Beautiful Resort

Downfalls are: French is the language spoken with very few employees that speak English. Communication was difficult if you don’t have any knowledge of French. Some food labeled in both languages but a lot were not. The appetizers did come out until dinner was opened at 7pm, which I find late to eat. No drink service on the beach. You had to walk back to the bar which wasn’t close for a drink. Martinique is not a tourist island. The resort is at least an hour to any kind of shopping and ther [... read more]e are no shuttles to take you around. I have to say the resort itself is beautiful and so is the beach. The rooms were very nice but only English speaking tv channels are CNN and one other I don’t remember. Not that you are there to watch tv but at the end of the evening it would be nice . They had evening entertainment, again mostly in French. When the live entertainment played the did sing some songs in English. There were activities that could be joined in everyday. Overall if you are bilingual you would enjoy yourself.

Disappointed.

To start, the Club Med app provides little or no information even with the update. When you click through an activity you expect more information not just a bare bones description. So much more detail could be provided. Just one small example: they had a poker night. It didn't really say what kind of poker, how many people could participate or if there was a cost. Secondly the lack of English speaking G.O.s in key positions. I felt isolated and unimportant. Trying to find out if the in room  [... read more]tablet could could be in English, the thought being it would have more information, we were told to change the settings but no one new how. Thanks to Tarik (aqua gym and snorkle G.O.) checking in with our group once and awhile, helped ease some of our problems. Finally the food. Last year when I was at Turks and Caicos, I was so excited every meal. There were so many plated meals along with self serve options. The quality was much higher in my opinion. This trip I struggled to find some thing great. I expected more refined French cuisine not pots of stew and cut meats which were not often warm.

Somewhat disappointed

The resort is spread out on a very long stretch of beautiful beach. Resort is very clean and well kept. There are only 2 bars, which-are quite a distance from the beach area’s. There is no pool or beach service. There is also no snack bar. Buffet is only open for a few hours for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Food was just ok and had repeat choices everyday. If you love fish, this place is for you. No coffee service ( you have to get your own) from a machine. Wine is the only selection at din [... read more]ner and lunch. Our group was English speaking. We fully understand this is an island owned by France, however there was really no one who spoke English even though the resort indicates French and English. On our way to the resort from the airport, the hotel representative spoke for approximately 10 minutes in French only. We were given no information regarding the resort. We just had to figure stuff out for ourselves. We went to Club Med Turquoise Turks last year and it was amazing! We unfortunately found out that all Club Meds are not the same. This resort is definitely not a 5 star. Spend your hard earned money on a true 5 star resort, not this resort.

Place is really amazing!

All resort staff were extremely friendly! White sand beach with turquoise water and a resort full of flowers. Room was modest but clean as the entire resort. All restaurants are open spaces on the beach, great food and nice atmosphere. I recommend the trip with the catamaran around the island. Great vacation, we will definitely return!

We had a lovely family vacation

Since we travelled from Toronto there is no direct flight to Matinique and we had to connect through Montreal. We have friends there so visited them and stayed over night to catch our flight out at 8:30 (a mostly civilized time of morning to fly) on Air Canada. We have never travelled to Martinique nor have we visited a Club Med so this was an experience to say the least. We bought our trip through Club Med (via our travel agent) so our transfers to/from the resort were with Club Med. They have  [... read more]a booth at the airport where you meet the rep and get your luggage tags and wristbands. As others have said - it is VERY FRENCH!! 90% of the guests are from France, there are often 3 and 4 flights from France per day. The staff were very good about my extreme lack of French (alas, my high school french from 30 years ago has not remained with me), and my youngest teenager who has had french since grade school found it difficult to follow the quick speech patterns. Never the less, we were fine (we didn't really venture out so I can't say what might have happened in town). We had a 2 bedroom oceanview room in the 800 block, at the quiet end of the property (which is LARGE). Essentially it was 2 interconnecting rooms - great for 2 large teens to have their own room with their OWN bathroom. I love the european way of doing bathrooms in resorts - the toilet is separate from the shower/sinks so 2 can use the facilities at the same time. Being oceanview, we had a very HOT balcony in the afternoons so any sitting outside was done in the morning or late around 5 pm. The rooms were kept very clean by the lovely ladies (Poula laughed when I pouted when I said Au Revoir to her as we left yesterday morning). There is a couch/extra bed in each room and 2 twin beds that are used to make a king. BEDS - while I slept decently I can say that they NEED REPLACING!!!! My husband's was like sleping in a trough and when I looked over at the bed from the rather uncomfortable couch it looked like the gophers had been at it with all its hills and valleys. On that note, my husband did comment when we were at the airport waiting for our flight home, that the steel chair he was sitting on was the most comfortable one he had sat in all week. We found all the chairs uncomfortable (deck chairs were directors chairs), bar chairs were so low to the ground we felt like little kids in them. Ok, enough about the chairs. The beach was lovely, needed more palapas and more palm trees though. You have to search fro the right spot that will give you enough shade to shift your beach chair into as the sun moves around during the day. In France the beaches are public so there are often people on the Club Med beach who are not staying at the resort. For the most part they will be on their own towels and chairs (we did see some using the club chairs down at the end of the beach) - we found it necessary to deposit personal belongings on chairs/palapas on our way to breakfast in order to secure shady spots. There was a LOVELY breeze (often very strong, beware the steel beach chairs, they pack a wallop when the wind picks up the back section - the bump on my head is just now going down) which keeps it nice and cool for sunbathing. The water was actually a bit chilly until you get used to it (not a bathtub like Cancun) and there is sea grass about 20 feet out so watch where you put your feet. We saw a HUGE starfish in the water one morning that a lovely French man pointed out to my boys (the language barrier not withstanding). The beach is a nice long one - great for stretching your legs after sitting on the lounger reading for hours. We had the daily entertainment of watching the locals walking up and down the beach selling bathing suits, wraps,coverups, swim trunks. They move quickly as I gather they aren't supposed to engage the guests directly but I found it interesting that they truck in BAGS of product with them each morning, set up shop under a tree, walk up and down the beach all morning with "costume" changes happening on the fly to show off their goods. They most sell a lot of items this way since they were their just about every day sometimes there were 6 or 7 of them). We did not partake in any of the club activities - but the waterskiing looked like fun and went on from 9am until dusk. There were morning exercise classes in the beach pavilion if you wanted to stretch or do a step class. Food - well, it was mostly good. Some days it was better than others. I am not a fish lover so I did have to scrounge for food on Fish night - even the salads on the buffet all had fish/ocean creatures in them. Some things are labelled but a lot of the salads aren't so you will have to ask what is in them if you can't identify by sight. I certainly didn't starve (gained weight actually) if nothing appeals then there is always pizza and pasta and LOTS of lovely fresh breads. The chocolate croissants in the morning were divine! They relied on salads (greens and mixed) for veggies, there weren't too many choices in the hot veggies. LOTS of protein in various forms available. My youngest and I went on a 1/2 day tour - we were a bit concerned when the tour guide indicated he only spoke French and Creole (we had asked please for an english speaking guide) and were almost not going to go when he started speaking English to us ( he was having fun with us). We saw the south side of the island, the stop at Josephine Bonapart's house was nice but too long (had to wait for the tour) so it took away from the visit to Habitation Clement where we could have spent more time. NOTE: purchasing your rum on the tour is definitely worth it. As the French guests don't have restrictions on what they can bring home (duty tax), a few on our tour had BOXES full of rum! The island itself is lovely from what we saw. It is a part of France, so is more like a French province and less like a Carribean island (if this makes sense). There is a beautiful, newly paved HIGHWAY around the island, complete with overpasses and roundabouts. Travel around the island is efficent (though does take time given the terrain) and the main roads are very good. You do have to go farther afield to find the old island flair as it seems Martinique is much more "cosmopolitan" than the Carribean I am used to (McDonalds' with a drive thru is NOT my idea of an advancement). There are mosquitoes and I think there are sand fleas (had a few bites on my feet,ankles but not many - we were using a lavender sunscreen which I think helped). Chikungunya virus is on the island and you are warned to use mosquito repellents. The Club is taking preventative measures (sprays I believe) and does inform you on the bus from the airport. I had my family taking preventive homeopathics for it all week. Lastly, a word of advice for the airport (which is NOT the typical island airport - there are JETWAYS, no walking outside on the tarmack). There is only 1 shop in the airport departures lounge (Duty Free plus some other goods) so don't plan to do any last minute shopping there as there really isn't anything to buy. There is a small shop on the concourse before security that advertises all their products can go through security but I didn't want to test that theory. So, would I return? I think so. Nothing to keep me from not going back, but I'm still looking for THE PLACE. Stayed March 2014, travelled with family