Review date: 26 May 2008 - A HotelStreet visitor from Lanzarote, Canary Islands wrote:-

Review title: "California Garden Hotel. A Nice Surprise!"
Travel date: May 2008
Well, here I am writing this review an awful lot happier than when I read all the reviews before I went. The majority of reviews were very poor and we were not looking forward to actually staying at the hotel. However, with an open mind off we went. There was myself, my husband and six year old grandson.

Firstly the location in Salou is fantastic, although we had a hire car, it was within very easy access of the centre, Cambrils and PortAdventura Theme Park, also very easy to find.

The hotel itself on first impressions was very nice. It was clean, uncluttered and the guy on reception was really nice, and did speak English. This was also the case regarding the other reception staff that were on duty throughout our stay. The rooms, again, were exceptionally clean, this included the linen and towels. The towels were changed daily if required, and left in the bath, also, although we only went for five days, the bedlinen was also changed once within this time, which was quite a surprise. We had three single beds in the room, so that did make it a little small, but this proved absolutely no problem whatsoever. Also, there were no problems with banging heads when getting in and out of bed (which is what some people complained of).

With regard to the food, again, this was quite palatable. Yes, it wasn't as hot as you would expect, but this is no different here than in any other hotel that we have stayed in in the past. This I feel is certainly par for the course for large hotels. Also, to be fair, we are what could be considered 'faddy eaters' but again, there was ample choice of foods. The restaurant staff again were very pleasant.

With regard to the entertainment, whilst we were there, there was a mini disco for the children, and it would be fair to say there weren't lots of kids around, but they still had a programme of dance and games with them. Also whilst we were there, yes, the entertainment was Spanish themed but again that is what we enjoy and expect from our holiday. I do appreciate others might not. There was however, some kareoke advertised but we were not there on the days this was advertised for.

Again, all the staff were very pleasant and helpful, and the whole hotel staff I feel are certainly very 'children friendly'.

The only real 'complaint', if I can call it that, was that on our last day, there were many other people checking out also, and the hotel has three lifts,(which worked perfectly throughout our stay) except on the last day. One of the lifts was out of action, which in itself wasn't a problem, however, the cleaner, in her ultimate wisdom decided to continue as usual cleaning the lifts, which meant that out of the two remaining working lifts, she was cleaning one which left only one other to cope with large amounts of people making their way to reception. Having said this, I really don't think she did this in a malicious way - I honestly just think she didn't realise any different and just continued to do routinely what she does every morning.

Well, that's it for the hotel. I would certainly recommend it to anyone, and I have to say, as we now live in Lanzarote, we will continue to visit Salou yearly for our holidays and would certainly book into the California Gardens without any hesitation.

Warning! Just another little warning. This is to do with PortAventura itself. If you have young children, it can be a little bit of a rip off because a lot of the rides there are determined by height not age and a lot of them require children to be on average 120-140 centimetres to access them even with an adult. Yes, there are other rides for 100 centimetres and under, again which is okay if you have children probably five years or under, but if like us, they are between five and possibly seven, then there are many rides a little too tame, and others, as I say, which you can't take them on, unless of course they are very tall for their age. I do appreciate this is a health and safety issue, and fully agree with it but by the same token, I also feel this should be reflected by the admission prices, which unfortunately it isn't. They should measure the children at the entrance and charge accordingly for what rides they are legally able to access. Anyway, that's enough moaning. The actual place of Salou is fab, as on the whole is PortAventura, so please go and enjoy ourself and don't unduly worry if you are booked into California Garden, as like us, you may be very greatly surprised.