Portaventura 2005

PortAventura consists of two parks: PortAventura theme park and Caribe Aquatic Park. There are also three themed hotels: Hotel Port Aventura, Hotel El Paso and Hotel Caribe Resort. The theme park is located in the heart of Spain's Costa Dorada town of Salou, barely 100 kilometres from Barcelona. It's easy to get to, just an hour from Barcelona airport, and makes for an easy weekend break.

Like its Disney rival, PortAventura is laid out in five themed areas: Mediterranea, Polynesia, China, Mexico and the Far West. Within these themed areas there are more than 30 attractions, 100 daily performances and lots of restaurants and shops - we're not talking small here and you need to plan your strategy. Otherwise you'll find yourself all over the place; at the Great Wall of China one minute and the ruins of Mayan Mexico the next, before joining real live cowboys for a taste of the Far West.

The most popular attractions are Dragon Kahn followed by Stampida, Hurakan Condor and Silver River Flume whilst the most popular shows are Aves del Paraiso (Birds of Paradise Show), El Sol de Oriente (Sun of the Orient Chinese Acrobats) and Fiestaventura (the evening firework extravaganza and voted best live show in the world). Dragon Khan is Europe's biggest roller coaster and the world's loopiest. Don't miss this ride with it 70 mph first drop, 8 inverted loops and great views across the park. That's if you dare to look.Hurakan Condor is the highest free fall ride in Spain, a 325-foot adrenalin rush at 71 miles an hour, with 3 seconds of vertigo.

One of the main downsides of visiting a theme park is usually the food - a mixture of fast food, burgers, pizzas, chips, hotdogs, candy floss and it's all generally bland and over priced. Not so in Port Aventura, I was genuinely impressed. As you'd imagine, each area has food in keeping with its theme, so you'll find great Mexican cooking in Mexico, exotic Polynesian produce, delicacies from China and famous Mediterranean dishes; proper food and proper restaurants.

PortAventura can easily be done in a day but if you want to make the most of the rides and shows, as well as taking in Caribe Aquatic Park, it's well worth staying overnight. We stayed at Hotel El Passo, a charming four-star hotel evoking the Sipicy Mexico Haciendas. It's located at 5 minutes from the entrance to the theme park and you're not disturbed by the noise. It also means you can pop in and out of the park whenever you want.El Passo is built around several huge swimming pools, one of which features a sunken pirate ship, another benefit of staying in an onsite hotel is you have direct access to the most popular rides, minimising waiting time, and you get VIP seating at some of the shows.

PortAventura's second theme park is Caribe Aquatic Park, a Caribbean-themed water park. It's laid out in two zones, one indoor and one outdoors. A separate swimming pool has been built for the little ones, including an artificial lake with water jets where children can enjoy the fun of 'baby bungee'.

I thought was a pretty experienced adrenalin junkie but when it comes to white-knuckle, nail-biting, cheek-trembling thrills Port Aventura has it all.