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PortAventura Park

Salou, Spain

“Spanish flair, Spanish sun, Spanish rides… and Spanish operations”

Welcome to Salou, a beloved holiday destination at the Mediterranean Sea. This town is popular because of its beaches, all-in hotels and nightlife. However, we are mostly interested in the nearby PortAventura World, one of Europe’s largest theme park destinations. The resort consists of multiple themed hotels, a water park and two different theme parks. One of them is Ferrari Land, the home of Europe’s tallest and fastest roller coaster. This ride delivers all the thrills you’d expect from it, but the rest of the park turns out to be quite underwhelming. Fortunately, there’s a more elaborately themed park with considerably more attractions right next door. PortAventura Park opened its gates in 1995 and its early years were greatly influenced by American theme park giants like Anheuser-Busch and Universal. That’s probably why this place exudes a certain grandeur that’s hard to find at many other European theme parks.

ROLLER COASTERS 

PortAventura Park has one of the most picturesque Main Streets I’ve ever seen. The park welcomes its visitors in Mediterrània, a cute fishing village at the shores of the park’s largest lake. The area is home to several restaurants, souvenir shops and a thrill coaster themed to… wine! Furius Baco‘s queue winds through a vineyard and its trains are shaped as old wine barrels. Although I certainly appreciate this original decoration and the surprisingly intense hydraulic launch, the rest of the ride experience is horrible. PortAventura opted for a fast and low-to-the-ground layout, but the vehicles don’t seem to be able to handle the high speed. Riders (and especially those who are assigned to the outer seats) should brace themselves for one of Europe’s roughest and most uncomfortable roller coasters. 

PortAventura Park’s two largest roller coasters can be found in China, at the back of the park. Dragon Khan and Shambhala make up the park’s iconic B&M knot. Dragon Khan has been around since PortAventura’s early years and it used to be the king of European roller coasters. It towers high above the rest of the park and riders are treated to 8 impressive inversions. The experience has become slightly rougher than you’d expect from a B&M, but I think that’s totally acceptable after 30 years of operations in the Spanish heat. By the way: in a world full of floorless, inverted and wing coasters, it’s nice to once again encounter a classic, sit-down B&M multi-looper.

The undisputed highlight of the Asian section is Shambhala, a hyper coaster that promises an expedition to the highest peaks of the Himalayas. The white steel structure is 250 ft (76 metres) tall and it claims a prominent place in PortAventura’s skyline. It shouldn’t come as a surprise that the ride is breathtaking in multiple ways. Shambhala treats its passengers to unbeatable views of the Mediterranean Sea and the layout is filled with airtime. Other highlights are an ampersand-shaped turnaround and a photogenic splashdown effect. Trains also run unbelievably smoothly, so Shambhala definitely counts as one of the finest roller coasters in Europe.

Travelling from China to Mexico has never been easier than it is at PortAventura. Unfortunately, the Mexican roller coaster lineup isn’t as sensational as the Asian one. The only credit in this area is El Diablo – Tren de la Mina. This old-school Arrow mine train describes itself as the devil, but please don’t expect any hardcore thrills from it. Three lift hills were squeezed into 3,300 ft (approximately 1 kilometre) of track, so it actually feels like you’re on a lift hill for most of the ride’s duration. Still, it’s difficult to hate El Diablo. The queue and station were beautifully themed and the attraction offers good interaction with the nearby log flume.

I was prepared for a painful ride when we boarded Stampida. After all, I remembered this dueling wooden coaster to be extremely rough during previous trips to PortAventura. However, we were pleasantly surprised during our 2025 visit. Recent re-trackings created a noticeably smoother ride and the racing element still adds a ton of fun to the experience. So honestly, Stampida is quite enjoyable in its current state. By the way: I’m loving the fact that the layout of children’s wooden coaster Tomahawk was intertwined with the structure of Stampida. Tomahawk may be a lot less thrilling than its big brother, but young riders still enjoy that feeling of going on the big roller coaster.

PortAventura’s latest big addition is Uncharted – The Enigma of Penitence, an indoor coaster manufactured by Intamin. Its imposing facade is a new eye-catcher for PortAventura’s Far West area and the queue line has been elaborately themed as well. That’s convenient, as we have to spend about 90 minutes of our precious time in that queue. Uncharted turns out to be an extremely unreliable ride, so be ready to wait for hours (or to spend money on an Express Pass) if you really want to ride it. Uncharted is an Intamin Multi Dimension Coaster, a ride type that looks very similar to the one used in Escape from Gringotts at Universal Studios Florida. Unfortunately, the Spanish version fails to deliver the immersive experience we know from Universal’s famous Harry Potter attraction. The theming mainly consists of (poorly integrated) screens and none of the special effects manage to amaze us. It’s a shame that PortAventura settled for these low-quality theming elements when the actual ride system offers such a range of possibilities. I admit that the park desperately needed an indoor ride for the whole family, but Underwhelmingcharted is not what I hoped for.

WATER RIDES

PortAventura lies in Spain, so it can get scorching hot during summer time. That’s why the park offers four large water rides. The most refreshing one is definitely Tutuki Splash, a shoot-the-chute in the Polynesian section of the park. The tropical ambience is nice, but theming of the ride is limited to tropical vegetation and some rockwork. The same goes for Silver River Flume: this log flume is wet and surprisingly long, but there’s hardly any decoration during the actual ride. Fortunately, the park’s other water attractions boast considerably more impressive theming. One of them is Angkor. This attraction is somewhat hidden behind Shambhala and it’s just a splash battle, but its superb Cambodian design makes it worth a visit nevertheless. And last but not least, there’s Grand Canyon Rapids. This is a rather short, but beautiful rapid river that flows through the red canyons of the park’s Far West section. Great ride.

OTHER EXPERIENCES

Overall, PortAventura feels like a very complete theme park. There’s a good variety of shows, thrill seekers will adore PortAventura’s large selection of flat rides and families with children should head to SésamoAventura, an area dedicated to Sesame Street. This land is also home to Street Mission, the only classic dark ride at the resort. This may not be the most challenging laser-shooting dark ride on Earth, but it’s well themed and it combines screens and real scenes in a very clever way.

My favourite experience at PortAventura is Templo Del Fuego. This show is set within an ancient Mexican temple and it features a live actor and lots of fire effects. However, Templo Del Fuego’s major downside is the fact that it doesn’t open very often. This show is expensive to perform, so PortAventura decided to run it on a very limited basis. In general, the attraction only opens during the busier summer months. And even then, the Fire Temple usually welcomes visitors for just a few hours per day. Be sure to check the park’s latest show schedule during your visit.

BEAT THE CROWDS

PortAventura Park attracts approximately 4 million visitors each year. This makes it the most successful theme park in southern Europe, so there’s a fair chance that you’ll face big crowds while heading to the park. That’s why I strongly recommend buying an Express Pass if you visit PortAventura during a school holiday or weekend. Sure, I know these passes come with a hefty price tag, but it really is the only option to enjoy PortAventura during busy times. Operations are usually pretty slow and some attractions don’t open before noon. This also means that early birds don’t necessarily have an advantage at PortAventura Park, as there are just a handful of attractions operating when the park opens in the morning. This is not how I would run a theme park, but it’s a reality you have to be prepared for when travelling to PortAventura.

WORTH A VISIT?

PortAventura Park is one of Europe’s most beautiful theme parks. Designers put great consideration in the park’s sightlines, use of vegetation and music to really immerse guests in Mediterrania, the Far West, Mexico, China and Polynesia. However, the park isn’t without its flaws. Firstly, most of the attractions aren’t as well-themed as their surrounding lands. You’ll find Shambhala, Dragon Khan, Stampida, Tutuki Splash and Silver River Flume in a stunning landscape, but these rides’ queues and stations have minimal theming. Secondly, there’s a lack of decent family rides. Street Mission and Uncharted have definitely improved the situation, but I still feel that the park needs one or more classic dark rides like Pirates of the Caribbean.

Thirdly – and most importantly – there’s the way PortAventura handles crowds. To be clear: I’m happy that so many locals and tourists find their way to PortAventura. Yet, the guest experience is anything but ideal when you visit on a busy day. Attraction availability is mediocre at best and the hourly capacity of rides seems to be considerably lower than it is in other theme parks. As a result, wait times increase dramatically, so it’s not uncommon to see 3-hour lines for the most popular rides. You can partially tackle this problem by investing in an Express Pass, but this doesn’t solve everything. Thousands of other visitors also buy these skip-the-line passes, so even the Express lines often become annoyingly long.

Have you experienced Furius Baco’s painful rattle? Is Templo del Fuego really the best attraction in this park? And was your visit negatively impacted by large crowds? Share your opinion in the comments section at the bottom of this page.

This article reflects my personal experience at PortAventura Park during a visit in April 2025.