Cambrils (Spain) September 2018

The absolute worst part of going on holiday is when you have a stupidly early flight, although it does mean you get to spend the rest of the day at your destination!  Our flight from Edinburgh to Barcelona El Prat Airport was at 6.30am which meant a 4am wake up for us! The flight was pretty non-eventful, but annoyingly, the luggage belt at the other end didn’t start for a good 30-40 mins after landing which made us worry because we only had a one hour window to collect our rental car.  As it happened that wasn’t a problem because when we got to the car rental desk there was a bit of a queue! I’d say only around 15 people in front of us but it took just under TWO HOURS to get our car, meaning we had to change our plans slightly and cut out the Sagrada de Familia from our schedule 😒 Last time we rented a car from Barcelona El Prat it took 5-10 minutes but this time they seemed to take on average 15 minutes per customer.  Seriously, how long does it take to say “can I see your licence and booking documents please? Ok here’s your car”???

Almost two hours later and with sore backs and feet from standing for so long, we FINALLY got our car and headed to Tibidabo which is an amusement park on the top of a mountain with an absolutely stunning view over Barcelona to the sea.  We first went to Tibidabo two years ago in 2016 and loved it so much we wanted to go back seeing as we were so close.  Tickets are reasonable at just under €30 each. The park sits on six levels and has a rollercoaster (with incredible views), a mine train coaster, a log flume, a 4D cinema and various other flat rides.  There are plenty of places to eat as well and a gorgeous church at the very top.  (Tip – if you’ve never tried Churros, there’s a stall on the same floor as the big wheel and they are to die for!)  

Churros!!!

We left Tibidabo and headed south to a town called Cambrils where our hotel was situated. The drive only took about an hour and a half which was fine because we were so tired! We stayed at Hotel Best Cambrils, (which you can read about here).

We were absolutely shattered when we arrived because it had been such a long day with being up since 4am, so we just headed to the restaurant as soon as we checked in, got something to eat and headed up to our room for some much needed Zzzs!

On Sunday morning we headed down for breakfast and then caught the bus to the main part of Cambrils for a little walk before it got too hot.  Cambrils is famous for its seafood, although we didn’t partake in any this year after discovering last time that we really weren’t big seafood fans! But hey at least we tried something new, right?  We loved wandering round the streets and along by the marina, although it was really hot and we started to struggle (remember we’re from Scotland where 18 degrees is considered a decent summer!) so we found a bench in the shade in a park called Parc del Pescador and sat for a while watching a man make big bubbles for the kids using a piece of rope tied between two sticks and a basin of water and washing up liquid!  We then walked through the park and across the road to the famous Cambrils sign for some pictures and then got the bus back to our hotel for lunch.  It's only €2 each to go from Vilafortuny (the district of Cambrils we were staying in) to either the centre of Cambrils or Salou on the bus and they’re every ten minutes or so.

Because we had such a tiring day the day before, all we wanted to do for the rest of the day was lay by the pool, and that’s exactly what we did! 😊

On Monday we had a little walk to the castle (Castell de Vilafortuny) to get a couple of photos and then headed back to the hotel for another few hours at the pool, and then over to the beach which was directly across the road from our hotel. Believe me, the sea water was warmer than our pool!!

Tuesday was theme park day! We’d bought a couple of 2-day tickets for PortAventura and also a ticket each for Ferrari Land. We spent a couple of hours at Ferrari Land in the morning (because it’s such a small park you don’t need to spend long there at all) and the rest of the day at PortAventura which is one of our favourite theme parks.

They really go all out for the Halloween season, the decorations are fantastic and this year they even had live actors walking about which was really cool! One thing I like about "Port Av" as we call it, is that they know how to put on a show. We watched the Halloween Kingdom show which was absolutely fantastic, great music, dancing and acrobatics, and also the bird show which was amazing. The only slight disappointment about the bird show is that the host only spoke in Spanish so it was kind of difficult to understand the things he was saying about each bird, but even still it was a really good show and he was very funny. Before we knew it, it was closing time and we headed back to our hotel for some food, cocktails and entertainment.

Wednesday was our last full day in Spain and it was a half and half day – we spent the morning by the pool and then headed to PortAventura after lunch. The mosquitos must have been out in force because we were bitten around 15 times between us, mostly on our legs, and my goodness they itched like CRAZY! I did notice though that almost everybody at the park had bites on their legs (not that I actively go around looking at strangers' legs 😂)

It was much less busy than Tuesday thankfully so we managed to get a lot done.  And the most important moment of all?  This time (being my 4th visit), I finally plucked up the courage to go on Shambhala! 😎 Go me! Just before the park closed they had their Halloween Parade which was really good, and then we headed back to the hotel for dinner, cocktails and packing 😞 

The mighty Shambhala!

We managed to navigate back to the airport in plenty of time on Thursday morning, although there was a hairy moment when we missed the turning for the petrol station at the entrance to the airport and had to go through the barriers to the pickup zone. Thankfully you get 15 minutes free for pick ups (take note Edinburgh Airport with your £4 for 15 minutes!) so we didn’t have to pay! We drove out again and managed to get to the petrol station on our second attempt and dropped off our car before checking in.  

We weren’t heading home though, we were flying to Gothenburg in Sweden the next morning so we decided to stay in a hotel near Edinburgh Airport which you can read all about here! Before we left the house we'd packed a bag of warmer clothes to keep in the car and once we got to our hotel we just swapped our clothes over! It did mean a LOT of washing when we finally did get home though but it was totally worth it!