Let’s think about your dream vacation… Is it on a heavenly beach in the Caribbean, or maybe Europe? Maybe you want a stunning stay at a ski resort? This article features a brand that has all of this to offer- and more!
In fact, Club Med Resorts offers more than 70 options for your next vacation. This will be a tough decision!
Club Med is a brand that’s been around for 70 years now, having just celebrated its 70th birthday. They were the pioneer of the all-inclusive so for a while they were the only all-inclusive resorts available anywhere. As they expanded their brand and their resort properties, many times they were the first ones to arrive at different destinations which gave them the ability to choose the best location at different locations.
Our special guest today at Travel Talk Thursday with Travel Time is Janet Martin, the BDM for Club Med Resorts for Canada and she’s going to tell us all about what’s new at these wonderful resorts and what the whole Club Med experience is all about.
Scroll to the bottom of this post to watch the video interview!
First of all, safety measures
They call it their safe together initiative and it includes the staff wearing masks all the time. They do ask that guests wear masks as well when they’re inside the resort but when they are outside they don’t need to wear masks.
If you visit a Club Med resort property during the COVID pandemic you’ll find hand sanitizer all over the properties as well as deep cleaning measures being implemented by the staff and social distancing markers on the floor- they’ve done everything needed for you to feel safe.
They’ve actually limited their capacity at the resorts so they won’t be selling out at full capacity. This is to make sure that they’re giving space for the social distancing so they will only be going up to 65% occupancy at their resorts.
They were one of the first ones to start offering Covid Insurance that’s included in the package for each and every booking. Another important point, there are now free cancellations, for any new bookings made between May 18th, 2020 and December 31st, 2020. You can cancel your stay up to 15 days prior to departure and receive a full refund on the package.
Club Med for everyone
Every one of the more than 70 resorts worldwide are all-inclusive and they’re more of a family brand now. They still cater to adults, they have a couple of resorts that are adult-only and they have adult-only spaces at some of the resorts. Still, it’s much more family-oriented now so they have activities, amenities, and more for everyone.
They really are good for families because they have different sections that cater to different audiences. They have kids clubs for ages four months up to three years, that works the same way as the regular kids’ clubs from four years up to 17 years – these programs are really excellent.
The kids’ clubs for children under the age of four have an extra charge because it’s a more specialized service and they only accept a certain amount of children per week. You’ll want to reserve it beforehand since if you get there and they already have the maximum amount of children in the club for that week you won’t be able to use it.
What is more than interesting is that you can also find babysitting services for after-hours so if you want to go for dinner you can get a babysitter to come into the room and take care of the children for an extra charge.
If you do have children and you want to make use of those kids clubs, free lessons, or extra services, you have to make sure that you book one of the resorts that have a kids club for that age group.
Activities for everyone
- The flying trapeze is one of the included activities at almost every single Club Med so you can get free lessons and learn how to do flying trapeze on your vacation.
- There is a spa in every resort as well. It’s an extra cost, however in some resorts, you can access the spa’s pool and other facilities for free but the services such as massages are extra.
- There is a fully included circus school so you can learn a variety of circus activities on your vacation. It’s for all ages too which is really great. This school is found in Punta Cana and at a property in Nice, France because they have a partnership with Cirque du Soleil. It seems like a creative activity that would be totally amazing for the right group!
- The Zen Oasis spaces have been included in many of the new resorts. They are getting these adult-only spaces and some of their existing resorts are having renovations done during the pandemic to have these spots added in.
Amazing amenities
You should know that Club Med has a few different kinds of aspects to its brand, they’ve got three trident, four trident, and five trident villages and that’s just their internal designations for the star system, similar to three, four, and five stars.
One of their resorts, Club Med Miches Playa Esmeralda, in the Dominican Republic is a brand new build, they just opened it last year. It’s a five trident so it’s part of their exclusive collection for their luxury brand. It’s actually like four boutique hotels in a single resort. It’s one of their first ones that have plunge pools.
If you like having more of an exclusive area you would want to look at one of their exclusive collection spaces or an exclusive collection resort. For example in Punta Cana, there’s a five trident space called Tiera and it has a bunch of two-bedroom family suites with an ocean view, their own pools, and their own concierge and check-in as well.
The Club Med Yucatan Cancun displays a large space including a lagoon in the middle and they have about 501 rooms there. It has a family space called Aguamarina family section with large two-bedroom suites, featuring all the imaginable comfort and a fabulous new pool.
Club Med Turkoise – in Turks and Caicos, this is one of the most popular destinations. This is one of their adult-only properties so it’s for ages 18 and over. After getting hit by hurricanes in 2017 they ended up doing some renovations. Their pool was completely redone into an above-ground infinity pool and they added 80 balconies to the deluxe rooms.
The Club Med Buccaneer’s Creek is in Martinique. Martinique is a beautiful island and although they’re a family-friendly resort, the Club Med resort on Martinique doesn’t have a kids club. They do accept children of all ages there but there isn’t really an infrastructure for them so generally, you’ll find more adults at this property.
Club Med Sandpiper Bay in Florida is actually on a river, on the Port St. Lucie River. They have a water sports area and they also have a Zen Oasis pool (it’s adults-only at this one). This resort is fully all-inclusive. They get a lot of golf groups there, all of their sports academies are there as well so if you’re really into tennis, volleyball, golf, and so on, and you want proper lessons, this is the place.
They’re opening a property in Quebec, Club Med Quebec, and it’ll be the only all-inclusive in Canada. Unfortunately, it won’t open until December 2021. Sales are starting this December so you can book it for the following December. It’s certainly a great Christmas gift for somebody who loves to travel!
It’s not just a ski resort, it’s actually going to be open all year round so if you want to go for a weekend getaway in the fall, this area is stunning. There are lots of valleys and you can enjoy hiking, biking, and of course in the winter, skiing and other winter activities.
As you may have noticed by now, you can pretty much go anywhere in the world with Club Med:
There is a resort in Sicily and it’s up on a cliff where the little villetas are, and each one overlooks the Mediterranean – it’s absolutely gorgeous. The food is incredible, it has a big infinity pool, and it’s very close to lots of activities.
In the Maldives, they have a resort called Kani. There you will find the finolhu villas which are an exclusive collection of this property, all those individual bungalows with their over-the-water bungalows and their own plunge pools make it a perfect destination. Who wouldn’t want to go there right now?
Club Med resorts are also in Morocco, in Marrakech, this property is all lit up at night with the pools, archways, and palm trees. This is not an ocean resort; it’s set just beside the downtown area of Marrakesh.
Club Med resorts are also in Bali, Indonesia and they are also opening a new resort on Feb 6, 2021, in Seychelles which is all-inclusive, and family-friendly. It’s part of their exclusive collection. It’s actually being built on a private island as well which makes it really interesting.
They also have ski resorts located in China and Japan but most of their ski resorts are in the Alps, in France, Italy, and Switzerland.
One of the ski resorts is Club Med Alpe D’Huez in France, it just reopened last year, it was closed for a season while they did some extensive renovations and now it’s like a brand new resort.
Grand Massif Samoëns Morillon in France, this resort has a gondola up there that actually brings you down into the town of Samoëns. Don’t worry, you don’t have to be a skier to enjoy these resorts, you can enjoy the spa, the fitness classes, the nordic walking, snowshoeing, cross-country skiing, you can go into town- in fact, there are tons of things to do!
Les Arcs Panorama is another of the resorts in France, they have indoor pools and some resorts also have outdoor pools because some of them are open in the summertime as a summer mountain experience resort.
Club Med La Rosière is also in France; this is a brand new one that they’re opening this year.
Pampering guests
Club Med has a great members’ loyalty program, meaning the more often you go to their resorts, the more points you get and you can exchange the points for things like resort credit which could be used for spa visits, premium alcohol or you can also get room upgrades with it.
There is a referral program so if you’re an existing Club Med client (to be an existing Club Med client you just have to book once), then you could refer a friend and if they book, they’ll get money off their trip and you’ll also get money in your account towards your next trip.
They have a program called “pick your room” that’s available at some of the resorts where you can actually pay a small fee to pick your exact room location instead of just submitting a request on a particular room and hoping for the best.
On top of everything else, Club Med is actually a tour operator, they’re not just a hotel chain!
They can offer packages using any regular scheduled air so you can actually pick your days and then pick your flights and they’ll bundle it for a great price. They can package pretty much anything, that’s why Club Med’s great, offering fantastic flexibility.
Plenty of options to start dreaming
You have just learned a bit about Club Med and since they have a lot of resorts, we need more than one post to show all the magnificent offerings of this brand – hopefully, this article will show you some of the highlights that Club Med has to offer!
At Travel Time – TPI we do understand that people are traveling according to their comfort levels. This is the time for dreaming, it’s a time for planning and it’s a time for booking far in advance that will give you the best choice and usually the best price and the specials! Perhaps the most important of all, it will give you something to look forward to!
Contact us today to discuss your vacation options!
