I spent a week at the Club Med from 18-25 May 2008 with my 12-year old daughter and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. I’ll try to describe the main aspects of the club below for future visitors.

The Club Med experience.

Club Meds are very different from all other all-inclusive resorts. They place enormous emphasis on high quality activities and facilitating socializing. There are essentially three types of people at the club – the guests (called GMs - gracious members or, in French, gentile members), the activity staff (called GOs - gracious organizers) and the local staff. The GOs are international hires – mostly 20-30 year olds who run all activities, often work at the bar, run the kiddie club, eat in the buffet restaurant with the guests and facilitate socializing. In Cancun, the GOs came from about 20 countries – the largest contingents were from Brazil, Canada and Mexico, but there were also some from Israel, Switzerland, Belgium, Uruguay, USA, Japan Morocco and elsewhere. The local staff are those who do the other jobs – room cleaning, dishwashing, lower-level cooks (the head cooks are almost invariably from France), etc. Club Meds are outstanding if you enjoy partaking in some activities, enjoy meeting new people and, in the “family Club Meds” like Cancun, if you have kids. If you are looking for a couch potato vacation with a partner and don’t want to do anything but lie on the beach and have romantic one-on-one meals at the restaurant, the Club Med would be fine for you but you will be paying a good deal for activities that you don’t use – your money would probably be better spent at a different type of resort.

The site and the location in Cancun.

The Cancun Club Med is located at the far southern end of the hotel strip. I heard that it was one of the first three hotels to be built in Cancun and they clearly got the best place in the area. The Club is on a large strip of land shaped roughly like a “U” with the ocean on the outside and a lagoon on the inside of the U. It is a large park-like area with buildings only 2-3 stories high – very different from the denser hotels found elsewhere in Cancun. The way the land is shaped, waves break about 50 meters out from the swimming beach and the ocean was calm every day in front of the club – green and sometimes yellow flags, while 200 meters away at the chi-chi Sun Palace, their beach was cramped, their views far worse and they had red flags every single day we were there, meaning that swimming was forbidden. From what I’ve read, the side of Cancun that has the most beautiful ocean colors is on the Caribbean Sea coast – unlike the “top of the seven” (the northern beaches: look at a map of the area) - and the it also tends to have less sea lice(microscopic jelly fish) during the bad season, at the cost of having much rougher surf. The only place on the Caribbean side where you can swim every day, however, is the Club Med. The view from the Club is fantastic – probably the best in all of Cancun – and the water color is unreal. When we were there the club was abit over half full and there were ample comfortable seats in the shade – no need at all to get up early to “reserve” your chair. The beach area was also pretty large – uncrowded compared to most other places we saw.

Farther down (south) the ocean-side, there is a snorkelling area - the only good place to snorkel in all of Cancun - and, farther still, a sailing beach area. In the lagoon there is water-skiing with crocodiles – I am not making this up. We saw a about 2 meter (7 ft long) crocodile in the lagoon and they make you sign a waiver stating that you will not sue the Club if anything bad happens to you. However, they also state that, in 30 years, no one has ever been attacked by a crocodile – they are very scared of the boat motors. And the activity staff often water-skis there too, so we did it and felt safe.

The Club Med is located about as far from the action in Cancun as you can get and still be in town – bars, restaurants, night clubs are all quite a ways farther north. (That said, the Club Med food and drinks are excellent, and they have a very nice open air beachside night club right there – little need to venture out.) If you do want to visit Cancun, you have two options: taxi (fairly expensive) or public bus. For the bus, you can walk out to the regular entrance to the Club Med and catch a bus there, but it only comes by about every half hour or so. Alternatively, you can walk up the beach to the next resort (the Westin), cut through to the road – in all maybe a 10 minute walk - and you will see a bus stop where buses leave about every 5-10 minutes. Bus fare is cheap but you will need Mexican pesos. Myself, I did not care much for Cancun – it struck me as being an artificial creation made mostly for American tourists – a wall of multistory mostly soulless resorts, with a few interspaced suburban-style malls and, farther away, a mostly uninteresting fairly recently constructed town. (This was also the view of several Mexicans with whom I spoke who work at the club.) If we go back to the area, it would be for the beauty of the site & sea, and for the Club Med – otherwise by my tastes there are a lot of nicer places to visit in Mexico.

Activities.

If you get bored at the Club Med, then there is something seriously wrong with you. Organized activities targeting different ages of children and also adults include: two types of sailing, water-skiing, trapeze & trampoline, tennis, soccer, beach volleyball, water aerobics, Pilates, salsa lessons, Yoga, box and step exercises, etc. And, if that is not enough, there is swimming in the gorgeous ocean, very good live music almost every evening with drinks and appetizers (one group reminded me of the Gypsy Kings, and others were: a Cuban band, a Mariachi band, and an old rock band), a very nice spa (extra $), several half-day or day outings (Chichen Itza… - extra $), shows every night and the night club afterwards. There is one half-day outing on Wednesday, I believe, that is free – to Cancun proper and nearby ruins – ask at the reception. Their trapeze setup is professional quality and run by a mostly Brazilian set of gymnasts. We saw two trapeze demonstrations, one of which had a visiting gymnast who previously worked for the Cirque du Soleil and apparently is one of six people in the world who can regularly do triple flips and be caught by a person on another trapeze. Real neat. My daughter especially enjoyed learning to sail, water-ski, improve her trapeze moves and seeing the spectacular circus-trapeze performances, hanging out at the kids club, eating with new friends and playing in the pool; I played in a mixed doubles tennis tournament, did water aerobics, laid out on some neat canapé beds by the pool, frolicked in the water, had abit too much to drink, enjoyed the early evening music and hors d'oeuvres and eating dinner with new friends. And together, my daughter and I made use of less than half the activities offered by the club. Of note – while this club caters to families, its large size and range of activities means that adults are not encumbered by hoards of kids – couples without kids too can enjoy themselves (I met many in this situation, including honeymooners).

Food and drink.

The main buffet restaurant has 6 different dining rooms with very different décor, and two a la carte restaurants (Tapas and Mexican) – these last ones were open on alternative days when we were there, as the club was only half full. Compared to essentially all other all inclusive resorts, Club Meds excel in terms of food. The buffet had a lot of choices, changed significantly from day to day (and from lunch to dinner), and the desserts especially were excellent. There was also a Japanese corner with a Japanese chef every evening. The food had a strong French flavour, although there were too a good deal of Mexican and Italian dishes. The large majority of people with whom I talked thought the food to be excellent (one couple said it was far better than a 5-star Iberostar that they had recently visited).

I want to mention, though, that we are fairly strict vegetarians and this is the one Club Med (out of four) where we have had trouble eating well, at least at first. One of the reasons we have tended to prefer Club Meds is that we can always find a variety of good vegetarian options there. The Cancun club however in the evening tended to emphasize meat and fish, even in the composed salad dishes and often pastas, really limiting our choices. We spoke to the chef and then to the reception and village head and, after several days of poor food, things got better. I guess what I am trying to say is (1) if you love meat you will be thrilled, (2) if you have dietary restrictions the Club Meds are in general great places to go to, (3) this is probably less true of the Cancun Club Med than other Club Meds and (4) if you do have special requests/needs then fax them ahead of time to warn them and politely ask for their help, and if things don’t work out, rapidly go talk with the cook (or the reception or village head). For us, this was the one real irritation we had during our vacation.

Drinks. Like essentially all all-inclusive resorts, the free house wine is fairly basic (the rosé is better than the red; I didn’t try the white) and there are much better bottles available for sale. The very top shelf booze also required paying a supplement (Don Julio tequila for example, which could cost you easily $80 a bottle in a supermarket), but their regular stuff was already very good (tequila, whisky, martini, pastis, beer…). For real good coffee, go to the main bar – their espressos and café au laits easily rival a Starbucks in quality.

Room buildings.

There are several types of rooms at the Club Med – the basic regular one we had, deluxe rooms, and concierge suites and rooms in the Jade building. The regular rooms are not ocean front, but ours directly overlooked the lagoon and right in front of our window/balcony we saw beautiful sunsets every evening. From what I have heard and read, the best rooms are in the Jade building but only on the ocean side – it is not worth paying extra for rooms on the other (road) side. The deluxe rooms in the other buildings are slightly larger or come with an ocean view.

You can request a certain room type by faxing the Club 7-10 days prior to your arrival – they are good at trying to meet requests (check their website for the fax number). However, do not expect a better type of room unless you are willing to pay for it – they do not give free upgrades. In general, unless you are handicapped or have a stroller, avoid the ground-floor rooms which tend to be less private and noisier. Buildings with rooms are all 2-3 stories high – if you don’t mind stairs the best are on the third floor. Buildings A, B and C (Amatista, Obsidiana and Topacio) are located between the main area (pool, restaurants, bar…) and the trapeze/water-skiing and miniclub area. Building D (Turquesa) is very near the main area and apparently tends to be relatively noisy. We were in building E (Granate) – a good choice (as I recall our room number was 5207). Buildings F (Onice), G (Ambar) and H (Opalo) are abit farther away, between the main area and the tennis/sailing areas. About the farthest away, but with the best ocean front suites (for a price) is the Jade building. Again, unless you have trouble climbing steps, it is best to request an upper floor room with a view and also not road side (they have a service road that may rarely be abit noisy – when tour buses leave in the morning, for example).

After hurricane Wilma about 3 years ago the Club Med completely renovated this Club. The rooms are real neat – strong colors, very comfortable beds, a stylish shower area, and an unforgettably bright deep pink toilet area. There are flat screen TVs with a limited good choice of channels (English, French and Spanish) and we had a free cable internet hookup and a digital safe at no extra cost. Prior to being a family Club Med, this club catered to adults – mostly couples. For this reason the rooms, while real stylish, tend to be small. You could fit three people into a room but it would be tight; I believe (to be confirmed) that if you are a family of four, then Club will provide you with another room at no extra cost – they have a fair number of adjoining rooms.

In any case, as the Club Med has been going upscale on recent years, it has also gotten much more expensive (excellent food and top quality activities don’t come cheap). It is well worth your time to look at the Club Med website early on, or work through a travel agent who is real familiar with the Club Med, as they often have great sales going on. Speaking for myself, abstracting from travel we spent about $1,100 for the week for both of us – my daughter stayed (and ate and played… for free, and I did not have a single supplement).

To resume, I’d rate this Club at a 5-star level:
8 stars for the activities (nothing else out there comes close)
4.5 stars for the room (much more style than a Hilton or Sheraton, but rooms are fairly small)
2-5 stars for food & drink – 6 if you are a consummate carnivore, 2 if you are vegetarian and dislike having to talk several times to the chef to get decent food.
6 stars for fun and the ease of socializing (again, the Club Med excels here)
6 stars for the beach
5 stars for the front desk – they were very pleasant and professional.

In Cancun, I would not consider going any place else. Tom

This was my third trip to Club Med Cancun, my first visit with my husband since the club started accepting kids. I wasn't worried about the change since I was now a bit older, and not one for the party scene that once ran rampant!

The Club underwent a much needed renovation after the Hurricane Wilma. Past visitors would recall that the beds felt as if there were rocks in them. I was so pleasantly surprised by how comfortable the new beds were! The rooms still have the basic, simple layout, with new added bonuses, such as mini-refrigerator, coffee maker, and flat screen televisions, it just doesn't seem ok to have the tv's as there is so much beauty outside of the rooms.

As others have noted, this is a very large resort, so get ready to do some walking, but there does seem to be a little shuttle that transports people around. Trust me when I say that Club Med has the best spot in Cancun. The beach is protected by a small jetty, which acts like a cove, and make the waves that crash at 5-6 foot breakers 500 yards down the beach, come in as flat, therefore making this a great swimming spot.

The food in the three restaurants is served buffet style, except for La Pergola, which is open late for breakfast, something a late riser like me greatly appreciates. The food is served buffet style, and there is plenty of variety for all types of finicky eaters. No, this isn't five star dining, but that isn't what you come to Club Med for. The food in my opinion, is above average, and an excellent value when compared to staying in a hotel and paying a la carte.

The main reason I keep coming back to this club is because of the water sports. The water ski lagoon is idyllic, so I had planned to waterski every morning as I had in my previous visits. I went to the dock during my first full day, and wasn't greeted at all by the G,O.'s that was ok, but strange. I picked out my ski, signed the release form, and took my place in line, which was only two deep. Still no interaction with the two male G.O.'s, until I got in the water and was about to ski. One of them rudely snarked to me that I was on the wrong ski, I was on one ski, and I don't like anything fancy, basic has always been fine. The blond G.O., demands I take the ski off, and take the better one, I knew he was trying to help, but I told him I was fine with the basic ski, again, demanding I take it off, so I did, and now I'm holding up the line. I did one run, and when I got out of the water, my left foot was really hurting. I looked down and it was bruised because the ski he gave me didn't fit my foot. There was still no interaction with the G.O.'s, and I hobbled away. The female G.O., Stephanie was driving the boat the pulled me, and she was very nice.

I didn't waterski for the rest of the week because my foot still hurt, and whenever I would see the other waterski G.O.'s around the village, they were so rude, I just didn't understand it until I found out that Eyal, the Chief of the Village was away on vacation for two weeks, Unless Eyal had a family emergency, I just think its very unprofessional for the Chief to be away for the first opening week of the summer season, which it was while we were there.

The sailing G.O.'s were a bit disinterested also, but that was fine, I just took the catamarans out everyday with my husband and we had a great time. Isabelle, an excusion G.O., and Angelo, Chief of Sports (I think that is his title), are exceptionally talented, and ever so friendly, and everything that a Club Med G.O. should be. We had some great meals with them, and they shared other villages they had worked at.

The locals that work in the village are efficient, and anticipate your every need. I know that Club Med doesn't encourage tipping, but we did to our houskeeper, Luisa, whom has worked at the village for 30 years, Miguel, fantastic server, and many others. They are a vital part of your trip, and they work so hard, so please tip!

The kids were all so well behaved! Club Med seems to do a great job at engaging the little folks, we don't have kids, but I looked at them with a twinge of jealousy because I would have loved to have done a Club Med as a kid. The G.O.'s that worked with the kids just love their jobs. You could tell as the kids would literally hang all over them, and when their parents would come to collect them, the kids would tell them to get lost, it was very funny to watch.

I think that once Eyal gets back, and gets the G.O.'s all on the same page, everything will be ok. I wouldn't let two waterski G.O.'s deter me from going back, I love this village, and look forward to going back again. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me as I know this village inside and out! Jenmh96@aol.com.

AIRPORT
When we arrived at the Airport in Cancun it was packed. Apparently a few flights got in at the same time; it took us 2 hours to get out of there.

CHECK-IN
We walk in, someone greeted us and took our luggage to our room while we had a tour of the grounds.

THE BEACH
Beautiful white sands. A tiny bit rocky when you first enter the water, but smooth after. Plenty of beach chairs and umbrellas to go around. We never had to worry about leaving our towels down on our chairs. We did not have any sand flea bites.
The beach goes on for 20 kilometres, so if you can walk around as much as you want through the other hotel's beach fronts.
Our location was the best because it was at the end of the strip so it was a very private beach.

SECURITY
There were plenty of security officers walking around the grounds in the morning and in the middle of the night, I felt very safe.

THE STANDARD ROOM
The standard room was great, we couldn’t ask for anything more. It was clean. Had a king bed and a day bed. A desk, mirror, safe, mini-bar, etc. Absolutely no bugs in the room, which was pretty amazing. We had a picturesque view of the lagoon.

CIRCUS SCHOOL
Yes, you can learn a bunch of different circus type activities here, from trapeze to the trampoline. Lots of fun.

PROGRAMS
There was so much stuff happening at the resort, it was hard to keep up. Dance classes, market places, water sports, etc.

FOOD
Let me tell you that we did not even try the 2 a la cart restaurants, because there was no need! The main restaurant was great. There were 2 specials for dinner every night made by specific chefs, as well as all the grilled steak, fish; chicken you could handle and a bunch of other stuff. We did see some fellow travellers only eating French fries though, so apparently they were more picky than we were. The coffee machine was the best. There was also a 'light' buffett with different types of yogurts, cereal and other items for a healthier meal.

BARS
I'm not a big drinker, but what I can say is that I never had to wait more than 1 minute for a drink and there were 3 bars. Best drinks I've had too! They'll make you anything you desire.

STAFF
Always pleasant and smiling.

NOTES
The Westin Hotel next door has access to the city bus which for 50 cents takes you into Cancun city (instead of the $20 cab ride). It also has a bank machine and a better exchange rate than our own hotel.

In the city, many do not speak English, so watch out. We got lost but thankfully my girlfriend actually knew Spanish so we were fine.

PESO all the way. Everyone deals in it, and everyone appreciates getting tipped in it.

CHECKOUT
This was also pleasant and quick as you could check out a few days in advance. The airport was much faster, and this terminal had an Xpress Spa, which was just what we needed while waiting for the plane.

NEGATIVES
Hard to find any negative points, but here are my nitpicks:
Shower flooding – our shower (there was no bath, which was great – I love big showers) wasn’t able to drain properly so our washroom kept flooding. Nothing a few towels didn’t dry up though.

Boutique – clothes and general items were very expensive. They didn’t have hair ties or socks.

Nightly Entertainment – The "crazy signs" thing was just boring. Loved the circus performances.

SUMMARY
I would come back in a heart beat!

We stayed at Club Med Cancun in May of this year ( 2008 ) for our honeymoon. I researched the property through this site to be sure that it was what would be a great holiday for us. We booked the Jade building as it offered extras ( being our honeymoon ). The extras included room service, internet, laundry service , stocked mini bar, house coat and slippers etc. To start my review - The beach and staff were great. That is actually the only good parts to this review. The room was very basic. The room service was from the worst restaurant on site and was till 11pm, the stocked mini bar was pop and water only, the internet was plug in only, the laundry service was charged to your room, the house coat and slippers probably the cheapest things I have experienced. I don't know where other people who reviewed this property have stayed before or what restaurants they have eaten in but the food was passible at best. For what we paid to stay at this property, I was very disappointed in what was offered. For the extra $1000 per person for the Jade building - total rip off. This was my first and last Club Med. stay.