Don't confuse this with theVilla Marina (Hotel Villamarina Club (Salou))

Member Name: juleshobs

Product:	Hotel Villamarina Club (Salou)
Date:	03/12/07 (405 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Ideal for families, away from noisy bars

Disadvantages: Not near the beach and too down market for some

Hotel Villa Marina Club is located away from the bustling centre of Salou and is in what is known as old town Salou what looks to be a more residential area of the town but a lot of the properties are timeshare so there are other holiday makers around. New town Salou which is the main tourist area is approximately 2KM away. OK, so what is it like. On arrival last year we where checked in quickly and efficiently and I have to say that nothing has changed here and once again we where greeted by pleasant staff with a smile on their face and within 10 minutes where on our way to our room, it was also nice to notice that the hotel still have some of the same reception staff and the same manager so our hopes where still high that our holiday would be just as good as the previous year.
Now most people think that the hotel is made up of two buildings but in fact this is not the case as all are interconnected via the 1st floor and you can actually walk right round from the front of the hotel around to the block of rooms at the rear. There are also 22 apartments owned and used by the hotel but we will get to them a bit later. This time we where not at the front of the hotel overlooking of the pools but in the block to the rear up on the 3rd floor even though our room number starts with 4 and you press 4 on the lift, confusing but the numbering makes sense as the ground floor room numbers start at 100 - rooms below this number are above the main entrance to the hotel. Arriving at our room we where greeted with a minor problem - four people three beds, however, a quick trot back to reception and within half and hour and after many apologies our missing bed was in the room.

The Room
Now the accommodation at this hotel is limited and small in comparison to most other hotels in Salou with the design differing slightly around the different rooms, last year we had a slightly larger room than this year or at least it appeared that way but this could have been due to the different layouts of each room. This year we had one of the rooms you see in the brochure where the bathroom is tiny and only actually contains a half bath/shower and the toilet, the wash basin is located on a stand outside the bathroom door and in the main living area of the room, this give the illusion of more space but some may find this off putting. Our room last year had a full bathroom including the wash basin but floor space was lost from the living area. OK the beds, three single beds on one side of the room with hardly any space at all between them and one bed against the wall on the opposite side of the room again some may find this cramped but hey you are only going to sleep there at the end of the day and only for the length of your holiday. Two of the beds are the standard type that you can slide along the runners to push right up together to give the impression of a double bed, ideal for those who wish to cuddle up together, the third and four bed are removable which is for the convenience of the hotel rather than the guest and are not as sturdy as the fixed beds in the room. There is also one double built in wardrobe which you may find a squeeze to fit all your clothes in for a family of four but this did not concern us at all as we tend to travel light, to a point where my husband took what I would consider to be an overnight case for the whole two weeks - is this a man thing?. Next to the wardrobe there is a few shelves and a vanity unit with a large mirror and stool, the mirror I consider to the more than adequate as there where no complaints from my teenage daughter re not being able to apply here make-up or do her hair correctly - there is also a hairdryer next to the mirror which has adequate reach. Above the three beds there is a mirror running the full length of the wall so if you stand at the correct angle you can get a front and rear view of at least the top half of you body for those who like to be sure they look good from all angles or in my daughters case check out the tan. There was also an extra chair in the room which we ended up putting on the balcony as we sat on the beds instead whilst in the room and a wall mounted TV though no remote control, not that we expected one as I am sure you can imagine these would go missing or be broken quite early on in the holiday season. There is a telephone in the room but would not recommend using this to call home as the rates are high but it is ideal if you need to contact reception at any time of the day. I must add that the room was extremely clean as was the bathroom and there where fresh clean towels available upon arrival.

The balcony outside the room is very small, not big enough to have more than the chair on it but did have a washing line attached so you could hang up the wet towels and swim wear at the end of the day, but again not a disappointment as nothing much to see from our room as we overlooked trees and a few tops of other buildings nearby. I would have been disappointed if we have a room with a sea view and was not able to sit out and admire a sunset. Some rooms have a larger terrace but it's not huge and there are only a few rooms with these and there are a couple of rooms without either.
The hotel do have 22 apartments but I can only tell you what I have heard form other guests as I have not seen these personally, apparently spacious and included a washing machine and cooking facilities and a couple of minutes walk from the hotel, I did hear of some people who where allocated these and moved to be inside the hotel complex and also the same story the other way around.

Air conditioning
This is operated by a key-card system and you are given this when you check in at the hotel along with the key to your room. The key-card slots in just inside the door and hey presto the air-con is activated. It must be noted that the air conditioning only works with the patio doors shut as there is a sensor in the doors which cuts off the air-con so not to overload the system and all to end up without any air-conditioning which as you can imagine in the middle of summer would be extremely uncomfortable.

The Bar
Ok so far so good, time to check out the rest of the hotel and see if anything has changed. Well of course, down to the bar as we arrived at 9pm to get a drink, as this holiday was all-inclusive I won't be commenting much on the price of much but for those who have a particular taste you can but a few branded drinks at the bar such as Budweiser 2 Euros and a small selection of Alco pops which I think where also 2 Euros each or 3 bottles for 5 Euros but the selection of 'local' drinks was so vast I think that there was only a version of Pernod that could not be found behind the bar. The bar area is technically divided into two different areas, indoor and outdoor, all the indoor areas apart from your room at the hotel are no smoking so if you are a smoker you have to pop outside or sit outside but either did not seem to be a problem for anyone apart from one night when we had some rain late in the evening. We noted that all the tables and chairs had been replaced since our previous visit but the layout and décor was the same. There are three pool tables near to the bar with a few arcade games machines also with the usual congregation of children / teenagers milling around. Access to the bar is via reception and the main lobby - doors at either end and from the patio seating area via many ways as most of the doors slide open and are kept open all day, the indoor area of the bar has plenty of fans but it can still get quite hot as the room fills up in the evening but not too uncomfortable. The bar itself is open from 10am to midnight but alcoholic drinks are only served from noon to midnight and during the day you will find that you get your drink in a paper cup which may not appear to all but imagine the scenario of somebody taking their drink to the poolside and dropping their glass and somebody having a nasty accident, I am sure you can all appreciate the reasons behind this. Once eight pm arrives it's a switch over to glasses as the evening entertainment starts with a switch back to paper cups just after 11pm in order that the bar staff can clean up and close up efficiently at the end of the evening.

The bar staff are extremely efficient and quick at serving the drinks and considering there are only a couple of members of staff behind the bar they do deal with the queues without any fuss or complaints even when asked to make up cocktails etc, it must be said however, that you can only order two drinks at a time at the bar so if you are in a large party then a few of you have to get the round in so to speak. The bar staff are extremely careful in checking what colour wrist band everyone is wearing in order not to serve anyone under the age of eighteen, even scrutinizing those who have wrist bands turned inside out or the colour has faded/worn throughout your holiday, so I had no concerns in my teenage daughter getting served with an alcoholic drink at all throughout our stay.
Entertainments

The hotel offer entertainment throughout the day and evening for all ages from the kids club for the 12 and under and a teenage club in the daytime and entertainment for through the evening. The Kids club in run by the dedicated entertainments team employed by the hotel who are all English so no language problems here for the majority, we did notice a few other nationalities staying in the hotel but the majority where British. The club in the day, my children didn't really bother much with these so I am writing from my own observations, offered a range of activities from making paper chains, colouring, games and even have lunch with one of the entertainments crew and I was pleased to note that every parent was consulted before lunch to check whether anyone had any particular likes / dislike and more importantly any food / drink allergies. For the teenagers there where various activities available though a few did have some age restrictions for health and safety reason which included rifle shooting - age 16 and above so this was open to adults also, go-karting which was off site and a small charge was payable - this was actually at Salou's own kart club which we passed on the way from the Airport, unfortunately my son was not quite old enough he is 12 but you had to be 13 and he was a bit disappointed as he races for his school's kart club at home. There was also a trip to the beach for the teenagers to play beach volleyball etc plus water polo open to all and a strange version of water volleyball plus football at the local football pitches just around the corner. I would say here that the hotel does not have its own courts of any kind but the local facilities where close by and used by the hotel. In the afternoon there was always a game of snowball bingo at around 4pm with the prize starting at 50 Euros and increasing daily until it is won or reaches 200 Euros, nice if you win, however, please be aware that it is actually illegal to play bingo for a cash prize in Spain but they get around this by offering a small prize of say a felt-tip pen which they ' buy' back off you for the prize money. All activities are up on the notice boards with their start times but the entertainments team do a quick round of the pools and patio area to see if anyone is interested and have lost track of time, so unless you are asleep on your sun lounger you won't miss anything. I will say that the team does a fantastic job as we had one particular day of our holiday where there was a tremendous storm and torrential rain all day and the entertainments team kept everyone entertained all day long with a range of quiz games, bingo, demonstrations on how to make Sangria and then of course sample it to name but a few.
In the evening the entertainment starts at 8pm with a nice easy quiz with a prize of a bottle of champagne (well at least that's what they call it) followed by children's party time from 8.30 to 9pm. At around 9pm bingo tickets on sale again for eyes down at approx 9.30 and I am pleased to say that we actually won on one occasion where the grand prize that evening was 100 Euros - the prize varies every night and is dependant on the number of bingo tickets sold. 10pm its show time with a different show every night on a two week rolling timetable. The shows include:-

Parrot show - what is says really, an interesting parrot show which will have the children glued to the antics of the parrots doing tricks and then, of course, have you photo taken with a parrot on your arm, this was on the 1st night we arrived but as we had seen this last year we did not linger to watch it all.
Chinese Acrobats - fascinating and extremely entertaining given the limited stage space and fairly low ceiling height available for an acrobat act, the act was extremely professional and well rehearsed and was enjoyed by all.

Abba tribute - wonderful costumes and good quality singers which did have an Abberesque sound with a good selection of songs, well worth watching and listening.
Dancers - not as boring as you may think this group had the most amazing costumes and many costume changes with fabulous dancing, the group consisted of 2 girls and 3 men and part of the show was a break neck speed demonstration of dance fighting and agility skills which was fantastic.

Hypnotist - Initially I though this would be terrible but I have never laughed so much at anything for a long time, the hypnotist asked for 14 volunteers which where whittled down to four who where totally under his spell and of course the video could be purchased by those who had taken part, this was completely believable as speaking to one of the participants later in the evening she had no idea what they have been doing and was quite shocked when 'woken up' to find most of the volunteers had disappeared.
My favourite was a couple of guys playing the guitar, though I cannot remember what they where called they had to be the highlight of the fortnight - Rock was the theme for the evening and oh boy could these guys play, after one song it was then open to requests as the carried on playing, normally they play with a drummer at a bar called Zeplins in Salou town but for us they used a drum machine. Most of the requests where fulfilled and we where treated to Dire Straights, Bon Jovi, Led Zeplin to name but a few and they continued right on up to nearly midnight with a short break in the middle and this was by far the best and the longest show.

Of course there is the staff show in there as well and normally I find these disappointing but at the VillaMarina you find that the hotel manager is part of the show and fully participates and ends up in a bikini at the end of the show, this went down well with my husband who was secretly hoping that there would be a repeat performance of this show in our second week, he was disappointed as they do two different shows.
After the evening show, depending on what time the show finished there was and adult game show, in order words games for over 18's only which usually involved an amount of alcohol in them. Personally I participated in name that tune, where if you knew the answer you had to run to be the first to sit on the chair on the stage and have a shot poured down your throat - similar style to the way the Spanish do with their wine, now I was fine with this when I thought it was a shot of Vodka, no problem, however, too late I realized it was Tequila, too late being that it had already been poured into my mouth. - Yuk is all I have to say on that but it was good fun.

One last game right at the end of the night but you had to buy a peg with a number on to participate and hope that you number was drawn out, if your number was drawn then you had to pick from one of three up-turned plates to see if you can pick the one with the cash prize, the prize increased every night until it was won, then back to 50 Euros.
The format of the evening was pretty much the same every night with the shows changing which gave variety.

Meals and Food
OK what do you get with an All-Inclusive holiday at the Villa Marina. All meals are served in restaurant which is accessed via the bar down four steps.

Breakfast - served from 8am to 10.30am -
Bacon (streaky and Smokey), sausage, egg (alternate scrambled and fired each day), tomato, baked beans, ham, cheese, fruit, cereal (not Kellogg's) bread rolls of various types, bread for toasting though the toasters where not fantastic and usually meant 2 passes of the bread through them for it to brown, choice of jams, butter or margarine along with various pastries so there should be something to suite everyone's tastes here. Drinks available in the dining room at all meal times are Orange juice, apple juice, water, pineapple juice, Tea, Coffee and Hot chocolate and all is on a self service basis.

Lunch
Varied everyday with the menu on a weekly cycle there is a choice of hot and cold, from salad to chips, Spanish omelets to curry to name but a few, but the hot choices do change daily but there is a good variety.

Dinner -
Same format as lunch and a good choice of deserts also from fresh fruit, the fresh pineapple slices being a favorite at our table to delicious cakes or jelly and ice cream for the young (or not so young) . Every evening there was also hot roast available with most of the time whilst we where there being roast beef which was fabulous and cooked to perfection, there was also ham available on one evening and chicken wraps on another, this is served separately from the rest of the selection at the far end of the dining room. Some favorites from my children where - my son - paella and muscles and the roast beef - my daughter - chicken curry of various types. There was always chips, chicken nuggets or fish shapes and beans available and I really do think you would be hard pressed not to find something that suited your taste buds.

I would add that some of the dishes described are not quite what you would expect to find in the UK as for eg the chicken vindaloo was more like a hot chicken curry but extremely tasty.
The Snack Bar

Open daily from noon to 6pm and then again from 9pm to 10.30 again self service, for chips, pizza, hamburger and hot dogs, cheese slices are also available along with fresh fruit. Soft drinks and beer are also served here. I must congratulate Jessie who runs the snack bar for the excellent job as he runs this mainly alone 6 days a week, he does have one day off and this is covered by somebody else. The snack bar is located by the larger of the two swimming pools and a strict rule applies that you are not allowed to enter to get food whilst wet and you must wear footwear here also, again for safety reasons.
The Pools

There are two pools at the VillaMarina and as you enter the hotel form the main entrance form the road the pools are to the left and right of you. The smaller of the two pools is to the right and this contains a small children's pool which is very shallow and suitable for the very small, there is also a raised solarium area above one side of the pool which is for adults only if you need to escape for a bit. This pool has its own life guard on duty from 9am when the gates open until close at approx 6pm. There are many sun loungers available, however, you have to be quick as normally there was a queue before the gates open to grab the best speck even though the hotel operates a no reserving sun lounger police. If you find yourself without a sun lounger you can remove a towel from and un-occupied lounger as we did on many occasions as the occupants where clearly not anywhere near the pool, in fact, in every occasion we did this they never appeared at all. Once thing that really bugs me is people who keep a sun lounger for this child who spends all day in the pool and only returns to quickly dry off and go to get something to eat and then straight back into the pool. Note that you are not allowed li-los in either of the hotels pools. During our stay this pool had the most hours of sunlight though this may vary throughout the year.
The larger of the two pools is located to the left of the entrance of the hotel (looking at it from the main road) and is heavily planted with trees to offer shade to those who burn easily or just want to get out of the sun with tables and chairs dotted around for you to sit at, there are also plenty of sun loungers around the pool but there are quite a few areas here that stay in the shade all day. The best spec at this pool is either side of the snack bar as this gets the most sun for you sun worshipers out there. This is where any of the water games are played and the pool though only about waist deep at one end does slope down to becomes quite deep at the other. Jessie who runs the snack bar also has to keep an eye on the pool here also and there is piped music around this pool either from a Spanish Radio station (they play mostly English songs) or from Jessie playing a CD behind the bar. This pool is not locked up at night as the snack bar is open in the evening but there is a security guard keeping an eye on things.

The Jacuzzi - Ok technically not a pool but there is an adults only area above the bar which offers a hot tub and a handful of sun loungers, this area has a few potted plants dotted around and is nice and quite.
Hotel Policy

Now in the evening the hotel has an extremely strict policy of no noise in the corridors after 11pm and come 12pm everyone is ushered out of the bar onto the patio to finish their drinks and the patio area to be cleared by 12.30pm. This is quite strictly enforced by the night security and they have called the local police on a number of occasions but we did not see this as we where always back in our rooms by then, apart from one night when we where outside of the hotel complex.
The main lobby of the hotel is fairly large and extremely well air conditioned and an ideal place to cool off if you get too hot, at the far end is a large TV which has sky sports and sky movies family available to watch throughout the day, just past this there are five computers for internet access at a price for use by all. Price for internet was 1 Euro for ten minutes, 2 Euros for 20 minutes for those who just can't resist checking their mail during their stay or in case of many children playing on-line games or chatting on MSN to their friends back home. Moving through to the bar area from here you find the pool tables and just off from here there is a games room with more arcade games and a small children's play area for the smaller guests to keep them amused during the day or early evening. At reception there are plenty of local guides to the area and a good selection of post cards and they also offer a currency exchange service should you need it.

Outside by the patio there is also a pool table and table tennis table and a deposit is required to use both of these.
Getting to the beach

Two choice here, you can walk from the hotel which will take you to one end of Salou beach near to the Marina which will take about 20 minutes at a stroll or longer if you stop to window shop in along the way through old town Salou or you can use the hotel beach shuttle which operates from 10am to 11.30am and again for return form 4pm to 5.30pm and this will take you to the other end of the beach into new town Salou and is free of charge.
Overall Impression

Great hotel for the price, cleaned constantly and very nicely planted in the grounds so you are quite sheltered from the surrounding buildings, the plants where tended to whilst we where their and the grounds where immaculate. The rooms are cleaned everyday with the bed linen changed as standard once a week, though if you require it changing more often all you had to do was place it in the bath along with any towels you required to the changed also. Each room has its own TV with Sky movies family and sky sports along with ITV and BBC plus lots of other foreign channels all of which is included in the price. The safety deposit box in you room requires a deposit payable at reception. If you are planning on a day out you can order a picnic up to 7pm the night before which will be ready for you when the restaurant opens for breakfast, these have improved greatly over the years and ours included a cheese and ham sandwich, packet of ready salted crisps, an apple, a yoghurt and the all important bottle of water. You can take extra drinks out with you if you have an empty bottle in your room as the bar staff will happily fill up most receptacles for you without complaint. I have to say that returning to a hotel you have stayed before on holiday is a bit of a risk particularly one where you can find lots of reviews slating the place but personally I cannot find really any fault apart form the fact that between midnight and 8am you cannot get a drink of any sort in the hotel, we have once again had a fantastic holiday at the Villa Marina and all credit should be given to the hotel manager Eva who is on site every morning until 1pm and then again from 6pm to about 11pm, lets face it how many hotel managers do you find on site late in the evening and particularly willing to participate in the evenings entertainment Eva has her own policy of if you have a problem come and see me and I will fix it, so if you are not happy with your room Eva will always do her best to move you, though in peak season this may not always be immediately and she is extremely attentive to her guests, we spoke to one family whose child had hurt herself outside of the hotel and they commented on the assistance given by the hotel staff and even days after asking if everything was OK, was their child OK and could they do anything else for them, good service goes a long way.
Would we go back again, well ask my children, they didn't want to leave and have gasped in horror at my suggestion of going somewhere else next year.

Price
This really does depend how you book and with whom you book with, for us we booked with Direct holidays and paid GBP 2200.00 for a family of four, bearing in mind that for all -inclusive once over the age of 12 then its full adult price so for 3 adults and once child not a bad price at all. You can of course book directly with the hotel and arrange your own flights and this holiday can be booked with First Choice and Aspro also that I know of.

Sorry it's been a bit long but hope it was helpful.

Summary: Great hotel if you expect what you pay for.