Review date: 22 June 2008 - A HotelStreet visitor from Bedfordshire wrote:-

Review title: "Palas Hotel Not Good"
Travel date: May 2008
Absolute nightmare start to our holiday. The room we were allocated had ants as guests, although this was dealt with promptly.

Be aware that not all facilities are open all day i.e., indoor pool, gym, kids' club and entertainment all seem to be on a part time basis. As we where all inclusive, I felt cheated. The sauna and Turkish bath are extras. There is a hotel across the road from the Palas Pineda called the Estival park hotel which was our first choice but could not book due to non availability at the time. While there we visited this hotel and it looks first class.

Overall would not go back again to the Palas Pineda.

Review date: 13 May 2008 - A HotelStreet visitor from England wrote:-

Review title: "Nightmare Hotel"
Travel date: May 2008
We arrived at the Palas Pineda on the 7th May to spend our honeymoon here. What a complete nightmare. We found all the people very rude! The food was terrible and a right free for all. Queuing up for a fried egg in the morning. Hot dogs for sausages.

We (as it was our honeymoon) booked a double room. We had twin beds with no chance of changing!

The weather was terrible!

PortAventura though was great! (when we finally managed to get there because of the weather). All in all, thank goodness we are home!

Review date: 19 October 2007 - A HotelStreet visitor from Northern Ireland wrote:-

Review title: "Truth About Palas Pineda Hotel"
Travel date: October 2007
The Palas Pineda hotel overall was fair, but the whole ten days we stayed the surroundings of the outside pool were never cleaned and you had to tiptoe through dirt and cigarette butts. Most of the staff had very little English language knowledge so it was very hard to communicate about anything.

My partner and I and my 17 month old son dreaded mealtimes as the high chairs were definitely not health and safety standard, neither were they hygienic, e.g., wooden trays were eroded over time, which to me harvested bacteria.

On the good side, the younger staff were far more helpful and pleasant than the senior staff, who had no time for the guests. All inclusive food was the same day in day out.

If you decide to use the 24 hour laundry service, make sure you ask for the price list as we didn't know one existed until our laundry came back three days later, charging us 80 euros for the equivalent of a Tesco bag full of clothes.

Review date: 11 September 2007 - A HotelStreet visitor from Glasgow, Scotland wrote:-

Review title: "Four Star Building, One Star Hotel"
Travel date: August 2007
Paid £2,000 for party of six - 55,53,36,30,five and four. Stepping into the hotel we thought we had walked into a five star hotel. Great facilities, nice gym and rooms were clean. Nine days later we all agreed on the same thing, we would rather burn in hell than return to this hotel.

The warm food was always cold or nearly cold. At breakfast had to queue for ten minutes to finally get a slice of toast. The waitresses would remove your plate if you stepped away from the table to get a drink from the all inclusive bar in the dining area. The hotel had a couple of decent bar staff. The rest didn't care at all. The entertainment is pathetic, (probably don't want you to stay in the hotel and drink).

If you're paying cash you get served first at the bar, no matter how long you have waited. Even when the bar is empty, if they aren't in the mood to serve you, then you have to wait and wait and wait. My final night I said 'stuff this' after seven minutes of waiting while two bar staff pottered about. They knew I was there but didn't care.

Be warned, the Palas Pineda hotel treats all inclusive guests as second class. Take my advice, don't waste your money here. Salou has far better hotels than this one.

Review date: 18 August 2007 - A HotelStreet visitor from Birmingham, England wrote:-

Review title: "Palas Pineda Is Rubbish!"
Travel date: August 2007
On arrival, reception staff were not very friendly. There are no reps at the hotel so you have to make your own holiday and find out information on your own accord.

The food is no where near good, especially at four star standards.Some of the food looked uncooked and wasn't labelled. This hotel should be a two star plus, not four star.

Best thing about the hotel is that it was close to the beach and the rooms were clean. Wouldn't advise anyone to stay at the Palas Pineda.

Review date: 22 March 2008 - A HotelStreet visitor from Chelmsford wrote:-

Review title: "Third Stay At This Hotel"
Travel date: June 2007
If you have booked, don't worry. The Palas Pineda hotel is fine and very good value for money. We have stayed at many five star hotels and while this isn't to that standard, you pay for what you get and this is very good value for money

Review date: 09 June 2007 - A HotelStreet visitor from Liverpool wrote:-

Review title: "Wow - What A Great Stay"
Travel date: June 2007
Just to start. I am a really fussy person. I found my stay one of the best. The hotel was great, staff where great and very funny. It was very clean, and rooms were well equipped. The food was A1, we were all inclusive. The drinks were good and bar staff great. There were a few queues but did not take long to get served. The hotel it's self is great. The pools were very clean and well maintained.

My only problem was the sun beds, there was not enough to go round. The hotel had a policy where you could only reserve a bed at 9.00, but people where getting up at 6.30 to put towels on beds. We always managed to get our five at around 7.30. So be warned to sleeping in.

Book a bus from the airport, ten euros return, they will take your details and pick you up on time.

You find snacks between meals are not needed, as you can fill yourself up at meal times. We found there were not many Brits in the hotel, they all seemed to be Russian and German. Personally I found them great and a few manners went a long way.

Hotel in a great place right by the beach and lots of gift shops. I am just about to book again for September.

Review date: 29 May 2007 - A HotelStreet visitor from Wales wrote:-

Review title: "OK But Not A Four Star!"
Travel date: May 2007
We have recently been away to La Pineda and stayed at the Palas Pineda hotel. The initial impression was 'Wow!' So much had gone into the appearance and cleanliness of the hotel it is very attractive! The pools and the sun terrace are equally attractive. We arrived just after midnight to the hotel to find everything in darkness, only the reception was open. The next morning we went for breakfast and again we were impressed likewise for dinner and tea! Until after three days when the food is very repetitive and you don't know what things are! It's the same thing every day! No snacks in between meals at all, there is a snack bar, but you have to pay for things even if you are AI. The bars open from 10 until 11 AI but there are other people who are not AI and you often have to queue! The bar shuts on the dot - not one more drink! The entertainment was poor - very Spanish! The staff are friendly and will help you whenever they can and the cleaners work their bum off!

La Pineda itself is quiet but Salou is only down the road - 1.65 euro per person! Nice place to stay and met some lovely people. We enjoyed our stay and would recommend the hotel to anyone, if you are not fussy about the food thing, although being AI you'd expect a bit more! There are tennis courts, three outdoor pools, indoor pool and jacuzzi with a hair and beauty salon on sight. On the whole it's the food that lets the hotel down! Lovely pizzeria up the road!

Review date: 06 September 2006 - A HotelStreet visitor from Yorkshire wrote:-

Review title: "Do Not Panic"
Travel date: August 2006
We have been on all inclusive holidays for the last four years. Hotel in a great location across the road from peaceful sandy beach. Food great – hot, plenty to choose from. Yes all inclusive drinks are from two bars, one near outside pools and entertainment area the other by reception. At these bars customers are also paying so hey, no need to feel like a second class citizen. Hardly ever had to queue above two minutes for the bars. No queues for restaurants.

Hotel appearance splendid. Rooms very clean and spacious. 33 euros from airport in a taxi or the shuttle bus just over five euros, bookable at reception. Our party consisted of three adults ages 69, 43, 42 and three children ages 16, 13 and 10.

The entertainment on an evening was very Spanish but hey you are in Spain, not Butlins. Met some great people from Woverhampton and London. So chilled on an evening. The only down side are the Russians do not believe in queuing, so stand your ground.

Review date: 22 October 2005 - A HotelStreet visitor from Scotland wrote:-

Review title: "Warning! Please Read This Carefully. This Is Not A Four Star Hotel."
Travel date: October 2005
We arrived at the Palas Pineda at 23.30 hours. On arrival the taxi driver advised us that we had come to the best hotel in the area and we had to agree the building did look impressive. The reception staff appeared to be friendly but wouldn't allow our son to use the toilet until we had been properly booked in. After dropping our bags off in the room, we came downstairs to find all the bars closed and all areas in darkness apart from the reception. We went to the beachfront to find everything closed apart from three very noisy bars full of young people.

We were wakened at 09.00 hours by a very loud PA announcement in Spanish. This was repeated every 10-15 minutes. When we went down for breakfast, we discovered that the hotel was overrun by Spanish pensioners on an annual break. We were told that the local government paid this for and the PA announcements were to call them in to eat. As the tables were reserved for the pensioners at lunch and dinner times, overseas paying guests had to queue and wait for a table. The OAPs were aggressive towards other guests, both adults and children. They were quite happy to push their way through and snatch the serving spoons from your hand.

We are not fussy eaters but the quality of the food was the worst we have experienced in any Spanish hotel. Most of the food was cold and a lot of the meat was uncooked. We visited the restaurant at all mealtimes but on the majority of occasions we ended up eating elsewhere outside the hotel. As we were staying on an all-inclusive basis, this resulted in spending more money than planned.

This hotel should NOT be advertised as AI as you do not get any snacks between meals other than a packet of crisps and ice cream and the bar closes at 22.55 hours on the dot to AI residents but will quite happily serve you drink until 23.55 hours if you pay. Unfriendly bar staff try all the tricks not to serve you between 22.30–22.55 hours.

The activities board was written in Spanish, therefore no one knew what was happening, but we later discovered that all activities were aimed at the Spanish OAPs and nothing was laid on for the families on holiday. There was some musical entertainment in the evenings but again this was directed at the Spanish OAPs. The three outdoor leisure pools were unusable as they were extremely dirty with all sorts of debris including broken tiles lying in the bottom. There were broken gratings around the pools, which were a dangerous hazard to children. The surrounding areas had overflowing bins, empty glasses/bottles, cigarette butts and general rubbish everywhere. The tennis courts were unusable due to broken glass and rubbish everywhere. These conditions were brought to the attention of the manageress the day after we arrived but none were rectified and were of the same condition on our departure. The photographic evidence can be seen on the Tripadvisor web site.

The indoor pool was dirty enough that you could not see the tiles on the bottom, but as there were other children in the pool, we allowed our son to go in. There were eight children in the pool when an army of Spanish OAPs descended upon them. The children were verbally abused by screaming OAPs for having fun. The pool was taken over by forty OAPs and the children were asked to leave by the group organiser and lifeguard, needless to say this ended up in another dispute with management.

We tried hard to get a flight home after being there for two days but with no success, therefore we stayed away from the hotel as much as possible. Every UK holidaymaker we spoke too was equally unimpressed and all filed official complaints forms with the Spanish tourist authorities.

The only positive feedback for this hotel would be the appearance and cleanliness of the bedrooms and the only friendly/professional staff were the maids. If it hadn't been for the fact that we made some very good friends with like-minded holidaymakers, this week would have been a total disaster. Would I ever recommend or go back to this hotel?? Not in a lifetime.

Review date: 21 September 2004 - A HotelStreet visitor from Lincoln, England wrote:-

Review title: "Palas (Awful)"
Travel date: September 2004
Stayed at Palas in Sepember 2004 for what should have been a two weeks stay all inclusive holiday. It was anything but! The all inclusive was one bar, one dining area, no snacks as you couldn't use the pool bars unless you paid. The all inclusive bar was a joke, with paper cups to drink from and dreadful bar staff and security officer! (just to make sure you didn't ask for a drink after 22.50 hrs!) We did complain to our rep who was most unhelpful and told us to write all the faults down on paper which we did. We did manage to get moved from the Palas after six days. We were moved to Estival Park WHICH WAS EXCELLENT! J