Cambrils Park Holiday Review - Sunny Spain!

Just got back from two weeks in sunny Spain. This year we were struggling to find somewhere that could beat the brilliant family holiday we had last year in Menorca (Santa Tomas if you're interested). Last year's holiday involved a three bedroom apartment; so that Grandma and Grandad could come along; a brilliant splash pool of about 40cm deep with slides and squirters, and a 10 minute walk to the beach. OK make that 5 minutes!

How could we beat that?

My friend recommended Eurocamp. On the basis of our stay in Cambrils Park (between Cambrils and Salou on the Costa Dorada), she'll be promoted to best friend! It was brilliant. The site is immaculate. There are gardeners constantly watering the grass, trimming the hedges, planting, painting fences. General maintenance done with real pride. We wimped out and stayed in one of the Aloha bungalows rather than a tent! A 2 bedroom one for us. Another 2 bedroom one for the Grandparents, just opposite. Kitchen/Lounge area. Bathroom (with bath! And shower over). Microwave. Satellite TV (All in Spanish, but we could watch the World Cup on it!). Fridge/Freezer. An abundance of fresh towels and bedlinen seemingly every other day (though I think it's twice a week).

Then there's the pools. We basically ignored the main pool. Though it's more than sufficient, with a small baby pool just next to it, and a couple of slides into it. It's next to the main restaurants, where the entertainment takes place on a large decking area in the middle of the pool.

The pools we spent our time around were the batch of three pools down between the southerly reception and the main pool. Here you find a splash pool (0.4m) with 4 enormous elephants squirting water, a dragon slide, 3 other slides and other sprayers, all brilliantly sized for the elder who has recently turned 4. It even has a small roped off area where the younger could toddle about in the water up to her waist away from the slightly more boisterous little ones.

And that's just the start! Adjoining that pool is a 1m deep pool suitable for adult swimming or supervised children swimming with inflatables etc. across from this duo of delights was the new Pirate ship pool. A Lagoon style pool with sloped entrance, and 2 smaller slides for toddlers (depth about 0.6m at bottom of these slides), then up the deep end there was a water flume and a large wide slide coming off the pirate ship.

If that wasn't enough, there's a pool designed for adults (but still with shallow entrances) with jacuzzi style sections for relaxing if you get a minute!

Frankly, between the pool and the beach (about 10 minutes walk down the hill and over the railway line), I'm amazed we went anywhere else. But we did. The Roman capital of Spain, Tarragona, is lovely, and the girls loved the tourist choo-choo train, which took us round the main sites with an audio commentary if you want it. Another tourist train at Salou kept us and the girls happy, and huge markets at all the local towns were full of cheap, but decent quality shoes, clothes, handbags... basically a girls heaven.

And not wanting to quite move away from the subject.... the markets all had 'bra' stalls. Decent bra's for 2 euros. Once I'd worked out the translation of my size into European, and tried them on over my clothes, just like the locals, I bought 3! And considered seriously stocking up. If it wasn't for that pesky baggage allowance I would have!

So, if you're stuck for a holiday... get yourself down to Cambrils Park. We booked direct with Eurocamp (over the phone!) and booked a cot, highchair and potty (all free). Then we booked flights separately with RyanAir direct from Birmingham to Reus. In this case RyanAir was particularly brilliant because, although they tend to call Reus a "Barcelona" airport (even though it's 200km away) Reus is actually a lovely town about 15 minutes drive from Cambrils. So perfect!