relocoast
Surroundings of Salou - coast, Tarragona, Catalunya, Spain. Copy space for text
Costa Daurada · Tarragona

Salou

2Winter liveability / 5To the sea 300 mTo the airport 80 min · BCNPer m² 2 549

Salou is a resort town on the Costa Daurada, ten kilometres from Tarragona. Thirty-one thousand residents in winter and several times that in summer. The shore here is shallow and sandy — hence the name of the coast, the golden shore. The town grew out of a fishing village in the second half of the twentieth century and was built for holidays: a promenade, blocks of hotels and apartments, a theme park in neighbouring Vila-seca.

The main thing to know before moving: Salou lives on the season. From November to March most of what works in summer is shut, and you can see it on the street. There are no international schools and the nearest hospital is in the next town. In exchange: a railway station in the town itself, an hour to Barcelona, and housing well below Barcelona prices. A third of residents are foreign. For seasonal living the trade works; for living here all year, test it in February rather than August.

Worth a trip nearby
  • Tarragona · 10 kmthe Roman amphitheatre above the sea and a real city
  • Cambrils · 7 kmthe fishing harbour and restaurants of the next town
  • Reus · 15 kmthe low-cost airport and the modernist houses
Resalesource
2 549€/m²
+10.6% price growth yoy
appraised value, Ministerio de Vivienda
New build
Rent, 2 bed
1000€/mo
Populationsource
31 018
Foreign residents 33%
Winter humidity
66%
Sunshine hours per year
2 700h
Rent, 1 bed
750€/mo
International schools
0
Internet
420Mbps

Salou sits in Costa Daurada, Tarragona, right on the water. The square metre is 39% above the Costa Daurada median: €2 549 against €1 833. From November to March the town empties out: our rating is 2 out of 5. A resort in summer, shuttered bars and thin transport in winter. 33% of residents are foreign nationals per the census: Spanish is not the only language you will hear on the street.

Hospital, terrain, getting around

Nearest hospitalsource
17min by car
Hospital de Sant Pau I Santa Tecla
Tarragona · 12.2 km · public
Terrainsource
flat
Centre at 2 m, 9 m of elevation change
under 25 m of elevation change within 700 m — pram, bicycle, bad knees all fine
Car-freeour rating
3/5
possible without a car, with caveats
Stations: Estació del Nord, Penitence Station, Salou-Port Aventura, SésamoAventura Station · bus stops within 1.5 km: 33

Where from: the Ministry of Health hospital catalogue, road time · elevations from the Copernicus terrain model · OpenStreetMap · ratings for car-free and hospital minutes are ours.

Sea temperature

5 months above 20 °C
14
J
14
F
14
M
15
A
18
M
23
J
26
J
27
A
25
S
22
O
18
N
16
D

Tourist load

1
J
1
F
2
M
2
A
3
M
4
J
5
J
5
A
4
S
3
O
2
N
2
D

On the map

What tenants actually pay

sourced
Median
536€/mo
75th percentile
650€/mo
Flat size
66

This is the median rent on active leases — tax records for 2024, a sample of 2 904 leases. It includes long-standing contracts at unchanged rents, so it sits below what is asked today: our estimate of asking rent is 1 000 € for a two-bedroom.

The point of the 75th percentile: it is closer to what is being signed now than the median. The gap between them shows how much a new tenant overpays relative to long-standing ones.

Where from: SERPAVI, Ministerio de Vivienda · municipality: Salou

Rent by number of bedrooms

asking price, estimate
1 bedroom750/mo
2 bedrooms1 000/mo
3 bedrooms1 300/mo
Median of active leases, 2024536/mo

Asking prices are what long lets are advertised at today; the registry is what tenants pay on signed leases, including old ones. The gap between them is your negotiating argument.

Schools nearby

estimate

International schools counted in the base: 0. Names and curricula for this place are not verified yet — the school registry covers the thirty most-requested places so far.

2

Renting without a Spanish contract

How realistic a long lease is without a nómina — on foreign income, savings or prepayment.

  • 33% foreign residents — income from abroad is routine for landlords here
  • Prices rising 10.6% a year — the landlord picks, and the first filter is a nómina
  • Stock goes to tourist lets: long leases are scarce and competed for

This is our model, not a measurement: demanding a nómina is an individual landlord's practice and nobody publishes it. The rating is derived from the share of foreign residents, the presence of a community with services, price growth, seasonality of the stock and the size of the town.

Who lives here

INE 2025
Foreign residents on the padrón
33%
10,239 of 31,018
  • Ukraine955
  • Senegal867
  • Russia814
  • Romania730
  • India673
  • Morocco594
  • Italy558
  • Colombia531
Communities and services in their language
  • ruRussian~870
  • frFrench~1 160Includes the francophone Senegalese community — the city's largest foreign group
  • roRomanian~820

Where from: INE, Censo Anual de Población · the register-based census counts padrón registrations by citizenship on 1 January, not everyone living here: seasonal owners and the unregistered are outside it, and naturalised residents count as Spanish.

Winter direct flights from BCN

January 2026/2780 min to the airport
  • other countries76
  • Italy16
  • United Kingdom14
  • France11
  • Germany9
  • Poland6
  • Netherlands3
  • Switzerland3
  • Portugal3
  • Ireland2
  • Belgium2
  • Denmark2
  • Austria2
  • Sweden1
  • Norway1
  • Finland1
  • Czechia1

Destinations served at least weekly in January; checked 2026-09-17.

Paperwork and practicalities

Appointment for the TIE· Tarragonafrom reports
3
Three police stations: Tarragona, Reus and Tortosa. Two to four weeks of waiting. Nobody reports a shortage of fingerprint appointments, so treat this as a rough estimate.
1 — no slots for weeks, 5 — freely available. Checked 2026-09-17
Coworking within 3 km
not on the map
Dog beaches within 8 km
not on the map
Vets within 5 km
0

From OpenStreetMap — an open map filled in by volunteers. Something missing there may still exist: read this as «we found this many», not «there are no more».

Month by month

Air, sea, how busy it gets and what stays open — for each month on its own.

Where to look next

Nearby on the same coast
Cheaper with the same sea
Similar price, other coasts
Compare with Vélez-Málaga
Verified: 2026-09-14 · where the data comes from