Have just returned from a fortnight's holiday at Dorada Palace hotel in Salou.

The location is excellant being 15-20 minutes walk from Port Aventura (20-35 minutes with kids depending on how much their precious feet hurt) and 15-minutes, if the kids are frog-marched and blindfolded (unfortunately, there are numerous kid-magnet shops), to the beach.

I read numerous reviews before my holiday and most complained about the size of the rooms. I can only assume these reviewers have never stayed in a hotel in their life as the rooms are standard size. I make frequent visits to Europe, unfortunately on business, and the size was as expected. Yes, the room was cramped, with 2 adults and 2 children, but who stays in the room all day?

As I visited with FirstChoice, I had access to the Kid's Club which operated for 4-6 hours per day with sessions in the morning, afternoon and evening. If this is not enough the hotel lays on entertainment for the kids as well. My kids wanted to go back again and again and ....

As we stayed half-board, I can comment on the food which was buffet-style and, on the whole, of a good quality. Please bear in mind that you are paying something like 12 Euros for both breakfast and dinner. Overall, I found the restaurant offered good value. My only gripe is that the deserts were the same every day. The best day to visit the restuarant is Saturday as the seafood selection is excellant.

The hotel has four pools: one for tots, two for mixed ages and one for adults only. If you like to rest on a sunbed all day then you have a problem as the beds go quickly. The hotel recognise this as an issue and prevent people from 'reserving beds' before 9:00am. If you are one of the people who towel a bed at 9:00am to arrive at 2:00pm then may you burn in hell. Fortunately, I am not a sun worshipper and there were plenty of shaded beds from which I could keep an eye on the kids. If you actually use the pool, I realise this is a preposterous idea, then you will not have a problem as the ratio of people sunbathing to taking a dip is 20:1.

My room overlooked the main pool and entertainment stage which meant that going to bed before midnight was a no no. However, I would not choose another vantage point.

One tip: the thing with a key-lock under the telly, which I assumed was the minibar, is actually a fridge for which a 12 Euro returnable-deposit is payable. The room manual tells you this but who reads the manual? In anycase, why should you need a key for a fridge in the first place?

Summary: great hotel (don't believe anybody who says it isn't), great location, great holiday.

Hope you enjoy your trip as much as we did.

We went self catering but we upgraded to half board for 5 nights for 2 adults and 2 kids for a total of 130 pounds.

The hotel was immaculate.

It is in an excellent location.

The hotel staff are helpful but there are a few miserable ones.

The entertainment starts at 9 pm with a mini disco then adults entertainment. We thought it could of started earlier with some kids shows but overall this is a great hotel and I would stay there again.

Just back from an enjoyable fortnight, hotel was lovely, very friendly and great with the children.

There was a laundry in the basement which we found a god-send with 3 children.

Food was good, a bit repetitive after a fortnight, but excellent buffet table specially for the children, it was low at their level so they could help themselves. My son is very picky with his food and he managed to choose something everynight.

Entertainment was good, you had to be down early for a table where you could see what was going on though.


I hope to return to this hotel sometime in the future.

Definitely not for couples wanting a quiet holiday!!! We were in a room next to the main road, which is noisy 24hrs a day every day of the week.

It was extremely noisy at weekend nights, with shouting and loud music until 4.00 or 5.00 a.m.

The hotel is geared for people with children of all ages, there were millions of them.

Cleanliness of the hotel is excellent and the cleaners are friendly and thorough.

The dining room is a resemblance of a school canteen, noisy and at times over crowded with kids running everywhere. Several times there were near misses that we saw with children and hot drinks. I think meal times would benefit from a seating system to stop over crowding.

The food was boring and bland and the hygiene standards on the grill were not very good (i.e. one pair of tongs for cooked and uncooked meats). Our biggest problem was to do with the bar staff, I timed the service one night it took 25mins to get served and then the barman was surely and abrupt.

The hotel has an adult only pool and Jacuzzi on the 6th floor, which was well used and a life saver for us with no kids.

Just come back from the Dorada Palace. On reflection this was a nice hotel. Location was fine, in between Port Aventura and the beach.

This is a big hotel with lots of people, if you like that sort of thing that's fine but when we did escape to the roof top pool it was a god send. The food was excellent (although a little repetitive after 2 weeks)and the rooms were very clean. Yes they were small but we spent such little time in there it wasn't an issue.

The hotel entertainment was good, my husband took part in the competitive water volley and pistol shooting and the kids loved the kids club. The kids reps were great.

It was quite amusing (if slightly irritating) watching people queue for sun beds at 9am. We took our own (thanks to advice from previous travellers) but there wasn't nearly enough room to even store an air bed.

This is a busy hotel as Salou is a very busy place (not nearly enough room in the sea!).

Port Aventura was good. Book on the internet beforehand and you can get a 7day pass for the price of a 3 day for

Having visited salou before we had a general idea where this hotel was situated and the location suited fine being in the quieter part of salou but close enough and close to portaventura.

The hotel was spotless. The hotel rooms were on the small side for four. Arriving late at night the 2 o'clock check in did not affect us but anyone arriving early should be prepared for this.

The food was fine well my expanding tummy must have thought so and my little boy has come home wanting an omlette every morning for breakfast so it must have been ok.

Entertainment wasn't too bad - could have been better but the kids liked it - all home doing the chocolate (i'll let you find out for yourself).

One thing which really does need addressed in this hotel is the sunbed situation. When the doors open at 9.00am on the dot! The people who have been queing for some considerable time with their various piles of towels (how one person can use eight towels or ten sunbeds is beyond me - maybe I am niave)what can only be described as a stampede ensued and by 9.01am every bed was covered with a towel (but no people).

Still it amused my little boy who hung over the balcony shouting "run run!!" which they did!

The Hotel Club Dorada Palace certainly does not warrant 4 stars. The reception was disorganised. staff were unhelpful, accommodation dirty, room overlooked the stagnant pool next door, lock broken on balcony window (VERY dangerous for young children).

Tour company's child care would not meet UK standards - we returned wandering small children to the child care area twice. Staff did not appear to notice. all ages seemed to be mixed together and it looked extremely chaotic.

Hotel food was luke warm and monotonous. Other comments about the environment being very 'plasticky' are absolutely true. Makes UK holiday camps look upmarket. The only redeeming feature is location in walking distance of Port Aventura.

Overall appearance is - cheap but not cheerful. If you like sunbathing paked in like sardines, adjacent an extremely busy dual carriageway, with the accompanying noise and pollution, you'll absolutely love this place!

Me and my partner stayed here with our 16 month old and my parents. We had self catering rooms which were modern and quite minimalistic. The rooms were spotless and the surrounding areas were well maintained.
Security is quite strict (no noise after 12am) Good for those with babies or small children.

The entertainment was good, similar to most hotels of this rating.

Watch out for the women on reception!!!, they are so miserable it's unbeliveable and really talk down to you. Elsewhere the staff were all brilliant.

Overall we had a good holiday and would recommend this hotel to anyone wanting a family enviroment.

The hotel was very clean indeed. We were in a self catering room and the towels were changed every two days, but they were changed daily if requested. You also can use the hotels beach towels. If you are self catering there is no deposit required as your deposit for the room covers the towels. If you are half board a deposit of 12e per towel is required. You can change the towels everyday if you wish, which is good if you visit the beach a lot.

We went self catering but we eat breakfast in the hotel everyday as there was a good choice. It was only 6e for adults and 3e for children. We also did eat in the hotel some evenings too. 12e for adults and 6e for children. There was a lot of choice and in my opinion something for everyone.

The location of the hotel was good, it is only a 10 minute walk to the beach and 5 mins to the shops. The Caribe Water Park/Portaventura is only a 10 mins walk away. We only went in the water park but it was absolutely brilliant. Children of all ages can go on the slides with adults. My son was 3 at the time and he loved it.

The hotel staff were good however, if you are wanting a drink at night be prepared to wait because the bar staff always ensure the waiters are served first. It is best to sit at a table and let the waiters serve you, as this is the quickest option.

The entertainment was ok, but we went out most nights. The music is turned off at midnight everynight which is good if you have children with you. The kids club is good also.

We have already booked to go to this hotel again next year but this time we will be going half board. Anyone who visits this hotel will not be disappointed.

The room were slightly on the small side for a family of 4 but I could not fault the cleanliness of the rooms which were cleaned daily with fresh towels and clean bedding if requested.

The hotel was Immaculate the cleaners were about all day long.
The food was average with a adequate selection of various courses.
The location of the hotel was slightly away from the main shops and bars but just a 10 minute walk. They is a slight incline to reach the hotel which was not stated in the holiday brochure.

We found the staff in the hotel to be mostly pleasant and helpful but some in the restaurant department need a lesson in people skills.

The entertainment was brilliant for families the kids club reps were always about to entertain the youngsters in various activities. The nightly entertainment what I seen of it was ok, but you could never get a seat if you were not down at 7pm.

I would consider going to this hotel again but probably in Self Catering as you have more space.
Please be aware of the dress code for breakfast!! as well as evening meals as I was told of no restriction for breakfast but then got rufused entry as I was wearing a cap sleeved T-shirt after I complained to the reps a notice was put up. At the welcome meeting after breakfast the reps said no restrictions only on evening meals but at the next welcome meeting they mentioned that dress code applied for all meals.

We did 3 trips with the reps:
Barcelona by night which was nice but we were late getting picked up so the day seemed to be a bit of a rush, not enough time at the places we visited. We booked to got to Bona Vista market with the reps which I have to say was a rip off. We paid 19 euro's each which we thought was for transport and entry only to find out that it was free to get in and as it was only 10 mins up the road it would have been far cheaper to go by taxi. We had 2 hours there and it was not long enough we did'nt get round the whole of the market but we had to make our way back to the bus. The trip to Port Aventuer was fine we had one day there but it was enough as we got around the park in a day.

I must finish by saying that the First Choice reps were friendly enough but they did seem a bit vague on some things.