Honest review of Hotel Best Cap Salou: What to expect?
This year, we spent several days at the 3-star Best Cap Salou Hotel, which is a popular choice for family vacations, especially for those traveling with kids due to its pools, water park and fun water slides. Before we visited, we had some doubts about the service and whether it would really be worth staying there, so we decided to write this review to share our complete experience.
In this post, we’ll break down the features of the hotel, what we liked (and didn’t like), and give our honest opinions on Best Cap Salou. Plus, we’ll share our reasons for when we’d recommend it and when we think it’s better to choose a different place to stay in Salou. If you’re considering staying here, we hope this post will help you make the best decision.
Where is the hotel located?
The hotel is located in the Cap Salou area, a peninsula about 1,2 miles east of Salou’s city center, where small coves and lush vegetation dominate the landscape.
Best Cap Salou Hotel review: Our Experience
Booking the Best Cap Salou hotel
We booked our stay at the hotel through Booking, which we like because it allowed us to have free cancellation up to a couple of days before check-in —perfect if plans change last minute. It also allowed us to pay directly at the hotel, without having to make any upfront payments.
Additionally, as Genius members, we got an excellent price (even lower than other hotels in the area with lower ratings). Later on, we’ll go into more detail about the different rates available, but if you’re as eager as we are, you can check them out using the following link.
Reception and Check-in
The hotel entrance wasn’t exactly glamorous. The reception area was pretty chaotic, with long lines for check-in, lots of kids running around, overcrowded elevators, etc. It’s worth mentioning that we traveled during Easter, so we expected some level of disorganization, especially since it’s a family-friendly hotel.
After about 20 minutes in line, we were able to check in, pay for our stay, and reserve a parking spot for the entire duration of our trip.
Check-in is from 3 PM onwards.
Parking
The hotel offers covered private parking spaces, but they cannot be reserved in advance, so they are subject to availability at check-in. However, once you’ve checked in, you’ll have a designated spot for the entire stay.
The parking space is paid, and during our trip, we were charged 12 euros per day.
We think it’s important that the hotel offers parking because staying in this area requires a car, as the center is quite far. If you try to park in the free parking zones, you’ll need to walk about 15 minutes to reach the hotel, not to mention that it’s very hard to find available spots during high season.
Elevators
There are four spacious elevators for the entire hotel, but with so many people, you had to be patient to get one with available space. Our room was on the fourth floor, so we usually took the stairs down and tried to use the elevator to go up.
Our room
We were assigned a room on the fourth floor. When we tried to enter, the key card didn’t work. I went down to reception to get it fixed, and one of the receptionists wanted me to wait in the check-in line all over again. No way! I already went through that line! Eventually, they fixed the card, and I went back up to the room via the stairs.
The bright room was simple, with two double beds, a desk, minibar, TV, and a pretty spacious balcony with nice side views of the sea.
The bathroom was spacious, with a shower.
Meal plans and All-Inclusive options
Best Cap Salou hotel offers different meal options, all served in a buffet-style restaurant with beautiful views of Cala Vinya.
The options are:
- No meals
- Breakfast only
- Half board (breakfast and dinner)
- Full board (breakfast, lunch, and dinner, excluding drinks)
- All-inclusive (includes drinks as well)
Breakfast was buffet-style and very complete, with pancakes, waffles, eggs, and more. The difference between full board and all-inclusive is that with full board, drinks aren’t included.
Dinner always had a long line of people waiting to enter the restaurant, because, being Easter, the dining room was a bit small for the number of tourists, and we assume the same will happen in the summer. Dinner was from 7 PM to 9:30 PM.
We think it’s a perfect hotel for a breakfast-only option, although being far from the center of Salou, half board with breakfast and dinner makes organization a lot easier. Personally, we prefer not to include lunch, so we can dedicate the midday to exploring the surroundings or enjoying the beaches of Salou. But we met a family who had half board and requested to include lunch instead of dinner. It’s all a matter of taste!
Please note that in order to book with an all-inclusive option, you must book for a minimum of 4 nights.
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Hotel Amenities
- 3 swimming pools, including a water park with slides
- Spa services
- Gym
- Kids’ club
- Game room
- Parking
The pools and Water Park
One of the main reasons many people choose Hotel Best Cap Salou is for its pools —especially the one with the water park!
The hotel has three pools: an indoor one, a beachfront adults-only pool, and a large outdoor pool with fun water slides and a mini water park.
For us, the kids’ pool was the highlight of the hotel. If you’re traveling with family, it’s definitely a great option —little ones have an absolute blast!
Beach at Hotel Best Cap Salou
The hotel sits right on the beachfront, directly in front of Cala Vinya cove, a small sandy cove. The Coastal Path also passes through here —a beautiful nearly 6,2 miles trail that’s definitely one of the must-do activities in Salou.
If you feel like exploring, Cala Font cove is just next door, and the larger Playa Llarga beach is a bit farther down.
Check-out
On Booking, the check-out time was listed as 12 noon, but the signs in the room said it was 11 a.m. One hour might not seem like a big deal, but we wanted to walk the Coastal Path to Salou’s center one more time, so that extra hour made a difference.
I asked at reception, where they were very friendly. I showed them what the hotel’s Booking page said, and they had no problem honoring the later time. In fact, they even let us leave the car in the parking lot after we checked out.
Getting from the hotel to the center
Given the hotel’s location, having a car is ideal. But since parking in downtown Salou can be tricky, a good alternative is to use public transport. Buses run frequently, stop about 300 meters from the hotel, and can take you to the center or even to Cambrils.
If you prefer walking, the best option is to take the beautiful Coastal Path (Camino de Ronda), which we talk about in our article on what to do in Salou.
Prices: How much does the Best Cap Salou cost?
Prices are dynamic —they vary depending on the time of year and how far in advance you book. For example, we made our reservation about a month ahead, knowing it was a busy week, but there was still availability and, thanks to our Genius status on Booking, we got a great rate.
Just to give you an idea, these were the nightly prices for two people at the time we booked:
|
Are meals included? |
Rate |
|
|---|---|---|
|
No meals |
48 € |
|
|
Breakfast only |
58 € |
|
|
Half board |
70 € |
|
|
Full board |
89 € |
|
|
All-inclusive |
115 € |
If you need parking, as we mentioned earlier, you won’t be able to reserve it in advance but rather at the time of check-in, and there is an extra cost. When we visited, it was €12 per day.
Hotel Best Cap Salou: Final Thoughts
The final questions are: Do we recommend the Best Cap Salou hotel based on our experience? When would we recommend it, and when wouldn’t we?
We think the hotel is perfect for family trips with kids. The pools with a water park, slides, and its beachfront location make it ideal for relaxing and letting the kids have fun.
However, if you’re traveling as a couple during peak season, we don’t think it’s the best choice for staying in Salou. Why? There’s a lot of foreign family tourism, you’ll have to wait in line for the elevators, the restaurant, reception, etc., and the hotel’s offerings aren’t specifically designed for couples.
We believe there are better alternatives in Salou for couples during high season, such as the Magnolia Hotel located in the city center and adults-only, or the Best Cap Negresco, which also offers an all-inclusive option and where we stayed and really liked. Or a hotel like the Golden Costa Salou, a 4-star superior adults-only hotel near La Pineda.
If you’re traveling as a couple during low or mid-season, we think the Best Cap Salou could be a great option because of its very competitive rates, and it won’t be as crowded, which could make it really worthwhile.
Conclusion of our review: Traveling with kids? Highly recommended. Traveling as a couple during high season? Choose one of the other options we mentioned before or check out our article on where to stay in Salou. Traveling as a couple during low season? If the price is good, we’d definitely stay because we loved the location, the cove it’s located on, the breakfast, and the pools.
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And that’s it for our review of the Best Cap Salou hotel based on our experience. We hope this review has been helpful in deciding where to stay in Salou. And if you’ve already stayed at the hotel, we look forward to hearing your thoughts in the comments!
