Aska Lara Resort and Spa

Just returned from a family friendly holiday of a week at the end of September. Despite the sometimes rainy weather, we had an enjoyable week. We stayed in the main building (read a lot of reviews slating the river suites so glad we didn’t get put there) which was a few mins shuttle bus away from the wet n wild park. We genuinely didn’t wait longer than 5 mins for the shuttle to come at any point and the food in that part of the resort was always great, especially the fish and chips.

Rooms were decent sized and clean. Food at the buffet was better than expected - themed nights included tacos, sushi, burgers etc. I don’t think the children’s restaurant is advertised as much as it should be - I overheard one family talking about it so asked and I then proceeded to tell another 2 families about it as they had no idea about the outdoor area with toddler food etc

My 2.5 year old loved the mini disco every night but I did think it was a little late at 830pm. I think the hotel would benefit from starting a dinner service at 6pm rather than 630pm. I also thought it was a little odd that the rides and trampolines only opened between 8 and 9pm. 8pm is difficult to make with children when dinner is at 630. Then if you go to the disco, the rest of the entertainment like rides and trampolines are then shut when it’s over which is disappointing!

Didn’t have a problem with sunbeds as there are plenty around the multiple pools, grass, beach etc booked a beach cabana for a day which was actually our favourite day of the weeks holiday, it was very relaxing and just a different day to being by the pool.

All in all, a great holiday where the resort grew on us over the week. I wouldn’t say it is a 5 star luxury resort but definitely a 4 plus family friendly resort and we would be happy to return.

Extremely disappointing experience – certainly not a five-star standard

We have recently returned from a stay at the Askalara Resort and Spa in Antalya, and unfortunately, I feel compelled to share our experience because we were extremely disappointed with the hotel, particularly given that it is advertised as a five-star resort.

To begin with, the rooms were nowhere near the standard I would expect from a five-star hotel. I have stayed in three-star hotels with rooms that were just as good, if not better. While the hotel may look impressive from the outside, the rooms certainly did not give us a five-star experience.

However, our biggest concern was what happened to our grandson during our stay. He became very poorly with hand, foot and mouth disease, which we believe he contracted after using the hotel swimming pool.

Our son and daughter-in-law took him to hospital, where they were told by a doctor that there had been numerous cases of hand, foot and mouth involving guests from our hotel. When we raised this with the hotel, we felt that our concerns were dismissed and that we were effectively being accused of lying. The hotel simply insisted that its pools were clean and that everything was as it should be.

What made this even more concerning was that we subsequently found a previous review from 2017 in which another parent described their child developing the same illness while staying at the hotel. That raised serious questions for us about whether this is an issue that has occurred before.

We were also extremely disappointed by the hotel's response regarding isolation. We later saw a response from the hotel to another review claiming that guests affected by hand, foot and mouth were asked to remain in their rooms until they were no longer contagious. This was absolutely not our experience. At no point were we asked to isolate or told that our grandson should remain in the room.

In fact, because we also had another young grandchild with us, including an 11-week-old baby, we took it upon ourselves to keep the children separated as much as possible to try to prevent the baby from becoming infected. We did this because we were concerned about the baby's health, not because the hotel instructed us to.

Despite everything our family had been through, we received no meaningful sympathy or support from the management. The hotel manager was particularly unsympathetic when we explained how ill our grandson had become.

Then, to make matters even worse, we were charged €50 for two small bathroom foot towels because the children, who were only one and two years old, had accidentally spilled a drink on them. Given the circumstances and the fact that we had already experienced what we felt was a serious health and customer-service issue, we found this charge extremely unreasonable and upsetting.

There was also another issue that concerned us greatly. Our son and daughter-in-law told us that, after taking our grandson to the hotel doctor, he was diagnosed with hand, foot and mouth almost immediately, apparently before a proper examination had taken place. They were then referred to hospital, where they ultimately incurred costs of more than £600.

We were subsequently told by other guests about allegations that the hotel doctor and hospital had some kind of arrangement whereby the hotel doctor received a commission for referring guests to the hospital. We cannot independently verify this allegation, so I am not presenting it as fact, but given our own experience, we feel it is important to mention that this was something we were told by other guests.

Overall, this was an extremely distressing experience for our whole family, particularly seeing our grandson become so poorly while we were supposed to be enjoying a family holiday. What made matters worse was the way we felt our concerns were handled by the hotel afterwards.

A five-star hotel should provide not only attractive surroundings but also high standards of cleanliness, appropriate customer care and genuine concern when a child becomes seriously unwell during a stay. Unfortunately, that was not our experience.

Based on our experience, I would not recommend this hotel for families travelling with young children. The hotel may look like a five-star resort from the outside, but in our experience, the rooms, customer service and the way our health concerns were handled fell considerably short of what we would expect from a five-star hotel.

This holiday was meant to create happy family memories. Instead, it became an extremely stressful and upsetting experience that none of us will forget.

Would just like to say. What a lovely time we had at the activities we did this year. Don’t usually get involved but we did this time and it made memories to our holiday. Xx