Salou is great place for families I would definately not go if I was looking for sophistication.

I come back to salou every second year as outside of florida it is the best place to bring the kids. I will definately return to the appartments I was in (Daurada palace) because of it's excellent location. Friends stayed in the main heart of salou in the international II apartments, and I have to say I would not like to stay there, it's horrible (guests staff and area). Our friends spent most of their time at our hotel. Look for accomadation a little outside the heart of salou is a great tip.

Port aventura is excellent. However, the first time I came here I expected it to be like universal in LA and Orlando -all the rides are movie attractions and loads of characters out of the movies like the hulk and spiderman. I was disapointed about this. The main characters they have are popeye woody woodpecker and the pink panther my kids hadn't a clue who these were. There is shrek and donkey and we were delighted with these.

Costa caribe water park is lovely for smaller kids. It is beautiful to look at however it does get crowded. There is not that mainy thrilling rides for the older kids and I reckon the would get bored here.

The Aquapolis water park in la pineada is much better. The play area for the smaller kids is excellent and the larger more thrilling rides are fantastic. It seems much bigger than costa caribe so it wasn't nearly as crowded.

A bit of advice don't go to any of the parks at the weekend they are so crowded. All the spanish people must go on their weekend, the queues are just not worth it. We did go to Port aventura on the sat night because of the firework show and I have to say it was great.

The beach in salou is brilliant. We didn't go during the day as it looked very crowded. We did have a long walk along the beach every night. There is a playground attraction every 1/4 mile or so and the kids had a ball running to next one then the next one.

If you love your food (quality food), get the bus into the port of Cambrills, there are much better quality restaurants there than in Salou. We ate at the very fancy Miramar restaurant right overlooking the harbour at the back. It was excellent, and they also welcommed children. Cost about E100 for a 3 course meal for two adults and two kids with wine and loads of soft drinks- it was worth every penny. If you are looking towards the seafront on the main salou beach the furthest restaraunt on your left which I think is called Barca is also excellent. If you are walking from the beach towards the hotel up the street which has the wooden archways over it, on your left at the very top of this street there is an italian restaurant I think called cucina italiana -not sure of the name, but this is also very good. At burger king on the sea front, up the side street there is a chinese restaurant here which is very good(china house maybe) however, if you are ordering lots of dishes they dont all come out together, you can be left waiting for somethings.

I am including this info about restaurants as it is so hard to find a good one in salou. There are hundreds of the 'pie mash and bisto gravy' and 'full english breakfast' type so if you like these you'll be sorted.

As I said before if you are looking for a more sophisticated place look near the port of cambrills, it is beautiful. If you are a family looking for a cheaper holiday than florida but with some of the attractions Salou is the place to go.

The resort of Salou was generally clean and tidy however the times we did visit the beach we found that there was an awful lot of fag ends scattered on the sand which our one year old insisted on picking up unfortunately we didn't visit the beach as much as we would have liked. It was a short distance from our hotel so we were able to walk along the promenade on many evenings. There we're a variety of pubs and bars to choose from we enjoyed Champions which is just around the corner from the Calypso on the main street, happy hour was from 7-9pm and they had a variety of activities to amuse the children including there very own clown!

I was disapointed about the lack of choice in the shops they all seemed to sell the same thing but there is still something for everyone to buy.

Salou was much cleaner and bigger than we had expected.

The promenade was beautiful with gorgeous flowers and palm trees, and it was ideal for us as my husband is a wheelchair user and the whole resort was accessible, (including loos), which made it more enjoyable as we could manage to see a lot more than we thought.

The beach was kept clean and there were plenty of childrens playground equipment to keep our daughter amused, especially the huge climbing frame.

La Pineda is a quiet resort, suits families or couples. The beach is lovely, really clean, plenty little beach huts selling refreshments.

There is a small selection of shops/bars/restaurants here but when we were there in may we struggled to find things to do outside of the hotel as not many places were up and running. We also found that some of the shop keepers had got even more miserable since the last time we were there especially with the kids.

The resort is ok in the tourist part, but go away from there and it is scruffy, full of litter, dogs mess etc... not really what you want to see in a resort.

I think that it will be my last time in La Pineda, which is a shame as I enjoyed the Hotel we were at.

Great resort with plenty to do for all ages.

If you booked apartments in cental Salou, you'll not be more than a few minutes from the promenade with a great beach and numerous shops, bars, supermarkets etc.

Port Aventura is a must for a day out, great theme park and you could easily spend a few days of a holiday here.

Tour operators do many excursions from Salou, but if travelling independently like us, catch a train to Barcelona for the day from the train station in Salou (although we found station by Port Aventura easier to get to anf closer to central Salou. Only costs about 11 euros return to Barcelona and takes about 1hr 20 mins each way.

Would not hesitate in going back to Salou.

The resort was great! Lots to do and see and everything within easy reach.

It was extremely clean with lots of bars and restaurants most with entertainment of some sort.

We found a really friendly little bar (The Piano Bar) just accross from the Europa Park, the best place around!

Beach was absolutely spotless with 'proper' sand!!! It was obviously cleaned everyday. Although we did not go in to the resort of an evening it was obvious that there was lots to do for everyone whatever their age.

Can't wait to go again.

The cleanliness of the immediate area around the apartments, including Cambrils and Salou was excellent. Also the beaches were amazing. With the exception of seaweed and jelly fish that seem to be washed up all the time, be careful if walking barefoot! We flew back during the night and when leaving the apartments watched the tractors sweeping the beach, as well as the staff cleaning the sun lounges.

Cambrils is a small fishing village. With plenty of gift shops. The harbour is nice. We took a trip on a glass bottom boat from Cambrils to Salou.

Salou is more lively. Plenty of shops. Lovely gardens to enjoy a quiet rest while the children enjoy the slides and play equipment situated on the edge of the beach.

Port Aventura is only a 20 minute bus journey. Our children don't really go for this type of thing in the UK. But we spent all day inside. And probably didn't see everything. Money very well spent.

Public transport is plentiful. Buses and an open carriage 'tractor' train ran between Cambrils and Salou on a regular service.

We would definatly go back to this area again.

Salou is a lively resort with loads of shops/bars and restaurants. The shops specialise in tat (crap) and at all costs AVOID the Sunday market as it is the largest collection of tat that you will ever see.

We went on the bus at 9:30 am and it does not leave the market until 1 pm there is very few taxis so escape is virtually impossible. We did manage to get a taxi which cost 30 euro (best money spent on holiday to get away from tat heaven).
Universal theme park is the only reason to go to Salou we bought 14 day passes and were worth every penny all the shows ie Can Can, acrobats, western etc were excellent and not to be missed. The fire works display (Saturday nights) is brilliant and again not to be missed. Water park (port aventura) was ok but friends went to Aquopolis and said it was brilliant.

Visited the beach on one occasion but it was dirty full of cigarette butts and litter so didn't bother going again.

Would highly recommend horse riding at Southfork Ranch was reasonably priced, horses excellent temperament and the staff were fantastic my husband and four year old daughter loved it. It only cost 25.00 euro per person per hour which includes pick up and drop off at your hotel.

Would go back to Salou in a couple of years but would stay in different apartments closer to Port Aventura as this is a nicer/quieter area for families. Main reason for going back would be Universal theme park

The resort was very nice & clean.

Tthe beach was good with climbing frames, etc, some really nice fountains too.

The locals seemed very friendly.

We bought our Port Aventura tickets when we booked the holiday (would certainly recommend this), but there were a lot of ticket touts on the road up to the park. There were plenty of rides for the children to go on and shows to see.

Costa Caribe Water Park was brilliant.

Would definitley go back again in a few years.