Hotel Gold River, PortAventura World, July 2024

We’ve just spent a week at PortAventura World! Were we excited about it? Yes! Worried? Also, yes! This was a new one for us as we’ve never really been to any of the parks outside the UK apart from the obvious ones like Orlando or Disneyland Paris (and that was a train right to the door, so easy peasy), so there was a little ‘fear of the unknown’ about our first Non-Disney European Park.

Couple that with all the negative reviews and videos we’d read and seen about PortAventura World, the rudeness of staff, horrendous queues and terrible ride operations, we were a little hesitant, and as they say, ‘there’s no smoke without fire’ so there had to be some truth behind it. But the parks and rides all looked amazing, so there was fun to be had and credits to get on some amazing coasters, so we booked a week away.

Our trip was for 7 nights, staying on resort at PortAventura World’s Hotel Gold River, departing from Manchester Airport and arriving into Reus (which is the closer airport to Salou). Unfortunately for us, our flight out with TUI was the morning after the global Microsoft Meltdown, so even though the airport was relatively back to normal, there were some delays. As our flight was over 3 hours delayed, we were able to claim compensation from the airline, so not all bad. And our holiday also began on the first day of the school summer holidays, so we were expecting massive queues and chaos at the airport in the morning, but Manchester was relatively back to normal.

We landed in Reus a little later than advertised, but still with plenty of time for a few hours in the park in the evening. The heat though! Costa Daurada was like a furnace, and stepping off the plane onto the melting tarmac was like a punch in the face from a volcano.

We walked from the plane to the terminal, having descended the steps from the plane like we were the US president on Air Force One, and made our way through security which was a quick and easy process. And baggage claim was right next to security so not far to go. Exiting the terminal, we headed slightly left to the taxi rank. There was a large queue of people to the right waiting for transfers, buses and taxis, but we’d been advised to head to the blue kiosk to the left marked ‘official taxis’ . They hooked us up straight away, bypassing the waiting masses, and we jumped in a cab, straight to our hotel for €32.

Worth noting, you can book a bus directly through PortAventura which picks up at both Reus and Barcelona to take you to your resort, which departs and returns 3 times per day, but this was coming in at round €70 for the 4 of us and we were delayed so would have missed it. Also, the bus goes around other resorts so can take an hour. Taxi was no more than 20 mins.

We arrived at our home for the next week: Hotel Gold River at PortAventura World, and it is impressive. The car pulled up outside the entrance, opposite the full-size Wild West Horse & Wagon statue looking up at the stunning hotel front. If you aren’t familiar with Hotel Gold River, the whole hotel is themed to be the fictional Wild West location of Sullivan City, with the Hotel Gold River at it’s centre, and there’s barely a thing out of place for you to not think you’re spending a week in the American West.

You walk into the hotel and are met with a massive atrium, staring up 5 floors at the glass ceiling above with rooms all around. Down on the ground, you’ll find a beautiful water feature/fountain, seating area, reception area, a large model of Ferrari Land, park ticket/express pass machines, and doors leading to the dining area, bar, gift shop, and courtesy room.

While Jo and the kids were checking out the model of Ferrari Land and checking their heights at the Woody Woodpecker ride height statue, I headed to reception. We’d already checked in online and paid our balance in advance, so everything was ready for us. We were given our room keys – which are also your park passes, our Water Park tickets (booked as an add-on, and slightly cheaper if booked with your hotel package) and details of how to book your meals, which I’ll get to in a minute, as we struggled to find any info on this. There was a bit of a queue at reception which moved quite slowly, but the staff here were much more friendly and pleasant to my non-Spanish speaking self than the reviews had made them out to be.

We headed up to our room on the top floor via the lifts, which are also themed into the western look, with the floor counter as a golden horseshoe with numbers around, and a patterned door. We found our room which was close by, just off to the left of the lift area, and it was a good job it was close too, as our keys didn’t work! We weren’t the only ones having these issues either, as we could see another family 2 floors down unable to open their door. Back down in the lift to reception, where the staff member who’d served me previously was apologetic and reactivated the keys. I headed back up for round 2 and yay! They worked!

The room we were in was a standard room with 2 double beds, TV, Mini Fridge, and safe and was, again, themed into the wild west with old looking wooden units, metal bed frames, distressed mirrors, old paintings and curtains and furnishings to match the style. The bathroom featured a standard issue shower/bath, sink and toilet, had supplies of handwash, shower gel and shampoo, and one of those handy washing lines that goes over the bath.

And there was air-con in the room. Lovely air-con, which was on all day, every day to keep the crushing heat at bay.

Possibly the best thing about the room was the view. If you love a beach holiday, then you’d want a view out over the sea with that perfect sunset, right? Well, if you’re a theme park fan, then this was the view for you. Directly below us we had a view of the buildings in the main street of Sullivan, and you could see over the rooftops of this far west town to the hotels 3 pools. Further out and we had a perfect view over the theme park with coasters Shambhala and Dragon Kahn standing amongst the trees with the drop tower Hurakan Condor looming close by, and wooden coaster Stampida closer by. Off to the right, we could see the tall body slides at the Caribe Aquatic Park and the towering Red Force at Ferrari Land. Such an amazing view. We’d certainly dropped lucky.

So, we’d opted for half board – breakfast and evening meal – as it was cheaper than just booking bed and breakfast due to an offer they had running when we booked. Everything we’d found online said you’d be given a breakfast slot at check-in, but nothing about evening meals other than ‘book them before 6pm’.

Here’s how it worked for us: On arrival, we were given a piece of card containing our keys and tickets. On this was our reservation number and a QR code. The gentleman at reception said to scan the QR code which takes you to the hotel meal booking website. Here, you enter your reservation number, and you can book your breakfast and evening meal slots for the entire week.

The site shows the breakfast and evening meal slots for each available day of your stay, so click on the slot next to breakfast to select your time. Once selected, you can chose to apply that time to just that specific day or for every day of your stay. Once done, click close and that’s breakfast booked for the week. Don’t worry, you can modify it if your plans change, as long as there is still an alternative slot available. Same goes for evening meals, you can set them for the whole week in one go or pick each one individually. Best to prep the week though as some of the better slots do fill up, and evening meals are already later than you might usually have them. Especially if you have kids.

Breakfast slots were: 8-8:40am, 9-9:40am and 10-10:40am.
Evening Meal slots were: 7:30-8:30pm, 8:30-9:30pm and 9:30-10:30pm.
You also had the option to take one of your meals at a restaurant in the park if you weren’t going to be at the hotel. Unsure if these required reservations though as we never chose to do this.

If you did miss breakfast, there was nowhere else around for you to grab anything. Gift shop was always closed at this time and didn’t really stock anything substantial, and the bar only had bar snacks. So, if you weren’t having breakfast, you might need to stock up beforehand with a trip to the town or bring your own.

As I’ve said, the hotel is set in the fictional town of Sullivan, in the American West and it’s amazing. We were in a standard room in the main hotel block of the town, but there were other rooms, suites and accommodations in and around the buildings that made up the town itself, with an undertakers, saloon, barbers, detective office, Sheriff’s office and more all looking authentically Hollywood wild west, set amidst sandy coloured streets lined with hundreds of real cactuses and wanted posters on the walls. Photo ops were everywhere with a coffin outside the undertakers and a jail cart at the Sheriffs etc.

Heading to the top of the main street there was an old steam train outside a station, barns with plastic horses and cows standing alongside and Sullivan’s luxury hotel the Maison de Lucy headlining the street. There was even more to see further around with paths leading to more accommodations to check out too. Keep an eye out for the signs in the windows and names above the shops. The theming was perfect, and we were amazed by it every day as we walked from Hotel Gold River, through the wild west streets of Sullivan to PortAventura Park.
No tumbleweeds though. Ah well, you can’t have everything!

Aside from breakfast on the first morning, which we had later as the slots were full due to our late arrival, we booked the earliest slots for both breakfast and our evening meal. All meals are seated in the grand hall, just to the left of the atrium in the main Gold River block. I’d advise getting there maybe 15 minutes before start time as they did seem to let you in a bit early for the first sitting if you are eager to get the day started.

Scan your QR code on your phone, or show your room key to confirm you had a booking and you’re in. We were always greeted with a friendly smile and welcome before being led to our table.

The reviews we’d seen said that the food was always the same, with poor selections and you were rudely told to hurry up before your time slot ended. We didn’t really find this to be the case.

Ok, you are given notice that your slot will end in 10 minutes, but 40 minutes / 1 hour is plenty of time to get and eat a buffet. And get drinks, and 2nd/3rd laps. If you feel rushed, get there on time/early. We arrived late one evening but still had enough time to get the kids food, then our food and eat it, and Elliott can be an absolute slowpoke some days when eating. Any time we were notified about the time we had left always felt like an apologetic ‘sorry to disturb, but just to let you know…’ than a ‘hurry up and get out!’.

And yes, they do take your plate as soon as they see its empty, but you can just get another. Just make sure you move your cutlery to the side.

Breakfast, as with all meals is buffet style and fair enough was pretty much the same every day, but there was soooooooo much choice. Selections might be poor if you’re a very fussy eater, but even then, there’s still loads to choose from.

There was always a variety of breads, cheeses and cold meats, a selection of cereals with milk and chocolate milk too. Fresh fruits and smoothies, yoghurts, granola and other toppings and the biggest vat of Nutella in the world. Plenty of croissants and pastries, sweet treats like donuts and choc pops (like a little cake bite thing), normal white/brown bread slices, jams, butter and a toast machine.

Over on the hot counter, which you could attack from either side, there was always bacon, sausages, fried/scrambled egg, mushrooms, tomatoes, frittatas, and more. Along with churros and freshly made pancakes. The pancakes were always where the biggest queues formed. They were gone as soon as they were cooked, so there was always a fight. Evan can be quite a shy child and doesn’t like crowds, so with a lot of more confident / rude kids and adults around, some tactical pushing though was always required.

For drinks, there was always a supply of ice-cold water, Orange and Pineapple juices and several coffee machines dotted around to keep the queues small.

You could easily have a different thing every day and not get bored. Our kids will eat the same thing every morning at home, so choice wasn’t really a problem for us.

Evening meal was different. There were basics that appeared daily like the breads and meats, but the main counters were different everyday for four days, then repeated. Evan, who can be a bit of a fussy eater found something he loved on day one and was excited when it reappeared on day 5. He still found plenty to try in between.

All of the starters, mains, salads and desserts were on the 4-day rotation as far as we could tell, with different soups (the chicken noodle was awesome), paellas & rice dishes, noodle dishes, pastas, freshly cooked meat such as lamb, pork or steak, chips, pizza (Elliott had this very night without fail), hot dogs, burgers, different fish, including salmon and sea bass, chicken dishes, vegetables and more.

Starters would regularly be things like sushi, salads, foccacias, houmous & breadsticks, small canapes and more,

And desserts, there were loads of different cake bites, mousses, cheesecakes, profiteroles, sweets and more …and a chocolate fountain on occasion to top it off. There was always a supply of fresh fruit too. Near the desert counter was a freezer with ice cream pots, cornettos and lollies. Elliott’s fave was an ice cream pot topped with chocolate from the fountain.
We ate a lot, but walked miles every day, so we worked it off.

Generally, the staff were attentive and would quickly come around and take drink orders. There was only one night where they missed our table, but we could have asked if we were desperate. Water is freely available at dinner, but alcoholic drinks/fizzy drinks come from the bar and are chargeable on the way out. Also, if it’s your birthday, don’t forget to tell the staff. We saw on a few occasions they come over and sing happy birthday, bring a big ‘PortAventura Birthday’ frame for pics and give you a small cake with a candle in,

And then there’s the song. Every evening mealtime the staff take a few mins to stand in a line, clap and sing along to the ‘Hola’ song. Its annoyingly catchy and you’ll find yourself singing it when you get home. Do the staff enjoy standing in front of everyone and singing? I’m not so sure they all do, but they try to look like they’re having fun! Unfortunately, the backing tape broke on the last few days, so we missed this little treat. I’m sure it’s sorted now though! Hola! Hola! Hola, Holaaaa!

Everyone was pretty tired most nights, so generally sleep came easy to most of us, and the beds were comfy, with thin sheets so you weren’t too hot. But even with the long days, hot weather and cheap beer there were still issues stopping myself from getting a good night’s sleep.

The walls in the rooms are paper thin. You could easily hear the people in the adjacent rooms talking loudly at 1am, moving a chair across a wooden floor, opening and closing wardrobe doors. It was loud, and every night. And there were a few times where you could hear exactly what the neighbours were doing. To any kids reading this, you could hear them enjoying their holiday. To the adults, you could hear EXACTLY how much they were enjoying their holiday, if you catch my drift. So glad the kids didn’t wake up and ask me to explain that!

There is a TV in the room. Most channels were in Spanish (but we were in Spain after all, so not a problem) and many of the channels didn’t work. The kids were happy chilling out watching ‘Barrio Sesamo’ without subtitles, which helped them drift off. And there was always Disney+ on their tablets if a film was needed.

Rooms were cleaned daily, and fresh towels provided, which was great. My only real gripe with the room was there was no tea/coffee facilities. I didn’t get a cup of tea all week! Apparently, you can buy a small room kettle locally, but this felt like way too much effort for a cuppa, and at €3.80 for an Estrella, beer would have to do!

The aircon was a blessing. It was on all night too as the temperature outside was still baking hot. Good for drying towels in the window though. I will say that stepping out of your air-conditioned room on the 5th floor was like stepping into an oven. The high glass ceiling in the hotel atrium was like a greenhouse and so hot near the top. They really could do with finding a way to cool it down up there.

The hotel has a bar with a pool table and inside and outside seating areas. There is an evening show just outside in the courtyard area for the kids, at around 9-9:30pm featuring Woody Woodpecker with some music and dancing. Fyi, Woody Woodpecker is the PortAventura mascot. Not sure why. Must go back to when it was a Universal Studios park. Anyway, bar prices are fair. Cocktails were about €10.50, large beer was €4.80 and you got 1 euro back with the return of your reuseable cup.

There is a small gift shop in the hotel which sold a small amount of merchandise that you could find in the parks, mainly Woody Woodpecker or Sesame Street items, a few wild west toys, some trinkets like magnets and keyrings and a few necessities, like suncreams, bug sprays, hygiene products, and other lotions and potions you might need. If you wanted items like large bottles of water, snacks or the like, then you’d be better off walking or taking a taxi into Salou and stocking up. We did pop into Salou for a morning and came back with a large water and Fanta for the room, but usually just filled our bottles at the park on the way out and chilled them in the fridge overnight.

At the time we visited near the end of July/first week of school summer holidays, PortAventura were offering early park admission to hotel guests, allowing you to enter the park 30 minutes before the main gates opened. Whilst getting the jump on queues early is a great perk, it wasn’t without its flaws.

Only a few rides are actually open at 10am when early park admission starts, usually Uncharted and Furius Baco, but on the 4 times we did EPA and went for Uncharted, it was delayed. One time, we ran from a delayed Uncharted to Furius Baco, only to find this was also delayed. There were issues with rides being delayed every morning, and if you’ve got kids who can’t ride these rides, then you’re just waiting around for the staggered opening of something they can go on, so the value of having EPA at PortAventura is negotiable. Yes, you can get in the queue for Uncharted at 9:55 and hope it opens quickly, if that’s the case and you’re near the front, then you are beating the constant hour+ queue it seems to stay on. And don’t even get me started on Furius Baco, I’ll save that for the next blog. Also, the food and drink stalls all seemed to be closed for maybe the first hour or so at the Far West/Mexico side from what we could gather so nowhere to grab a cold drink but there are water points.

Other than that, the access to the park from the hotel Is great. You just walk through the streets of Sullivan and cross over the small wooden bridge, following the path, then scan your ticket to enter the park at the western town of Penitence, right next to Uncharted, ready to jump in the queue and prey it opens quickly.

The pools were great. No slides, but there’s a water park around the corner for that! There are 3 pools, tiered at the back of the hotel buildings, with 2 deeper pools for confident swimmers and a large splash pool for the little ones. Doesn’t matter how shallow it is, Elliott was still determined to jump in knees first. Surprised he didn’t break a kneecap! Plenty of sun loungers all around, and there was always space. Could do with a few more parasols though for a bit of shade if needed. Lifeguards were stationed at each of the 3 pools, which is good when there are so many kids around, and the pools were kept clean. There was a poop incident in the splash pool which was closed promptly and dealt with. It wasn’t us by the way!

The parks were pretty busy in the day so we’d always go in for a few hours in the morning, then back to the hotel pools for the hottest part of the day, and head back into the parks in the evening when it was quieter and tad cooler, so the pools became a great place for us to relax and take a little refuge from the blistering Spanish summer sun.

FYI, no sunglasses are allowed in the pool without a strap. So, if you’re planning on wearing glasses/sunglasses in the pool, don’t forget to pick up a strap. They may have had some in the gift shop, but you can probably get some on Amazon for a few quid.

The pool bar was nice. Decent selection of foods on offer, plus soft drinks, beer, sangria, treats and snacks. If you wanted a fancier drink by the pool, you had to go to the main bar, which wasn’t far, but still a bit of a faff. There were foods like cheese toasties and chips that you could get as a takeaway, but for larger meals, like burgers and pizza, you had to sit in. As seating was limited, you had to take a buzzer and wait to be seated. Prices weren’t too bad, think we paid about €60 for 4 mains, 2 large fancy milkshakes, a Fanta and a beer, but it was usually just a cheese toastie by the pool. Service could be slow, and they seemed to take a while clearing and filling empty tables. Staff were friendly though and came to apologise when things were taking a while.

Despite reading many reviews saying that the staff weren’t pleasant unless you were Spanish or they just pretended they couldn’t understand you, we never found this to be true. Generally, all the staff at the hotel we spoke to were polite and helpful, even with my poor attempt at Spanish. Twice we needed a taxi, and twice they just called one for us with no fuss. Staff at the dining areas, bar, reception and gift shop were all polite and helpful. Now the parks however were different…

They don’t tell you this, but there are signs around if you care to read them, that you can scan your room key whenever you buy something at the hotel, at the bar or anywhere in the parks. Scanning your room key is like a loyalty card and you get points, and as we know, points make prizes (RIP Brucey). Prizes in this case mean money off, so if you’re here for a week like we were, buying food, drinks, ice creams, more drinks and such, it all adds up. You can then redeem your points on any purchase over €40. We managed to save enough to get around €15 discounted from our purchases, so if you’re planning to buy some t-shirts or souvenirs from your trip, leave it until your last day so you’ve built up your points for a decent discount.

Not to sound like Martin Lewis here, but whenever you pay for anything with a UK debit card, you’re asked if you want to pay in Pounds or Euros. Always pay in Euros. The exchange rate from your bank is way better than the exchange rate they’d use and will save you in the long run. We noticed it on one transaction we’d missed, and it cost £1 or so more.

Checkout is automatic at 11am on your final day at the hotel. No need to return your key as you get to keep them as a souvenir and you’ll need them to get in the park if you’ve still got time left. Our flight wasn’t until later that evening, so as we still had a whole day in the park we needed somewhere to stash our bags…

Packed up and heading out of our room for the last time, we said farewell to the awesome view of PortAventura World. As with most hotels there is a storage room for suitcases. It’s a self-serve storage room and is located outside the hotel and around to the left (if you’re facing the hotel, right of you’re walking out of the door) and around the side. Fully automated and chargeable at €5 per locker. We needed 2 as a large suitcase fills one locker. You pay your fee, pick a password and a symbol and presto, you’re allocated a locker which pops open. With that done, it was time for some final rides.

When we returned, we retrieved our luggage from the lockers and needed to change and freshen up for our flight home. In the main reception area, there is a Courtesy Room with toilets and showers, which is quite handy, but they are in dire need of a good clean and some maintenance. Firstly, they could do with some separate changing areas with doors on as there was already a family in there fully naked, which we didn’t need to see. Just a lock on the door or some more separate changing areas would have helped. The whole room also stank like a public toilet, and in that heat, it was a super quick change, wash hands and get out.

Time to go and we hadn’t booked a transfer or a bus, so reception kindly called us a taxi. Slightly cheaper on the return journey at about €28. We had a quick look around the front of the hotel at the horse and carriage model, but the taxi was prompt and we were whisked away on the 20 minute journey back to Reus airport for our Ryanair flight back to Manchester and a long walk from Terminal 3 to Terminal 2 car park, then an hour drive home for a cup of tea. Finally!

We did love Hotel Gold River. Obviously, there were a few things we’d change, like the thickness of the walls, but on the whole, we enjoyed our stay and would definitely stay here again for a few nights at a cooler time of year.

Kids loved it, adults loved it, short walks to the park, and so much food, and lest we forget the epic Wild West theming. I’ve never seen a hotel so well themed and integrated into a park. Just awesome!