When my boyfriend and I went to Tarragona at the beginning, of March we booked our flights and accommodation through Ryanair. Both cheap enough. Altogether we paid £250 for 4 nights in a double rooms with the most stunning view from the balcony. It is a 15 minute drive from Reus airport and an hour from Barcelona.

The four star hotel is in the old roman town centre of Tarrgona. It is situated at the top of the promenade overlooking the sea which is why it's called 'Balcony of the Mediterranean'. Across the road from the hotel are the old roman circus and the roman amphitheatre so all the sightseeing is a minutes walk away. The main boulevard of Tarragona starts behind the hotel so shops and restaurants are very close.
The hotel itself does provide car parking for their guest but there isn't much of it so be quick and prepared for the lethal parking of the locals (we are talking millimeter gaps between cars!!!).

On arrival we were impressed how grand the building and reception hall looked but then we had been told that this is the most prestigious hotel in Tarragona where all the local celebs stay. In fact on our second day they were filming some politician as it was a few weeks before the spanish elections. We couldn't figure out how to work the barrier for the carpark so left the hire car on the road and went inside.
Now it gets interesting. The lady behind reception didn't speak a word of english and had to get a manager. He didn't seem to pleased to see english tourists in his palace (yuk) and when I explained to him that we had booked through Ryanair he was incredibly rude. He demanded to see our voucher although I told him several times all I got was a booking reference and no I didn't print the page off the website. Why should I when i can write the details down in my diary. We argued back and forth for several minutes while my boyfriend parked the car outside the hotel (we should have pressed the button the manager said, how stupid of us not to be psychic and know!!!). He eventually gve up and confirmed my booking. There was no porter service so we had to take our stuff up to the rooms ourselves. By that time I was fuming at the rudeness and arrogance of the staff. The room itself was very basic (travelodge here is more luxurious) and rather drab. The only thing worth staying for was the view from our balcony. We overlooked the sea, beach, amphitheatre and roman circus.
The bathroom was rather nice and everything was very clean. It wasn't overly warm at that time of year but the aircon didn't work anyway...
After our frosty reception we didn't dare show our face in the hotel restaurant and went for a pizza instead. Same goes for breakfast, we just had excellent roomservice each day. For 4 Euro we had a fabulous continental breakfast.

After a couple of days or so I then found a small note in the hotel (stratigically placed so when you take the lift you won't notice it) that the hotel automatically charges guests for watching the non spanish channels such as CNN and Eurosport - unless you inform reception and they will block them. What a cheek! I almost hit the roof!

Anyway, our departure wasn't exactly friendly neither. The staff were very rude and unfriendly and we coldn't wait to get out of there.

We wouldn't stay again as the only good thing is the brilliant location and the view from the balcony (on the east side anyway). I have since complained to the hotel and hotel chain and left several reviews on different websites. That's when i found out other people had the same experience!!!

So, all in all not to be recommended unless you just want a fab location and avoid speaking to anybody...