Montreal is a cruel place in winter: cold, and snowy, with people in thick coats and heavy boots on streets that are hard to navigate. I was getting older and less and less tolerant of living in an unfriendly environment for long weeks without a break, so I started looking for a place that offered all-inclusive service with kinder weather.
I discovered Club Med four decades ago and got into the habit of spending two-three weeks in winter at a Club Med facility located somewhere WARM.
The concept worked for me.
Club Med is an extraordinary utopia born out of the vision of two men: Gilbert Trigano, a French tent-maker and Gérard Blitz, a Belgian entrepreneur. As the inventors of the ‘all-inclusive’ holiday concept, for young people on budgets, Club Med, originally a nonprofit organization, has been reinventing the alchemy of happiness since 1950. (Wikipedia)
That year, Blitz opened a low-priced summer colony of tents on the Spanish Golden Coast where affordability and good food were emphasized. Unfortunately, Blitz went bankrupt in 1953. But Trigano took over and built the first official Club Med on Mallorca, the largest of the Balearic Islands (Spain).
Today, Club Med is known for its all-inclusive resorts offering a range of leisure activities from fine dining and massages to yoga, scuba diving, and baby gym classes. It operates over 70 resorts in 26 countries in destinations including the French Alps and the Maldives.
Fosun Tourism, a Chinese company, which owns Club Med, reported a net profit of 307.2 million yuan (US$42.69 million) for 2023. Guo Guangchang, the 57-year-old C.E.O.and majority shareholder of Fosun International, the company that bought Club Med in 2013 for 1.07 billion US dollars, has been called China’s Warren Buffett.
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I decided on Club Med Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic this year because I remembered the great food and service I had enjoyed when I stayed there three years ago. I even persuaded my sister to come with me.
Big mistake!
The facility’s flagship restaurant had burned down a couple of years ago and was in the process of being rebuilt. This seemed to have destabilized Management.
My sister was given a room, which began to stink of excrement every time the toilette above her room was flushed because its drainage pipe leaked. It took three days to relocate her to a unit that did not smell. Furthermore, her unit had no table and it took three days to find one for her so that she could sit down at it to eat her breakfast.
We were told that we could order breakfast to be delivered to our rooms if we ordered so the night before.
We did so, but it did not always arrive.
We were told that we could get golf cart service to transport us to the restaurants if we so wished. We repeatedly had to wait for them for forty minutes or over.
So we walked a lot.
What I personally regretted the most was that the food – outstanding in the past – was no longer as good as it used to be!
Sorry to hhear that…our last trip.to cuba..all inclusive ..was disappointing…rude staff…food very bland..we are going to Puerto Rico tomorrow…🤞
As the Crisis of the Third Century, the Crossing of the Rhine in 406 (or 405), the sack of Rome in 410, and the death of Julius Nepos in 480 signalled the eventual fall of the Roman empire, so does this debacle signal the end of the vacation dream that was once Club Med. Robert, you are old enough to recall how impossibly chic it once was to vacation at their resorts. It was a mark of the experienced, sophisticated traveller who knew the art of living. Sadly, as soon as the nouveau rich Chinese entrepreneurs touch something, it turns to shit. Caveat emptor!
We avoid such disappointment by rarely, if ever, returning to the same place twice.
It seems that bad food and bad service is the new norm. Only those that do it right will service. Bummer to have to travel so far to be disappointed.
Good times will comeback. We are in the adjustment period. Well maybe after the new admistration is ousted.
So sorry, Robikám, that your winter escape was not a resounding success. Come to Toronto next time! We can’t do much about the weather, but the food, the entertainment and THE COMPANY are guaranteed to be first class. Love from your cousin.
Where will you winter next? Not in Trumpland, I hope…
Next time try Club Meds in Morocco or Malaysia. I found them to be super!
LaFlorya
All you say is true and was very disappointing.
But let us remember the beautiful location,, the wonderful olympique sized swimming pool, the glorious, (if somewhat agitated), silky sea and the ever smiling and service-ready staff.
The problems notwithstanding I gloried in the heat and sunshine.
A real pity that the management has become so bad.
It is hard to be disappointed with the food in Mexico. I don’t know about club med though…