Your opinion on Club Med

I’m looking for any and all opinions on Club Med.

In particular I’m most interested in opinions on their food, and if possible I’d love opinions from anyone that has ever worked for them.

Thanks

Since you asked…

This is a bit dated, though. I went to a Club Med in the Dominican Republic called Punta Cana back in '86 (?). Overall I was not that impressed. But that may because I did not fit the profile of the guests they cater to. I went mostly for the activities. The “all free” and “free instruction” part really sold me. But it seems most of the guests they cater to are the hip, single, swinging type. And the expected “activity” of said group is that of lying on the beach all day, and then partying all night.

Yes the activities were free, as was the instruction. But the operations were run by the most uninspired help I’ve ever encountered (there was maybe one exception, but that’s about it). Pretty much all the "geo"s (staff) had this “I’m so great/cool because I get to work in this awesome place” attitude, it really grated on me. And the geos providing “instruction” weren’t all that interested in the guests enjoying the activity unless, say, the guest was a hot babe.

As to the food, from what I can recall it was “good” but not nearly as great as they make it sound. We did have some really killer dinners. But in general the other meals were not all that special (other than having more of a european/french twist to them). I ate fine, but wasn’t ever tempted to really stuff myself.

I’ve since talked to others who’ve been to other Club Meds. With the exception of the more family oriented one, they all pretty much agreed. They, too, were very turned off by the staff (even the real attractive female friend of mine. Having arrogant geo’s flirting with her all the time is not what she went there for).

Anyway, things may have changed. But I’ll certainly not visit one again.

I’ve had the exact opposite experience – I LOVED my Club Med vacations! I think a lot depends on the club (some are definitely better than others) and what you hope to get out of your experience. For me, at the time, I was a twenty-something single woman who didn’t have friends who could either afford to travel like I could, or weren’t interested in the same type of travel, or couldn’t get the same vacation schedule, etc. And as a single female travelling alone, it was IDEAL – no need to worry that you’ll be stuck all alone trying to find your way around some strange city or being bored because there’s no one at your hotel in your age/interest group.

My first Club Med experience was in Martinique, which caters to a much more European crowd (at least it did back then), so at least 50+% of the guests were from France and a good majority of the North Americans were from Canada. I was the oddball Midwestern girl, and most of the Americans were from New York. On that trip I was interested in being busy and active, so I did all kinds of activities, none of which involved anything stationary, except how still I had to stand to be body painted on Olympics Day. :smiley: I played beach volleyball, went on the picnic (where games were played all day), did just about every event in the Olympics, and danced, danced, danced all night. I made friends there that I still occasionally exchange holiday greetings with.

My second club was Guadalupe, which catered more to a broader mix of Europeans, North Africans, North Americans, South Americans and even Middle Easterners (there were people there from Tunisia, Israel, Sweden, Turkey, Venezuela, to name a few), as well as from all over the U.S., including places like Georgia, Pennsylvania, California, Florida, etc. On that trip, I was in much need of serious R&R, so for the first few days all I did was lie on the beach and veg with a book. They piped classical music over speakers on the beach during sunset, which was absolutely lovely. I had a wonderful roommate from Paris who was a much earlier riser than I was and always brought me a breakfast tray and left it quietly on the table before she snuck out for the day. By mid-week, I was rested enough to start playing and once again involved myself in a lot of the activities that were available, including Olympic Day again (always a blast!).

As for the food, it was different in each club. Martinique treated dinner kindof like a cruise ship, where a host seated you at a table with a bunch of other people, though it wasn’t pre-assigned, so you ate with different folks every night. Food was served family-style and the head of the table doled it out from a stack of plates placed in front of them. It was a great way to interact with other guests and really get to know people. Breakfast and lunch were buffet style.

Guadalupe was buffet style for all 3 meals, but was quite a bit more extensive (the tables seemed to be never-ending with a huge selection of various types of food). Beer and wine were, of course, free with every meal, hard liquor was “purchased” using plastic beads.

I would not rank it anywhere near a Sandals (from what I’ve seen of them – I’ve never been), as it is as un-luxurious as they come. The whole point (at least when I went) was to make the rooms as unappealing as possible in order to discourage people from hanging out in them. They really meant it when they called themselves “the antidote to civilization”; no telephones or televisions in the rooms, no clocks, radios or newspapers anywhere on the property and, at the time, no locks on the doors except from the inside, so there were no keys to carry around and lose.

I would go back to another Club Med in a heartbeat!

Well damn, I guess I’ll have to retract my comment about it not being luxurious – I just looked at the club in Morocco and holy smokes, that’s gorgeous! And the rooms at Guadeloupe have been modernized with tvs and phones – UGH – HATE that! That so goes against the entire concept! Oh well, it’s not like we’ll be able to afford to travel like that again for a long while, so it’s not like I have any reason to complain about amenities I won’t even be enjoying (or not, as it were). <sigh>