Club Med Resort Holidays - everything you need to know

A Club Med Resort holiday wasn’t on my radar until I took a short trip to Club Med Bintan, Indonesia in 2019, and since then I’ve never looked back. This all inclusive way of traveling is amazing for families – and especially for solo parents – looking to balance family fun with some quiet time. You can do it all at Club Med – and at the beach, in the snow or the mountains – and everyone will have the best holiday ever.

Jumping into an all-inclusive holiday is definitely a kind of mind shift if you’re used to doing everything yourself and maybe getting off the beaten path a bit on your holidays. But being somewhere organised really doesn’t have to be a negative, and you may find – like we did – that you love it. Delicious food cooked for you, activities organised for you and for the kids, kids clubs and pool fun and outdoor adventures are all included so you don’t even need to take your wallet.

In fact Club Med now has wrist tags that act as both your room key and your charge account (just in case you buy something at the gift shop) so you really don’t need to take your wallet.

I find this kind of holiday complements our backpacking and adventurous travel, and for a non-skier like me, taking Emmie to Club Med Tomamu for a winter ski holiday was not only life-changing but enabled me to give Emmie this kind of holiday and skills that I otherwise wouldn’t have. You can read all about our ski holiday at Tomamu here.

All about all inclusive Cub Med!

Let me tell you a bit about all inclusive holidays at Club Med. Essentially it means you relax in luxury and YOU DON’T HAVE TO DO A THING! Not a thing. Well okay you do have to walk from your room to the pool or beach and you have to select what you’re going to eat and put it in your mouth. But not much more than that.

You can basically leave home for the airport without your wallet knowing that everything you need has been paid for and all you need to do is enjoy.

And I mean everything. Your transfers, meals, snacks, drinks (softies and alcohol), entertainment during the day and each evening, gym, trapeze, fitness classes like aqua aerobics, dance class and cardio, morning walks and yoga, water sports like wind surfing, snorkel trips and stand up paddling, children’s entertainment, Mini Club Med for kids and other activities are all included. You can do everything or nothing, if you want to you can just lay under a beach umbrella and read a book – you will be interrupted though, by staff offering you cooling drinks or delicious ice blocks during the day. Sorry.

In Tomamu that also includes daily ski lessons (two sessions) and lift passes – you literally ski in and ski out of the resort.

What we love at Club Med:

Independence for kids

One big reason we love our all inclusive Club Med holidays is that they help foster independence for Emmie in a really safe environment. The staff – or GO’s as they’re called – really engage with kids and talk to them in a way that makes them feel heard and valued. Emmie became friends with many of the GOs from her trapeze class, at the restaurant and from Mini Club Med and she loved talking to them.

Kids also have the option of being able to check themselves in and out of Mini Club. At first I wasn’t sure about allowing Emmie to do this, but I did and it was so empowering for her. This meant that after breakfast she could take herself off to Mini Club, and then leave and meet me at an arranged time. She was SO proud of herself and it is so safe and supportive at Club Med that I never worried.

At Tomamu the GOs prepare the kids for their ski lessons and take them out for the morning class, lunch together, have a short break and then set out for afternoon class. All the kids have such a great time together another are presentations as kids graduate into the higher level classes. They have a lot of fun.

Mini Kids Club

Mini Kids Club is really fabulous for families. It’s a place for your kids to do fun and stimulating activities with their peers and friendly GOs and have a great time. Activities include trapeze, archery and arts and craft, plus games and swimming. The kids go to lunch together and do so many super fun things like slip and slide at Bintan and tie dying t-shirts and both resorts. The kids have healthy snacks and Mini Club has its own pool for daily swim time and pool games. Emmie loved her time here and made lots of friends.

So many family activities

Emmie loved Mini Club, but she didn’t spend too much time there because there was so much for us to do together. This was awesome because as parents know, when you’re on holidays with kids often you have to do the entertaining. But Club Med offers so many family activities that you can have lots of fun together as equals.

Each day we both joined the aqua aerobics and the pool games that followed – aways so much fun. We spent hours at the beach – swimming, snorkelling, learning to wind sail and stand up paddle board (Em much more successful than me). Em did trapeze with Mini Club and I would go and watch and then we would jump in the pool.

At Tomamu Emmie was usually out skiing for most of the day, and we would spend time at the pool together, watching the evening shows and having snowball fights. Fun.

The evening shows are all about family being together, as are the parties that follow. If your after some stress-free bonding time, this is the place for it.

Entertainment

The entertainment at Club Med is really amazing. Each night the GOs put on a show – and one night the kids do a fabulous big performance – and you would be forgiven for thinking it was a professional crew of dancers, acrobatics and comedians. They rehearse daily and everyone performs – at Club Med Kabira, Japan the General Manager Anna not only introduced each nights’ entertainment but performed in it all too.

Then after the show has finished there’s a nightly party – a pool party, foam party, a white party, traditional night with games and sports from the host country, trivia and so much more. Every Thursday, around the world, all Club Med’s hold their signature White Party with more performances and fun. It’s absolutely brilliant.

It’s like a big, fun family

Club Med really does feel like a big family, I know it sounds too good to be true but it does. It doesn’t have to if you want peace and quiet but if you want to jump right in then you can really feel the love.

Everyone is so nice and helpful and at lunch and at dinner GO’s sit with the guests. It’s wonderful to get to know the team that’s looking after you – and especially those who are looking after your kids. The GOs are so great with kids and getting everyone involved in activities. It’s kind of like being a kid again in a way, when you’re in the pool playing a game against another team and cheering each other on, high-fiving and sabotaging your opponent it’s just SO MUCH FUN. And because everyone is having so much fun the vibe is always fab and so friendly.

The food

The main restaurant at Club Med is where you eat your meals, and some resorts have other smaller restaurants that offer late breakfasts and fresh juices, like Bintan Island. At Cub Med you get three meals each day plus snacks, and the bar is open all day.

The dining at Club Med is really amazing, with each dish presented and individually plated by a team of Chefs and kitchen staff. The menu is full of multiple delicious dishes like baked salmon and fish dishes, pork belly, steak, hamburgers, sashimi, seafood, pasta and pizza and so much more. There are huge salad bars and vegetarian meals and a big desert bar and self serve ice cream machine.

Tomamu has a seafood night with snow crab and other local delicacies and the dining really is so special.

The resorts also have the own fine dining restaurant that you book into while you’re there, and is included in the cost.

Staff will offer you wine or beer with dinner or you can serve yourself as well as grabbing water, juice or soft drink for the kids.

You’ve paid for it all.

Unless you want to go outside the resort, book an external tour or buy something at the gift shop there is no reason to bring your wallet. And it feels great! Everything is sorted for you to just relax and enjoy your holiday.

How to book:

Make sure to wait for Club Med’s 30% off sales.

The 30% off promotion happens twice a year and we usually book with this deal. It’s so great because:

1. You get a huge discount of up to 30%
  This is a significant discount given it’s a discount off the entire cost of your holiday. It’s not just up to 30% off your accommodation, it’s up to 30% off your entire holiday – accommodation, activities, food and drinks.
2. You pay a $200 per person deposit to secure your booking.
  This is such a small amount to secure the booking.
3. You pay the balance a month or so out from your trip
  I love this because the money stays in my pocket for that time, or if I don’t have the money together I have time to save. I hate when you book somewhere and have to pay straight up and they keep your money for ages.

Just go to Club Med’s website at www.clubmed.com and find your resort from there. It’s super easy and they have staff in hand to help you should you need it.

Everything is awesome

In additional to having everything done for you, the standard of accommodation, facilities, menus and activities is five star. The Club Med resorts are beautiful places to stay and we just loved our holidays there. We didn’t want to leave.

Here’s what Emmie said:

“Club Med is the best place to go, I want to live there. It has an awesome Mini Kids Club, everyone is so nice and the trapeze is so much fun. The shows are super funny especially on comedy sports night at Club Med Kabira, and everyone treats you like a big kid.

“I feel like I can go anywhere around the resort being safe all by myself. I can take myself to Kids Club and i love that. I love learning new things like making bracelets and wind surfing. And I love dancing with mum at the parties overnight and going in the foam and pool party together.

“I am so excited if you go to Club Med because all the people there are super nice and it makes you feel really confident. Make sure you try everything.”

So…all that’s left is to book! And please let me know about your Club Med or all inclusive holiday experiences. We’d love to learn more.