Club Med Phuket

A shadow of what it was once

We went as a family of four for 2 weeks over Christmas so we paid peak price . I feel like club med has changed and evolved so much over the last 40 years . I am not a fan of the pre mixed drinks at the bar .. you don’t know what is going inside them . There are no bottles so you can’t see. All of the soft drinks are on tap and more sweet than from a can or bottle . We used to get nice champagne for Christmas and new year - now you have to buy it for triple the price you would spend at home . Very disappointed with the vibe / we used to sit around the pool for special dinners first come first served .. now they assign the seats around the pool to you if you purchase add ons … add on $400 champagne bottle add on a lobster add on a wagyu steak ? Sorry but I thought the huge price I paid included all of this ? Elitism is what it is called ! Ego one upping eccc not really what vlub med it silupposed to be about . They also now pre assemble pre book everything and then it is brought out and placed buffet style . I don’t like this because in a tropical environment you are supposed to watch what is cooked in front of you and not have it sitting out on a bench … the food was more oriented to Asian taste not western .. I thought club med was French ? The ingredients were cheap - no nice Thai exotic fruits like we saw in the markets lychee rambutan .. boring repetitious / chilli or curry on all the meat .. you couldn’t find a plain protein some days for lunch . No i e carvings no prawns lobster crab all cheap and boring unless you wanted to perhaps pay for it??? Highly disappointing how it is run then you feel like you have to escape the show area and the screaming of the animators . Oh and we went there with our golf clubs to play golf and have lessons but hey the golf go went back to Africa peak season ? And tennis ? No one was playing and the tennis coach wasn’t interested either .. he was more interested in the girls … Club med phuket has lost its mojo and was nothing like it once was .. just a shadow of what it once was

Rating: 3 / 5

• Rooms: 3 / 5
• Value: 1 / 5
• Sleep Quality: 5 / 5
• Location: 5 / 5
• Cleanliness: 5 / 5
• Service: 5 / 5

My best summer vacation

A club where you won't get bored - sports activities like yoga, walking, snorkeling, soccer, basketball, golf, circus, trapeze and more that I've probably forgotten, plus fun activities like a foam party, a fair and amazing shows every night. In addition to all of this - an amazing beach and 2 pools and the food - a dream - all kinds - Italian, Thai, Korean, Indian and more... a dream vacation. You must sail with Gade and snorkel !!!

Rating: 5 / 5

• Rooms: 5 / 5
• Value: 5 / 5
• Sleep Quality: 5 / 5
• Location: 5 / 5
• Cleanliness: 5 / 5
• Service: 5 / 5

Lots of variety of cuisine

Lots of variety of cuisine. The fine dine session is also included in our dining course. Thumbs up for the friendly staff that enlighten us during our stay. Wine & beer drink all you can. Vegetarian cuisine also well taken care. Spacious restaurant

Rating: 5 / 5

Amazing first ClubMed experience

First time to a ClubMed and won’t be our last! We were the only English people here- which was wonderful. Not sure why the British have yet to discover ClubMed’s awesomeness but shhh don’t tell them! We first booked it because it was the only resorts in worldwide locations, we could find that would take our 2yr old into a kids club (with him not being toilet trained). We wanted him to have a proper kids club with planned activities and fun rather than just a creche. And it’s been game changing for us as parents. The activities he’s done every day are wonderful. Many thanks to Doreen, Vera, Gemma, jilly, Pomelo, Donut and Patty for giving him such a good holiday. Doreen even gave us her WhatsApp number and sent us video updates so we’d feel confident he was happy. He’s done everything, swimming, been in shows, cooking classes, bouncy castles, foam parties. They take him to lunch, give him naps, snack time. We quite literally get 8hrs a day where we don’t have to ‘parent’. Bliss. The petit club med crew loved our son like their own and he had so much fun. He was happy so myself and my husband can have proper relax time for the first time since he was born. I read a book for the first time in over 2 years!! We can also highly recommend the babysitting service, sansanee was allocated to us from the housekeeping team and 100thb/hr. Our son adored her and she’s one of the few people that have ever been able to get him to sleep in a cot! We trusted her so much we booked her a few times so my husband and I could go party. And now to the food. My husband is an omnivore, myself and my son are vegan (although on vacation I allow my son to be somewhat vegetarian for ease of saying yes to ice cream/desserts)(vegan sorbet is available at the buffet, strawberry, lemon etc). My husband says it’s the best buffet food he’s ever had on a holiday. As a vegan it’s good. Some nights I’d go as far to say excellent. There is a dietary section of the buffet where there’s 2 options every night. 1 might be a salad/grain salad, and the other is a hot option and I’ve had things like tempeh patties, omonayaki, grilled tofu. The one criticism I would have of the main buffet is there’s no food labelling. As of course I’d like stuff from the regular buffet too. And it’s very hard to know what’s in stuff. Something that says ‘stir fry vegetables’ and you think ‘awesome I can eat that!’ And you find it’s got egg in it. If they could bring food labelling to European standards for allergens (considering it’s a French company) it would really help out the dietary restrictive guests and allergy guests. I know you could ask the many chefs to show you what’s suitable, but I don’t want to have to do that every single mealtime! Also what would be beneficial is for things like the stir-fry/ramen/hotpot stations, to have a tofu/tempeh option and not just meat and seafood for your choice of add in. I asked them a few times if I could have a tofu one and they said no… (I then made my noodle soup, and went to another part of the buffet and added my own mushrooms or tofu haha, you have to be inventive!) Many thanks to Rishi though who made me and my son vegan pancakes every morning. And made us meals if I put in a request. I asked for Dosa and he made me a gorgeous dosa with a coconut style gravy. Generally though there was enough on the buffet without me having to ask for a vegan meal separately. I’d say one of the best resorts I’ve eaten at for vegan options. Sorry for the drawn out review of vegan food, I’m trying to help out other vegans searching for a holiday as I know how difficult it is- feel free to message me fellow vegans! I do think though that my son in kidsclub was the only ‘vegetarian’ so do bare that in mind if you have kids going into the club. My son did a cookery class to make dumplings and they were using pork. There was no veggie option (apparently they could have pre-ordered this but somehow it was missed). It was no big deal that he didn’t eat them, he’s 2, I just gave him some snacks instead, but an older child this might cause drama. When you’re the only veggie kid this stuff happens when you travel. (I’m not criticising the kids club at all here by the way, they really are fantastic. This is just what happens when you are in a different culture and are a dietary minority). We went on a few good toddler friendly excursions, the hidden forest elephant reserve was brilliant. To my knowledge the only one approved by the ethical travel association as you weren’t allowed to interfere with the elephants natural behaviours, just observe them, although you did get to feed them bananas. No touching them, or getting them to obey commands, or walking with them so they pose for photos etc. It was only 20mins away, they separated the people with children and the non childrened visitors to 2 separate tours, the kids tour was a lot more relaxed, went at their pace. Then we had lunch and hurrah- it was all vegan! They don’t advertise themselves as vegan I guess it freaks people out lol, but oh goodness the food was excellent, a tofu green curry! Turns out it’s a totally vegan organisation/charity. Which would make sense for a truly caring, animal centric organisation. Another trip we did was hire our own driver and vehicle (with a good quality (BUT forward facing) car seat for little one) and go to a temple for an hour, then went to monkey point, then to Phuket old town. The private vehicle was a brilliant option for exploring things at my toddlers pace. We also hired a tuktuk outside the resort entrance for 500thb and he drove around for 30mins so my son could have that experience and see the sights! Great fun. The zen pool was another big favourite. Many thanks to Roonhring who worked behind the bar and gatekept the area. She made such fun cocktails of her own imagination and brought them to our cabana. The zen area needs to be bigger though, or 2 built. It opened from 10am- and my husband and I enjoy chill and quiet. To ensure you got a cabana bed I would queue by the gate from 0930 while my husband did kids club drop-off. It got very busy very quickly (busy but quiet, they enforced the serenity quite well and evicted people playing music etc.) I didn’t mind queuing to get a bed, it ensured we had a really nice day. We didn’t get involved much in activities, we like to chill! But they looked fun. The main pool had a bit of a party type hype atmosphere, we were glad to have the escape to the zen pool. Sometimes the music was blaring so loud at main pool I couldn’t hear what my husband was shouting to me. But that’s just the main pool I only ever swam in it late afternoon with my son. Scuba diving- none directly on site, but euro divers runs an office on site. Thank you to Takuya for being so knowledgeable. They arrange a nice air conditioned bus to collect you for dives, and it’s a 20min ride to a nearby harbour where there’s a dive boat. Lovely dive boat and dive centre there, good new kit, well maintained. Fantastic, friendly, chill dive instructors. Choice of tank sizes, Nitrox options, good dive computers. Dive boat fantastic, air conditioned, freshwater shower, vegan option lunch on board. Our room was lovely, and perfectly located. We were U2155, ground floor so our terrace area was about 10m from the zen pool. Took about 5mins to walk to the main complex, 2 mins to the kids club. At night we couldn’t hear any noise from the party at the bars. It was a renovated room. All toddler necessities provided, large cot, bottle warmer, potty, large toddler bath tub, toilet/sink stool. Even a baby amenity kit. I would say though that the air conditioning wasn’t as cold as I would have liked. I asked for it to be checked and apparently it was working properly, with an outlet temperature of 21-22°c. The room at night felt too warm. I asked for a fan from reception and we got a very powerful one which helped. The bed was amazingly comfortable and the pillows were very good. We paid extra for a renovated room and so glad we did. The bed was huge, it fit both my husband, myself and my son. Boutique is very expensive for necessities! Go off site to the shops/pharmacy for essentials. A pack of baby wipes was £10 uk money!!! Off site in the pharmacies it was like £4 for a small pack of baby wipes. (Phuket is expensive now!) Nappies are sold in tiny packs (and I only saw smaller sizes) as none of the supermarkets are big nearby so if you’re a parent to a small child I’d recommend bringing your own nappies, and maybe buying wipes from the shops nearby if you’re restricted on packing weight. There’s a 7/11 shop literally 20m from the resort entrance. A baby centre by the main hub of the hotel. I only used it a few times but there was a fridge-freezer, and was stocked with baby purées. Steriliser, bottle warmer, large washing up sink. At dinner you could also get plastic kids plates and plastic cups and cutlery. I’ve done a very long winded review I’m sorry but hopefully it’ll help other holidaymakers coming to know what to expect if you like to plan for eventualities like me. The theme nights I couldn’t be bothered packing for, but ‘white night’ is a thing. Pack something white and fabulous. I was the only one not in white lol. The other theme nights (glow/asian elegance etc) I’d say about 30% dressed to theme. Can’t wait to do another ClubMed. It really is a perfect option for a family luxury holiday. Thank you everyone for such an amazing time xx

Rating: 5 / 5

• Rooms: 5 / 5
• Value: 4 / 5
• Sleep Quality: 5 / 5
• Location: 5 / 5
• Cleanliness: 5 / 5
• Service: 5 / 5

First and last time at a Club Me(r)d. Know what you’re getting into before you go.

I had never been to a Club Med but always wanted to bc I thought it would be an upscale, exclusive experience. My expectations were proved wrong in this Phuket location. I encountered many issues: 1. booking. The Thai Club site refused all my international credit cards. I called their local number but had language issues with the agent so had to call the US number to finish booking. 2.$60 membership fee added to my bill that I wasn’t told about. 3. I booked transport from the airport with the Club. My flight arrived on time but the Club rep was nowhere to be found. After wandering for about 15 min, another tour rep approached me and asked who I was waiting for. She was then able to contact the Club rep who then showed up 10 min later. 3. My room was old (see photos). Toilet flush worked off and on, which was fixed eventually. The shower water temp went from hot to cold and back all the time and despite the stall having a door, water was all over the floor after every shower. The electric plug in the bathroom did not work. Requested fix, which was not done. 4. No bath robes, coffee or espresso machine (just a pot to heat water). If you wanted toiletries you had your call front desk. bath towels thin. Safe, slippers, 2 bottles of water available in the room. AC just ok. 5. Average food and drinks, nothing upscale in the main restaurant. Not even Thai food was interesting Chuda restaurant not very good either, difficult to make reservations at 6:45 pm, even though most tables were empty. App said all days were sold out. Was told it was a shortage of staff. 6. Adults-only pool area nice and quiet but very small, which filled up very quickly. 7. Bar understaffed quite a bit, had to fight to get a drink sometimes. 8. Some front desk staff not very welcoming, some servers at the main restaurant didn’t seem willing to help. 9. Large Club but difficult to find a quiet area to read a book or rest other than your room. 10. Thai fruits are delicious and varied but at breakfast only two types of fresh fruits were available, the rest was out of a can (seriously!). 11. The beach is beautiful but very crowded. Club does not provide chairs. Some nice things: 1. Gorgeous grounds, very well maintained. 2. Room was quiet. My impression of this Club is that it is trying to cut costs with average food and fewer staff. I think a new management is in order to make things better. Based on this experience and my expectation of what an expensive vacation should provide, I cannot recommend Club Med. Maybe other locations are better, but I’m not going to try my luck to potentially regret it as I did in this instance. My advice is know as much as you can before you. If you like cheap cruises just to eat and drink average foods and be entertained, Club Med is for you (though it won’t be cheap!). If you want an upscale, exclusive experience this is not it.

Rating: 2 / 5