GOING ALL IN
up free pancakes or a spread of pastries and canapés on offer close to one of the many pools.
The food is largely local stuff or French, but there’s always pizza, burgers, fries and barbecued meats on hand for the picky eaters.
But back to the childcare now – and why I said “in theory”.
Those who can read between the lines have probably worked out that my wife and I had a few quibbles with the care of our two pre-school youngsters: a seven-month-old and a bonafide ‘threenager’.
Whereas some close rivals of Club Med split childcare into three to five-year-olds, here the so-called Petit Club has an age range of two to four. Our very chatty three-year-old quickly decided the French staff seemed to lack a certain ‘je ne c’est quoi’.
She was less than happy to be in with the little ones and when we asked for her to go in with the kids aged four and five we were told it was impossible for insurance reasons, despite that care being free of charge for guests, compared with the chargeable care for underfours.
Unwilling to hang out with two-year-olds or do ‘boring’ baby stuff, we were forced to entertain her ourselves. So we took her to do one of the aerobics classes for adults and played pétanque instead. It seems there was no red tape preventing that!
While that brought our plans of six days of child-free living crashing down to the ground, it doesn’t stop me from highly recommending the resort.
The staff really do work their socks off and several we met told us they loved working for Club Med and had done so for years.
One waiter we spoke with had been with the firm for 20 years, while another guest relations employee extolled the benefits of the firm’s conditions that allow staff to move around the world.
The service in the bars and restaurants was never anything short of excellent and the inter-connecting rooms we called home for seven nights were comfortable, spacious and well maintained with free soft drinks in the mini-bar.
One of the highlights of the week was the so-called ‘Big Snack’ – I presume a mistranslation from ‘Big Picnic’ – which saw the main lawn transformed into a fairground with bouncy castles, a ball pool, games, candy floss, popcorn and a huge spread of food and sweets.
And all for free.
Extra touches like this really won me over and helped keep the little ones’ spirits high.
And with no hidden extra costs at all, and all your meals and drinking paid for, that represents good value and takes all the uncertainty out of your holidaying budget.