Foreign Perspectives

What’s in Port Aventura though? It’s divided into four themed areas: Polynesia, China, Mexico and the Wild West. Both China and the Wild West areas had quite a strong sense of theming but it seemed a little superficial in the other two. The Polynesian show was the only major one that we saw (as noted, there was little information about show times so we may have missed heaps of them) and was reasonable although as I’ve been to Polynesia I might be a little harsh in my criticism of this one. None of the rides in the Polynesian area take small kids.

To my mind, Port Aventura’s Wild West area was by far the best with a very high density of small rides and activities plus a few larger rides at the edges. However, if you’re wanting the more adventurous rides, head for Mexico or perhaps Polynesia instead.

There’s the usual train running around Port Aventura but with only two stops which are poorly marked on the maps, we were pretty much leaving the park before we found one of them (in the Wild West). The boat between the entrance area (just before you go into the themed areas of the park) and China was easier to find but we were told that we couldn’t go on it from China as we had a pram. As it turned out, this was nonsense as we were able to go in the other direction but is an example of the much lower level of custmer service as compared to a true American park.

Pay attention to the prices in the Port Aventura shops too. We found that some things were going through the till at twice the prices marked.

Anyway, overall, Port Aventura is a nice enough park but avoid it if you have any kids under 1.2m high and keep an eye on the prices.