At the week-end my son turned eleven and to celebrate we went to PortAventura, a wonderful theme park just an hour away from Barcelona. We stayed overnight at the Gold River, one of the hotels on site. The hotel itself was like a Far West film set, in fact it used to be owned by Universal Studios, the swimming pool was designed to look like a lake and the attention to detail was impeccable. When you stay in one of the Park’s hotels you get a free pass to all attractions for both the day of arrival and the one of departure, which is great because though two full days at the adventure park would have been too much, there was a couple of things we hadn’t done on the first day and a few more rides that we wanted to do again, which we managed to do the day after before heading off.
The adventure park is very tastefully done throughout; the various areas have an array of rides and shows typical of the Country or theme they replicate: Polynesia, China, Mexico, Mediterranean, Sesame Street and Country & Western. There are rides and attractions for all ages so the whole family can truly enjoy the experience. The food in the many restaurants scattered around the park is not amazing and it is quite expensive so unless you are happy to live on fast food and ice creams, the hotel buffet is a good option,value for money and plenty of food. Breakfast is included and it is really good, again with plenty of choice for everybody.
A lot of the rides are wet so it’s best to wear clothes that dry quickly, bathing suits and flip flops. Water proof capes are available to buy on site, which are a good option for cooler days. There are also dryers as you come out of the wet rides, but I didn’t like them. They only take euro coins and you pay 2 euros for 5 minutes to be inside a room that feels like being in a tumble dryer. It didn’t really seem all that healthy!

The shows are amazing, especially the cowboy rodeo play and the Magic Show set in a Saloon which I imagine to find in the Southern States of America. The shows are in Spanish, but the actors really make an effort to mix it up with English so that the English Speaking audience is not left out.
It is really  a great place if you come on holiday to Barcelona with children, and if you don’t have a car it is easily reachable by train.