Portaventura travel options

[Wildboy1983]

I just booked a last minute hop to Reus for the the last weekend of September. I'm not going to get a hire car as I would usually do as it's just a weekend break so I'm looking at the cheapest and easiest alternative way to get from the airport to salou hotel and from salou to the park.

Is it ok to just grab an airport taxi? I usually avoid doing that in fear of getting into the 'wrong colour' etc. How much should I expect to pay for the short journey as a tourist? Is there a bus or train connection? Any advice is much appreciated

 

[Dhev123]

When we went we were staying in Barcelona, and we used a coach service that drove us from Barcelona to salou, and then back again at the end of the day.

My advice would be to see if there are any coaches that can take you directly to the hotel.

How far is your hotel from the park? I’m sure there should be some public transportation services you could try.

I’ve checked and Uber is available in Spain, but apparently it’s not as popular as ‘cabify’ - so maybe that app might be worth from the hotel to portaventura

 

[golgactic]

Having done taxis to/from PortAventura from Reus just this weekend expect to pay in the order of €33-40. It’s the easiest way. Very easy to catch a taxi from airport - join the queue and the Marshall will tell you the price to your destination and the cab that will take you. They accept cards.

Cheapest way to Salou is likely the Plana bus service. Not sure of the timetable, think there’s a desk at the airport. You could always go there first and then catch a taxi if not convenient.

 

[Wildboy1983]

Having done taxis to/from PortAventura from Reus just this weekend expect to pay in the order of €33-40. It’s the easiest way. Very easy to catch a taxi from airport - join the queue and the Marshall will tell you the price to your destination and the cab that will take you. They accept cards.

Cheapest way to Salou is likely the Plana bus service. Not sure of the timetable, think there’s a desk at the airport. You could always go there first and then catch a taxi if not convenient.

Thanks for the information. Having looked into it I think the taxi is going to be the best option for us. We have to leave home at 2am so I think the quickest and easiest option will actually be the right way to go.

I'm reassured by the fact that the taxi rank is manned. I've been to so many places where the arrivals area is full of scammers and hecklers it's impossible to know if you're getting into a legit taxi or not or how much it'll come to so I generally avoid airport taxis now.


Having checked out our hotel, the golden port salou I reckon we could walk to the park potentially as well.


Did you have any problems with Port Aventura operations? We will only get one day so I'm deliberating over fast track

 

[golgactic]

Did you have any problems with Port Aventura operations? We will only get one day so I'm deliberating over fast track

There’s no advantage buying fast track early, you can see on the day.

PortAventura’s operations are notoriously slow (see the main thread), the park can (and did) build long lines if busy. You may get lucky as you are not in peak season. The queues are in general cattle pens and therefore not pleasant to spend a significant amount of time in. There are SRQs for Shambhala and Furius Baco and the improved Red Force SRQ may also be in operation for your visit.

If you have one day and want to do everything, including Ferrari Land, it is worth considering some form of express pass for the main park. The park is large with the rides in clusters. There are staggered openings as well. Get there before 10am. Your two best options on opening are either join the Uncharted queue (which gets and stays very long) or head to Shambhala.

In terms of express passes there usually isn’t much price difference between the 1 ride on 10 rides or the unlimited pass. Uncharted, Street Mission and Hurakan Condor have their own single shot, though generally you shouldn’t need to consider it for the latter two rides. Warning, Uncharted express costs €27 and there is no SRQ.

With Ferrari Land, the usual trick is to get there at opening and ride Red Force. It will then build up a queue and likely go down at which point go back into the main park. The queue will die down again at closing time. However on your dates Ferrari Land will be open later than the rest of the park so don’t know how that will impact things.

 

[John]

Last time we did PA (winter season a few years ago) we booked transport from Barca as Reus is seasonal. Despite using an official partner of the park they never showed and we had to take regular taxis at considerable cost. The previous visit (October) we flew to Reus and found the taxi rank deserted. IIRC there was a phone a number to request pickup which wasn't ideal.

In summary, my experiences getting to PA have not been great.