Lara World Hotel & Spa — Hotel in Muratpaşa

Lara world turkey. ||Thursday 29 th Sept|We arrived in Antalya and went straight to the taxi rank. The taxi took us to Lara World Hotel and cost 45 Turkish Lira which was £12 with our exchange rate. Which was ace, as the last time we came to turkey the transfer was booked with the package and took HOURS! we checked in and went up to the room and read the letter that we had been given. |This gave us information such as the food dining times as we were all inclusive, however reading further on we realised that there isn't any alcohol included. Considering we are two mummies who had come away together to relax and have a few drinks, this wasn't good. We went downstairs to ask and sure enough all alcohol was an extra cost. So our "All inclusive" was not all inclusive. Luckily I had bought a bottle of Archers at the airport ( as the local alcohol they normally serve at all inclusive hotels gets a bit too much so bought some with me for a break from what was given out ) well thank god I did. Cos that's what's we've been adding to our "all inclusive" sprites! |We had a couple of drinks and then went to bed. ||Friday 30 th Sept. |We had a pretty good nights sleep, the rooms are tidy and clean. Although my friend, who slept nearest the door had the light and bright clock shinning in her face as the curtains don't fully close ! |We went down to breakfast of bread and butter as there was nothing else to eat really. |Once we'd eaten we headed out to the pool and grabbed a sun bed. The weather was beautiful and so we got hot pretty quick and went to go into the pool for a dip. My Friend lent on the steps into the pool and as she went to step on them she realised that's they were split down the middle. Someone walking by pulled them out and began repairing them. So we decided to just go in the children's splash pool to cool down. OMG. The pool was so cold it took your breath away. It took us both around ten minutes to actually get in this temperature do not change throughout the day and didn't seem to warm up when the sun was on it. |We headed inside for lunch , which wasn't much better than breakfast. Serving salads, pasta, rice and liver. 😷|After lunch we headed back out to the pool for a bit and decided to check out the private beach the hotel has listed as 200 yards away on the booking.com website. |Well we never found it ! We walked for ages and there was no way it was 200 yards away like stated.,as the guy at reception told us it was a five minute walk. |We returned back to the hotel for diner and the evening entertainment. |Dinner was the best meal of the day. There was couple of types of chicken , rice, salads and soup. We waited till 9 pm for the evening entertainment and then finally went to the front desk and they told us the evening entertainment was just down the Rd. I don't really think he understood what we were asking. |||Saturday 1 st oct. |Today we woke up and went to breakfast of bread and nutella. Then got our towels at set up by the freezing pool. 🏊🏽 |The weather was beautiful so needed to cool off in the pool a lot. But still not an enjoyable experience due to how freezing it was. Lunch was better as they served chicken today. Then we went back to the pool for a bit. And then got changed and went out to explore. |We got a bus to a market ( although we got off at the wrong place ) so we looked round the area and begin walking back. We stumbled on a place called the Burger Pub which we stopped and ate dinner at. Was really nice. Will give them a separate review. Then came back and went to our room to watch something on the iPad as there was absolutely no evening entertainment( as stated in the booking 😡) ||Sunday 2nd Oct |Same thing really. Hotel pool still cold. Food still pretty average. No entertainment. No 🍺 alcohol! |We went into Antayla and found a bazaar ( market ) really nice time looking around. ||Monday 3rd Oct |Today is our last day. We missed breakfast as wanted to chill out. We ve paid extra to keep the room until 8 pm. |30 euros. |So spent the morning chilling ( as my friend wasn't feeling great ) |Then went down for lunch ( of bread and oil and vinegar as yet again there was nothing to eat ) and headed to the basement / Turkish spa for a massage.|Wowsers! This spa is the BEST thing around this hotel. 25 euros for a massage and it was fab. Wish we'd gone sooner in the holiday as would have fitted another one in before leaving. ||So I would not recommend this hotel. Especially as it s listed as all inclusive. And I wouldn't book through booking.com again as not all the information was correct. ||Love...

This review is our personal and honest reflection of our stay from 19.06.2021-26.06.2021.

Pro tip when you come in Turkey: always have Google translate or a dictionary at you 24/7!!! Nobody speaks English!! You will barely understand each other. This can be normal on the streets, but I find it very unpleasant at the hotel where we couldnt communicate with nobody and we had to show photos or use google translate (sometimes we forgot our phones in the room). The staff is decent, they lack any English skills, but sometimes they seemed like they are on holiday, not us. There is one employee at the reception that looks like he smokes weed 24/7...he was always useless, we could not understand each other and when we were talking to him he always looked like he was ready to burst into a big laughter which seemed very rude. Thank God for the lady that spoke very good German at the reception, we managed to get some answers for our questions. The concept of "all-inclusive" at Lara World Hotel is different than what we had experienced in the past (Spain, Bulgaria, etc.). We had our reservation booked for "ultra all-inclusive" in which we had also a snack bar. The moment we came in, they told us that there is no snack bar...ok, no problem, lets pass this...but we soon came to realize very quickly that even the buffet was also nonexistent (see photos). Yes, we had 3 meals a day, but they gave us what they want and it was mostly the same food recycled. We could not choose from anything, hence the buffet concept. When I asked for kebab, baklava and french fries they had the audacity to tell me that those are extra and I had to pay for them. Say what? This defies the concept of all-inclusive, doesnt it? We asked the staff why is it like this if we already paid for all-inclusive, they told us that they cannot do anything and it is what it is, whether you like it or not. Dont get me wrong, the food was very tasty, very good, but poorly diversified and the portions are very small. We came here to taste the Turkish cuisine, not to eat the same food that we have back at home. It seemed to me like the management was very poor when it came to food. The wasted food was a lot more from how they served us rather than the buffet, because sometimes half of the food we didnt like and they had to throw it away; at least at buffet we would have taken what we liked and the needed quantity...this is just my opinion. I dont know, maybe we were unlucky due to COVID and things were like this. The room we stood in was decent, cleaned daily, the AC was working, everything was in order. The hotel has it`s own beach where you get lounges and umbrella which was nice. Also the food there was very good. Overall we are sorry, but we did not feel that famous Turkish hospitality that everyone was talking about (at least, not at the Hotel). It sometimes felt like a bad joke especially when it came to food...a bad joke for which we paid money and we had to pay more money at other restaurants to taste the Turkish cuisine (Kebab, baklava, Turkish coffee, ayran etc.) because the hotel did not feel like sharing this experience with us. The area is wonderful, the city is beautiful, we are definitely coming back to this area, but under these circumstances and the experience, unfortunately we will be choosing another hotel from the...

Only two workers knew proper English, really hard to ask anything unless there was an receptionist who knew some English. We got several times wrong info from the staff.

Rooms were good, lot of space and very good air conditioning. TV was okay, basic news channels and Russian channels. they cleaned the room and changed the sheets/towels everyday. WiFi was okay, but nothing to brag on. The shower was clogged the whole time we were there for a week, even tho I told them twice about it.

The private beach that they have is like 5-8 min walk from the hotel, not right next to it! Don't let the pictures fool you. The hotels pool is pretty good, it was a bit dirty tho when we were there on off season.

Hotel also had quite good events like belly dancer on one evening and Turkish dancers on one weekend during our stay. But one day they promoted guests to a SOHO club, that was a total tourist trap (cheapest table and 2 drinks was 350 lira's, which is around 50€/$). Locals told us that they pay nothing from the cheapest table and their drinks are 20 lira each. From a hotel to advertise such a club is simply unacceptable. Staff that weren't so good at English straight up avoided to serve us. Some on the staff send messages from their private phones to our female friends via Whatsapp to flirt. GUESTS INFO IS CONFIDENTIAL and not to be used or spread to others or used on personal things. Guest should be treated equally, in-spite of their home country or language or male/female. We talked to other guests and noticed that we had very variable prices on different offered trips and services.

Food was quite bland and usually cold. usually the rice and gravy was good. the food from outside grill, specially evenings was really good tho. salad offerings were good too.

Top points to the two employees that were able to speak proper english. The handyman who got us from the airport and provided us our car etc. he was very reasonable and kind to us. Also the nice young lady was very good to us in every way. Top 5 stars for...