daisyo793
Amazing first ClubMed experience
5/5 • 15.03.2025First 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
