Costa Dorada Tourism Guide - Salou

Salou Costa Dorada Resort Guide

Salou excels as a Costa Dorada budget family holiday base in more ways than one. Great quality family beaches with nice calm waters and fine sand - great for sandcastles! The choice of excursions by budget public transport from Salou is also superb.

Bus Plana seem to have the monopoly, and offer regular bus services to Reus (every 30 minutes), Tarragona (every 30 minutes) and excursion trips to Barcelona city centre, Barcelona zoo, Barcelona FC Camp Nou Stadium and of course top holiday attractions such as Port Aventura and Aquopolis Water Park at La Pineda (see Bus Plana weblink right for prices and timetables.)

Salou, like Lloret de Mar on the Costa Brava further north, attracts visitors from all over Europe. Salou is particularly popular with the French as well as the British. Long and sandy two main beaches Llevant and Ponent (Ponent is a blue flag beach) are crammed with pedaloes, sunbeds, watersports providers and sunbathers. Salou's two main beaches have great facilities, with showers, level easy access of the promenade and plenty of seats too along the promenade. Budget lively family holidays don't come much better! It's a friendly resort is Salou, much like Torremolinos on the Costa del Sol.

Salou Costa Dorada Holiday Attractions - Port Aventura & Aquopolis Waterpark

Unless you're staying in La Pineda itself where PortAventura Adventure park is located, then Salou is the next closest resort on the Costa Dorada to it. More like a Disney styled resort than just an amusement park, PortAventura has all inclusive hotels, a beach club, an Aquatic park and amusement park with fun rides all on-site. Its got a real edge this amusement park complex, split as it is into several themed areas including China, Mexico, Polynesi, the Wild West and a Catalan fishing village thrown in. Demanding probably more than a one day visit (the kids' will want to go back!) there' much to cram in. Some of the rides here are guaranteed adrenalin rushes - take the Furius Baco for example which thrusts you from 0 to 135km/h in 3 sections on a loop! The shows and rides carry on into night-time too - PortAventura is a 24/7 fun park. Pre-buy tickets online via the PortAventura weblink right.

See the PortAventura webguide right for more details on rides and attractions. Visitors come to this amusement park from the resorts of both the Costa Dorada and Costa Brava in peak season, so as you can imagine it gets busy. Arriving early in the day is a good idea, or around lunchtime when queues are shorter. Two day passes are available, and this park really demands a couple of days! Each themed area has its own restaurants and facilities.

Costa Dorada's main waterpark is also in the La Pineda area near Salou (buses run regularly from Salou to it). Great waterslides and attractions are here with old favourites - Splash and Kamikazes, plus mini golf, water pool areas for the tots, the triple slide Aquamania and river rapids and a wave pool.

Aquopolis Waterpark Costa Daurada, Passeig Pau Casals, 65 La Pineda, Vila Seca. Tel. 977 37 1640-41. (weblink right for more details).