Club Med Insider

Honeymoon in Paradise, april 08

My husband and i decided on Kani for our honeymoon. Here's a detailed description of our trip that i hope can be useful to other travelers who are thinking of taking a trip to Paradise

my husband and i are (very) frequent travellers. I am french and my husband is american, we went from New York to Paris and then traveled with Qatar Airways to Male via Doha (a wonderful travelling experience i must say).

THE VILLAGE / ROOMS:
Having travelled with Club Med in the past, we pretty much knew what to expect. We were blown away by the site. The village is relatively small (one can go around the island in 6 mn time) and the suites on stilts (we stayed in one of those) as well as the beach villas are a bit separated. The suites are simply the most beautiful, breathtaking rooms i have ever seen. The pictures on the Club Med site do not do them justice. They have small living room, they are completely open and have a wonderful his/hers bath. And of course, the deck complete with loungechairs, right in the middle of the lagoon. The suites, beach villas and superior rooms have all been renovated. The regular rooms have not. The village is not packed with people as there aren't that many rooms (compared to Columbus Isle for example). The customers mostly come from Asia, italy and Australia. There were no children during our stay, mostly honeymooners.

THE BEACH
On the beach villa/suite side as well as on the bar side is the lagoon. Contrary to what we thought prior to going, you do have a lot of privacy in the beach villas as they are built in a palm tree shape. We never ran into any of our neighbors while swimming off our deck.
You definitely should bring booties or sandals to explore the lagoon as there is a lot of broken coral in the water. On the other side of the jetty however, the beach is pristine and no sandals are needed.
The beauty of the Maldives is that you can see incredible sea life right from the beach. You can snorkle and look at beautiful corals steps away from the beach. We had brought our own snorkeling gear to do so since Club Med lends you gear only when you snorkel with them. We saw beautiful Rays and small (harmless) sharks as well as some incredible exotic fish.

THE FOOD
If you are familiar with european Club Med, you expect oustanding food. Unfortunately, it wasn't quite the case here for several reasons. That said, we always found something good to eat, just not outstanding.The food is geared towards more of an Asian crowd. The buffet therefore consists in Korean, Chinese and Japanese specialties and has an Indian corner for vegetarians. I chose Club Med because i am used to eating meditarrean food and wanted to still be able to do so while in Asia if i chose to. A lot of European customers ended up speaking to the Chef De Village regarding the food which we were told would be gourmet. She explained that it is gourmet for Asian food but that she would do her best to adress our concerns. In the end, i think there were several issues: some of the fruit and vegetables have to be imported, some have to be frozen because we are in the Maldives after all. But i also think the Chef wasn't that good. Bear in mind that the Chef changes every season along with the rest of the team. I think they would benefit from having a both a Sri Lankan chef and a french one in the kitchen (the pastry chef was french and the pastries were delicious) to uphold Club Med traditions and to keep the trust of european customers who go to Club Med expecting that. It is true however that it understandably more geared towards an Asian crowd as they are the majoriy of customers.

THE TEAM OF GOs/ ENTERTAINMENT
The great thing about this club med is that it is not a cheesy party like some of the other ones. The GO team is friendly, but pretty quiet and respectful of people's privacy. They understand it is mostly honeymooners who go there. The beach bar is laid back. The other bar, complete with nets you can watch the sharks from is simply beautiful. The lounge is wonderful and you can find quiet areas during the (toned down) shows. This Club actually had better beach cocktails than the other ones we've been to and the staff was extremely helpful in all capacities.

In conclusion, in spite of the food not being up to par, we would go back in a heartbeat and advise our friends to go as well.
We feel the all inclusive format is worth it because in islands such as the Maldives, a lot has to be imported and lunch/ dinner or wine can be very expensive over a 10 day period. And who wants to take out their wallet in paradise?
It was one of the most beautiful, enchanting places we had ever seen and we are bound to return. Kudos to Club Med for building and maintaining such a beautiful site.