Party of 4 - Mum & Dad and my partner & myself.
We have just returned home over two weeks ago now from what looked to be a very nice place in the brochure. We arrived in Turkey at 09:30pm but the baggage reclaim was absolutely ridiculous, it took over an hour for our bags to appear, the belt didn’t move for over 45 minutes, the last thing you need really at this time of night when you are looking forward to getting to the hotel for something to eat and drink whilst relaxing.
We arrived at the hotel in good time from the airport to find a big problem really, we met a chap called Erkan behind reception who advised us the rooms we booked were not available and we had a choice to either take a very small room without balcony or pleasant view for the whole holiday or take a duplex room for four people for two nights, Erkan showed us the duplex room first which was a little like an apartment, two people upstairs and two people downstairs with no door in between but with separate bathrooms, we asked to see the other rooms as we didn’t like the idea of sharing with the folks, yeah we love them to pieces but we’re on our holiday and want to do what we want and how we want as they also suggested themselves but sharing this room would not allow for this as we have different times for bed and getting up etc. We then had to trawl back down to reception to get the key card programmed for the other two rooms and duly went back upstairs to look at these other rooms, yup we really didn’t want to spend our holiday in these rooms, small and dingy, no balcony & no room to move about in so we agreed that we would take the duplex room for two nights. Erkan advised they would provide a bottle of “champagne” cider really, a bowl of fruit & give us 25 euros towards a massage each as compensation as we made it very clear we were really unhappy with this situation as anyone would be, we are on our holidays and you don’t expect this sort of thing. The third day arrived so we checked back at reception to find Erkan was on a day off and the rooms we had paid for were still not available, the chap behind reception advise they had two rooms available with very small balcony so we moved rooms on the proviso that this would be sorted again properly next day – still can’t unpack. One of the rooms over looked the bins which is unacceptable for any hotel, I mean imagine, you’ve spent a day on the beach and you have a beer/drink on your balcony whilst having a good whiff of the bins, the other room was acceptable for a good night’s sleep. Next morning we went again to reception to find Erkan for a rather uncomfortable conversation for him where we walked away with the rooms that we should have had the first night we arrived, bliss at last – we could actually unpack our cases and not live like a travelling sales-person. These rooms were quite comfortable and spacious and it meant we could actually start to relax and unwind properly three days into our holiday. During one of the conversations with Erkan he was swearing quite opening in front of my partner and myself, I advised him to watch his language but he continued in a very unprofessional way.
The hotels grounds were quite nice and set out good, things just seemed to flow well and you knew where things were pretty quickly, plenty of sun beds available with very good choice of locations in which to perfect that tan. The food choices in the main restaurant were amazingly good however not geared towards us brits, nothing was bland but it was always something with a twist – the food was never hot, it was luke warm at best, the a la carte restaurants were pretty fabulous, we had the Italian once and the Thai twice, we tried to book the Italian again but did not happen, both of these we really really good, they had a special welcome with service to match, the food was exceptional and hot they both were truly great and would recommend. The Pizza’s in the yoruk tent were really very good, you could choose your own toppings and the pizza would go into the log oven, two minutes later out came the most delicious pizza – are you reading pizza hut???? The curries that were cooked outside on two occasions were really very good, one was for black and white night and the other to celebrate the end of Ramadan – again the staff were very good.
The staff were pretty good in the food and drink areas they had a chat and were always seen to be playing/communicating with the children onsite and were always willing to have a bit of banter which makes you feel welcome and gives you that good feeling, this is with the exception of the bar staff in the select bar “inside near reception” the waitresses were great but the bar staff were arrogant pigs really, would make you wait around etc for no reason, you barely got a grunt out of them, if you were paying for drinks there you would just go to another bar.
The hotels entertainment team seemed to do a pretty good job, very friendly and always outgoing with a very good quality of not being in your face and pushing you to join in things, the evening shows were a little repetitive always dance related shows, it’s a shame they don’t do audience participation events/things like most other countries as these sort of events are good fun and a laugh and just make you feel like you are having a great time. Our mum had a go at the aqua-aerobics but she found this very hard going and she is in pretty good health, we sat and watched on a different day and we thought the pool was too deep for this activity “neck height” but it was also way to hard for the average healthy person, they had two dancers who were very very flexible and fit doing the aerobics but no-one seemed to be able to follow all the moves, this should be made easier for all ages, sizes & abilities.
After a few days of being here we realised that not everything was included in the all inclusive package even though we read on the brochure it was therefore we started calling it half inclusive, the tennis courts were free but you had to hire the rackets and balls at 10 euros per hour, in the breakfast restaurant you could have freshly squeezed orange juice but at a price – this was brought around by a waiter and offered to you, popped on your table then you was expected to pay – not many people did and looked offended at the thought of paying, we asked for a local rum and coke at the bar but were advised this was chargeable, gin and tonic was free, you couldn’t have a bloody mary but you could have a vodka and tomato juice and add your own worcester sauce, salt ‘n pepper.
First impressions of the Hotel Lara Beach are very good but after a few days the cracks start to show, I actually sat on a chair in the select bar which broke and trapped my skin in the arm of the chair, this chair was taken away and we saw another chair break two days later, most of the chairs were quite unstable and appeared to have been glued over and over again. One night we wanted a coffee following a night in the disco, it was around 1am and we went to the select bar to use the coffee machine on the table only to be told the machine was closed, I laughed and advised the bar person a machine does not close, but they still said it was closed – oh well – the rooms could do with tea and coffee facilities really. We got talking to another couple of guests who by the seems of things had the same arrival experience as us and had to play room swapping games as the rooms they had paid for were not available upon arrival, this seemed to be quite a common occurrence, and you could often see people at reception from the select bar with animated actions as if they were unhappy with something or other, sometimes you could even hear them sounding annoyed/angry and using the rep to sort out some issues. Last year we went to an all inclusive place in the Dominican Republic and that was so fantastic it was unreal, the Lara Beach Hotel could do with a lesson or two on a Caribbean all inclusive experience.
I know for sure that none of us would go back to this supposed five star hotel again.
