Cambrils and Salou
 

We were just contacted by a family from Cambrils offering us a home exchange in August of 2012. I realize it will be very hot in Spain in August, but it works out great for us with our schedules. I don't know much about that part of Spain. Has anyone been there? We would be going for a couple of weeks with a hope of renting a car for part of the trip to travel around the area. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. We have never done a home exchange before.

Cambrils is known for many good restaurants - people come for the restaurants all the way from Barcelona in the week-ends - and it's also the more local and tranquile neighbour of very touristy Salou.

As much as ten restaurants in Cambrils and surroundings mentioned in the Guia Repsol, the Spaniah equvivalent to the Michelin guide. Two restaurants with two "soles", the second highest ranking possible, Can Bosch and Joan Gatell, but they're serious about food here in general.

Can Bosch: http://www.canbosch.com/
Joan Gatell: http://www.joangatell.com/english/joanpedrell.asp

Guia Repsol: http://www.guiarepsol.com/Gastronomi...taurantes.aspx

Cambrils is also close to some of the most important Cava wineries, Freixenet and Codorníu, both in Sant Sadurni d'Anoia.

Codorníu: http://www.codorniu.es/
Freixenet: http://www.freixenet.es/

Cambrils is in a nice location to explore Southern Catalunya.
It's a typical beach resort with mostly low-rising buildings and a bit of an "urban sprawl" of urbanisaciones.
Yet, it is a far cry from the ghastly places which are targeted mostly at Northern Europeans looking for cheap sangria and sunburn.

In detail, location is important. Try to find out the exact street that house is on and check it via Google Streetview. You probably don't want to live in an urbanisacion next door to the main railway line or the Mediterranean motorways.

I would not say that the weather will be unpleasant or "too hot" in August in Southern Catalonia. I would expect temperatures around 30C, and you have the sea at your doorstep to cool off a bit. It will be top holiday/tourist season and not like August in Phoenix.

Cambrils is the gateway to the Terres de l'Ebre, with the best wines of Spain growing in the mountainous Priorat and surrounding Montsant region and the impressive Ebro delta where rice is cultivated in acres of wetlands and miles of deserted beaches at the delta's edges. In addition you have many cultural and historic gems in close reach, like Poblet monestary near Montblanc, the Civil War monuments in the region of Mora d'Ebre, the Gaudí buildings in nearby Reus or Roman ruins in nearby Tarragona and so on and on.
If you travel with kids, a trip to Port Aventura should be a must.

A rental car should be a must as those holiday towns often have quite an urban sprawl. For a visit to Barcelona, which is just a cheap and frequent train ride, you don't need/want a car. Also not to visit Tarragona.

Thank you both for your quick response. It sounds wonderful. I am getting a Spain travel guide and will look for one that focuses on Catalonia. We have friends who live in Villanueva, so we might go up there for a bit too. A rental car is definitely something we are looking into. Again, I appreciate your feedback so much.

I agree with what others have said. Cambrils, in the centre, is quite 'Spanish' or 'Catalan' (though there is little history), and many people thronging fish restaurants and tapas bars are Spanish. Salou, on the other hand, is a characterless urban sprawl, with some rowdiness in the bars and clubs in the centre, the only redeeming feature being Port Aventura theme park. Cambrils provides a good base for trips nearby. The three Romanesque monasteries of Poblet, Santa Creus and Vallbona are gems and not to be missed (though inland is very hot in August - expect 35C/100F but dry). If you are renting a car, book well in advance - 6 months - as there's a shortage of cars in high season and rates rise steeply.

One item I forgot re. rental cars.
I would not go for the extra cheap smallest group of rental cars during summer. While those mini cars are great to navigate through narrow streets in the mountain villages, they lack some power when you drive with full a/c all the time. Two classes up, i.e. a "compact" Seat Leon, VW Golf or Opel Astra will do the job easily. A bigger car will become a nuisance again on narrow streets and when you look for a spot to park it.
Another benefit of renting a car would be (as you will stay not stay in a hotel) that you can take advantage of the supermarkets at the outskirts of town. While all resorts are dotted with small convinience stores for the occasional bottle of wine or water, you will pay a lot more if all your grocery shopping is limited to those stores and to what you can carry home.
To make things a bit more confusing, any type of grocery store, also the tiny convinience stores, is usually called a "supermercado" or "supermercat". The big "Safeway"-type of supermarkets are called "hipermercado" or "hipermercat".

When driving around with a car, it does not hurt to have a cheat card with the handful of most useful "traffic-related" words in Catalan, as all signage is in that language and not "Spanish", i.e. Castilian.
While signs are international, the "add-ons" like "no xyz e.g. parking on weekdays or weekends" etc. are good to know.

In general, driving is a breeze. Roads, also in the nearby mountains are in excellent condition, and road numbering and signage is abundand and good. On the major motorways you pay quite a bit of toll in Catalonia. Often you have a toll-free highway going parallel as a cheap alternative but often with lots of truck traffic.

Would there be enough to do for 15 days? We are thinking of doing day trips to Barcelona, Villanueva, and may be a couple of other places. Surprisingly, we got another offer at about the same time to exchange with a family in Amsterdam. So now, we are debating which one to choose.

Daytrips to Barcelona can be pretty addictive, fantastic city.
http://www.timeout.com/barcelona/

Such a disappointment, the family in Cambrils decided not to travel to the US this summer. Oh well, it was fun to plan this trip for a couple of days.

Thank you all for contributing with your suggestions and information!