Salou

I went to Salou this summer with my family (an hour from Barcelona) and to be honest it was nice. There are literally hotels EVERYWHERE, the weather is great although sometimes it’s kind of hard to breathe because it’s so hot. We stayed in Tarrgonna I think it was called and it was basically in the centre of everything, La pineda was 15 minutes away. In La Pineda there was quite a bit of entertainment, there was a beach, and a waterpark (aquapollis) and then on the other side there was this long road with shops going up, there was a burger king and a macdonalds it was pretty convenient. Oh and also there are local pharmacies near most hotels, and the people there can speak English most the time, so you don’t have to worry about that. Overall it was a nice place for a holiday, I would like to go back to Spain but I wouldn’t go back to Salou unless I was going with family as it got a bit boring at times, and there is also the fact that it is a tourist area which meant that I couldn’t really get into the Spanish culture as much as I wanted to.

I’ve been with my family. It’s fun, yeah, I’ll give you that, but it’s nothing special. The best part was the theme park. But overall it wasn’t great, mostly because it’s really overcrowded with tourists, which I didn’t like. And it’s a really typical family holiday spot, and I think I’m getting a bit old for ‘family holidays’ at 16.

Salou has everything any other Spanish costa town has: the icecream parlours, the trail of souvenir shops, the crowded beaches, the expensive beach chairs, the tourist bars and snack bars with picture menu’s outside their doors. So if that is what you are looking for, you can find it here – but also in a lot of other places.

Salou also has got a bit of a reputation for its nightlife: Here in Belgium we had a docu-soap called ‘Hot kisses from Salou’, documenting the nightlife of tourists in Salou. In the Netherlands they had a soap called ‘Proppers’, following the people that try to lure customers to bars and disco’s in Salou. The soap was fiction, but even I was approached by a ‘propper’ when I visited (I was 15, my parents were not amused :D)

I didn’t enjoy Salou very much, perhaps as I was getting too old for the family costa vacations and still too young to venture into the nightlife. The theme park was by far the highlight of the trip, that is definitely worth a visit.

I live in Spain during the summer and I’m always forcedback to Salou, not only because I live close, because it’s an amazing place with such friendly people.

The beaches are briliant, the shops are brilliant and the traffic isn’t too bad either.

Port Aventura is fantastic! Go there! I’ve been twice!