We booked our 2 week holiday at club med based on my experience as a child. I loved club med as a kid, and i had been to club med phuket as a trip with my family.
We were able to get an early booking deal roughly 3.5k (aus) for 14 nights . We were happy with this, i'm not sure i would be as happy paying full price (6.5k +).
We were disappointed with our booking experience, we unknowingly broke the booking terms and lost a further inter connecting room offer which club med didn't disclose until it was too late, but we can't avoid the entire blame.
If your travelling with your family and you don't mind spending a little more to ensure comfort, and piece of mind, rather than trying to save on every penny , club med is for you.
We travelled with our two year old(27 months). We pre booked transfers with c/med to avoid hassle, but you can do it for half the price with local taxis.
We had a great time and would recommend it as previously mentioned, we stayed in a standard room with a cot. It was clean and more than adequate for the price paid. Our room was in b block which was a long way from the restaurant and pool but was quiet at night, perhaps d or e block would be better if with kids.
Completely ignore any comments about the food and food hygiene issues, there is nothing wrong with the food, it is excellent, great variety, and great hygiene practices.
Elements of the resort are in need of renovation but in general it's in good order. I have read comments about kata beach being dangerous and Un swimable, these claims are false. It all depends on the weather. We had 13 days of blue sunny skies and 13 days of calm seas the beach was picture perfect and my 2year old swam in the surf with ease.
The best thing about c/med is the staff, you are made to feel welcome and encouraged to get involved without feeling like your holiday is being intruded on.
I cannot recommend the petit club enough. C/med provide fantastic facilities for kids of all ages. Petit club is for kids 2 to 4 yr olds, it is not free like the other ages but is worth every cent.
Don't prebook petit club (roughly $98 a day) we just rocked up each day and took the gamble, there were free spots each day and it only cost $50 AUS , you could even do a half day if you wanted. In the petit club the facilities and staff were fantastic and our son had a ball, we had complete confidence in them and really appreciated how well Juni , Martyn , Nada , Joyce and all the other staff looked after him and provided such fond memories for him. We also used the baby sitting service a couple of times, at night, for a100 baht ($3.50 ) an hour it was great value ask for jittra, she looked after our son really well. This allowed us to enjoy some of the fantastic night entertainment and offsite dinners (red onion in karon is good local food and cheap, mama tri's in kata noi is beautiful but expensive).There is an atm and money exchange directly across the road from c/med don,t stress about changing money at the airport. Use oriental massage across the road as well, 300 baht for an hour! And go to the karon temple markets on Tuesday or Saturday night we found these markets the best. Once again we loved our experience and have little to complain about we are already dreaming of our next club med holiday, look out bali .
