Family Activities at Club Med Miches

It’s our final day at Club Med Michès. After breakfast, we go to the beach on the right-side of the resort which is a different one than we visited before. This beach is much nicer with plenty of soft sand and few rocks or obstructions. This is the family beach, and the bar is over here. In my opinion, this beach is superior. My son joins other children to build sandcastles and moats for most of the morning. I go back and forth with helping with the sandcastles and also seeking shade from the sun. My back and arms are sunburned from yesterday so today I’m doing a better job of staying out of the sun. I’m also wearing a rash guard to keep all the sunburned areas protected. I’ve mostly stuck with nonalcoholic juicy drinks, but today I branch out and try a cocktail. I ask for a recommendation and the bartender offers the Coco Loco. It was really delicious and had cinnamon sprinkled on top which was a nice touch. 

We’re covered in sand from the beach. We rinse off with the beach showers. Then, my son takes a bath while I shower back in the hotel room. I’ve never showered so much on vacation and my son has never taken so many baths in a few days. Most days we take three showers. Once after the beach, once before dinner, and once after dinner. Our room has a giant bathtub, and my son loves that it has a shower wand. I’m loving that he’s taking so many baths. That can be a difficult task at home. 

We eat some lunch (salad for me and fruit and a poke bowl for my son) then it’s time for my activity choice for the day. My son doesn’t want to go, but I told him that I get to pick an activity and then he gets to pick an activity. My choice is part of the “Amazing Family” program at Club Med. These are activities designed for families to do together which I love. We are going to family yoga! Yoga is at the Yoga Canopy which is located in the jungle across the street from archery. We come across a sign which is very misleading. It has an icon of someone in lotus pose with an arrow. We think that means the yoga canopy is that way, but it was actually for the gym. We do find our way and arrive to class just as it is about the begin. Luckily, no one else showed up for the class so it’s just us and two Club Med employees. One is the yoga teacher, and the other is in charge of the family programming. They both do an amazing job at channeling my son’s energy into yoga poses. They have pictures of several animals, and we guess each animal based on clues and then do the yoga pose. The animals include a butterfly, dog, camel, cat, and cow. There is a fan in the yoga canopy and half of my son’s energy goes towards talking about the fan and he gets up to adjust it a few times too. After the animal poses, there are some partner poses. He does some with me and some with the Club Med employees. This wasn’t my son’s favorite activity, but we did make it through 45-minutes which is pretty amazing. 

We stop by our room to switch from yoga clothes to swimsuits and then it’s back to the water. We spend a little time in the pool and when it nears 5pm we go to the water sports building. The activities are found in the App and most of them involve showing up at the indicated time. This one apparently required a sign-up, but I didn’t see that. Fortunately, there is enough room to join the activity. This is my son’s chosen activity, and it is Sunset Kayaking. I thought we would be on our own kayaking around the normal area, but that’s not the case. This is a guided kayak adventure that starts at the resort and continues along the coastline outside of the resort. There are three double kayaks with a total of six people and then three Club Med employees. Two are in a double kayak leading us around the coral and one is in a motorized boat who can tow us back if we can’t paddle any further. The coastline here goes in and out and has several bends along the way. There is a stretch where we can’t see our resort or the next resort and it’s bliss. The jungle is to our left, we sit on top of beautiful seemingly untouched water, and to our right is the ocean and sun setting. It was magical. We continue a little further to where we can see a new resort being built and stop at a beach right before the other resort. We chat and enjoy the scenery and then paddle back to our resort. The current has changed from our daytime trips and the way back is much easier. My son lays down and enjoys the views while I paddle us back. I even see a stingray on our way back!

The magic continues as we approach the water sports building. The Sunset Party has started! There is a DJ playing light music that fits with a Bohemian vibe. There are pillows and short tables setup to relax and chat. Two food/drink tables are setup. One has two types of Sangria, and the other has two types of fruit on a stick: watermelon and mango. The mangoes here are amazing. I enjoy one glass of Sangria and one mango on a stick while my son enjoys the other activity available. They have brought a giant bin of sand toys and he’s digging and building away. It’s the perfect end to our trip. We stay until the sun sets and then back to the room to get ready for a late dinner. 

The employees here are called GOs and there seems to be two types of employees here. The more client facing roles such as the front desk and all activities seem to be younger GOs who are here on a 6-month contract. We met GOs from Canada, Portugal, U.S., and France. All the GOs we met are at least bilingual with some speaking several languages. The other set of employees I think are more permanent and are local. They speak Spanish and may or may not speak English. The chefs, bartenders, servers, security, and housekeeping fall into this category. I’ve spoken more Spanish at this resort than any other resort that I’ve visited. I think most visitors can get by with only English, but any special requests such as asking about food allergies is difficult without Spanish. We’ve navigated both our food allergies here, but overall, it hasn’t been the easiest. Besides the language barrier, I think most of the more local GOs don’t understand what a food allergy is and how serious they can be. There are some that do understand. I had asked about the pasta and if it contains egg. The chef went to the back and brought back the box so I can read. The box was in Spanish, and together we determined it did not have eggs. He did warn me that the Carbonara pasta that will be served later in the week would have egg. 

We are in a fairly remote area of the country, and the resort has plenty of security. My son notices this and loves it. The resort is about 15 minutes from the main road and there are two different security checkpoints on the side road that goes between the main road and resort. My son asked one of the security guards how many security guards were working (I translate for him.) He answers with 16. Some are noticeable and others can be found in the literal shady edges of the resort. One of the first things my son said when we get home is how he felt safer at the resort with so many people keeping watch. 

Another interesting thing about Club Med is that the GOs mingle with the guests. They really get to know you during your stay. Tonight, two GOs ask to join us for dinner. One is from the front desk and who my son loves. Anytime we go back to our room, he asks to go through the lobby to see if she’s there so he can say hello. The other is one of the leaders from our kayaking trip. It’s really nice to get to know them both and it also makes it easier for me to eat tonight. They both sit with my son while I get my food which makes things way easier for me. My son has separation anxiety, so this is challenging for him, but we’ve made some significant progress on the trip. 

After dinner, we stop at the front desk to confirm our departure time. It’s at 9:30am and we need to put our bags outside our door by 9am. Easy peasy.