Having just played the North and South courses again, I thought I had better update my somewhat vague previous review. The courses have now been renamed the Hills (south), Ruins (centre) and the Lakes (north) courses, which are accurate descriptions. The South Course is a 10-minute buggy ride from the main club house and is laid out through olive and pine tress and scrub. As its name would suggest it is hilly, so a buggy is essential, but it is worth it and you get some good views of the sea, La Pineda and Salou from the course. A number of the holes on the back nine are played into greens set in quarries, sounds odd, but works well, with the 18th hole finishing below a modern clubhouse in a quarry, guarded by a lake.
The North Course is much flatter and whilst Greg Norman clearly had less spectacular scenery to play with, he has made good use of the space. Lakes, large sandy wasteland areas and clever hole designs dominate, such as double doglegs which force the average player to lay up rather then go for the greens. Whilst it may not be as picturesque as the South Course there is plenty of wildlife on the nature reserve to watch when the golf has gone bad.
The fairways on both courses were very lush and the greens are like carpet, on this visit some of the tees on the North Course were a bit rough, but that was not a major issue. If I had to choose then it would be the South Course, for the trees, views and interesting layout. Neither course is partcularly busy and I played on my own on both occasions. It costs about 12 euros by taxi to get there from Portaventura, as the free transfers appear to have been withdrawn. I booked my tee times online before going and whilst this worked well, I am not sure it was any cheaper then booking in resort, however it does overcome any language difficulties.