Portaventura (Spain) | Theme Park Tips

PortAventura World

Very popular with tourists from Britain and other European countries, Portaventura World comprises Portaventura Park, Ferrari Land, the Caribe Waterpark and several themed hotels. The whole area is well themed and houses some good rides. Head and shoulders above the rest is the wonderful Shambhala; in our view the finest rollercoaster in the world. The owners seem keen to keep up to speed with the competition from other parks.

Portaventure Park is big, and the rides are quite spaced out across it. This creates a relaxed and uncrowded atmosphere, but it is tiring. Ferrari Land only opened in 2017 and is a much smaller park.

Last visited September, 2018

Shambhala (the best rollercoaster in the world) and Dragon Khan

Portaventura Park

INVESTMENT

THRILL FACTOR

FUN &

LAUGHTER

STAFF &

FACILITIES

UNIQUNESS

VALUE

THEMEING &

IMMERSION

THOMPSONS'

RATING

Ferrari Land

INVESTMENT

THRILL FACTOR

FUN &

LAUGHTER

STAFF &

FACILITIES

UNIQUNESS

VALUE

THEMEING &

IMMERSION

THOMPSONS'

RATING

BEST BITS

Shambhala, Shambhala, and Shambhala.
Both parks are well themed. In Portaventura Park each of the areas represents a different country, with surprisingly authentic food. The owners have gone to a lot of effort to get the atmosphere just right. Ferrari Land is themed entirely around Italy and Ferraris, which works well.
There are a good mix of rides, so everyone will find something they like.
The parks have a good range of proper restaurants as well as fast-food outlets.
Transportation is fairly easy. The park is just off a motorway, has its own train station with direct links to Barcelona, and there is an airport nearby.

DOWN-SIDES

Although fast track is available it is very expensive, making the main queues very long.
For some reason they open the park early but don’t open most of the rides for at least an hour afterwards. This means long queues before the rides have even opened.
There is a real problem with people queue jumping (the only park where we have ever found this to be a problem). This is not helped by the fact that a lot of the queues are tightly compact into small spaces, making queue jumping easy.
Related to the above, the staff don’t organise the running of the rides very efficiently. There is nothing more frustrating than standing in a long queue whilst watching a car go around with empty seats.

TOP TIPS

When heading for Shambhala and Dragon Khan from the entrance, the signs will direct you up through the middle of the park. However, it is much quicker to go right and walk through the kids area. This is how we recommend you start your day.
None of the rides require you to pay for lockers to leave your bags. You can either leave them at the station or, in some cases, take them on the ride with you.

Smoothness

N/A

Grand Canyon Rapids

Thompsons' overall rating 4

Thrill

Fun

Themeing

Immersion

Smoothness

N/A

Silver River Flume

Thompsons' overall rating 4

Thrill

Fun

Themeing

Immersion

Smoothness

N/A

Furius Baco

It was the fastest rollercoaster in Europe until Ferrari Land opened, this ride uses hydraulics to launch from 0 up to 88mph. It is also a ‘winged coaster’ meaning that you sit hanging from the side of the track, with no floor under your feet. The ride is more than just the launch; it has an inversion and features two long, steeply banked turns. There is a theme – something to do with a monkey making wine – but as it’s in Spanish we have never been able to follow it! Be warned; the music played in the queue line is very catchy and will be in your head for hours.

Our view: This is a very intense ride and certainly not for the faint-hearted. The acceleration is amazingly fast. However, it is also jerky; sometimes to the point of being painful (as your head rattles so quickly between the sides of the headrest). This is noticeably worse on the outside seats (i.e. furthest away from the track)

Tips:

Sit on the inside seats for a more enjoyable ride.
Furius Baco is very near the park entrance and most people fall into the trap of going on it first as it is the first big ride they see. So, we STRONGLY recommend that you do not you attempt to go on this ride at the beginning or end of the day. If you do you will queue at least four times as long as if you wait until the early-mid afternoon.
Notwithstanding the above, the queues are still quite long at any time during the day. As with all hydraulic launch coasters, the capacity of the ride is quite low because the launch system takes time to re-charge.
There are paid lockers at the ride entrance, but you don't need to use them. You can leave your bags at the ride station for free.

Dragon Khan

When it first opened Dragon Khan had the most inversions of any coaster in the world (8). Although now surpassed by others, it remains an intense and exciting rollercoaster.

Our view: When we first saw it we thought it looked like someone had drawn a random scribble on a piece of paper, and decided to turn it into a rollercoaster. It has a lot of interesting features, and the loops come thick and fast with barely any time to draw breath. Unfortunately the overhead harnesses are uncomfortable, and the rough ride means that you often hit your head coming out of the loops. At over twenty years old the ride is starting to show its age, especially when compared to its wonderfully smooth next-door neighbour (Shambhala).

Tips:

As with many rides of this nature, it is both faster and jerkier at the back.
Being right next to Shambhala towards the back of the park, it is another good one to try and do early before the queues build.

Tutuki Splash

A well themed boat ride, which features a fast double drop at the end. The splash at the end is big and you will get soaked.

Our view: One of the better water rides around, it reaches higher speeds than some others. The seating is much better than a normal log flume ride, as you sit four-abreast in a row rather than one in front of the other with people in between your legs.

Tips:

At the end of the ride there is a section where onlookers can pay to use a water gun to shoot riders. Watch out for this.
Be warned: those in the boat going up the lift hill can get soaked by the boat in front coming down the drop.

Stampida

A large wooden coaster which features two trains on separate tracks that compete against each other in a race.

Our view: The ride is quicker than it looks. Being a wooden coaster it is jerky, but is not fast enough for this to become really unpleasant.

Tips:

Brace yourself. You will be thrown around quite a lot by this ride.
The cars are very compact. If at all possible try not to ride with two larger people sat next to each other, as they will be squashed in.
The red car nearly always wins!

Grand Canyon Rapids

A water rapids ride themed around a boat ride along a fast-moving American river.

Our view: This is a typical rapids ride. A little bit faster than most, but not scary.

Tips:

As with most rapids rides, some people will get very wet and others will stay dry.
There are some (coin-operated) water pistols available which you can use to shoot at riders, which is great fun.

Smoothness

N/A

The first drop on Shambhala (blue/white) with a bit of Dragon Khan (red)

Shambhala: Expedición al Himalaya

A hyper-coaster that features lots of high drops, airtime moments and long banked-turns. This ride has harnesses that hold you into your seat by closing in on your stomach and the top of your legs, leaving your upper-body and legs to move around with the flow of the rollercoaster.

Our view: Easily one of the best coasters in the world, the first initial drop takes your breath away and the harness style means you feel you are floating through the air whilst still feeling completely secure in your seat. The ride is so smooth you can barely feel the track.

Tips:

Each set of four seats are in a V-formation rather than four-abreast; with the two seats on the odd-numbered rows next to each other than the two back seats diagonally behind them. On the even-numbered rows, the chairs are spaced so that you sit on the outside of the track, which is fantastic.
Sitting towards the back means that you are not left hanging down the first drop whilst the rest of the car comes over the lift hill. If you are a bit afraid of the 78m first drop then definitely sit towards the back as you will be pulled down the drop sufficiently fast that you won’t have time to worry about it! Overall, we think row 4 is the best.
Often the park is open until late at night and this is a fantastic coaster to ride in the dark.
Although often not opened until later in the morning than other rides, try and do it early as it is less busy.

Hayley with Dragon Khan

El Diablo

A pretty bog-standard mine train ride which features three lift hills.

Our view: The second half of this ride is a bit quicker and more exciting than the first half. That does mean that it is jerkier, although the ride is never fast enough to become uncomfortable.

Tutuki Splash

Silver River Flume

A standard log flume ride which features two small drops and a larger, steeper drop at the end.

Our view: This is a typical log flume ride.

Tips:

You will get wetter sat at the front.
The second drop is actually wetter than the last one.

Shambhala

Furios

Drago Khan

Red force and the Bounce Back Towers

Bounce Back Towers

Two different tower rides themed on engine pistons. The first starts like a pretty standard drop-tower ride but the car bounces back up when it reaches the bottom. The second shoots riders upwards initially and then drops back down several times, simulating the movement of a piston.

Our review is of the second tower; we have not ridden the first.

Our view: We enjoyed this a lot more than we expected to, given that we generally don’t enjoy drop tower rides. The ride is very smooth and good fun.

Tips:

Both towers have riders sat in threes. This means it is a good ride on which to use the single rider queue.

Red Force

Ferrari Land’s signature ride, this is the fastest coaster in Europe and the fourth fastest in the world. It starts with a launch taking riders to around 112mph. Unlike some launched coasters, Red Force has seats with a lap-bar and no overhead harnesses.

The ride involves a launch, themed on Ferrari Formula 1 cars, which propels riders initially on a flat track and then up an ‘n-shaped’ hill with a vertical descent. As the car launches there is a sound effect of an F1 car accelerating from the starting grid.

Our view: The speed of the launch and the vertical descent from the top, make this ride very thrilling. However, compared to other similar rides we found the launch to be quite jerky; particularly as it gets to its top speed. On the plus side, the harnesses feel very secure whilst not restricting the upper-body. We also really like the sound effects.

Tips:

It doesn’t matter where you sit on this ride, all seats are good.
Although we did not witness it, it is possible that the ride will not quite make it to the top of the hill and roll backwards towards the start. The ride operators reassure people that this is perfectly normal and safe as the ride is designed around this, but be aware that this is a possibility.
As with all launch coasters, this ride tends to break down a lot so it is worth going on early.
There is a place to leave bags in the ride station.

Flying Dreams

This is a simulator ride where you sit in rows in front of a large screen, as if you are riding a hang glider. The effects include smells, noises and visual effects as if you are following a Ferrari car as it drives through multiple famous locations. There are also additional features that simulate flying, such as changes in the air flow.

Our view: As with Disney’s Soarin, we found this ride underwhelming. We have come to expect a much more immersive experience from a modern simulator, but this still felt like we were sitting on a bench in front of a large screen. This was exaggerated by the quick changing of scenery, which does not take you through a journey but just cuts between different (unconnected) scenes. That said, the smells used during the ride were the best feature and were very authentic.

Tips:

Don’t prioritise this ride over others if there is a queue, it is not worth it.

Red Force