Any tips for a first time visitor to PortAventura World?

[Matt N]

Hi guys. I may have posted recently asking about solo day trips to Europe, but as it turns out, I may have a preliminary European trip plan in the works with my parents in 2024. My parents and I have discussed the idea of the three of us going to PortAventura World in Spain for our first ever visit at some point in 2024! At this stage, our plans haven't really advanced beyond preliminary discussions and browsing, but it does sound like something my parents are up for and something we will most probably end up doing next year! As such, I decided that I’d ask the good people of the enthusiast community for some tips and advice about PortAventura before anything gets booked or confirmed, as I’m aware that quite a few on here have been over the years. So my question to you today is; does anyone have any tips for a first time visitor to PortAventura? Is there anything that I would desperately need to know about the resort before going?

In terms of a few specific questions; I have a couple of questions. These are:

• Is there an ideal time to go between May and September/October? Due to my university commitments and probable dissertation viva dates, I would probably rule out anything before late May/early June, and due to my current plans to study a Master’s degree, I would probably rule out anything after late September/early October, but is there any particularly good time to go within that sort of timeframe?
• Are there any particular on-site hotels you guys would recommend? We probably wouldn’t want to go for anything too expensive, but I’m open to any recommendations.
• We were thinking we’d probably do something similar to what we did with our trip to Europa Park in 2022 and go for 4 nights/5 days, with 3 full days across PortAventura Park and Ferrari Land. Does this sound like a sufficient amount of time to cover everything PA has to offer?
• How good does my Spanish need to be to get by at PA? I was surprised at how little German I needed to know at Europa, and unlike German, I do have a basic grounding in Spanish having studied the language to GCSE level. However, I’m far from being a fluent Spanish speaker, and I am quite rusty on the Spanish knowledge I do have seeing as my GCSEs were now nearly 5 years ago (which very much scares me, but that’s besides the point!). Will the basics (e.g. greetings and numbers) suffice, or do I need to know a more advanced level of conversational Spanish?
• Is Barcelona or Reus the better airport to fly into, from your experience? I know that Reus is closer, but I wasn’t sure what transport links and such were like between the two, and I also notice that flights to Reus are much less frequent than flights to Barcelona, particularly outside of what would typically be considered peak season. Compared to Europa, it does seem like our options in terms of UK airports that fly direct to PortAventura are a lot more open, so we’ll probably fly from a closer airport like Bristol, Cardiff or Birmingham as opposed to traipsing all the way to London Stansted like we did to go to Europa.

In general, I’d also really appreciate any more general park tips or anything you think I desperately need to know. I’m thinking things like any particular way to navigate the parks, any hidden gems I really need to try, or just anything that a first time visitor needs to know about PortAventura, really!

Any tips are greatly appreciated. I’m so excited; I’ve said for a couple of years that I wanted PortAventura to be the next European theme park I went to after Europa Park, the resort as a whole looks brilliant, and being a huge fan of B&M Hypers, Shambhala in particular has been a huge bucket list coaster of mine for absolutely years now!

 

[Matt.GC]

I went in the May - June half term week. Normally, fine for other European parks I've visited in that week, but the park was rammed full of annoying school trips. Check crowd calendars for September.

We stayed in Gold River and I thought it was quite good value. It exceeded expectations. Beautifully themed and the pools are great to chill out with a few beers at the poolside bar during the day when it's hot and the park queues are at their worst. You enter the park straight into the Far West area aswell, which means you can get in and get to Dragon Khan and Shambhla easily first thing whilst there's no queue. I'd probably try something different next time but I'm glad we chose Gold River this year.

I found it easy to get everything I wanted to do done in 2 days in PA park, without fast passes. You'll be told by others, I'm sure, that fast passes are "essential", and whilst it's true that they really want you to buy them, the operations are terrible, most queues are sweaty cattlepens and queue jumping in PA is like nothing I've seen anywhere else, usual theme park route planning applies. PA park felt rammed on some of the days I was there but I didn't queue more than an hour pretty much for anything all trip. Get rides at the back of the park done at the.begining or end of the day, get others done when the queues are shorter. Not that the queue times are at all accurate but they do give you a guide as to where the crowds were. A good plan and 2.5 days in park should be plenty. Ferrari Land can be done in only a few hours. The last hour of the day, Red Force was walk on and I managed to do it 8 times in under 2 hours. Beware though, crowd calendars seemed to be accurate for our trip, with Sundays being quite a quiet day but Fridays absolutely rammed. I thought it was weird when I looked but that did indeed happen. Managed some sub 10 min queues for Shambhla on the Sunday we arrived, on the Friday the park was intolerable.

Like all romance languages, Spanish is quite different to English. Don't expect the English to be as good as in Germany or the Netherlands. We had to speak a little slower to be understood but it's a major European park that's frequented by thousands of ignorant Brits so you'll have zero problems. As with all foreign trips though, I think it's just common courtesy to learn words like hello, thank you, good bye etc. I've done this on other trips and even been caught out as an English speaker making a fool of himself, but in PA they seemed to almost appreciate it. Saying 'gracias' was almost always immediately met with "you're welcome" and a smile. Although it could just be that they're not used to being thanked as I saw some of the staff being treated very rudely by Spanish, French and English speakers whilst I was there.

Rues is practically outside the park. There's even transfers to the resort so it's extremely convenient. However (was the case last year anyway), most of the flights there seemed to originate from Nottingham, London or Manchester. Since you live only a stone's throw away from it, Bristol flights to Barcelona are ten a penny. It's 1 of the most popular routes from Bristol (as is Amsterdam for future trip planning). So it depends really on which side of the flight you prefer to do the travelling. I usually prefer it on the destination side as journeys whilst abroad are always more interesting than the M4. There's some stunningly beautiful coastal routes between Barcelona and Salue, we got a hire car for £90 for 8 days (somehow?) and it gave us the freedom to venture out, which we did frequently not just for beach days but also for food as the stuff on resort isn't that great and is extortionate. Barcelona itself is also a very pretty city.

This park is big on entertainment. So don't miss some of the shows. Food I thought was pretty poor throughout (not as bad as Merlin, but limited theme park fayre). Try and get a loose restraint on Shambhla and Red Force to get the best out of them. I know you don't like rough coasters so prepare yourself for Baco throughout (genuinely is as bad as everyone has said), the end of the launch on Red Force and the transitional jolts on Dragon Khan.

 

[Leigh]

On the point of flights to Reus from Bristol, it may be worth looking at mixing airlines. I went out to PA in July this year for a long weekend from Bristol, and due to the way the flight times lined up it was better to fly out with TUI and back with Jet2.

I also stayed at Gold River - it’s directly attached to the park up by the entrance to Stampida and Uncharted so very easy to get in, and value wise as there was a group of us it made a lot more sense to do that for one night rather than starting off site as tickets and parking are included for the entire party for the length of your stay at PA. If you can stay on site sharing a room (even for just one night) I would say it’s worth it for that reason alone, although be aware some hotels don’t offer direct access.

I went on a particularly busy Saturday and Sunday, and although the queue jumping I experienced wasn’t completely terrible, the real problem was the abysmal operations. We’re talking 5 minute dispatches on Shambhala and train after train of Express Pass being let on, resulting in 3+ hour main queues, so I would highly recommend premium express pass (+ front row) for your first ever visit - it’s pricey, but you are guaranteed to have a good day at least. I would also point out that Ferrari Land has very odd opening hours on some days; this year they’ve started opening it at 1pm so you can’t get in at main park opening. Some coasters also don’t have express pass (Tami Tami and Tomahawk) so if you do have it make sure to do those early or late as they do build up a queue.

If you do care about roughness I would also say prepare yourself for Stampida because the thing is absolutely abysmal. KumbaK trains on horrendously poorly upkept track . DK was like butter by comparison. Also with Baco make sure you’re on an inside seat too - it’s still bad but at least not truly unbearable.

 

[NuttySquirrel]

I haven't been to the park myself - its less-than-stellar reputation for ride operations has always kept it off the top of my trip planning list - but I would urge you to factor in at least one day of sightseeing in Barcelona if not two as well as the park days. It is an amazing city and the Gaudí architecture is totally unique. The cable car ride up to Montjuic is a must-do, offering incredible views across the city and harbour area. The medieval quarter with the historic gothic cathedral is also not to be missed.

I'd be inclined to avoid the summer months entirely and go out of season - Spain is uncomfortably hot from late spring to early autumn and given the park's track record I would want to avoid busy periods - such as school trip season - like the plague. Always a good idea to check local public holidays as well as they may be different to ours.

In terms of language, any Spanish you have will of course be useful but note that the local language is actually Catalan and some Catalonians might even prefer speaking English with you than Spanish for political reasons.

 

[Vik]

Err, don't go? . Joking aside, avoid Summer. I'd hate to be there in Summer with those cattle pen queues that move at a snails pace. I have visited late October, between Christmas and New Year, and also over Christmas. (The park is open Xmas Day and Boxing Day). Certainly recommend the latter as queues no longer than 5 minutes on Xmas day/Boxing day, though every man and his dog arrived on 27th)

The park is really nice aesthetically, bar the view over to the oil refinery from the Shambhala station, but dig beneath that and you will see some pretty dire operations, not so great staff, both on park and resort, queue jumping being a national sport (which is common in all Spanish parks, not just PA). Queues can get very very long and slow moving. You can book meals at restaurants on resort only to find said restaurant is actually closed .

Rides; Shambhala is very good, Khan a bit rough but good fun. Stampida is rough and not very enjoyable, or at least it wasn't on my last visit about 5 years ago. As for Baco, it is worth going for back row outside seat just to experience how rough something can be. The launch is pretty good but layout is poor and you spend most of the time violently shaking around to the point of concussion so the layout really is least of your worries.

The hotels are good, I really like Gold River resort. Though I recall the check-in process to be rather slow. Recall waiting nearly 60 minutes to check in and there were only around 10 people in front of me and 3 members of staff manning check-in, that was after waiting 45 minutes for transport from train station to Gold River which we were told would be 5 minutes.

Not flown in to Reus (Think this is high season only?), but have Barcelona. Easy enough to get to City from airport, but getting to PA can be a bit of a faff by train. Porta Ventura station is now the terminus for the line, but trains serving it are few and far between, (about 6 or 7 a day). Also, even though there is a timetable, don't plan your life around it as timetables are an optional extra it seems. Give yourself plenty of time to get back to Barcelona to get to Airport, trains being 30-60 minutes late seems to be a thing. Don't rely on pre-booked taxis to arrive either, they probably won't. Much less hassle it would seem to hire a car I guess!

It is worth a visit. just avoid Summer at all costs, or take your money elsewhere. Go to Hamburg, then you can get in Hansa Park, Heidi as well as the wonderful Miniatur Wunderland (with an evening slot as it is much quieter and can spend an hour just marvelling at the Airport.)

 

[Poisson]

Unlimited fastpass with front row access for at least one of the days as the operations are truly awful. Ferrari land if they insist it is a separate park is one of the worst theme parks I've ever done

 

[James]

Make sure you see some shows, they are great!

Don't worry about learning Spanish, just have the basics to hand (believe me they will appreciate you just knowing the basics). As said above the local language is Catalan which slightly differs. Staff are generally good with English bar the odd one or two.

I really like PA, I've always enjoyed my visits there. Haven't been for a number of years but it's a good park with lovely theming, however, operations can be hit or miss and be prepared for queuejumping by the locals (just leave them to it). Hope you enjoy it when you go!

 

[Livin’ the coaster life]

I went in the May - June half term week. Normally, fine for other European parks I've visited in that week, but the park was rammed full of annoying school trips. Check crowd calendars for September.

We stayed in Gold River and I thought it was quite good value. It exceeded expectations. Beautifully themed and the pools are great to chill out with a few beers at the poolside bar during the day when it's hot and the park queues are at their worst. You enter the park straight into the Far West area aswell, which means you can get in and get to Dragon Khan and Shambhla easily first thing whilst there's no queue. I'd probably try something different next time but I'm glad we chose Gold River this year.

I found it easy to get everything I wanted to do done in 2 days in PA park, without fast passes. You'll be told by others, I'm sure, that fast passes are "essential", and whilst it's true that they really want you to buy them, the operations are terrible, most queues are sweaty cattlepens and queue jumping in PA is like nothing I've seen anywhere else, usual theme park route planning applies. PA park felt rammed on some of the days I was there but I didn't queue more than an hour pretty much for anything all trip. Get rides at the back of the park done at the.begining or end of the day, get others done when the queues are shorter. Not that the queue times are at all accurate but they do give you a guide as to where the crowds were. A good plan and 2.5 days in park should be plenty. Ferrari Land can be done in only a few hours. The last hour of the day, Red Force was walk on and I managed to do it 8 times in under 2 hours. Beware though, crowd calendars seemed to be accurate for our trip, with Sundays being quite a quiet day but Fridays absolutely rammed. I thought it was weird when I looked but that did indeed happen. Managed some sub 10 min queues for Shambhla on the Sunday we arrived, on the Friday the park was intolerable.

Like all romance languages, Spanish is quite different to English. Don't expect the English to be as good as in Germany or the Netherlands. We had to speak a little slower to be understood but it's a major European park that's frequented by thousands of ignorant Brits so you'll have zero problems. As with all foreign trips though, I think it's just common courtesy to learn words like hello, thank you, good bye etc. I've done this on other trips and even been caught out as an English speaker making a fool of himself, but in PA they seemed to almost appreciate it. Saying 'gracias' was almost always immediately met with "you're welcome" and a smile. Although it could just be that they're not used to being thanked as I saw some of the staff being treated very rudely by Spanish, French and English speakers whilst I was there.

Rues is practically outside the park. There's even transfers to the resort so it's extremely convenient. However (was the case last year anyway), most of the flights there seemed to originate from Nottingham, London or Manchester. Since you live only a stone's throw away from it, Bristol flights to Barcelona are ten a penny. It's 1 of the most popular routes from Bristol (as is Amsterdam for future trip planning). So it depends really on which side of the flight you prefer to do the travelling. I usually prefer it on the destination side as journeys whilst abroad are always more interesting than the M4. There's some stunningly beautiful coastal routes between Barcelona and Salue, we got a hire car for £90 for 8 days (somehow?) and it gave us the freedom to venture out, which we did frequently not just for beach days but also for food as the stuff on resort isn't that great and is extortionate. Barcelona itself is also a very pretty city.

This park is big on entertainment. So don't miss some of the shows. Food I thought was pretty poor throughout (not as bad as Merlin, but limited theme park fayre). Try and get a loose restraint on Shambhla and Red Force to get the best out of them. I know you don't like rough coasters so prepare yourself for Baco throughout (genuinely is as bad as everyone has said), the end of the launch on Red Force and the transitional jolts on Dragon Khan.

This was a really helpful response. I was also considering a trip there but a bit worried about the queue’s etc

Unlimited fastpass with front row access for at least one of the days as the operations are truly awful. Ferrari land if they insist it is a separate park is one of the worst theme parks I've ever done

Surely it’s worth it for red force though?

 

[Leigh]

Surely it’s worth it for red force though?

It’s the only thing there that’s remotely good (although personally I found it kinda rough especially at the back), the rest of that “park” is horrendous. If you have tickets that include it then go in at rope drop (which is between 12-1pm), get a couple of rides in, maybe do junior red force if you care about the cred and get out.

The merch prices are also eyewateringly bad.

 

[HectorLucas]

PA is my homepark, happy to help

Choose a date that avoids summer, spanish bank holidays, Saturdays and end of October... if you can. April, May and September are imo the best months (except the Semana Santa in April, which our easter but it lasts one whole week) on Sundays the park doesn't get that crowdy, sometimes might be even better than weekdays. Christmas season is also not bad in terms of queues and is nicely decorated but I wouldn't want to miss the water rides.

Hotels are nice, I think El Paso or maybe Caribe might be the cheapest. Otherwise you can check any hotel in Salou using Trivago, it's pretty much walkable distance to the park.

3 days sounds more than enough. You can cover Ferrariland in half a day and make sure it's an evening and not first thing in the morning. It tends to be crowdier in mornings and then people move to PA because they already saw everything there.

Don't worry about the language. Most people will have english knowledge, specially the youngsters. It's true that not so many middle-age and old people knows english in Spain but if they are park employees or hotel staff it's pretty much a requirement if they want to work there. Maybe dim your british accent a bit though, we tend to be more familiar with american or neutral accent.

I would choose Barcelona to fly, there are way more flights available and I think cheaper also. The train to PA from Barcelona takes roughly 1 hour 30 min and it's not so expensive. I'm not even sure how to commute from Reus to PA as I never tried it but I don't think it's worth it (might be even more difficult!)

Now a few random tips:

- If you happen to be at the park gate first thing before they open then run to Baco, otherwise leave that for around the afternoon-evening because everybody will pack those queues first thing in the morning.

- If you care about quality food choose a restaurant in the mediterranean section, the price won't differ much from those fast food bundles in the rest of the park and it will be much better quality. The Cantina at Mexico is also good because of the amazig environment and the shows they play there.

- Make sure to visit the aztec piramid (the inside) it tends to get ignored and it's a really cool little section

- To reach Shambhala from Polynesia/Mediterranea it's actually shorter going through Sesamo Aventura than directly going into China oddly enough. It's the Sesame shortcut!

- The waterpark Costa Caribe it's actually pretty good and if you visit the months I told you (May or September) I'm pretty sure it will be hot enough for a water park day believe it or not.

In terms of language, any Spanish you have will of course be useful but note that the local language is actually Catalan and some Catalonians might even prefer speaking English with you than Spanish for political reasons.

Nope, this is not true. I'm from Catalonia and communicated in Spanish my whole life with pretty much everybody. Obviously you can always find an idiot, but I find that extreeemely unlikely.

Btw people keeps mentioning queue-jumping but... I never saw it? I think once or twice in my life I saw and they got booed. Either that or I never realized.

Unless you mean people jumping the queue when it's empty? Yeah that happens and I even advise it, you don't want to walk those endless caterpillars haha

 

[Matt.GC]

This was a really helpful response. I was also considering a trip there but a bit worried about the queue’s etc

I don't know if everyone else just goes on inappropriate days, busy times of the year or has a sensitivity to boring queue line design, but I honestly didn't find it too bad. And I have a low tolerance for queues as I'm so used to going to places off peak.

Of course it's cattle pen galore, despatches are slow and queue jumping is like a local sport. But I went on a moderate week and found it no worse than what we've seen at Towers this year. I found only 2 days were issues, unsurprisingly they were Friday and Saturday, but even then if I got to Shambhla and Dragon Khan early enough in the morning I could easily get both done in under an hour, before leaving the park and spending both days outside the park doing other things instead. Baco was a problem, but even on that I managed to nab a 20 min queue early afternoon.

Don't go in peak season, don't go on busy days, don't do attractions by park entrances at the beginning and end of the day, and if you see 2+ hour queues don't go to that area of the park. Basically like you would to avoid queues in any park.

 

[Livin’ the coaster life]

I don't know if everyone else just goes on inappropriate days, busy times of the year or has a sensitivity to boring queue line design, but I honestly didn't find it too bad. And I have a low tolerance for queues as I'm so used to going to places off peak.

Of course it's cattle pen galore, despatches are slow and queue jumping is like a local sport. But I went on a moderate week and found it no worse than what we've seen at Towers this year. I found only 2 days were issues, unsurprisingly they were Friday and Saturday, but even then if I got to Shambhla and Dragon Khan early enough in the morning I could easily get both done in under an hour, before leaving the park and spending both days outside the park doing other things instead. Baco was a problem, but even on that I managed to nab a 20 min queue early afternoon.

Don't go in peak season, don't go on busy days, don't do attractions by park entrances at the beginning and end of the day, and if you see 2+ hour queues don't go to that area of the park. Basically like you would to avoid queues in any park.

Noted . I have been before and had a really good time with multiple rides on everything but it sounds like it’s changed quite a lot from when I went!

 

[Poisson]

Surely it’s worth it for red force though?

It's worth going to FL because it is free. RF is alright but by the looks of it there is better launch coasters in Spain, let alone elsewhere.

 

[streetspark]

PortAventura is a fantastic choice for your upcoming European trip with your parents. Late May/early June or late September/early October should provide a great balance between good weather and fewer crowds. Hotel PortAventura or Hotel Caribe are solid options for accommodations within the resort, catering to different budgets. With four nights and five days, you'll have ample time to enjoy both PortAventura Park and Ferrari Land without feeling rushed. Your basic Spanish skills should serve you well, as many park staff have some knowledge of English.

 

[Matt N]

Following on from some discussion I've had with folks elsewhere, I just wanted to ask about Express Pass.

I've seen a lot of people recommend Express at PortAventura. We aren't normally people who buy Fastrack (or equivalent) at parks, but I think the sheer amount of recommendation Express has been getting means that we should at least heavily consider it.

My question is; is this a case of Express simply being a "nice to have" bonus if we can budget for it, with the park being perfectly doable without Express? Or is it literally a case of "don't get Express at your peril"?

In terms of when we're thinking of going; I was thinking of suggesting September after hearing the advice of folks here and elsewhere, but that has seemingly been vetoed by my parents, as they're considering a cruise in September. Our thoughts have now gone to mid-June, after I finish university.

 

[HectorLucas]

If you plan to go on June at least go on a Sunday of early June. It might be much better than weekdays. Even though kids starts summer the 20th of June, there might be a lot of school trips visiting the park on weekdays.

Regarding the express... There are a lot of different bundles at different prices, you might consider to get at least the one that you can ride the main attractions once. You can decide that day itself to go for it or not.

There's a high chance the park will be under different management by June next year so nobody is sure about how the operations will be next season. But they've been pretty bad on the latest years...

 

[Leigh]

I thought the same as you @Matt N in that it “can’t be that bad”… then I arrived at PA and saw it (“it” being the shambolic operations and oversold fastrack) with my own eyes.

Trust me, as a first time visitor on a busy day in summer you want express pass. Even if it’s just one shot and then go and SRQ Shambhala or something after, you want express pass (although the price difference between unlimited and one shot for everything is low enough I would pay the extra). I despise paid for fastrack but with this park I genuinely saw no other option.

Outside of that I can’t comment however. I’ve heard it’s better on off peak midweek days but can’t speak to that personally sadly.

 

[Rob]

I first went to PA in a June after I had finished university. We went on park, joined an awful cattle pen queue for the log flume, rode said log flume, went straight back to the hotel and bought Express Pass for the rest of our trip. I have now never been to PA (3 occasions) without Express.

 

[Poisson]

After this weekend? Visit Parque Warner instead. Much superior ride lineup with GCE being added.

 

[Matt.GC]

Not for the first time, I have the unpopular opinion that you don't need it. Granted, I've only been once but I became obsessed with avoiding it and analysing the flows around the park. I can't recommend it at all for Ferrari Land as monitoring queues I couldn't see a single day out of 8 where any of the rides had much of a queue for the last 2 hours of the day. Red Force was genuinely walk on for over the last hour of the day I went.

I can't deny that I did see some truly awful operations. It's painful to be a part of at times and the majority of queue lines are horribly designed. I didn't see anything worse than Towers on a busy day or Chessington on a normal day. Only a single day during my trip generated queues that I thought would be unbearable, and even on that day I managed to nip in after rope drop and get Shambhla and Dragon Kahn done in the first hour.

But I'll fully concede that it's a small sample size as it was a single trip, heavily planned spread over 8 days where I had the luxury of choosing when to go in the park or not. Maybe I got lucky. Maybe others don't. Maybe others have a lower tolerance level to queues than I do for paying twice to ride things.

So, far from being a definitive subject, it's ultimately down to personal choice. Why don't you give it a try and have the contingency plan of buying Express if it all goes tits up? That's what I did and didn't have to press the nuclear button at all in the end. Unless it's an insanely busy day, you can easily buy them on park on the day (I can't tell how much they really want to sell them to you). You don't have to decide now really.