Family apartment close to PortAventura - UHC SPA AQQUARIA

We considered the pros and cons of renting spacious self catered apartment vs a standard half-board room in a hotel, with entertainment.We went for the apartment, as we decided the separate living space was a premium for us and the kitchen allows the obvious budget saving option of cooking our own meals.The apartment was of a fantastic standard and was as spacious as we had hoped. It features balconies off the living room area and the master bedroom, so that the sun could be found all day. The large balcony has a large table where we ate many meals. The smaller balcony has clothes drying facilities.As we were there for two weeks and didn't have the benefit of a hotel entertainment team, we planned to utilise the living room space to unwind and potentially listen to music or watch a movie in some of the evenings when we were not out. However, the internet speed is not sufficient to do either of these things via streaming, so please plan ahead if you wish to do likewise. We had noted the lack of pool deck and furniture on the photos and we had brought straw mats for the poolside. However, we were slightly disappointed by the pool restrictions. Food and drink wasn't allowed by the pool and small adult floatation devices weren't allowed. An issue for my wife who doesn't swim.We found UHC excellent in their communication. We could message them via Whatsapp.On our next visit, we will deliberate again on hotel vs apartment and we may well choose to stay here again.

When we arrived using Resort Hopper we were taken to the location of the apartment. This however is not the location of Universal Holiday offices. After a 10 min walk with 2 children and 1 baby in pushchair with luggage we found the offices. We were told that we were unable to check into the room until 1pm, slightly earlier than expected but still quite a while to wait as we landed at approx 9am. Once we had walked about a bit in our travelling clothes we returned to the offices to collect our keys and all of the luggage and walked back to the apartment again. The apartment is clean and tidy but the furniture is in no way as nice or clean as the furniture shown. In fact I would go as far as to say it isnt the same apartment. There is all the same amount of furniture ie sofa bed, six seater table, wardrobes etc as described. The kitchen is nice and clean with fairly new appliances and the bathrooms are equally as nice. The only real annoyance was the terrible problem the apartment had with ants. Anything slightly sweet kept in the cupboards was covered in ants within the day. The pool is very nice and never really got busy, it had a lifegaurd too. When using the pool I would suggest buying a 2 euro wicker type mat to put your towel on as the grass gets a little mucky once wet and your towel soon gets dirty. It is not a bad walk into the town of which you walk through to get to the beach. The beach is lovely I have to say ! In the peak months of summer there is a light show using the water features on the front. Avoid the all you can eat buffet on the main road ! We thought that 14 euros was good for an all you can eat chinese buffet, how wrong. The food is tasteless and the majority was frozen food which you could buy from the supermarket (we saw some of it). This apartment is also within walking distance of the local theme park portaventura but we did not go as it was quite expensive. On the whole a nice complex, nice apartment and nice town/beach. Matt Ely, Cambs