Our alarm went off at 01.30, hardly worth going to bed and we drove to the airport. The flight was on time, our resort hoppa lift was waiting for us and we arrived at the Kervansaray Lara Hotel at 6.40am! We were so tired and decided if they wouldn’t let us into a room (official checking in time 2.00pm), that we would sleep in the reception lobby. The guy behind reception remarked how early we were but said it was no problem and gave us the key. The porter took our cases up to the room. Our first impressions of the hotel was how dark everything was with under floor minimal lighting, the porter told us that lighting went off at 5.00am and it doesn’t get light until about 7.
By this time it was breakfast time, so down to breakfast, then back to our room for a sleep. An hour and we were fine to go exploring the hotel and grounds. We were not given a map of where all the facilities were, they don’t seem to have one. We spent most of the day on the pier down at the beach and in the beach bar which was really nice. Lunch was fresh barbecued fish, Mal had burger and chips!! I can imagine an ambiance like the beach bar, right on the beach in Cyprus, the cost for two sunbeds, our lunch and drinks alone would work out the same price as we have paid for the entire day and night here, including our board.
I have to say we felt it was not the standard of the Concorde Hotel where we had stayed previously but once we discovered things like the machine coffee was awful but if you have espresso and then topped it up with cappuccino then it was much improved. Food choice was plentiful and whatever your taste, you would have found something to your liking although we discovered some things that weren’t to our taste and we are not fussy eaters. Mal was disappointed that there was no Efes, in fact no bottled beers at all, just Tuborg on draught. Our mini ‘bar’ in the room only had one carton of fruit juice, a small bottle of Pepsi, a fizzy water and a large bottle of water, hardly a bar!
In the evening we ate our dinner in the outside area of the main restaurant, again masses of choice and some excellent fruit and vegetable sculptures on one of the many buffet tables. The all inclusive house wine was very good, which is unusual. The classification of this hotel was 5 star, more like a UK 3 star but value for the money we paid. It was a long day so after coffees and brandy we went to bed so didn’t sample the entertainment, another day! One of the features of the hotel is the dim lighting and a lot is under glass on the floor, it takes some getting used to! A red stripe of light also goes through the floor of your room and outside to show up your room number, again on the floor.
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