Having been on lots of already All Inclusive holidays prior to this one, we knew how it all worked, weak drinks, repetitive food, on-site rep entertainment (sometimes good/sometimes poor).

On arriving to Festival Village the coach dropped us of and we had 2 flights of steps to drag cases down. It was not until the next day that we saw the sloping drive, at each end of the hotel. Could the coach not drop off here, or advice of the easier access, for the advantage of younger/older guests? Just a suggestion.

Impressions on reception at first were not good. The purple, green, yellow decor just taints the place on arrival. However the receptionist who checked us in was warm and welcoming.

Our allocated room was Block A 114. The rooms and balcony were huge. The room was clean and our beds comfy. Though I do think the sofa beds need thicker mattress to sleep on as they are not comfy to even sit on. On looking out to the pool view, it was then we could see the previous comments, regarding lack of sunbeds. Truth is the pool and pool area is so small, they could not put out any extra sunbeds anyway. You are literally lying next to the person next to you. So thank goodness we are not sunbed people that have never bothered with that early rush wherever we go. The pool is small, you can't really swim in it properly and you have to get out really for the water polo to progress. However having been to Salou now 4 times, it is a standard built pool and the hotel was not built intended for All Inclusive, and gather the block apartments were added later. Our theory is Block C, should have been built as an extra pool, bringing the hotel to 4+Star, but then could we then have afforded this holiday!

The food here is very good for an All Inclusive. Catering towards the British but without getting boring. Breakfast is the same everyday but traditional as we would want it. Only trouble is in peak times you may struggle to find a clean, set up table. We used to take and scrape our plates to help the staff. So many lazy people, it takes a few seconds!

The snack bar was really good. I like the fact the hotel would not put up with, unruly kids or not serve kids coming in soaking wet and bare footed.

The bar staff were great, there was never a queue. All the staff were excellent, on the ball they really could not do more to help you.

The entertainment team were excellent. Close par to Holiday Village Egypt! Okay a couple of dodgy shows thrown in like the one guy Ska Wars, announced that apparently 'The Specials are from Birmingham? Like Beatles are from Manchester!!

Overall we had a great holiday here at Festival Village, our only moan was size of pool,dining area to accommodate guests.

Excellent location for families. 10-15min walk to Aquapolis. Nice man made more locals beach. Turn left out the hotel and walk towards La Pineda, for the friendly, courteous staff at The Dubliner. Excellent deal on 9.90E for steak,chips,salad and local drink. Plus they can do a rare steak!! Good food and quality!

The market (FRIDAYS) in La Pineda is cheap. Follow the road down the near side of aquapolis, keep going as it is quite hidden.

Thank you to the Manager for an excellent holiday and his hard working team. Keep it up!!

When we arrived on Friday evening the apartment was only ready for 4 people. so we put 2 children in one bed as it was late. The apartment was full of mould growing on the ceilings and walls. On the Saturday night I spoke to other guests who stated their places where clean and mould free. I went to see the rep on Sunday but she was not there until Monday. On Monday morning I asked the rep to come and see what we had paid for. She told me to go and enjoy my breakfast and the manager would deal with this as it was a maintenance issue. We did not hear from anyone until Tuesday at 11.00 the manager who was very sorry that the room was like that and we were moved to another apartment that day. A bottle of champagne and fruit were sent as an apology.
The following day I was dressing the 6 year old and she stepped onto broken glass in the bedroom and cut her foot. We found four more bits of glass in the room which by now had been cleaned twice.

we booked this holiday for the kids club but found that the children could come and go as they pleased. Our 6 year old was standing in reception looking for a toilet when her dad luckily found her.

I would never return to this hotel it was a nightmare from start to finish.

The people who complain are obviously the people who pay snob tax. Our room was cleaned every other day and was spotless. The food was from a different culture every night offering a different variety for everyones taste buds. Breakfast was great, a full-english every day. The pool area was a tad small however and the rush to sunbeds was like the opening of a next sale but the expierence will put a smile on your face. But the beaches near by are like something out of mamma mia. The theme park was brill as was the water parks. The hotel entertainment was great, we had high school musical night, hannah montana night, mr mowtown night, a wild-west night where we all rode a mechanical bull! a spanish night in which we were on stage dancing flamenco! and of coarse a michael jackson night which was brill! Staff were very friendly and learned the kids name as they were at the bar so often with their unlimited drinks wristband! want a fun, relaxing and enjoyable holiday? festival village apartments are perfect! wait... one complaint... coming home!

Have just returned from the Festival Village and will definitely be back.

Rooms are very large and spacious with the usual kitchen provided for self catering, we stayed in a 2 bedroom apartment, but we looked at the 1 bedroom corner rooms before we left and these were bigger than the 2 bedroom apartments, all the rooms are very spacious. We took advantage of the all inclusive package during our stay and certainly saved money.

The all inclusive package consists of drinks from 10am -12pm (non international only) breakfast is a choice of full English, cereal and continental. Dinner is a choice of main dishes and sweets, along with fruit , ice cream. Children also get free pizza and chips and ice cream throughout the day on this package.

The Festival is situated around 10 min from centre of salou, I suggest you use the bus which stops directly outside the apartments but for the more athletic try the walk along the coast the views are wonderful and you work up an appetite.

The beaches of La Pineda and Cap Salou are all within walking distance and are very clean and shallow (ideal for families).

The Festival Village itself is very clean with a lovely open reception area, the staff are all very friendly and nothing is too much trouble for them, I must mention the entertainment which was fantastic, the act/shows which are put on each night are amazing for such a small hotel and would rival some of the large complex shows which I have seen. A special mention must be made for Julie and Kate who kept the children entertained, these two ladies keep the children entertained for an hour at a time whilst the adults get a relaxing holiday.

Festival Village is situated well for site-seeing, Barcelona, tarragonna, reus, cambrils and Port adventura can all be visited by catching the bus which stops outside the hotel. The aquapolis waterpark is within walking distance, and if booking room only taxi transfers from the airport are only 35 euros or 6 euros on the bus. There is also a bus pass you can buy from the hotel sunclub down the street for 8.90euros which will give you 10 bus trips (89cents each).

This hotel is Fab for a great holiday, and if it's a great holiday your looking for this is the hotel for you

My family and I stayed in the Festival Village Apartments on A Self Catering basis and thank god we did. We ate in the hotel twice and both time the food was vile. The breakfast was swimming in greace!!

Our room was cleaned once in 2 weeks and our bedding was changed once.

The location of the hotel was very good as you had La Pineda 20 minutes one way and Salou 20 minutes the other way. It also has beautiful beaches.

The bar staff were fantastic throughout the whole holiday and worked hard from morning till night and still managed to be upbeat and friendly most of the time. The manager, security guard and cleaners were rude and threatening. One cleaner was actually sacked on our last day for trying to hit a child.

The entertainment was ok at times but was repeted every week!! We were promised games in and by the pool side. In my 2 weeks there, there was 2 games of water polo in which they teamed up the boys against the girls. The teams were children and adults mixed which turned out to be very dangerous as the smaller kids were hit and held under the water. My own 10 year old daughter was punched in the face by a grown woman!!

I would never step foot in Festival Village again!!!
Once was quite enough!!

Festival Village is'nt as bad as people seem to make it out to be.

Highlights of my holiday was the theme park, Port Aventura, it was a great day out for me and my family.
However, we bought the tickets from Thomas Cook who had informed us that the tickets was to be used in the water park as well. Therefore we payed over

Terrible like prisoner cell black h.

Staff unfriendly, manager smarmy food was terrible. We ate once and then left it we had to eat out allweek.

Shop opened and closed early 3pm on a saturday p.m. Beds were hard and lumpy. I fell and cracked a rib and bruised my arm and told the manager and he just smirked and said there wet signs in the hotel and not in the accomodation walk way that is where i fell.

Entertainment at night not good and you had children running about all night and could not hear yourself talk.

When we arrived at 12.15 we asked for some water and were told that the bar was shut and had to wait till the morning.

We were asked for 60 pounds as a deposit and were told at the end of the week we would get it back if the rooms were clean and tidy and nothing broken and had to wait one and a half hours for us to get our money back and we had to be out by 10a.m and were not going home till 8.15,and the manager said if we paid for an extra day we could have a bit longer.

When we asked for a drink of tea all i got was coffee and tea together.

Well we booked our holiday in december and were looking foward to a 2 week break.

We arrived at about 11 am and paid ur room deposit and were handed a room card, after 4 trips up the lift we finally got the manager to get us in as the door was broken. I was as you can imagine quite annoyed and the manager said that we should be thankful that we were getting in at that time as check in was not til 3pm.

The floors were filthy, the beds were awful and we asked our rep to move us. He agreed and we got a bigger apartment on the ground floor which we specified on booking.

We had no oven, only a microwave and we had to ask for a kettle to make babys bottles. There were only 2 saucepans and the hob was so old the numbers were missing. The extracter was broken and the microwave had cracks in the door. We ended up paying for half board as the children were hungry.

The brochure says a beer is

Not the best holiday we've been on but certainly not the worst. Booked through the First Choice Website after reading the reviews, we were very very happy with our booking. Very quick transfer no problems.

The holiday for us was going to be simply a self catering base for using the portaventura theme park but quickly turned into an all inclusive for us for a few reasons...

Cap Salou was very quiet and noticeably 'shut' with the odd local bar open for 'local' business. Salou is either a 20-30 minute walk away or 10 minutes by very regular buses that stop right outside the hotel.

You are offered a number of upgrades on arrival -
ALL INCLUSIVE ADULT 96 EUROS TEENAGER 75 EUROS CHILD 56 EUROS per person per week.
There

Have just returned from a one week stay and having read reports proir to going didn't know what to expect.What a suprise ,staff were helpful accomodation was clean and much bigger than we needed (a 2 bedroomed appartment sleeping up to 6 for 2 of us).When our hot water boiler packed up a new one fitted and working within an hour!Every evening the restuarant had a different theme i.e. Italian , mexican,curry. This hotel has appointed a new manager and he definately listens to what his custumers want. I would recommend a holiday here.