Car Hire Costa Dorada: Airports, Resorts and Driving Tips

For a classic beach holiday in Salou, La Pineda or Cambrils, honestly, probably not for the whole stay. Transfers from Reus are among the shortest anywhere in Spain, and PortAventura Caribe Aquatic Park and the beach at Cap de Sant Pere are right on Salou's doorstep.

The picture changes if you are curious. Tarragona, around 9 miles from the centre of the coast, holds the Roman theatre, amphitheatre, circus, colonial and provincial forums, the Early Christian cemetery, the National Archaeological Museum and the Cathedral of St. Tecla. Further north, Torredembarra, Coma-ruga, Calafell and Cunit lie roughly 17 to 30 miles away, and Mont-roig del Camp is about 8 miles in the other direction. Hiring a car for two or three days of a longer stay is often the sweet spot.

Reus is the natural choice for the southern resorts. It has direct flights from the UK, and the drive is 6 minutes to Tarragona, 7 minutes to Salou or La Pineda and 11 minutes to Cambrils. Collecting here means you are on the beach almost before the paperwork is dry.

Barcelona also has direct flights from the UK and suits the northern end of the coast: Cunit is 34 minutes away, Calafell 39, Coma-ruga 42 and Torredembarra 52. If you are flying into Barcelona for a Costa Daurada holiday anyway, car hire from the airport avoids a separate transfer. You can compare car hire at both airports on this page.

This is a coastal drive rather than a mountain one: every resort covered here sits on the sea, and the main sights are either in the resorts themselves or in Tarragona. Distances are short, so you will spend more time looking for parking near the Roman sites or the beaches than actually driving.

The weather shapes your plans more than the roads do. July and August reach 30 to 31°C, so a car with good air conditioning matters and early starts for sightseeing make sense. October is the wettest month, with around 145mm of rain over 12 days, so allow extra time and care on wet roads in autumn.

Choose a full-to-full fuel policy where you can: you collect the car with a full tank and return it full, paying only for what you use. Check the excess carefully, and decide before you travel whether to cover it, so you are not pressed into extras at the desk.

If you are travelling with children, request child seats at the time of booking rather than on arrival, especially in the busy months of April to August. Short hires of a few days within a longer stay are easy to arrange, and the live comparison on this page lets you check options from Reus and Barcelona side by side.