First time in Port Aventura for the Vikings and for my husband (third for me) , without a doubt a great family plan that we will never forget! 2 days of lots of laughs, adrenaline and lots of fun in the theme park par excellence: Port Aventura World .

It was a communion gift for both of us. We had been delaying visiting the park because of the height of the little Viking , since all the attractions at Port Aventura are governed by height (not by age, important!), it was not a plan for the 4 of us to go and for the little one had to stay and watch his sister go up and he didn’t because he didn’t reach the minimum height.

ATTRACTIONS OF PORT AVENTURA

One of the new features of Port Aventura that I liked was the Sésamo Aventura area, dedicated to the little ones , attractions suitable for all ages since small children from 2 years old or younger can go on it accompanied by their parents, everyone has a place on the attractions! Everything is full of colors, children’s restaurants and shows with the most legendary Sesame characters.

To go up a level in attractions such as Stampida (minimum height 1.20 cm ), The Mine Train (minimum height 1.10 cm ), Tami Tami (minimum height 1 meter ), Tomahawk (minimum height 1.05 cm ) Kontiki (minimum height 1.30 cm ) in which we go on them all!

Another thing I really liked about the new features at Port Aventura is that there is an app that tells you at all times the waiting time for the queues , the minimum height of each attraction and whether the attraction is strong, moderate or for all audiences .

Stampida is one of the strong ones, however it marks you 1.20 cm to climb, my Vikings climbed but I have to say that they almost pooped themselves too much adrenaline for such small children I think…

Then we have the heaviest attractions in the whole park, where you have to be at least 1.40 cm tall to get on. These are the strongest ones, like Shambala , Dragon Khan , Furios Baco and Huracan Condor , which is a free fall. Here, as a good adrenaline lover that I am, I got on Dragon Khan alone. What have we come here for, to play, right? Well, let’s play!

And finally we have the water attractions, the most popular in the hottest months, such as  the Silver River Flume (better known as the logs), considered moderate, you get really wet! (minimum height to go up alone 1.40 cm and 1 m to go up with an adult), then we have the giant donuts Grand Canyon Rapids ( 1.30 cm to go up alone, 1.10 cm with an adult ).

A new attraction that we loved! was Angkor , it doesn’t require a minimum height and it’s super fun since you go inside a kind of boat with a bunch of water guns and the attraction itself is to get wet with other boats, you end up… soaked! and you laugh a lot.

And if we talk about water attractions, I would like to make special mention of Tutuki Splash (minimum height 1.20 cm ), legendary if ever there was one, you end up soaked to the bone and for me, it is the most fun of the aquatic ones.

ACCOMMODATION IN PORT AVENTURA

Hotel El Paso , 5 minutes walk from the hotel to the park, with free guarded parking and in our case we only chose accommodation and breakfast , we were going to be all day in Port Aventura where there are an infinite number of restaurants of all kinds to eat, we decided to eat inside the park so as not to have to return to the hotel.

The Vikings ‘ communion gift included 2 days in Port Aventura and 1 night in a hotel. We arrived to check in at 10 in the morning ( Salou is almost a 2-hour drive from Valencia ) and although you can’t access the room at that time, they do give you tickets to the park .

We left the car in the parking lot and headed to what would be the first day in Port Aventura .

I almost forgot! Even if you leave the room the next day, you can still use the free parking and the best thing is the whole day in Port Aventura ! Since it is 2 full days in Port Aventura , regardless of whether you have left the hotel.

WHAT IS THE BEST TIME TO VISIT PORT AVENTURA?

I have to say that I did an exhaustive study on the internet to find the best date to visit Port Aventura , since the biggest problem of the park is the queues to go on the attractions, loooooooooong queues that can even reach 2 hours of waiting, it’s absolutely crazy…

I absolutely refused to wait in those queues, so as I said I visited many blogs, forums, websites, studied calendars… to see which are the best dates to visit Port Aventura , without a doubt the first 3 weeks of May and October are the best months.

Medium/low season in May, if possible during the week. I imagine there will be other months when there will be no one, like November or March. The bad thing about these dates is that you can’t enjoy the water attractions because it’s cold.

ABSOLUTELY avoid the last week of May and the entire month of June, it’s really hard to believe since that’s when all the schools go on their end-of-term trips. The months of July, August, December and the beginning of January, because it’s Christmas, are also packed . You can go, but be prepared to wait in long queues for hours…

Since my Viking took communion on Sunday, May 19 , we took the next two days to visit the park, Monday, May 20 and Tuesday, May 21, which was the most complete and absolute success . The longest queue we had to wait was 20 minutes at Silver River Flume. The others? I’m not exaggerating when I say that it was like arriving and practically getting on the ride.

The attractions that usually generate the longest queues are Dragon Khan, Shambala or Tutuki Splash , with people waiting for more than an hour or an hour and a half. Well, when I decided to go on Dragon Khan alone I didn’t even spend 5 minutes in the queue!

The Port Aventura app literally saved our lives . I was the one who used it and I could see the waiting times for each attraction in real time . Another very good tip is to start your meal a little earlier so you can go to the most popular attractions at the time when everyone is eating.

What is “bad” about traveling on this date? The park has slightly shorter hours than in high season or on weekends, when the hours are longer. On the date we chose, the park was open from 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. , so organization is essential . The good thing? We went for 2 days, so what you don’t have time to see in one day you can see the next day.

One of the great things about leaving the park at 6pm is that you have the hotel pool ! We left Port Aventura and went straight to the room to put on our swimsuits and take a dip. Every cloud has a silver lining, ha ha ha!

Although we had included in the price from 6pm the entrance to Ferrarri Land , an adjoining park that opened from 5pm to 10pm , but of course, my friend, we had to choose…

This is how we explained it to the Vikings , you can’t have everything, so we gave them two options: Ferrari Land or a pool at the hotel. I loved seeing how quickly the two of them came to a common agreement almost in unison: pool, mommy, without a doubt!! ha ha ha

CAN YOU SEE PORT AVENTURA IN ONE DAY?

Yes… but no, let me explain.

Planning is essential if you don’t want to end up like a headless chicken wandering around the park without knowing where to go, what attractions to go on, where to eat… There are 6 themed areas in Port Aventura that are divided into the Mediterranean , Far West, Polynesia, China, Mexico and the children’s area Sésamo Aventura.

Each of them has cutting-edge attractions and all have a food area. The objective is to go around the entire park trying to go on as many attractions as possible. As I said a few paragraphs back, everything will depend on the waiting lines and the limited hours of the park.

We did see it in 1 day and we rode practically all the attractions we wanted to go on, but without queuing for any attraction. If we had seen a queue we would not have seen it in one day, which is very important.

Knowing that we were going back the next day, we took it very calmly, we were in no hurry and there was no stress at all, so if I had to recommend it, I would go for 2 days instead of 1.

This is our experience at Port Aventura , totally and absolutely recommended for going with children and teenagers, we had a GREAT time, the tears of my children leaving the park on the second day to return home were a clear sign that it was one of the most incredible and exciting experiences of their lives…