Port Aventure,Salou,Spain
Posted by Karen (Ess ex) on 4/9/2006 Gf board
At Port Aventura theme park it is best to show a restaurant card. You can only eat in some of the restaurants. We had grilled chicken, salad and an apple in La Cantina in Mexico. We had GF pasta and sauce, steak, chips and GF bread in Marco Polo in China. For both meals we had to wait for the food to be freshly cooked.
I had an email from the park saying that we could take in food as we had GF requirements (normally taking in food is banned). No one commented on our obvious cool bag when we went in anyway. There are lots of stalls selling Lays crisps (like Walkers). There are also stalls selling jacket potatoes and fries (maybe risky).
In McDonalds (not in Port Aventura), the paper on the trays has information about the food on the reverse side (as in England). The mustard is not GF. Also the Tasty Sauce. The burgers (without bun) and fries and McFlurries should be OK.
Some food in supermarkets is marked "sin gluten" or "libre de gluten".
Sanguli Camping in Salou had some English food in the supermarket e.g. branston, heinz ketchup, Heinz Tomato Soup, marmite, frosties. Some of the Spanish food had ingredients lists in English too. There were also rice cakes in most supermarkets.
The cheapest ticket is probably a 3 day ticket (2 days in park and 1 day in water park). You can only buy it at the theme park. It's 65 euros for an adult.
Or you can get a 7 day or 14 day park pass (no days in water park but 20% discount on price) on the Port Aventura website.
We stayed in Sanguli Campsite in a mobile home. It's at the Salou/Cambrils border. It was a 20-30 minute bus ride to Port Aventura. The weather was great (about 28C with a breeze) and we had a great time. I was very impressed with Salou and the campsite. There were both very nice.
I found GF biscuits, sausages and ham and rice cakes in the Mercadona supermarket (near the station). I couldn't find bread but it was late in the afternoon and it may have sold out. (We had brought some with us so we were all right).
The campsite supermarket had sin gluten sausages and some danone yoghurts that looked OK from the ingredients. There was also a sort of viennetta that had ingredients that looked all right. Fortunately, my two coeliacs aren't very sensitive so we can afford to take a slight risk or two on holiday. We did make a mistake on the last day when my daughter had some vanilla ice cream con cookies (we didn't notice the con cookies bit and thought to begin with that the bits were vanilla pods). She probably had about 4 small pieces of cookie. We've had 2 days of staying near to a toilet, tummy ache, bad headache and lots of temper tantrums. Oh boy - I won't make that mistake again! Fortunately, she's OK today for her first day back at school.
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Re: Port Aventure,Salou,Spain
Posted by Paul Madrid on 5/9/2006 Gf board
GF bread is difficult to get here, only from El Corte Ingles or a Health food shop, but I'm glad you found mercadonna, it's my favourite supermarket and they label everything so clearly...
Shame about the ice cream though, these 'hiccups' happen unfortunately...
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gf hotels in salou, spain
Posted by AJ on 8/2/2009 Gf board
Just to second Hotel Caribe.
I used to hand in a piece of paper when I ate my evening meal stating what I'd like to eat the following night-this would help with their planning.
I'd norally pick grilled meat or fish with chips or new potatoes. (Not very exciting for children, but great for me). For pudding they would give me a gf pot of mousse and I could pick the flavour.
For breakfast I would eat fruit from the buffet or fried eggs with bacon (word of warning, watch for cc issues as I didn't realise at first that they cooked pancakes on the same grill area - luckily I never felt ill). I imagine if I'd have wanted more for breakfast they would have been able to, but I was happy with that.
Had a brilliant holiday there, you'll love it.
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Back from SUNNY SPAIN!!! (Thomas Cook holidays)
Posted by Nicola (Ess ex) on 1/6/2004 GF board
A stress-free holiday - GF diet wise, and I'm still smiling about it!!
Thomas Cook airlines were brilliant! Both on outwards and return flight. They booked our seats for us (no extra fee), and had meals ready for Jasmine (outwards - lifestyle brown roll, salmon provencale, fruit salad, and a box of raisins. Coming home - lifestyle brown roll, roast chicken meal, garlic flavour rice cake, fruit salad, and raisins).
We stayed in the Port Aventura hotel in Salou. The head waiter worked as interpreter between the chefs and us (although we did have one of those dietary cards printed up in Spanish), and there was at least a third of the buffet that was gluten free most nights. If not, the chefs would cook something else for Jasmine (pasta), and nothing was too much trouble. In fact, whilst we were there, they decided to get in touch with some companies that make GF food, and get samples sent, which Jasmine then tried to see if they were nice and tasty to eat. They are now thinking of getting GF food in straight from the manufacturers, as they are getting requests for GF food about once a week now, if not a bit more, so it would be more worthwhile!
Therefore, the holiday was stress-free (well as much as it can be with two ankle-biters), and hats off to both Thomas Cook, and Port Aventura hotel.
Definately worth a visit - especially if you like Theme Parks as there is one attached to the hotel - with the only 8 loop rollercoaster in Europe!
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Salou (near Barcelona)
From Nicole
on GF board
......Salou ... - Hotel Caribe - part of Port Aventura complex.
Went their two years ago, and whilst getting gluten free food in Salou wasn't good in the actual town (though there is a McDonalds!), the hotel was excellent - got in gluten free pasta and bits for Jasmine, and experimented with meals for her. She was treated like a princess - with the head chef personally going round the buffet with her each night to tell her what was gluten free, and if she didn't like any of the food on offer, he'd personally make something for her. Hence us going back, although to a different hotel in the complex.
Barcelona - the main department store has a food court downstairs with a huge section of gluten free food - and lots cheaper than here!!!
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Salou, Spain.
...just arrived back from salou today I brought my English and Spanish Eating Out Cards.Unfortunately most places served chips with everything but i found a Resturaunt/Pub called The Robin Hood, the Spanish waitress was very helpful and served me a lovely dish of grilled sea food after checking with the chef ,my kids aged 10 and 5 who aren't coeliacs were served with fresh veg potatoes,beef, and chicken which was oven roasted.
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