and pool and generally look at the "view". There was also a table and two chairs and a clothes airer - if you put up the airer to dry towels etc you couldn't get out of the room onto the balcony.

We arrived on a Tuesday and found it to be the Rep's day off. I complained at reception about the room and they were very helpful but said that we wouldn't be able to move until the next day - which we did. This room was much better - the third bed was a fixed single cabin style bed that doubled up as a sofa with back cushions and there was also a sofa chair bed. The downside was that it overlooked the building works at the front of the hotel but upside was that you could watch the port aventura fireworks every night!

The pool was far too small for the size of the hotel. All the beds were gone by 9am and we didn't even bother trying to get one. There was also another smaller pool to the side of the hotel but that was in shade for much of the day. The adult pool on the roof was a lifesaver when our son was in the kid's club.

The Restaurant was chaotic. The tables in the morning were difficult to find as they were always littered with previous occupants crockery etc that the few table staff hadn't managed to clear. Breakfasts were fine and there was a good selection. Dinner was awful. The food was really bland. There was always a reasonable selection of salad but hot food was terrible. There were virtually no vegetables to speak of and the few that there were were overcooked and just not nice. The meet selection was really poor as well - usually turkey and maybe some beef and just one fish dish. The desserts were the same every single night.

The bar of the hotel was laughable - we own a pub and if we provided the same kind of service, we would be out of business! In the evening there was an outside pool bar and the inside lounge bar which also served the people outside via a large hatch. In all I think there were about 4 staff - all of whom were very slow and often got the orders wrong. At 12pm the outside bar closed. They then served all drinks in plastic until close at the inside bar.

The First Choice kids club and kid's reps were first class. Absolutely brilliant. Our son (10 years) had a really great time. They actually took them out on proper trips (extra charge involved but well worth it) instead of getting them to do cutting and sticking as most do. In the week that we were there our son went to Aquapolis water park, mini golf and the rep's cabaret.