Aska Lara Resort and Spa

Aska Lara is an absolutely beautiful hotel, with impressive facilities, plenty to do and lots of potential to be an amazing family holiday destination. One of the main things that attracted us to the hotel was the overwhelmingly positive reviews, and while I agree with some of them, I do feel that certain aspects are misleading, particularly when it comes to the food, cleanliness and overall family-friendly experience.

Food and Dining

One of the biggest disappointments for us was the food. Having read so many reviews praising the amazing food and variety, we expected much more. Unfortunately, the food was often cold, and the menu was virtually identical every single evening. For a hotel of this size and standard, I expected much more variety, particularly for children. Considering this is marketed as a family hotel, I was genuinely surprised by the limited choice for younger guests. If you are a picky eater, be prepared to live on chips and spaghetti Bolognese for the week!

The hotel was also incredibly overcrowded. Finding a table at breakfast, lunch or dinner was a struggle at pretty much any time of day. It got so busy that the hotel even opened the kids’ club to accommodate guests for dinner. I honestly cannot imagine how hectic it must be during the peak summer season.

Snack options throughout the day were also disappointing. Other than the same ready-salted crisps at the bar, snack time largely consisted of leftovers from lunch rather than a decent selection of fresh snacks.

The staff often went above and beyond to serve and ensure you always had a drink in hand.

Crowds and Guest Behaviour

While the hotel itself cannot be held responsible for the behaviour of every guest, the sheer lack of consideration from other holidaymakers really affected our experience. We travelled with our baby, so using the lifts with her pram was essential. On numerous occasions, we stood waiting for around 10 minutes, only for able-bodied guests to push in front of us and take the lift first. The same thing happened when queuing for the bus to Wet & Wild. This wasn’t an isolated incident; it happened repeatedly throughout our stay.

Meal times were no different, with people regularly pushing past others who were already waiting in queues. Unfortunately, the general lack of courtesy made an already overcrowded hotel feel even more stressful.

Another issue was the noise at night. A lot of the nightlife continues until around 2 am, and we regularly heard intoxicated guests running up and down the corridors shouting. Our own neighbours were shouting and swearing at each other at 4 am on a regular basis, despite having children with them. This made it difficult to get a decent night’s sleep and really took away from the family-friendly atmosphere we had expected.

Wet & Wild and the Bars

Wet & Wild was definitely one of the highlights of our holiday. There is plenty to do, and the food selection there was great. Although the bus can seem a little inconvenient, it isn’t too bad, and the walk is only around five minutes.

In the evenings, however, the main bar was consistently packed, with huge queues for drinks. We often chose to sit at the Brasserie bar instead, which was much quieter and still offered a good selection of drinks.

All entertainment is over at wet and wild so consider this when booking as you have to get a bus or walk over and during peak times this can be chaos.

Facilities and Additional Costs

Don’t be misled by the advertised cinema, bowling and games centre if you’re expecting these to be included in your all-inclusive package. These facilities come at an additional cost. The same applies to the à la carte restaurants, which also require extra payment. I think this is important for future guests to know when budgeting for their holiday, as these extras can add up.

Room Cleanliness and Maintenance

Unfortunately, the standard of housekeeping and maintenance was another let-down. Our room never felt particularly clean and was often left looking grubby. On one rainy day, we returned to our room at around 4 pm to find it still hadn’t been cleaned. This happened on two occasions, meaning our room went without cleaning for the day.

Our toilet was also broken for the entire week and wouldn’t flush properly. When we contacted reception, a maintenance worker came to inspect it, scratched his head and simply told us to flush it, as though we hadn’t already tried that several times! The issue was never resolved during our stay, which was incredibly frustrating.

Overall Verdict

It’s such a shame because Aska Lara has so much potential. The hotel itself is beautiful, Wet & Wild is fantastic, and there are plenty of facilities to keep families entertained. However, the overcrowding, repetitive and often cold food, limited children’s choices, poor housekeeping, unresolved maintenance issues and inconsiderate behaviour from other guests really let it down.

For us, the experience simply didn’t live up to the expectations created by the glowing reviews. We came away feeling disappointed, particularly because we chose this hotel for a family holiday with our baby and expected a more comfortable, enjoyable and family-friendly experience.

Personally, I wouldn’t return to Aska Lara and wouldn’t recommend it to friends or family based on our experience. It’s a real shame, because with better organisation, more variety in the food, improved cleanliness and maintenance, and a better overall guest experience, this could be an absolutely fantastic hotel.

All up to expectations. A good family oriented resort. The rooms were clean and pleasant. The food was excellent, good quality and a vast choice. An abundance of alchoholic and non alcoholic refreshments . The staff were helpful and friendly. The beach was enjoyable, although the shade for the loungers provided by the hotel nextdoor was superior. An upgrade of the umbrellas would be due. All in all a relaxing and recharging experience for an older couple.

We stayed here for 8 nights and couldn't recommend this hotel enough. Apologies for the essay but I feel like people would appreciate the review as this is what I would've wanted before I went.

Entertainment - one of the best hotel entertainments I've seen to be honest. It starts at 9:30 after the kids entertainment and finished at 10:30. After this, they had different things going on in the bar next to it. The entertainment also changes on the 2nd week to new stuff which is good if you're there for 2 weeks.

Beach and pools - We didn't have to reserve a bed at all which is good. There's always space and beds available, even if you go down later. There's a quiet pool at the main hotel which has no music. And then loads of pools at the waterpark side which are louder pools with music on. The beach is really nice and big too.

Shuttle bus - Theres a shuttle bus which comes every 5-10 minutes which takes you to the waterpark/beach side of the hotel which crosses a main road. You could walk, but I didn't see the point when the shuttle is so regular.

Food - main restaurant buffet style food is good but the food is quite repetitive. The food in the outside back area tends to have nicer food which is more varied. There are snacks bars but they're all on the waterpark/beach side. All nice food but are on a menu instead of buffet style

Rooms - we ended up being in the suites which are the furthest away rooms. Not that far to walk to the main hotel area though. You just walk over a bridge to the reception. I think I actually preferred our suite compared to the regular rooms. We poked our head into the normal hotel rooms which were being cleaned by the maids to compare what they looked like to our suite. Our suite had a bedroom, living room seating area and a kitchen styled area (albeit with no kitchen things in this, except a kettle). The normal hotel rooms seem more updated and stylish than the suites but they were just a small room compared to the suite.

Drinks - choice is really good. They actually have some top shelf spirits that you can request like Jack Daniels, Jim beam. Cocktails are nice but there's not loads of them