Sol de Espana, Cambrils, Spain
Hotel Information
Recent Price: £33
Hotel Description:
Situated in a quiet location next to the beach, polpular with families and couples alike. loading...
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Sol de Espana Reviews
" We had a great holiday staying at... "
Submitted By: bmwkev
We had a great holiday staying at these apartments. They are situated right on the beach and have a lovely clean pool.
There are several supermarkets near by and a bus stop outside for theme park, Water Park etc. The apartments themselves are very roomy with a large balcony and a good kitchen complete with washing machine.
Only downside was although clean towels were left twice a week and sheets changed once, there was no maid service and we even had to buy toilet roll. Also office to collect keys was a good ten to fifteen minute walk away.
There are several supermarkets near by and a bus stop outside for theme park, Water Park etc. The apartments themselves are very roomy with a large balcony and a good kitchen complete with washing machine.
Only downside was although clean towels were left twice a week and sheets changed once, there was no maid service and we even had to buy toilet roll. Also office to collect keys was a good ten to fifteen minute walk away.
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- Date of Holiday:Jul 2006
- Board Basis:Self Catering
- Tour Operator:Alpha Rooms
It turns out that the biggest problem was that these apartments are not located in Cambrils, but closer to Salou. This was a bit disappointing as we specifically wanted to be near Cambrils. Then when we finally got the keys, and finally manged to get a garage that opened (having had to return to the office to change the key for another garage) our first impressions were just sheer disappointment. The advert had said they were across the road from the beach, hence assuming they were slightly further towards Cambrils, but somehow the location just didn't feel right.
Anyway when we finally opened the door were we surprised! The apartment was enormous! 2 bedrooms, large lounge, large balcony (ours was in the shade which was great), reasonable size kitchen, washing machine, large fridge-freezer - what more could we ask for! Easily could have slept 6 probably eight because there were two sofa-beds, but there were only 4 of us!
There are two small pools, both with seperate kids areas, but no ball games or lilos allowed. Who cares the beach was empty! One hint - we only found out on our last day that to get the showers by the pool to work you had to use your key fob!
Now we had been to this area twice before and so knew what to do about Port Aventura (buy tickets at home, and try and get the two week pass for the price of a three day pass). We also knew that Cambrils Port is lovely for lunch/dinner, and that Salou is like Blackpool - tacky but loads of places to feed fussy kids, and that the water park is in La Pineda (we stayed there last year, but they only seem to have hotels and our kids need more room than one for all of us!).
So we managed to settle in really quickly. Unfortunately there's not many great places to eat in the immediate vicinity of the apartments, but we had a car, and actually spent most evenings at Port Aventura so ate there a lot too. There is a supermarket right underneath, and another opposite and a great bakery selling freshly cooked bread/pastries all day. However we went into Reus to the Carrefour hypermarket and because we had a freezer we only had to go once for a two week stay (we ate out every night though, because I was on holiday too!!).
As for the beach, instead of having to cross the main road to get there, as advertised, you just have to walk across a cycle path, which was much better when you have two small kids! The beaches around here are lovely, sea is usually calm, sand is soft, showers and refreshment cabins at regular intervals, and as I said pretty empty if you stay away from Salou central beach. There's also pedal boats you can hire. Absolutely ideal for kids.
Opposite the apartments was a bike hire shop. We hired two adult bikes one with baby seat, and one kids bike, and spent the day cycling to salou, then back up to Cambrils. The cycle path runs pretty much all the way between the two, but there are a couple of places where it doesn't exist, but it seemed to be ok to just use the path. The kids loved this (though my backside was a bit sore afterwards), especially the little one who sat on the back with her mp3 player on letting dad do all the work!
Barcelona is easy enough to drive to and you really should make the effort to go. if you have no car there's at train station in Salou. You MUST go down La Rambla if you have kids because they love dropping 'pennies' in the tins to see what the street buskers do next. Most of them hand marbles or sweets out too!
Tarragona is beautiful, but we have never yet managed to find a day when it wasn't dead. Perhaps we always managed to go on a Sunday! Still the cafe's and bars are all open, and the ampitheatre etc is great for the kids to look at especially if they are aged about 6-7 and are learning about them at school. We actually discovered the shopping centre on the way in this year - NOT open on Sundays! Not brilliant but whiles away a couple of hours, and there's another hypermarket in there.
When you are looking to go to Cambrils you can fly into Reus from the smaller airports, but we live pretty close to Heathrow so fly into Barcelona - it's about an hour's drive, so not difficult at all - remember you will have to pay tolls on the motorways! You can get a bus from Reus airport to Salou and Cambrils and it's apparently pretty cheap. You can get buses to Port Aventura too, even the little train-bus goes there which the kids love! (though I don't think this stops outside the apartment, you might have to walk back towards the Ibersol office to catch this one!).
Anyway all in all the apartments were much better than first impressions, the area is great for a kids beach holiday, and if you get a two week pass for Port Aventura you can go in the evenings rather than in the day when it is far too hot - between 5&7 is an ideal time to get there when everyone goes back to their hotels for food! We have now been to the area 3 times, so have probably exhausted everything, but I would recommend it and for self-catering apartments I would recommend these for value for money - save your money for eating out rather than having a posh place to stay!