Travel review: Dancing the Calypso in sunny Salou

Belfast Telegraph

27-05-2025

In fact, it restored the long-lost joy of travelling — eroded by decades of shuffling through all those harried, overcrowded 'super hubs' now dotted around the Mediterranean — with a swift, simple and easy transit from aircraft seat to resort transfer, avoiding queues, hassle and the battle for buses and taxies.
It began well too, in Belfast International's much enlarged and repurposed departure area. It now includes a state-of-the-art security zone, allowing both liquids and laptops in hand luggage, before emerging into the huge duty-free shopping area.
Also leaving the previous charter flights in its wake, easyJet has joined the small number of carriers servicing Reus, in Spain's north-east, from Belfast.
Of course, Reus is best- known for the nearby resort of Salou, but also enjoys trade to both the super busy Barcelona area and to the rural villages and Roman era settlements of not only Reus itself, but also the must-see city of Tarragona, and the amazing Parc de l'amphitheatre at the foot of its own Rambla.
Our destination, as it was more than 27 years ago, was Salou. It remains a busy tourist attraction, but if anything, it has improved like a fine wine, ageing well over the years.
At the end of April the Hotel Calypso — our easyJet Holidays choice — was an interesting mixture of 90 per cent Spanish pensioners, a very few British visitors like us, and seemingly endless coach-loads of teenage boys and girls drawn to competitions at Salou's superb football stadia.
All through the early tourist season, throngs of these exceptionally well-behaved young international players interacted well with other guests, even joining in on the extremely energetic dance routines that saw the Calypso, the salsa and the Macarena performed each night.
For the most part though, it was Spanish 'senores y senoras' up on the floor, and they love their dancing, putting other senior citizens in the shade; it's amazing to see how much they still live life to the full.
The hotel clientele does change as summer approaches however. In high season, there are more British and Irish families as guests here.
That said, we all needed to be a team when near catastrophe struck and there was an unprecedented power outage right across the entire Iberian Peninsula.
How we take it for granted.
We are only a failing fuse or two away from the 'dark ages' and it was clear that April's blackout was having an enormous, hugely negative impact on commerce and normality.
To the rescue came the Calypso staff — especially manager Rosario — who, working under emergency lighting only, and in near darkness, prepared and served well over 1,100 guests with the equivalent of a three course-dinner... in two hours.
Aided by many customers' mobile phone torches, essential in identifying actual food types on the server or grill, everyone was fed.
Even security was pressed into service by literally carrying disabled guests up and down stairs, as the lifts obviously didn't work.
In times of adversity, there's often a 'Dunkirk spirit', and we all prevailed — and some of us might even have enjoyed it.
But to the changing face of the resort itself, Salou may not be Marbella, but it has a great deal to offer visitors.
A little over a two-and-a-half hour flight brings visitors to Reus, with an onward 20-minute transfer to the resort. It is an hour away from Barcelona, but a world away from that bustling city.
Three decades ago we could only briefly venture into the main area as we were staying in the Cap Salou development, just outside town.
This time we got to see Salou itself up-close. The mile-long-plus promenade, Passeig Jaume de Salou, runs along Platja Llevant, the resort's main beach, with numerous chiringuitos — beach bars — tempting you at very turn with very reasonable prices and awesome vistas.
Big enough never to be too crowded, the beach is backed by small hotels and restaurants and beyond that, the usual tourist-themed bars and shops, all selling much the same trinkets and groceries, but always at reasonable prices. For those in need of some retail therapy, 'real shopping' can be had via a short bus ride to the city of Tarragona with its huge market and two ultra-modern shopping centres.
Highly recommended in Salou is the Platja dels Capellans, a beautiful, much smaller beach than the main one and just a 10-minute dander from The Calypso Hotel.
It boasts two chiringuitos and offers clear, clean water, a shallow child-friendly foreshore and the option of a short, scenic seafront boardwalk to the main beach area and its numerous seafront restaurants that lead onto Platja Llevant itself.
Night time entertainment is varied, but does tend to fall into two camps for both Scottish and Northern Ireland visitors, but there is rarely much trouble.
After experiencing numerous Med resorts, there are actually a lot of positives about Salou.
There are few, if any, street vendors hawking fake goods, there's a reassuring police presence, and the streets are spotless, as are the early season beaches and seawater.
Numerous dogs were being walked yet there was zero dog mess — shame on us at home — and of course, Salou is a short flight away from Belfast International.
So all in all, give the resort a try and dance the Calypso or the salsa, perhaps even at the family-friendly Calypso Hotel.