Sherwood Exclusive Lara — Hotel in Aksu

Visited this hotel through a Jet2 holiday package deal during the Christmas period 2024. For a British solo traveller and had previously visited multiple places in Antalya for holiday and Istanbul for business in Türkiye, this was the first time visiting Lara Breach and Sherwood Exclusive Hotel. From the volume positive reviews and seeing reviews on u-tube, I booked this hotel even knowing it is a family resort. I would say this review is more for British travellers as we have certain expectations and requirements when holidaying. The hotel is a four star (not five*) and needs at least half a million (£) pounds for renovation in rooms, updating décor and investment to modernise standards. Rooms were standard, fully kitted but no access to TV apps. 3 channels of English, BBC and sky news. Advice bring a HDMI cable to connect TV to your laptop so you can watch your Netflix or Prime app for movies if you wish. ||I faced several minor issues from the day I arrived, not happy with the room, (even though I emailed them and Jet2 holidays, 2 weeks beforehand for a request depending on availability). Received response from the Sherwood head office not the resort) wanted a quite room away from all family guests, room locks do not work, changed rooms however on my floor, received continuous drunken argumentative guests and children running in corridors at 2am in the morning. Housekeeping, entering rooms even through the Do Not Disturb sign is on, good job I was fully clothed, even my last day I was sleeping, and they knocked and entered the room, had to shout out I am sleeping! NO door viewer (peephole). ||Limited English speakers for communicating in the hotel, thank goodness for Google AI translation. Power cuts, internet knocks out daily at 5.30pm up to 10 min due to overload. ||Beach bar only opened 2 days during the 10 days stay due to the daily torrential rain weather in December. However, I was soo fortunate to experience and video the lovely lady who made authentic fresh Borek, which is cheese, spinach, and potato pastry. It was delicious, fresh, and wished I eaten that every lunch time. The beach bar restaurant had a stone baked pizza oven which pizzas were created, fresh and delicious. In the main restaurant, I am a healthy eater and cannot eat certain meat products due to religion and health. The main restaurant food was bland, repetitive. I totally understand All inclusive hotels and food consumption, however they could be more creative with their ingredients so there is no waste. ||Only exciting dishes was the daily fresh fruit and salad bar which was brilliant. Fish served daily sea bream or mackerel. Only 2 days of Lamb stew. Daily was beef, chicken, beef, and chicken, sorry did I forget to mention they had beef! There were hardly any authentic Turkish dishes, which is the best part about being in Türkiye, their food is amazing, however at this resort is chips/burger/pizza everywhere – yuk! They could even have tried by serving Turkish pizza Lahmacun at least!||Drinks was alcoholic and non-alcoholic was brilliant with branded drinks available. However, at the indoor bar when I ordered Turkish coffee, it was like a chore for the bar lady, Yes Turkish coffee takes time to make. ||The Gym facilities were excellent, fully equipment, towels, water bottles and even weighing scales. The rep was fantastically helpful, welcoming, and able to speak English! ||The positive of the trip, I bought a separate Spa package at the resort for self-indulgence. My first time experiencing a traditional Turkish bath for 30min, 90 min massage and facial. Got a discounted price and did feel it was value for money. The staff and lady who looked after me was amazing in terms of her approach of kindness and friendliness. This spa package made my trip more memorial without this Spa company the hotel would be questionable as a resort. ||The grand finale of issues was one access to book an al a cart restaurant, which again from the multiple reviews online booked the Mongolian. Google what types of food this is, which sounded interesting of lamb and seafood dumplings. However, this was not the case, one of the worst restaurants I had visited! Basically, Japanese stir fry noodles dishes. I had a terrible experience in this restaurant, where it was seating for sixty and only there was twelve guests in the restaurant at 8pm. No explanation forms the waiter on how to order the food. The waiter then ushered me to choose your ingredients so the chief can make it. I chose seafood and Raman noodles, to then receive a chicken noodle dish. Waiter sent it back, round two, got beef noodle dish. By then I felt humiliated and embarrassed, then watching the waiter and chef argue, party of ten guests from another table watching the whole commotion. An episode of “Faulty Towers.” I quietly whispered to the waiter, “do not worry I will find my dinner upstairs” and left. Never in my life have I ever walked out of a restaurant without eating. Main Restaurant closed at 9pm, had to wait 1 hour for the midnight restaurant to open at 10pm to finally eat. Then visited the guest relations to express my disappointment. Received an apology and two free additional al a cart. I was requested to meet the supervisor of guest relations the next morning face to face. Nothing came of that meeting, pointless. Italian al a cart was average, never had a pizza on a chapatti bread before, the salmon was the much better. The Turkish al a cart was the best option. At least it was authentic. ||The little night club was a great space to have on site from 11pm-2am but DJ questionable on the tacky dance music, would have preferred just running the UK or USA chart music on a laptop rather than relentless noise. ||In doors swimming pool, sauna, steam room, pool and Turkish bathroom all packed with families, children due to the weather, no space. Overall, this resort is not for solo travellers, or brits. Guests were Russian, Eastern European, or locals and for children entertainment with an arcade room and access to all the facilities for adults. ||HUGE SHOUT OUT to the employees that made my stay worth it. Without them, I would have given up. Zekiye the cleaner was was excellent and professional, Sevim – Restaurant server in 16+ room, Ayse – Guest Relations who listened to my complaint that night. ||Would I visit again,...

Genuinely from the moment we stepped foot inside it was disappointing. I'm not sure how the hotel gets so many good reviews! We will definitely NOT return here nor to the Lara Beach area.||Let's start with the few good points the hotel has:||The grounds were generally nice, the number of pools, the beach area and the layout. Plenty of bars, places to eat and toilet facilities.||SOME of the staff were very good and friendly but not all. The ones who were, were lovely and they were absolutely fabulous with our toddler. ||Standard rooms were a decent size and the second bed was a proper bed whereas some hotels just offer a sofa type bed.||We found the dining area decent, especially compared to some other hotels. It was nice that the seating areas were separate to the food hall.|| ||We liked the Turkish pizzas and fresh savoury crepe like things located at a small undercover area on the left towards the beach. Found it difficult with the language barrier though and no signage whatsoever to tell you what the food is, so we just ordered and hoped for the best!|| ||........and that's pretty much where the good points end.||Now for the bad: |- late night arrival with very young children, no cot in room even though they said there was when we checked in so had to ring down and wait for one to be bought up. I'd even requested one on our booking. ||- Only place to eat (late night arrival) was down in a dinghy restaurant that was table service only. No food left in the room or snacks available to take. This was really disappointing as our littlest just needed a small bite to eat /snack before going to bed. The last thing we wanted to do was go and sit and wait for food to be prepared. The food was also rubbish and very basic. ||-First night we woke up early hours absolutely sweltering.....the aircon had broken. It was 28 degrees in the room. Went to reception to report. Air-conditioning fixed later that day but the exact same kept happening night after night. It was like the air-conditioning was set to stop at 2am. Aircon in general around the hotel was pretty poor, it was so stuffy in there and some days you could feel no difference whatsoever between outside and inside temps. They were clearly having issues as there were buckets placed under some of the air-conditioning vents to catch dripping water. We also had an incident one night where a big puddle of water appeared at our seating area. The staff were terrible in terms of health and safety and couldn't even understand when we were asking for a mop to clean it up (more so as we had children with us and it was on the hard floor). No warning signs were put up and they took ages to clean it up. We moved and we later saw them open the aircon vent and load of water gushed out!!! ||- Main restaurant food I didn't find too bad but I'm not a fussy person. However others in our group really didn't rate it. I did find that sometimes they just didn't replace dishes after so long which was really odd. It's like they started closing down a while before the restaurant was actually due to close. ||- Beach and pool restaurants food very basic. Fresh pizzas good but the rest was nothing special and exact same menu everyday. Also only table service. ||- DRINKS , oh my goodness they were AWFUL!! Pretty sure the alcohol in cocktails etc was non existent. And the cocktails and drinks in general were terrible. Pretty sure they just made it up as they went along, you never quite knew what you were going to get and they didn't taste as they should. Saw them putting the wrong spirits in the wrong drink multiple times (if they didn't have rum for example they'd just use something else and give you that!). The only drinks you were okay with knowing what you're getting were the wine, beer and Prosecco. Soft drinks were hit and miss sometimes VERY watered down but then sometimes the juices at breakfast weren't watered down at all and were like drinking syrup....they were actually undrinkable. ||- Cleaning around the sunloungers was poor. Most days there would various bits of litter around and you could see where drinks had been spilled. The floor in the waterpark area was particularly bad, everyday it just looked dirty and in need of a good clean! It was also extremely slippy around the waterpark area on wet tiles, really dangerous and not enough of the blue mat/walkways in that area around the pools. ||- Booked the cabanas twice and the first time we arrived and it hadnt been cleaned and tidied properly, there was mess either from the previous day or from the evening, really disappointing again  they're not cheap and you'd think they'd check each morning  before guests arrive. Service was very slow at times, we'd be waiting ages for drinks we'd ordered and wondered if they'd actually forgotten. ||- On arrival the floor in our room hadnt been cleaned propwrly and the table leg was half hanging off. Found parts of the hotel really dated, especially the main reception/lobby area, not at all what I expected when we first arrived. ||- Booked the mongolian restaurant.....dont bother. Absolutely not worth it as food was very meh and again they were extremely slow. It went dark while we were eating and you could barely see anything as not enough lighting outside around the tables. Some family were sitting in complete darkness and couldn't actually see their food! ||- Lara Beach area, very rundown, same shops one after the other,not a nice place and want pleasant to even go out for a walk. I would completely avoid this area again. ||Like i say, this hotel seems to get good reviews but I have absolutely no idea how. Everyone in our group was disappointed with it. We absolutely won't be...

Dear Sherwood Exclusive Lara Management,||This is not a review I wanted to write, but honesty compels me to share the truth,|After having enjoyed stays at several hotels in Lara, I regret to say that my decision to choose your hotel was an unmitigated mistake. I booked Sherwood Exclusive Lara with high hopes, encouraged by carefully considered reviews and a price tag that suggested premium quality. However, what I experienced was far from “exclusive”—in fact, it was a misadventure of epic proportions, worthy of being rebranded as Fawlty Towers: The Sequel.||False Advertising: Where's the "5-Star"?||Let’s start with the elephant in the room—your advertised 5-star rating (or Jet2’s generous 4-star “plus”). This classification feels like a distant memory, a relic of a bygone era when perhaps the hotel was deserving. Today, your establishment is an underwhelming, shabby shadow of what it claims to be.||Tiring Facilities, Tiring Stay||The hotel itself is a maze of wear and tear. A rainy day unveiled leaks in the main reception bar and other areas, making the property seem more like a sinking ship than a luxury retreat. A supposedly “exclusive” hotel shouldn’t have guests dodging puddles.|The lifts are a nightmare, with long waits and poor design. Ladies beware..these offer lobby spectators an unwelcome view up your skirt. As for the stairs? Spiral and downright dangerous.||Customer Service: An Oxymoron||Your staff’s general demeanor could be summed up as a masterclass in indifference. While a handful of bar staff and waiters were pleasant, the majority seemed unmotivated, rude, or outright dismissive. The evident understaffing only exacerbated this issue, with bars and restaurants delivering excruciatingly slow service. Here’s a thought: if a guest can fetch drinks faster than your team, perhaps self-service stations might be worth considering.||Dining: The Guessing Game||The buffet was a monotonous parade of poorly labeled food. For non-beef eaters like me, it was frustrating to decipher which meat was which. When I raised the issue, I was told labels were “being printed.” Unsurprisingly, they never materialized. The food itself was repetitive and lacked variety or quality, leaving several guests with upset stomachs.||One bright spot? The Mongolian à la carte restaurant. It’s excellent—just a shame the rest of the dining experience couldn’t follow suit.||Cats, Cats Everywhere||I can appreciate a pet-friendly environment, but when cats roam freely in dining and bar areas, even the staunchest feline enthusiast might question hygiene standards. My allergy, coupled with streaming eyes, became a daily nuisance. Complaints to management about this were met with shrugged shoulders and apathy—a fitting metaphor for the overall approach to guest concerns.||Room Conditions: Tired, Faulty, and Frustrating||The rooms were a lottery of disappointment. From shower doors on the verge of collapse to lifting laminate flooring, the accommodations were tired and uninspired. Housekeeping was unreliable, hot water was unavailable for five days, and the air-conditioning seemed to only circulate warm air. Guest Relations’ promises to address these issues were empty, and neither they nor the Jet2 rep made any tangible effort to resolve them.||New Year’s Eve Gala: A Mixed Bag||Credit where it’s due—the New Year’s Eve gala was well-organized with good entertainment and atmosphere. However, the vegetarian options were dismal, and the fireworks “announcement” turned into a bizarre bait-and-switch when we realized Sherwood didn’t have its own display. Watching neighboring hotels celebrate only underscored how subpar this experience was.||SPA or Health Hazard?||Your spa area, much like the rest of the hotel, was in desperate need of attention. Dirty, tatty, and filled with unsupervised children playing ball games in the jacuzzi, it was far from the sanctuary I’d envisioned.||Final Straw: A "Gesture" That Missed the Mark||On the penultimate day, we were finally graced with hot water—just in time to leave. As a parting gesture, the hotel offered a bottle of red wine, fruit, and sweets in our and my son’s rooms. Nice? Hardly. These items were plucked from the buffet, a hollow gesture from an all-inclusive resort. A free massage or à la carte meal would’ve been far more meaningful.||In Summary: A Cautionary Tale||Sherwood Exclusive Lara isn’t exclusive—it’s exhausting. What could have been a relaxing holiday turned into a game of survival. This experience has left me questioning the credibility of any positive reviews and reevaluating Jet2’s standards entirely. Jet2 rep shame on you. You were just interested in selling excursions and took zero responsibility for the hotel issues other than pointing us to Guest Relations, who as you probably guessed, were useless. |I sincerely hope you’ll take this feedback seriously and invest in the hotel’s facilities, staff training, and management overhaul. If not for my sake, then at least for the sake of future guests who still harbor hope of a genuinely...