Sherwood Exclusive Lara

The staf and services was all perfect, but Hasim in the pavilion was best man and best servises and always smiling.

** HONEST AND FACT BASED REVIEW** So, I’ve given this review a 1 star in the hope it draws attention to the hotel owners and provides people with a fact based assessment. We were travelling as a family with our 15 year old son. To also give context, we have travelled extensively cross the globe – Thailand, The United States, France, Germany, Spain, The Canary Islands (many times), Canada, Italy, Tunisia, The Balearic Islands, Greece and the UK. And we have stayed in genuine 5 star hotels right through to basic 2 star self catering accommodation. This is classed as a five star hotel – and I believe a hotel star rating is still heavily based on the facilities it offers. So, because this hotel has a number of pools, a gym, a tennis court, a number of restaurants and bars, lifts etc – this will be why it’s rated as 5 stars so factually correct. Sadly our experience was more 2 stars. Check in process was smooth, little information given about the hotel but this never bothers us as we’re happy to explore any hotel / resort ourselves. However, we opened the door to our room and were met with the overpowering stench of stale cigarette smoke. In over 45 years of staying in hotels I’ve never experienced this – even in the most basic hotels. As it was late we decided to raise this the following morning – guest relations said someone would resolve this. The ‘fix’ seemed to be a quick spray of air freshner which didn’t even last the time we spent by the pool during the day. We could’ve asked to move but the thought of having to repack suitcases to move rooms just didn’t appeal. Also, one of the panes of glass on the balcony had a crack at the top of it. Not sure how safe this made it and were 6 floors up. Rooms weren’t really cleaned – just beds made up. The mini bar (fridge) in the room also wasn’t restocked daily either. Air con worked well in the room. Showers were OK – no lack of hot water. Bathrooms were cramped for size. Next day we visited the buffet restaurant for breakfast. If you are able to avoid peak times (between 8am-9am) I would as it’s incredibly busy. I’m not going to comment on the quality of food as that’s subjective. I enjoyed the good selection of fresh fruit. There was an omelette station which was popular so often had a queue. I put a ladle into the pot of scrambled eggs to discover it had a consistency of runny porridge. There was a small selection of gluten free bread. Fruit juices were also fresh and served to your table. After breakfast, we settled into what became our routine. We visited the ‘relax pool’ – over 16’s only. Nice that common sense prevailed and our 15 year old son was allowed in. He’s 6” 1’ so taller than most adults at this pool. The 16+rule is really to prevent much smaller kids entering this area. The adults pool itself was quite warm and water clean. However, a glass panel was missing at the end of the pool which overlooks the bigger family pool below. The remaining glass panels looked like they hadn’t been cleaned for months. We noticed 2 empty glasses had been put in the corner at the edge of the pool and stayed there for days. There were enough sunbeds at this pool but not enough parasols – it needed another 10 or so parasols as on some days the temperature rose as high as 45 degrees C. Also, some of the parasols that were available were broken. The small tables next to the sunbeds weren’t cleaned in the time we visited (a week). There were smallish plant pot type receptacles to put rubbish into. These were emptied daily. The larger pool underneath was much much cooler and offered real relief from the sun. We had the young men and ladies on roller skates delivering drinks for you (iced coffee in the mornings was very nice). There simply weren’t enough of these brilliant skaters as on average they would visit the adults pool maybe 4-5 times a day. Not an issue for us as we were happy enough to walk to the bars ourselves too. We used the medieval restaurant and Pranzo restaurants for lunches. The first couple of time we visited the medieval bar, the wrong food was delivered to us and mine wasn’t delivered at all. No huge issue as a friendly chat with the waiter sorted this. The bolognese / pasta dishes were freshly made. The Pranzo restaurant had a good selection of food choices plus fresh fruit to help yourself. Yes there are 3-4 cats in each of these restaurants – but every single cat would sit a slight distance away from people. If the cats weren’t thrown the odd bit of food from cat friendly people, they would simply walk away. The water slides are very good – for kids and adults. But, the wooden steps you take to get to the top of the slides are rotting and the metal work is rusting. For evening meals, we used the buffet restaurant 6 out of 7 days. On our first night we asked for white wine to go with our meal. Now….I can drink just about anything, I can even stomach a £3.99 budget supermarket bottle of white wine – but usually drink wine at £7.50 to £9 a bottle back in the UK. But whatever white wine is served here…..horrendous. My wife tried the sparkling wine and said it was jut about passable but nowhere near chilled enough. I tried the Rose wine thinking it might be better than the white. Nope. We spent most evenings in the lobby bar which was pretty chilled most nights. Although one night we did see a group of about 10 lads playing cards and drinking games. About two hours later, one of the lads had to be carried to his bed. We saw similar ‘high jinks’ at the adults only pool another day. A group of young ladies enjoying the pool with a bottle of prosecco at the edge of the pool. This time two hours later one of the girls was obviously drunk and was repeatedly sick into one of the plant pot / rubbish receptacles. We walked past that same receptacle the next day and discovered the sick had been emptied out of it – but not cleaned. There are also not enough lifts in the hotel – four in total that I was aware of. Be prepared to wait several minutes for one to arrive. Or – like we did many a time, give up and use the stairs. By the middle of our stay we really were wondering why everyone back in the UK has raved about hotels in Turkey for the past 10 years or so. We have had many family all inclusive holidays mainly in the Canary Islands and they have been reasonably OK – but none trying to present themselves as 5 star luxury – just good enough. We priced a similar weeks holiday in Tenerife (main priority being a connecting room for our teenage son) – this came in at £4,800 all inclusive at a Barcelo hotel. Our stay at the Sherwood cost an extra £400 – but we thought the incredible extras we’d been told about at Turkey hotels would justify this. Sadly not. Fortunately, we got chatting to a lovely family also from the UK. They have done a lot of holidays in Turkey across a few areas / resorts – and have stayed in a number of the hotels along Lara beach. We were so relived to hear them say this was without doubt the worst hotel in Turkey they have ever stayed at. So it wasn’t just our experience and us being worried that we were being overly critical. I must say the staff on the ground were very good but over worked – I don’t think there is anywhere near enough of them. My lasting impression of this hotel is that the owners are sweating their asset. I felt as though their priority is to maximise profits and minimise costs. This feels a short term business model as we certainly won’t return to this hotel and will be sharing our experience of this hotel with people back here in the UK. For those people leaving 5 star glowing reviews – I can only imagine their expectations are incredibly low. Conversely I wouldn’t say ours are ridiculously high either, but this hotel on many occasions couldn’t get the basics right.