| Holiday-Truth Readers Reports |
hazel dckworth from blackpool travelled to Festival Village Apartments with
first choice
on a couples holiday.
There were 2 adults and 0 child(ren) in the party. The travel date was 05 2008 |
rated the Festival Village Apartments as follows:| Cleanliness |  | | Location | | | Staff | | | Food |  | |
| Entertainment |  |
| said: Terrible like prisoner cell black h.
Staff unfriendly, manager smarmy food was terrible. We ate once and then left it we had to eat out allweek.
Shop opened and closed early 3pm on a saturday p.m. Beds were hard and lumpy. I fell and cracked a rib and bruised my arm and told the manager and he just smirked and said there wet signs in the hotel and not in the accomodation walk way that is where i fell.
Entertainment at night not good and you had children running about all night and could not hear yourself talk.
When we arrived at 12.15 we asked for some water and were told that the bar was shut and had to wait till the morning.
We were asked for 60 pounds as a deposit and were told at the end of the week we would get it back if the rooms were clean and tidy and nothing broken and had to wait one and a half hours for us to get our money back and we had to be out by 10a.m and were not going home till 8.15,and the manager said if we paid for an extra day we could have a bit longer.
When we asked for a drink of tea all i got was coffee and tea together.
Click here for more information on this hotel, resort and region
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sarah hopper from northampton travelled to Festival Village Apartments with
first choice
on a family holiday.
There were 2 adults and 4 child(ren) in the party. The travel date was 04 2008 |
rated the Festival Village Apartments as follows:| Cleanliness | | | Location | | | Staff | | | Food | | |
| Entertainment | |
| said: Well we booked our holiday in december and were looking foward to a 2 week break.
We arrived at about 11 am and paid ur room deposit and were handed a room card, after 4 trips up the lift we finally got the manager to get us in as the door was broken. I was as you can imagine quite annoyed and the manager said that we should be thankful that we were getting in at that time as check in was not til 3pm.
The floors were filthy, the beds were awful and we asked our rep to move us. He agreed and we got a bigger apartment on the ground floor which we specified on booking.
We had no oven, only a microwave and we had to ask for a kettle to make babys bottles. There were only 2 saucepans and the hob was so old the numbers were missing. The extracter was broken and the microwave had cracks in the door. We ended up paying for half board as the children were hungry.
The brochure says a beer is £1.00 but actually £2.40 and a kids coke is £1.40, you have to check your change as they cant count and we had to see them a couple of times about short changing. After 4 days we asked the rep if we could get our flights changed for a week early, he got back to us and said first choice had no flights available, so we had to come to terms with staying 2 weeks. On the thursday night my daughters were on the net and i had a quick look at first choice only to find that we could fly home for €315 for all of us. We spoke to the rep who said he could not explain why this was and his boss rang, she had an answer for everything but could not say how she could help except lend us a toaster so we paid to come home.
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simonp1007 from yorkshire travelled to Festival Village Apartments with
first choice
on a family holiday.
There were 2 adults and 4 child(ren) in the party. The travel date was 03 2008 |
rated the Festival Village Apartments as follows:| Cleanliness |  | | Location |  | | Staff | | | Food | | |
| Entertainment |  |
| said: Not the best holiday we've been on but certainly not the worst. Booked through the First Choice Website after reading the reviews, we were very very happy with our booking. Very quick transfer no problems.
The holiday for us was going to be simply a self catering base for using the portaventura theme park but quickly turned into an all inclusive for us for a few reasons...
Cap Salou was very quiet and noticeably 'shut' with the odd local bar open for 'local' business. Salou is either a 20-30 minute walk away or 10 minutes by very regular buses that stop right outside the hotel.
You are offered a number of upgrades on arrival -
ALL INCLUSIVE ADULT 96 EUROS TEENAGER 75 EUROS CHILD 56 EUROS per person per week.
There’s also an upgrade for drinks only option and half board separately that were also ridiculously cheap compared to the first choice prices. We took the AI upgrade and glad we did considering the distance we would have had to travel to Salou and the prices at the bar / restaurants when you get there.
We were in C Block 6 person apartment’s right on the swimming pool doorstep. Basic, bog standard but clean and adequate for our needs. Everything supplied should we have wanted to do the self catering option, kettle cutlery utensils etc. There’s been talk of dirty floors on previous reviews - Definitely not when we were there. Huge 2 bedroomed apartment with separate dining, living and kitchen areas with 2 bathrooms. The advertised Satellite TV is a few channels in Spanish only in the rooms (English channels available in the bar / smoking area - but very limited to Sky News and ITV1) Id consider taking a portable DVD player to keep the kids happy if that’s what they like. Fresh towels and toilet rolls daily but that’s it, room swept and mopped through by cleaning staff twice during our 7 day stay. Plenty of hot water and no complaints about the accommodation. That’s us though!! From other families experience I strongly suggest you check your room for damage, equipment etc and report it to make sure you get that 90 euros deposit back!!
The apartments have a patio area that provides a brilliant sunbathing trap from about 10am to 4pm whilst we were there (280308 to 040408) - It rained once at night during the whole week and we were blessed with 20-25 degrees Celsius sunny weather every day.
The pool - some braved it mainly the kids. Very cold. Extremely small!! Someone must have messed with the advertised pictures of the pool or they are the artist’s impression because it looks nothing the size it really is. Pool area used well by sunbathers whilst we were there. Very clean and well maintained area but again there will not be enough sun beds etc in full season - there is not the space.
Reception area clean and spacious. Staff polite and very helpful to us, including Phil the FC rep who was there every day to assist and answer any questions. Basic shop - quite pricey if you are doing the Self Catering. I did not see any hyper mercados in Salou either, where you would get the locally priced necessities for your stay.
The dining area looked like a works canteen but was kept clean and kept tidy by the regular bar / dining staff Cecilia, Melba and junior supervised by the comically grumpy 'Luis'. Again full season it will be a nightmare with the space available!! Breakfast is 8am to 10am - cereals fruit pastries toast and the full English. I enjoyed the breakfast but there was a mishap with the sausages one morning where they were still frozen in the middle!
Lunch / Snacks during the day - Pizza Chips Fruit, ice cream etc. Basic but loads of it cooked fresh on request. Not like some AIs where it sits under hotlamps all day being eaten by flies!!
Dinner was 7.30pm to 9.30pm. Again basic but adequate. NOTHING for vegetarians except chips and salad! There was enough variety for me for the week but if you are a picky eater who likes your food it might not be for you. Usually pasta, chicken, fish, pork, burgers, etc and some nights were themed with Mexican dishes, curry’s etc - If you are thinking of upgrading and don’t know it might be worth paying for dinner the first night(9euros70 per person)then deciding. There were some other guests disappointed with the dinners whilst they were there but if you’ve done the 5 star all inclusives available elsewhere you will be - It’s very basic. My kids 15 9 7 and 1 loved the food and stuffed themselves full every night!
The bar/dining staff do appear at first impressions to be a bit grumpy and uninterested but they are not English speaking stars and we shouldn’t expect them to be. They like a chat and a laugh if you make the effort and kept me well supplied with litres of milk every day for the baby (which they didn’t have to.)
The All inclusive system is a bit of sham and open to abuse. Whether you go for drinks only, half board or AI you all get the standards red wrist band. In effect some were upgrading to drinks only and then sneaking in for dinner unchecked. Wish Id thought of it first!! But a couple were caught out midweek and there subsequently seemed to be a few more spaces in the dining hall on an evening.
Entertainment - Again quite impressed. Going out of season I didn’t expect any. Kids clubs during the day well run signing them in and out etc. Reps were brilliant with them. On an evening, mainly done by Cassie, standard quiz, mini disco (yes king caratacus being one of them every night!) a kids game, bingo - (which is a bit of a rip - 6 euros a ticket for prizes of 20 euros - wheres the rest of our money going!) then the same old med tat shows of Mr Salou Miss Salou Mr and Mrs Salou etc etc, karaoke, hypnotist (very very good night!). There’s no pressure to get involved but it only works if you do (as usual).
5 pool tables, air hockey and a couple of arcade games with numerous euro grabbing machines (Dad - can I have a euro, dad can I have a euro.....!)
Smokers - not in the main bar, pool table area, dining area or reception but basically anywhere else is fine.
Cig machine in the main area.
A very good holiday at a stupidly low price. Whilst we were there ALL the kids were brilliant and all got on well. All were very well behaved and had manners of angels. No nightmare holiday bullies - we’ve all seen them before! All the guests were so friendly which made for a brilliant atmosphere and email addresses were exchanged with those that made our very short stay even better. "ESSEX....!!"
Would we go again ? - Yes, at the same price out of season. There is no way Id go to this hotel in full season because I can see the potential for a number of problems regards space. We made 6 visits to the theme park in the week - which was the main reason for the holiday - buses every 30 minutes to the park which is bout 20 minutes on the bus or land train - bus is 1euro95 per person to Portaventura.
Any questions feel free to private message username simonp1007.
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Sam from London travelled to Festival Village Apartments with
First Choice
on a family holiday.
There were 2 adults and 3 child(ren) in the party. The travel date was 10 2007 |
rated the Festival Village Apartments as follows:| Cleanliness | | | Location | | | Staff |  | | Food | | |
| Entertainment | |
| said: I have been to festival village a few times with my family. Last time it was last year. We cannot handle it anymore.
Don't get me wrong, the apartments are good, need a bit of refurbishing, but I could not fault them. They are cleaned quite often and they are huge, plenty of space.
Bar staff and entertainment are the best from festival village. From the first year we were there, we have always had a great time at the bar, plenty of different shows, bar staff are very friendly.
Reception staff looked a bit unorganised last year but none of the above would have made us refuse to come back.
However, I really had an issue with the new manager, the argentinian guy. Oh my God.
At Festival Village the bar and the restaurant are placed in the same area. The manager is like the Spanish inquisition, staring at everybody, checking whether you have paid or not, even when you are wearing the all inclusive band????
Ok, I understand he needs to check everything so as not to loose any money but then my concern grew up. Ok, he checks nobody eats for free, fair enough. But then, to my surprise, guess who takes about 4 pizzas and several beers to the young ladies apartments??? Oh yes, and we saw him, coming downstairs the following day. I am sure he had a great night.
So please don't let him fool yourself. He will be showing you his baby's picture and take any money tips you give him.
Yes, the argentinian. If you are young and travel single and you are a woman, you will get lots of services for free... You might even get an all inclusive band for free. That's quite good.
There is another way to get free drinks and staff. Just moan, moan and moan, get angry, he cannot handle any "difficult" situation, it's like he gets scared or something.
Oh and the best bit. He will be friends with you and ask you to fill the guests satisfaction questionnaire. Don't forget to put the manager's name on it, describing how good is at his job. I am sure he must show them to his boss. Don't think he shows the bad ones though. I am sure he did not show mine.
I was not going to write any review but I am staying at Palas Pineda now, really good place, and the situation from last year really pissed me off and thought you should be aware of.
Hope this information is helpful for you.
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Jan from bedford travelled to Festival Village Apartments with
complete holiday solutions
on a couples holiday.
There were 2 adults and 0 child(ren) in the party. The travel date was 10 2007 |
rated the Festival Village Apartments as follows:| Cleanliness | | | Location | | | Staff | | | Food | | |
| Entertainment | |
| said: Have just returned from a one week stay and having read reports proir to going didn't know what to expect.What a suprise ,staff were helpful accomodation was clean and much bigger than we needed (a 2 bedroomed appartment sleeping up to 6 for 2 of us).When our hot water boiler packed up a new one fitted and working within an hour!Every evening the restuarant had a different theme i.e. Italian , mexican,curry. This hotel has appointed a new manager and he definately listens to what his custumers want. I would recommend a holiday here.
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mark weatherspoon from rugeley travelled to Festival Village Apartments with
eclipse
on a family holiday.
There were 2 adults and 1 child(ren) in the party. The travel date was 07 2007 |
rated the Festival Village Apartments as follows:| Cleanliness | | | Location | | | Staff | | | Food | | |
| Entertainment | |
| said: We booked this holiday at the last minute with allocation on arrival.Having never booked a holiday like this before we were very concerned but we could not face all the rain we were having here and thought at least we will have the sunshine as we had been to salou before.Upon arrival we were allocated to festival village.we then had a short bus ride to the hotel it self. My first impressions of the hotel was one of delight ,as it did look very nice even at 3 o`clock in the morning.We had a double bedroomed apartment with balcony over looking front entrance to hotel and was very clean and tidy with plenty of room for us .First thing the next morning we decided to up-grade to full board with drink`s and thought it was worth every penny . We found the hotel and pool area to be nice and clean for the week we stopped there,we had no problems with the staff and found them to be very helpfull when we needed it.There was a very resonable selection of food every day and to a good standard,the drinks were local as you would expect and very drinkable.Our only gripe was the fact that there was not enough sun beds and parasols, (only 4 parasols on site) , you had to que qiute early to get a reasonable spot around pool as all sunbeds would be stacked up at night . The entertainment was good and we enjoyed it, and our 11 year old daughter become quite a bingo queen and enjoyed the quizes.
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jack hiedi from LIverpool travelled to Festival Village Apartments with
Ffirst Choice
on a family holiday.
There were 2 adults and 1 child(ren) in the party. The travel date was 07 2007 |
rated the Festival Village Apartments as follows:| Cleanliness | | | Location | | | Staff | | | Food | | |
| Entertainment | |
| said: I booked this holiday at the last minute and on returning home from the travel agents, did the usual review search on the web which to my horror left me dreading the holiday. On my return I decided to write this review with an open mind and will say that it 100% honest and hope it gives any person reading it enough information to make their own decisions as to weather the holiday it right for them. There are a number of subjects that I have not mentioned as I feel it would not be fair as the quality would be to my personal taste, for instance I personally thought that the entertainment was mediocre however that’s just my opinion, it was not bad and would suit some people. Throughout the review I will mention the most common complaints and gripes I found on other review sites for this complex.
THE COMPLEX.
The complex is not an ugly structure but would not win any architecture awards. I did like the fact that the balconies at the rear of the block in which I resided, (Block A), are big and angled in such a way to provide a good amount of privacy, however they do not get any sun. The 24 hour front desk staff were polite but never smiled. A big tip re travellers cheques was to buy sterling as they gave the same rate for sterling or euros but charged 5% if changing euros but no commission on changing sterling travellers cheq‘s. There is a small supermarket inside the complex which was reasonably priced and had a varied range of goods. The staff were pleasant and would hand out lots of small freebies to the kids, like sweets and beach balls, and it was open till 9pm each night.
THE BAR.
The bar is small and the staff appeared fed up at being there, after a few days I understood the reason for this when I noticed that certain people spoke to them like they were dogs. They would walk to the bar, say ”BEER” leaving the money on the bar as they walked off. I found that that I had to monitor the staff when buying spirits as on two occasions I was convinced that there was no Bacardi in my Bacardi and coke. On two occasions my wife was short changed and not by a matter of one or two euros but by 40 euros…a tip is to try to have notes no larger than a 20 euros as these mistakes appear to occur when you hand over a 50 euro note. They closed the outside drinking area at midnight which meant that you did not have to listen to people drinking ect, this was good as the children were not disturbed.
THE ROOMS.
The rooms are spacious and although generally clean the floor was dusty. The patio doors could be locked by means of a basic switch. There were basic facilities including a rentable safe however I feel First Choice should not advertise satellite TV as my, as many other guests only received Spanish terrestrial channels. I found a punch hole in the bedroom door, two slash marks to the rear of the settee, the wardrobe drawers were broken. On arrival they ask for a 90 euro deposit for the room which is supposed to be for any damage so I had to make staff aware of this just in case they attributed the damage to me. There was plenty of scalding water but the beds were awfully hard and noisy. The pillows had clean pillow cases and the towels were clean. Maid service was inconsistent and only appeared to involve the making of beds and the renewal of towels. You are issued with a single card key for the room which activates the electrics in the room. Tip here is too ask for a second key and leave it in the room so that you can leave the air con on when out and return to a cold room. One complaint from the reviews mentioned break ins at the complex. This year they added a basic cctv system and we regularly saw a security guard patrolling the ground floor during the night.
KIDS CLUB.
The kids club was at least twice daily except for Sunday. The staff, Disco Dee and Energy..M ????? were superb with the children. They receive a welcome pack including T-shirt, hat and water bottle and also get a wallet on their last day, all for free.
THE POOL.
The picture of the pool in the brochure is the most deceiving photograph I have seen. It is too small. It is surrounded by a fence which is not unlocked until 10.00 am by which time there is a queue of people waiting. On opening there is a controlled scramble firstly to get a bed which is not broken(they have arms at the rear to allow you to sit up), then to get a position that gets sun all day. There was not enough sun beds. The pool was fine, but at times was too busy, like when the rep commandeers half the pool for water games which left the remaining half similar to an image of fish just being pulled from the sea by a fisherman, the point when they are just reaching the surface and there are hundreds of fish splashing about in a little water.
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Michelle Logue from Wemyss Bay travelled to Festival Village Apartments with
First Choice
on a family holiday.
There were 2 adults and 3 child(ren) in the party. The travel date was 07 2007 |
rated the Festival Village Apartments as follows:| Cleanliness | | | Location | | | Staff | | | Food | | |
| Entertainment | |
| said: What can i say i read the reviews about this apartment before i went on holiday and i wasnt looking forward to going. Turns out most of what was said was true. The rooms were fine, they were quite big and clean but the wardrobe was not big enough for 5 of us only staying for a week. The balcony doors do only lock with a big long screw but it is fairly safe as you can not open them from the out side. The pool looked really big on arrival but once it opened it was far to small for the apartment. We couldnt even move in the pool area never mind trying to get a sun bed. The pool opened at 10 but people were waiting from about 9 some mornings so as they could get a sun bed. The games area was a disaster, it was always busy and the floors were disgusting, my little girl slid on coke all over the floor and banged her head and one day there was chips spread all over the pool tables, they just didnt clean it. The entertainment was ok but ive had lots better in other apartments, there was parrots shows, grease night, acrobats and other things. We were self catering but paid to eat in 1 night but the food wasnt good. As for the aera that the apartment is in (cap salou) it is in the middle of no were. We had to get buses and taxes everywere, even to the beach. Everytime we got on a bus we were charged a different price and most of the times we never even got a seat because they were so busy. I would not recomment this place to anyone especially not anyone with kids or walking problems as it is very hilliy.
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nicola land from edinburgh travelled to Festival Village Apartments with
first choice
on a family holiday.
There were 1 adults and 1 child(ren) in the party. The travel date was 06 2007 |
rated the Festival Village Apartments as follows:| Cleanliness | | | Location | | | Staff | | | Food | | |
| Entertainment | |
| said: My 5 year daughter and i decided to make a last minute booking at the beginning of june just to get away for a week. Wasnt quite sure what to expect after reading the varying reports left. Upon arrival at the hotel you are led from the bus down some quite steep steps from the bus stop. This is not ideal if you have a lot of luggage or have children. There is a ramp but its more hassle than its worth to be honest, it meanders on and on. Got to reception and booked us in to find that the manager on duty was in sort of mid life crisis. She was very efficient but lacking in the smiles department! We were asked for a room deposit of 90 euros(£60) which would be handed back to you on checking out of your room without any damages!
Upon arrival at the room i was pleasantly surprised. We had been give a 2 bedroomes apartment which was huge as we only needed a smaller one. That was ok though as we only used one room and the other one for our luggage and dressing room. The room was supposed to have satellite tv but all we recieved was spanish terrestrial! You can pay money to reception and they can put on some extra british and american channels though. To be honest you dont spend that much time in the room so its pointless. The apartment was divided into living room which had a small kitchen in it with fridge and microwave etc. A good sized bathroom which we had a dodgy shower but they came and replaced the whole shower as soon as i reported it which i thought was excellent. The bedrooms are a really good size for families, although there was only my 5 year old and myself you could easily sleep 6 people in the apartment. The hotel food i thought was great.
The chef served up different foods from around the world every night. We were half board and were not dissappointed with the quality of the food at all. They also had a good selection of childrens food like chicken nuggets and fish fingers etc, always had chips for them!
The hotel pool is a lot smaller than it looks in the brochure so if you are expecting to do power laps in the morning then forget it! It opens at 10am so if you are late in getting there then you will have to settle for a broken sunbed or none at all. On the upside there was a really great lifeguard on duty until the pool closed late at night. He was there to watch and give advice to all the children that played in the water and always gave tips on how to be safe in the water which i thought was good also. The childrens pool really is for under 5's, it is very shallow and just for them dipping in and out of. It is in the shade all day which is a weight off your mind if you are worried about the sun in the afternoon.
The hotel staff were very pleasant and always ready to help and the kids club reps "energy em" and "disco dee" were absolutely fabulous. They couldnt do enough for the kids night and day and they were always looked after. On arrival at the kids club you are given a timetable of numerous events run through the day and into the night. You sign a disclaimer for your your child and then they get a bag with a t- shirt, hat and water bottle to use during their visits to the play area. They really are well lokked after with games competitions and themed events. My daughter was really upset when she had to leave at the end of the week! The general night time entertainment in the hotel was quite good also. Different competitions and things to enter. Bear in mind though that they do charge you to enter things such as bingo and the peg game. Money money money!
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varol from torquay travelled to Festival Village Apartments with
first choice
on a couples holiday.
There were 1 adults and 0 child(ren) in the party. The travel date was 09 2006 |
rated the Festival Village Apartments as follows:| Cleanliness | | | Location | | | Staff | | | Food | | |
| Entertainment | |
| said: Just got back from a 1 week cheapy booked last minute.
It was the end of the season so very quiet but was glad of that as pool area is very small would hate to see it in August!!! The poolside area was quite dirty too with lots of flies.
The childrens entertainment was brilliant and a good show every night including a parrot show,hypnotist etc all over by 12 midnight. Prices at the bar seemed to vary!!!
Apartment was spacious and fairly clean, beds comfy although the sofa beds looked hard. Saw the maids 3 times she left towels and toilet rolls just inside the door!!!
Reps good and loved the holiday box where you can help yourself to left over creams,inflatables etc.
Hotel food was nice but we only ate there once and I did hear many people say (who were full board) that it was boring, so self catering best I think!!!
Location is rubbish!! Nearest beach (La Crancs) is 10 mins downhill and is a small cove with nothing there, bit boring to go everyday and hill to climb after (with lilo).
Next beach is 30 minutes walk(La Pineda), this is a long sandy one with sunbeds and snak bars. We got a bus there every day (bus stop right outside hotel) and back, then back again to eat, shop etc.But no bars there.
Salou is 20 minutes by bus and is very spread out!!!!!! mostly bars, shops and restaurants.
Would I go back??? "yes" but I would stay in La Pineda to save bus fares.
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Kerry Turner from Essex, England travelled to Festival Village Apartments with
First Choice
on a couples holiday.
There were 2 adults and 0 child(ren) in the party. The travel date was 09 2006 |
rated the Festival Village Apartments as follows:| Cleanliness | | | Location | | | Staff | | | Food | | |
| Entertainment | |
| said: Just got back from a weeks stay in the Festival Village apartments. This was an average holiday very good value for money with plenty to do if you wanted it or just relaxing by the pool which was lovely!! Because we were later in the holiday season was not mega busy so you could relax and enjoy the pool and sun terrace without feeling squashed.
After reading the terrible reviews about this hotel I was very concerned aboout what we were letting ourselfs in for by travelling to this hotel.
Myself and my partner both mid twenties booked this holiday as a last minute booking with First Choice a week before we flew out.
We arrived (directly outside the hotel) there were a few steps but you could walk down a small slope if you didnt want to use the steps.The hotel on the outside looked the same as all the other hotels in Cap Salou/Salou which are all big concrete buildings. It was a nice location as it wasn't in the middle of hundreds of other hotels.We had a lovely veiw of the pool and surrounding area from our balcony.
We checked into a very clean and inviting reception. On arrival were asked to provide a 60 pound or 90 Euro deposit and leave one passport which we collected the next day (This is asked of you in ALL hotels on the Costa Daurada). Our room was ready in half and hour so we ventured up in the lifts to the third floor in the annexxe block.
The room was basic but tidy and clean (apart from the floor). The only probs we encounted were:
1) Be warned the floors are 100% filthy and within 5 mins of walking on them your feet are black! (we kept our flip flops on but there was a mop and bucket if you have a worse cleaning OCD than myself!)
2) The patio doors did not lock and it was only that I read on this website that you had to ask for a bolt that we got one from reception the following morning. There is a hole in the middle of the patio doors and if you put the bolt in and then slide the door handle slightly towards the left it does actually lock. (This made me feel much safer)
3) A few of the lights didnt appear to have bulbs or the lights had blown and not been replaced but seriously this really didn't affect our holiday what so ever.
4) The cleaners are unreal (I dont think they actually clean???) they only visited our apartment once the whole week we were there. We were in when they came and Im not joking they were in our apartment for 3 mins if that. They threw the sheets on the bed left some toliet roll and towels and they were off!! We found this very amusing and didnt see them again....
Our bedding was clean and pillows were comfy with pillow cases and clean sheets (I took pillow cases and sheetse after reading the reviews but really didn't need the). The beds were also comfy and we slept like logs every night we were there. There was no unwanted noise and the evening entertainment was fab!. A different show every night along with Bingo, Kids Fun Time and Deal or no deal.
The staff are fab and ensure that a good time is being had by all!! We dont have any children but the kids club seemed very good and children seemed entertained.
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nigel & lisa from gateshead travelled to Festival Village Apartments with
first choice
on a couples holiday.
There were 2 adults and 0 child(ren) in the party. The travel date was 08 2006 |
rated the Festival Village Apartments as follows:| Cleanliness | | | Location | | | Staff | | | Food | | |
| Entertainment | |
| said: Hello everyone, firstly let me say I booked this hotel as a last minute holiday a week before I went.
I booked this holiday as we were told this hotel was three and a half star rating and purely for that reason as we had a two star the year before and was a good standard and expected a three and a half to be a lot better.......WRONG!!!!
The reason I’m building up to this is to let you know the way it really happens when you book with First Choice......ok here goes:
Got off plane at Reus and was excited as usual, looking forward to two weeks in the sun in a three and a half star hotel and after getting what I thought was a great deal was gagging to get to my hotel to get settled in to what I expected to be at the least comfortable and clean.....WRONG!!!!!
We got on the bus and were immediately put off by the negative attitude of the rep who was in my opinion was useless with his dreary speech and quite bullying attitude. On arrival at the hotel we were greeted by a concrete monstrosity of a building in the middle of nowhere, the lobby of the hotel is a good size and is clean and neat. On booking - in you are asked for a 90 euro deposit which they keep with a passport till the day you leave, we were given a card key for our apartment and went in one of the three lifts to our room which was on the second floor of the main building, on entering our apartment you have to put your card key in a switch which turns the electric on for the apartment, and when you go out you take the card out which then turns off the electric, but if you ask reception they will give you a spare to leave in so the electric stays on.
The apartment itself is a good size but I warn you is filthy, the floors are stone tiles throughout and are minging and if you walk without any footwear your feet are black with dirt. The beds are uncomfortable with dirty white sheets which had fag holes in and smelt of sweat, the pillows were long and thin and were filthy grey and stunk of sweat also basically its manky.
The pool is far too small for the size of the complex and is constantly packed, at night the hotel is noisy and depressing as the balcony view is rubbish looking out on the road.
In my opinion the hotel should have a rating of one star.
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THE NEWBY'S from DURHAM travelled to Festival Village Apartments with
FIRST CHOICE
on a family holiday.
There were 2 adults and 3 child(ren) in the party. The travel date was 08 2006 |
rated the Festival Village Apartments as follows:| Cleanliness | | | Location | | | Staff | | | Food | | |
| Entertainment | |
| said: My husband,myself & our 3 young girls made the most of this holiday. Relaxed & chilled out!!
Apartment was spacious & well equipped for our needs.
Didn't really try the hotel food, as we ate mostly in Cap Salou itself!(The Paddock & The tap house).
Found hotel staff polite & friendly enough & entertainment was ok! Well for the few times we used it!!
Tried the pool a couple of times( a little small for the hotel) but preferred La pineada beach everyday, which was lovely. I suppose it depends on what kind of person you are & what you want from your holiday is to how it turns out! We got everything & more.....
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David Campbell from Dublin travelled to Festival Village Apartments with
falcon
on a family holiday.
There were 2 adults and 2 child(ren) in the party. The travel date was 07 2006 |
rated the Festival Village Apartments as follows:| Cleanliness | | | Location | | | Staff | | | Food | | |
| Entertainment | |
| said: Just returned yesterday and want to warn people against staying here. The place is a dump.
The pool is way too small.
The rooms were filthy no proper sheets on the horrible beds. The balcony walls were black with dirt.
Tasted the food only once enough said. The bar and restaurant area was like a school hall. We just got up in the morning and left and tried not to come back until bedtime.
Everywhere was a bus or taxi ride away.
Just told the travel agent we will never use him again.
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Martyn and Natalie from Essex travelled to Festival Village Apartments with
First Choice
on a family holiday.
There were 2 adults and 2 child(ren) in the party. The travel date was 07 2006 |
rated the Festival Village Apartments as follows:| Cleanliness | | | Location | | | Staff | | | Food | | |
| Entertainment | |
| said: The Hotel looks appealing from the roadside so first impressions were good. The apartment itself was clean and spacious with a good sized balcony. Air-Con rooms were a god-send.
We have a one year old son so we didn't really do the entertainment of a night time. All the hotel staff were friendly and helpful although no set prices at the bar!!
We had breakfast in the hotel on first day which was forgettable. We preferred to walk 100 metres to restaurant along the street for breakfast and evening meals.
The beds were hard and uncomfortable which is our only gripe.
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Cindy from Pembroke Dock travelled to Festival Village Apartments with
First Choice
on a friends holiday.
There were 2 adults and 2 child(ren) in the party. The travel date was 05 2006 |
rated the Festival Village Apartments as follows:| Cleanliness | | | Location | | | Staff | | | Food | | |
| Entertainment | |
| said: I was shocked at how small the pool was, also that it basically is for good swimmers or non swimmers no middle area.
Found the food to be very bland. The hotel was really clean and my only complaint on that is that the room we had the balcony door did not lock, we reported this and nothing was done. Also they hadnt finished the decorating either.
I did ask for an extra blanket which never came, plus on our first night there was no extra sheets or pillow cases for the sofa beds.
The staff were brilliant, hotel and reps. Only complaint with entertainment was it started so late, not much during the day and unless you want to go to the shops, theme park or beach nor much else to do
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gould from morden travelled to Festival Village Apartments with
first choice
on a 18-30s holiday.
There were 2 adults and 0 child(ren) in the party. The travel date was 05 2006 |
rated the Festival Village Apartments as follows:| Cleanliness | | | Location | | | Staff | | | Food | | |
| Entertainment | |
| said: I thought that the hotel was very clean.
It also had great views of the theme park and of the sourounding area. the hotel rooms were very nice aswell as the hotel food.
I was very pleased with the overall cleanliness of the hotel and i would return in the future. I would rate the hotel as a really good place to stay as it is not to noisy and the beds are comfortable.
The hotel staff were all realy helpful and friendly as they gave me directions to places of interest. Such as the ampthitheatre in Tarragona the beaches around the hotel were all clean and not overcrowded.
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steve from oxford travelled to Festival Village Apartments with
first choice
on a family holiday.
There were 2 adults and 2 child(ren) in the party. The travel date was 05 2006 |
rated the Festival Village Apartments as follows:| Cleanliness | | | Location | | | Staff | | | Food | | |
| Entertainment | |
| said: We found the appartment spacious, clean and adequatly equipped for self catering. the beds were not great, matresses a little uncomfortable, sofa beds the same.
We had difficulty in getting bedding for the children for the first night. There seemed to be a lack of cleaning staff and they in turn had a lack of bedding. This got sorted but I had to complain.
The complex has a fairly small pool which was clean and well maintained. The lifeguard was friendly and on the ball so you could relax with your children in the pool.
There was room for us as it was a quiet time but in high season it will be very crowded, space and sunbeds limited.
There was token daytime entertainment which if you blinked you would miss. Evening entertainment was good though for kids and family.
Towels and sheets were changed as advertised. Worth it's rating but I would not go in high season, the pool is just too small for the size of the place.
Overall we enjoyed the holiday and for what we paid on late booking it was good value for money.
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Denise Kerin from Co. Clare travelled to Festival Village Apartments with
Falcon holidays
on a family holiday.
There were 4 adults and 2 child(ren) in the party. The travel date was 05 2006 |
rated the Festival Village Apartments as follows:| Cleanliness | | | Location | | | Staff | | | Food | | |
| Entertainment | |
| said: The Staff were lovely
We visited the festival village apartments in may of this year and on first impressions found it to be very dirty and unhygienic. The floors were filthy the beds smelt of sweat.
There were lifts up to the apartment as we were on the 3rd floor but the horrible smell in them left us using the stairs.
The entertainment I must say was brilliant, in the day there was water polo and pool competitions for the older children and in the night there was bingo and table quiz which were good for the adults. Then its time for the children in which they dance and play games, around 10 pm the entertainment starts in which there was a variety of Mexican dancers magic shows cabaret night and alot of others.
The holiday reps and entertainers themselves were very friendly and helpful which was brilliant.
The pool area is much smaller than shown in the brochure. We witnessed children actually throwing their parents alcoholic drinks into the pool thinking the lifeguard was watching and there was no reaction so we went over to him and asked him to do something but as we got closer we realised that behind the dark glasses he was actually sleeping - it was an absolute disgrace.
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Cassie and Jenna from Dewsbury travelled to Festival Village Apartments with
First choice
on a family holiday.
There were 4 adults and 0 child(ren) in the party. The travel date was 05 2006 |
rated the Festival Village Apartments as follows:| Cleanliness | | | Location | | | Staff | | | Food | | |
| Entertainment | |
| said: We stayed in the Festival village, when we arrived we were let straight in to our rooms.
We found the room clean and tidy when we got there but we noticed the door leading on to the balcony did not lock but the hotel staff helped us with locking it. There was four of us in our room, there was only 2 singles and 2 so called sofa beds!
We found the sofa bed so uncomfortable and had to ask reception for extra pillows and blankets because they had not been provided, but overall we think the food and the clenliness was to a satisfactory standard.
We really enjoyed spending time with the entertainers as we found them friendly and entertaining!we took part in most of the activities they set up, including water polo and pool.
They also entertained the children really well on a night before the cabaret started.
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Denise from Limavady, N Ireland travelled to Festival Village Apartments with
First Choice
on a family holiday.
There were 2 adults and 2 child(ren) in the party. The travel date was 05 2006 |
rated the Festival Village Apartments as follows:| Cleanliness | | | Location | | | Staff | | | Food | | |
| Entertainment | |
| said: We stayed at Festival Village after moving from the Estival Park apartments - which were a nightmare.
The apartments are spacious, the staff can't do enough to help. Our 2 year old went for dive behind my hubby's back..he was only 2 foot away talking to me with his back to her. the lifeguard was there soooooo quick, he was really switched on and on the lookout.
We ate there a couple of times and found the found the food very basic but edible.
We avoided the entertainment as we have 2 young children.
we got clean towels every day from reception who couldn't do enough for you - and clean bed clothes when we needed them....thought all the staff were great.
we would visit the apartments again, if only to eat at The Paddock in Cap Salou....
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Sean from Blackpool travelled to Festival Village Apartments with
First Choice
on a family holiday.
There were 2 adults and 3 child(ren) in the party. The travel date was 04 2006 |
rated the Festival Village Apartments as follows:| Cleanliness | | | Location | | | Staff | | | Food | | |
| Entertainment | |
| said: Arrived at the Festivial Village Apartments expecting the worse after reading the reports, but was still going to have a good time.
Boy was I impressed, the 2 bed apartment was spotless, clean sheets, towels. The maids came in 3 times a week.
The Hotel bar was well stocked and the pool area was clean and had no problem getting a sunbed.
There was entertainment every night in the bar, we saw a hypnotist, karate kid, the Fad 4 Beetles (remake), snake charmer, disco, karoke.
After the first week, we found you could go All inclusive for 15 Euros for adults and 7.5 euros for kids, the money we saved in the last week from doing these was amazing.
Meals were OK and had English options as well.
For Kids the All inclusive meant they would order chips, drinks, and raid the ice cream fridge all the time, while dad raised the glass of sangria by the pool.
Staff were great and understood english well.
6 Euros got a taxi to salou from the hotel.
We did the exploring bit, then on the last week stayed around cap salou.
We did buy a 2 week ticket to portaventure (in the UK), which we used 5 times on the Hol, each trip was fab.
They had a kid club for our 3 kids (6, 8, 11 years old), which they went to and enjoyed, sometimes going 3 times a day.
The kids would run round the park, pool, club, and not be asking for euros all the time.
They do not seem to put pillowcases on the beds (but we were prepared and bought our own).
Had a great 2 weeks in Cap Solou in April.
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Emma from Belfast travelled to Festival Village Apartments with
Falcon
on a couples holiday.
There were 2 adults and 0 child(ren) in the party. The travel date was 09 2005 |
rated the Festival Village Apartments as follows:| Cleanliness | | | Location | | | Staff | | | Food | | |
| Entertainment | |
| said: After reading the reports here I wasnt looking forward to my holiday. But we went on ahead and found the apartments to be completly different than stated.
The room was spotless and very spacious with all clean bedlinen etc supplied. We didnt see any types of insects etc throughout our stay.
The kitchen area was also clean and had all equipment needed for self catering purposes.
The maids came and left clean towels twice in one wk and cleaned the apartment twice also.
The staff at the hotel were very friendly and had no problem understanding English.
There was lots to do for children including a kids club etc. The swimming pool was a fair size and was spotless.
Although Salou town was 1/2 hour walk there was a bus stop oputside the hotel with buses coming every 20 mins. The bus for two adults was 2.60euro (approx £2)and there were taxi's at approx 9 euro (£6).
If you didnt want to go into Salou every night there were a few shops, bars and places to eat about a 10min walk away from hotel.
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wayne from birmingham travelled to Festival Village Apartments with
1st choice
on a family holiday.
There were 5 adults and 4 child(ren) in the party. The travel date was 08 2005 |
rated the Festival Village Apartments as follows:| Cleanliness | | | Location | | | Staff | | | Food | | |
| Entertainment | |
| said: Was a bit worried before we went to Cap Salou after reading the review's.
Hotel itself was not that bad,we had our room cleaned 5 times in 2 weeks with clean towels+loo rolls and change of beding. Walls were a bit grubby but the rest was clean have stayed in alot worse. Girl's at reception were helpful+friendly, better than First choice reps(waste of space he was)all he wanted to do was get money off you.
Don't buy the market trip off the reps we paid 77 euros for 7 people to basicly have a 30min coach ride,(inc pick ups)all you get is 2 hours at market. We asked the rep how long the trip was and he didn't know. Got ripped off. In the 2 weeks we were there he didn't smile,ask how you were etc.
La Pineda is nice with a nice beach,it's only 15mins walk from hotel.good food,shops etc.
Salou is nice but don't walk like we did,took about 1hr, bus ride is 10mins. Bus service is very good but price's do vary with different driver's(hmmm)
Portaventura was very good day+night if you have kids they will love it but buy yours tickets in the UK. You can get 14 days for the price 7 in the UK. You do need 3-4 days to get around the park.
Hotel is really only for families,not really for couple's. Overall holiday was good but a few hills.
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Diane Gardner from Glasgow travelled to Festival Village Apartments with
First choice
on a family holiday.
There were more than 6 adults and 5 child(ren) in the party. The travel date was 07 2005 |
rated the Festival Village Apartments as follows:| Cleanliness | | | Location | | | Staff | | | Food | | |
| Entertainment | |
| said: Hi, it's that time of year when most people start thinking about booking their holiday and I wish that we were going back to Festival Apartments; we had a wonderful time there last year.
The hotel was cleaned every morning, though the inside stairs could have had a little more attention paid to them.
The hotel food was adequate for the price and we ate at the buffet on a number of occasions. As a vegetarian I found the selection OK which is more than can be said for the rest of Spain.
The hotel staff were friendly and I have to say that our lifeguard was there not just to scold badly behaved children, she actually saved four of them from drowning while we were there - so well done Daniella!
The entertainment was a good laugh as were the entertainment staff. I would love to visit the apartments again.
If you're going there this year, expect a family hotel with an adequate pool which you can swim in most of the time.
The situation of the hotel is away from the hustle and bustle of Salou which as far as I was concerned was a good thing.
The hotel has a bus stop right outside and the buses going each way seemed to run on time though some of the drivers were not that patient especially when I was pushed to the front to ask in pigeon English for 7 adults and 5 children's returns to La Pineda - I think both tickets cost the same.
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Sandra, mel and family from Ashington, Northumberland travelled to Festival Village Apartments with
First Choice
on a family holiday.
There were more than 6 adults and 4 child(ren) in the party. The travel date was 07 2005 |
rated the Festival Village Apartments as follows:| Cleanliness | | | Location | | | Staff | | | Food | | |
| Entertainment | |
| said: Went to Festival Village in July/August. First of all the cleanliness had a lot to be desired. Our bedding was not changed at all in the first week and when my husband went to ask for them to be changed we were brought spare sheets which were just left on the bed.
We also had no pillow cases for the first two nights despite asking for them. Room was grubby, not very clean at all. There were three sofa beds and one of them was located in the entrance to the room right next to the door which we moved into the sitting area and kept it there for the two weeks we were there.
There is no designated restaurant this is located in the main entertainment area. Location is very very isolated. There is nowhere within reasonable walking distance to have a good meal, except Treasure Island which is located next door.
This was good, staff were nice but really geared for children.
There was no point in trying to communicate with the cleaners as they did not understand any english. Staff did not put themselves out to help so its not much use talking to them. Hotel entertainment was very poor, same thing everynight. We would definitely not recommend this hotel.
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Johnston from Aberdeen travelled to Festival Village Apartments with
First Choice
on a family holiday.
There were 2 adults and 2 child(ren) in the party. The travel date was 07 2005 |
rated the Festival Village Apartments as follows:| Cleanliness | | | Location | | | Staff | | | Food | | |
| Entertainment | |
| said: We had read some bad reviews before we left - but with a postive mind set out to enjoy our family holiday.
Well, as soon as we walked into our one bedroom apartment our hearts sank. The walls were grubby, the roof had damp spots - particularly bad in the bedroom. The apartment had a dirty stale smell.
The sleeping facilities were dire - two single beds in the bedroom and three sofa beds which were a complete joke - they coiuldn't even be classed as basic comfort. We decided that our kids would have to spend the two weeks sharing the only two beds in the bedroom with us.
The beds smelled of stale sweat or possibly something worse - I tried not to think about it. The pillows had no pillowcases and smelled worse than the bed itself.
My daughter cried our fist evening and told me she wanted to go home and sleep in her own house as this place smelled horrible.
Apart from the general sub standard accommodation the pool facilities were reasonable and the entertainment if bingo and quiz's are your thing was reasonable.
The reps were a complete waste of time !!!
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pam from nottingham travelled to Festival Village Apartments with
first choice
on a family holiday.
There were 4 adults and 3 child(ren) in the party. The travel date was 07 2005 |
rated the Festival Village Apartments as follows:| Cleanliness | | | Location | | | Staff | | | Food | | |
| Entertainment | |
| said: Festival village was absolutely filthy we never even got a pillow case bed never got changed for 2 weeks. My hubby fell down the stairs (marble) on the muck that had been on them since we arrived.
The seats in the lounge area was that dirty the fabric was shiney. The apps were quite big 2 bedroom 2 bathrooms kitchen with not alot of facilities big wardrobes in each bedroom.
The best thing in the apps was the shower, hot water and powerful.
There is about 130 apps and enough sunbeds for about 40 people and most of them are broken. The pool is nowhere near as big as it looks in the brochure.
If you eat at the hotel you are eating your dinner in the same room as the entertainment and screaming kids running around although the foods not to bad.
The hotel bar staff charge what they like 1st night a bottle of magners 4 euro next 12 days 4.50 last day 4 euro.
They weren't that friendly and some couldn't even understand English. They didnt serve people in the order they came to the bar in just who was infront of them.
The location of the hotel not great wherever you wanted to go you have to get a bus and the fairs vary they go up at the weekends and late at night.
Not alot to do close by.
Hotel staff was ok tried not to have a lot to do with them. The cleaners only new how to empty the bins. There was some fairly good entertainment on at night.
As regards going back to festival village not on your life its one big dump, like staying in the middle of a council estate.
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Ray James from Newport travelled to Festival Village Apartments with
First Choice
on a couples holiday.
There were 2 adults and 0 child(ren) in the party. The travel date was 06 2005 |
rated the Festival Village Apartments as follows:| Cleanliness | | | Location | | | Staff | | | Food | | |
| Entertainment | |
| said: Our room was best described as grubby. There were footmarks on the bedroom walls and grit on the floors. The self catering equipment was there but only just. The bed linen was not changed over the whole week.
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Jamie Rhodes from Hull travelled to Festival Village Apartments with
First Choice
on a family holiday.
There were 3 adults and 2 child(ren) in the party. The travel date was 06 2005 |
rated the Festival Village Apartments as follows:| Cleanliness | | | Location | | | Staff | | | Food | | |
| Entertainment | |
| said: GETTING THERE:
Thankfully the transfers from Reus Airport are fairly quick, although Reus Airport is tiny and the bags took ages to come through. When you get to Festival Village you have to walk down a load of stairs, not easy with heavy suitcases and a 2 year old in tow. There is a driveway but I think it is too steep for coaches to get up and down. We then had to walk another 200 yards to our apartments although if you are in the main building there are lifts.
THE APARTMENTS:
You may read this and think that the Festival Village Apartments are awful, they are not but I wouldn’t say that they are a Three Plus apartment as listed in the brochure. When you first walk in don’t be tempted to kick off your shoes and cool your feet on the tiled floor, our floor was absolutely filthy, it certainly hadn’t been swept prior to our arrival. Our 2 bedroom apartment had a spacious living area and balcony but the bedrooms were a bit small. The bathroom was also quite big with an over bath shower, WC, sink and bidet.
Don’t expect a decent night’s sleep on the beds, they weren’t the comfiest and the pillows are long flat things that need to folded 3 times to resemble a pillow. Mine also stunk of stale sweat which wasn’t masked by the pillowcase. There is satellite TV in the living room, if you count CNN as satellite TV. Don’t expect to watch Sky in your room!
There is also a strange situation with the electricity in the rooms. You enter the room by putting a card into a reader, just like most modern hotel rooms, and when you get in you put the card in a holder which turns the electricity on. When you remove the card you have about 10 minutes before the electricity goes off. We didn’t realise this until we returned to the room after 4 hours by the pool and found out that the fridge had also gone off along with our milk inside it. The rep told us to leave a driving licence in the holder when we went out. Strangely enough this worked for the fridge but not the lights or air con. I wouldn’t recommend leaving your driving licence though, we used a Matalan card!
THE POOL & OTHER FACILITIES
Be warned that in the brochure the pool looks a lot bigger than it actually is. ON most days it was really full and is not the type of pool you can actually swim in. There is a lifeguard on duty all day and her job seemed to consist of stopping people using lilos and boats in the pool, although rings seem to be fine. There is also a kids pool which is great when there aren’t bigger kids jumping in it all the time. Be warned that there is no shade at all around the pool by dinnertime, no umbrellas or anything like that. There is a shaded area on one side of the pool but there isn’t even enough space for a sunbed in it.There was a daily (dis)organised volleyball and water polo match which was good fun as well as bingo and a quiz. There are also organised activities for the kids who are not in the First Choice Kids Club. There is a small park for little kids but once again this was spoiled by older kids climbing the slide the wrong way etc.
We used the bar very sparingly as it was quite expensive, the mixed slush at €2.50 is refreshing but a tad expensive. The bar does sandwiches, pizzas and chips but they are all pre-packed plastic rubbish and tasteless. We didn’t eat from the buffet or have the breakfast but from what people told us it wasn’t fantastic, for evening meals it was guess the meat time!
There is a supermarket on site but it does close at 7.00. There doesn’t tend to be a lot of local produce on sale but it’s great if you want to live on Heinz Beans on Kingsmill Bread for a week.
The reception staff were really helpful and speak really good English. The woman in charge was very friendly and helpful, probably more helpful than the First Choice reps.
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Carol from Lisburn travelled to Festival Village Apartments with
Falcon
on a family holiday.
There were 2 adults and 0 child(ren) in the party. The travel date was 05 2005 |
rated the Festival Village Apartments as follows:| Cleanliness | | | Location | | | Staff | | | Food | | |
| Entertainment | |
| said: Postive aspects of this accommoation:
Close to La Pineda which is beautiful
Bus stop right outside door (although right on main road)
Apartments large and spacious and well equipped
Shop with all your needs on ground floor
Negative Aspects:
Cleaning - staff came twice in one week to replace bed linen and towels....but that was it. The floor and windows of our apartment obvioulsy hadn't been cleaned in a long time.
Noise - I have never ever stayed in accomodation which was so noisy (and that includes 18-30s some years back)
We were on the first floor directly above the 'entertainment' which was so loud you could feel the vibrations in the furniture. Fellow travellers also seemed oblivous to the time of day or night in their trips to and from their rooms.
Staff - pleasant and courteous...though don't expect to receive a phone call to your apartment after 8 pm no matter how important or urgent...not a hope (staff must change over then)They put the caller through and then procede to leave the background music on for both parties!
Pool area - no shade of any description and not a chance of a moment of quiet relaxation..endless noise from dawn til dusk.
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pauline johnson from wokingham travelled to Festival Village Apartments with
first choice
on a family holiday.
There were 2 adults and 3 child(ren) in the party. The travel date was 09 2004 |
rated the Festival Village Apartments as follows:| Cleanliness | | | Location | | | Staff | | | Food | | |
| Entertainment | |
| said: We stayed at the Festival Village for 1 week.
We heard bad reviews about it before we went.
We went self catering there was a restaurant in the complex which had themed nights such as curry night and Tex Mex night it cost 10 euros for an adult and 6 euro for a child which included a drink. There was soup or salad for starters then lots to choose from from for the main course then jelly, Angel Delight or all types of fruit for pudding it was a buffet type meal which was eat all you can!!!
The staff were extremely friendly and helpful.
The rooms were spotless so clean with excellent maid service.
There was entertainment around the pool area every day such as water polo or darts also there was entertainment every night ranging from Elvis to performing parrotts!!
The location was fine in the middle from Salou to la Pineda the bus service was brilliant as the buses came every 5 minutes
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macleod from glasgow travelled to Festival Village Apartments with
first choice
on a family holiday.
There were 2 adults and 3 child(ren) in the party. The travel date was 08 2004 |
rated the Festival Village Apartments as follows:| Cleanliness | | | Location | | | Staff | | | Food | | |
| Entertainment | |
| said: I had a great holiday staying here.
The hotel and bar staff where very helpful and friendly.
I ate a few meals at the apartments they where ok.
We got stuck in a thunder storm for 2 hours. Salou flooded within 30 minutes the water to my kness they took off the taxis and the buses we were at least 25 minute walk home and just had to take shelter.
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The Barr family from uk travelled to Festival Village Apartments with
falcon
on a family holiday.
There were 2 adults and 2 child(ren) in the party. The travel date was 08 2004 |
rated the Festival Village Apartments as follows:| Cleanliness | | | Location | | | Staff | | | Food | | |
| Entertainment | |
| said: Just back from these apartments, rooms are well laid out with air con, tv and microwave but not a great view over a busy road. The sofa beds are very hard and the maid service is very bad, we dident have the floor cleaned by a maid for 2 weeks and bring your own loo roll as they are very tight with it. No shaded areas around the pool and the entertainment is not the best but the reps do there best and I couldent fault them, very helpful. These are ok if you just want a base to travel from, but they were a bit far out from everything as you need the bus or the local Taxi`s. La pineada beach is very good and Portaventura is really great, geat the 14 day pass before you go.
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sharon from leeds west yorkshire travelled to Festival Village Apartments with
first choice
on a family holiday.
There were 2 adults and 3 child(ren) in the party. The travel date was 07 2004 |
rated the Festival Village Apartments as follows:| Cleanliness | | | Location | | | Staff | | | Food | | |
| Entertainment | |
| said: just come back from festival village hotel we all had a brillant holiay there was plenty to do in the hotel. we had a ground floor two bed it was a very spacious room and very clean the maids were very nice we had our room cleaned and bedding changed every other day. the staff were friendly they were great with the children. the kids rep were fantastic. the chef cooked brillant food he did different themes every night. the bar staff were very polite . the night entertainment from the staff were very funny which my children miss very much. the hotel manager was lovly she got involved with the entertainment she was great with kids. she had a policy were if the sun lounger had towels on and there were not been used after half an hour, the guest towels would be removed. i thought this was an excellent idea because people would leave their towels and go off for hours and you would not be able to lounge round the pool. the beaches at la pineda and salou were very nice and clean did not think much to cap salous beach you can walk down to la pineda beach its about 15 min walk or you can catch the bus. port aventure and costa caribe was great too. there are plenty of buses outside the hotel which take you staight to the theme park. if we was to go to salou again we would stay at festivil village again.
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Lynn from Dartford, Kent travelled to Festival Village Apartments with
First Choice
on a family holiday.
There were 3 adults and 0 child(ren) in the party. The travel date was 06 2004 |
rated the Festival Village Apartments as follows:| Cleanliness | | | Location | | | Staff | | | Food | | |
| Entertainment | |
| said: Three of us travelled to the Festival Village apartments - myself, my daughter and her partner, so no young children. Having said that, I've travelled on my own with my two children since they were very young, and I can say that I would NOT have been unhappy to have found us staying at the Festival Village - whatever their ages. It's situated on the main road (buses in both directions right outside, so there's easy and cheap access to Salou/Cambrils/Port Aventura & Costa Caribe on the Apartment side of the road and towards Tarragona and Barcelona directly opposite).
Our apartment was facing the pool area, 2nd floor up, giving a view across La Pineda and the working port and industrial area in the distance. You could also see Dragon Khan and the nighttime fireworks from Port Aventura in the distance. I'm glad the apartment faced that way rather than onto the road. Apart from anything else, it got the sun on the balcony early in the morning but remained cool for the rest of the day. Also gave a good view of the early-morning English posing as Germans and putting their towels on the sunbeds Pool is not huge, depths vary but there is a little pool for very small children. It seemed clean and tidy, and only plastic glasses are used for serving drinks outside the bar, so no danger of broken glass underfoot.
The room was surprisingly large. Good size bedroom, very large lounge area and adequate kitchen. Can't comment on the electric rings or microwave as didn't use them! Huge bathroom and toilet, and shower was (as usual abroad) superb. The sofa-beds are NOT greatly comfortable. Perfectly adequate in size to sleep on (for me, and I'm probably average adult size) and as there was only me needing one, I took the "mattress" off the spare and used one on top of the other, thus affording myself a perfectly adequate night's sleep.
You can get buffet breakfast and dinner downstairs, and the times would probably suit young families, but we found dinner between 7 and 9 p.m. a bit early. Breakfast is 9 till 11 a.m. Can't comment on the food as we didn't partake. (We did eat one night at the Mediterranean, just down the road, which was absolutely excellent for 9 euros per adult - you pay at a till before you go in, then when the waitress comes for your drinks order you pay her direct rather than quoting a room number - because, of course, you're not staying there). Equally we didn't stay in Festival for the evening entertainment, so can't comment.
The reps were quite knowledgeable and the Welcome Party wasn't just an excuse to sell excursions. There was a thriving Kids Club on the go last week, mostly for very young children (because, of course, it wasn't school hols). The Reception staff were friendly and welcoming, and happy to listen to - and respond slowly to - my attempted Spanish.
I'd also read some disparaging comments about Festival Village before we went and didn't therefore know what to expect, but we were all very impressed. Location was great for us. There's a small supermarket within the building, opening 9 a.m., which sells most of the basics you might want. There's also a couple of larger supermarkets within easy walk, one of which has a Bakery attached for really fresh french sticks, croissants and cakes. Prices don't vary greatly between the two.
If I was inclined to go back to the same place twice I'd certainly be happy to return to Festival Village.
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McMahon Family from Stockport travelled to Festival Village Apartments with
First Choice
on a family holiday.
There were 2 adults and 3 child(ren) in the party. The travel date was 06 2004 |
rated the Festival Village Apartments as follows:| Cleanliness | | | Location | | | Staff | | | Food | | |
| Entertainment | |
| said: we stayed in a 2 bed ground floor apartment - it was really spacious and clean. there was also a furnished terrace which overlooked the pool. cleaning ladies were friendly, but bar staff were a bit miserable! entertainment was very varied, although it did cater mainly for children.
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sara from weston super mare travelled to Festival Village Apartments with
first choice
on a family holiday.
There were 2 adults and 2 child(ren) in the party. The travel date was 05 2004 |
rated the Festival Village Apartments as follows:| Cleanliness | | | Location | | | Staff | | | Food | | |
| Entertainment | |
| said: After reading negative reviews on this and other review sites, we were apprehensive about staying at Festival Village, but we needn't have worried.
The apartment was massive and very well furnished. The floor was a little dirty, but a mop and bucket was available. the maid service came 3 times in the week we were there.
The apartment is described as been up a steep hill, but this was not the case. In fact from the road (where the coach drops you) the driveway is downhill.
We found all the staff were very friendly and spoke excellent English.
The pool is smaller than it looks in the brochure, but as we were early in the season, it wasn't a problem for us, however, I am not sure it would be big enough in the summer.
The apartments are just outside the main town of Salou, which suited us, as we like somewhere a bit quieter, however, everything was in easy reach. There is a small town 5 mins walk away, and the main town in 10 mins away. There are regular buses running from outside the apartments every 5-10 mins if you dont want to walk.
There is lots to do in the area, including portaventura, 2 water parks, lovely little coves, long white sandy beaches, plenty of bars and resurants and much more.
We will definitely use these apartments again.
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