(This post is in partnership with Club Med We were gifted a 7 night stay and we paid for our flights)
When I received an email to ask if I would go and review a Club Med resort & the whole family could come along I thought what an incredible opportunity. We try & go on holiday every year but of course things have changed massively since having our little ladies.
There were three key things I wanted to explore for the very first time & be able to feedback to you: long haul travel with little ones, an all inclusive holiday & our first time using the childcare that is offered as part of the stay.
Apart from our honeymoon in 2013 when we took our biggest little lady who was around 14 months old on a road trip to the West Coast of America we haven’t travelled long haul with them. We have taken our holidays closer to home in the UK, France & Spain.
The flight
When I found out that the offer was a 7 night stay in Mauritius at La Plantation d’Albion Club Med, I was blown away and incredibly excited as I had heard about Club Med & it was on my wish list to try although the first thought that raced through my mind was, can we actually do this?! Our little ladies are 7, 5 & 3 & the the thought of a 12hr flight did panic me & filled me with dread. I turned to Google and of course Instagram to find out from other parents what it would be like & read mixed reviews but the key seemed to be to go for a night flight.
When I searched for flights they had the perfect flights from London Gatwick to Mauritius leaving at 9:15pm. Mauritius is 4hrs ahead so we would land at 1pm. We found that British Airways had the most reasonable flights & times. We booked via a third party site called TravelTrolley & a top tip is not to spend more money booking seats because the BA computer systems must pick up that their are children on the booking & allocated us seats free of charge which showed on the “my booking” page just before online check in became available.
The flight went better than I thought, they loved watching movies & listening to the Audio books on the TVs. And at midnight it was lights out on the plane until 7am. Two out of three little ladies slept right through so was still challenging. And the husband decided to sleep on the floor. I don’t understand how he even squeezed himself into such a tiny space!
The Hotel
When we landed in Mauritius, there was a transfer bus waiting to take us to the hotel, transfers are included if you book your accommodation directly with Club Med. As we pulled up towards the hotel we were greeted by several staff who were waving to us & singing & dancing. It was the warmest welcome we have ever received when we have arrived somewhere & that really did set the tone for the whole holiday.
We were given iced tea and cold flannels to cool down and refresh & our holiday “rep” which Club Med refer to as GO’s (Gentle Organisers) told us everything we needed to know and took us to our rooms where our luggage arrived shortly after. And the reception area & walkway into the hotel was incredibly grand and beautiful.
Our rooms were beautiful and super spacious. We had interconnecting rooms which was another first for us. Up until now if we’ve stayed in a hotel we have booked one room with two double beds because the little ladies could fit in one but now the littlest lady is nearly 4, they definitely need a bed each. The interconnecting room also meant we had two bathrooms & toilets which came in handy.
After we had settled in, we went to have a look around the hotel and were blown away. It felt so luxurious and spacious & we couldn’t wait to try out the infinity pool! We headed for food at the La Phare restaurant which serves light meals all day and in between the main dining times at the buffet restaurant because we were too exhausted to wait until 7:30pm for the buffet to open.
That night we all had an early night & to our surprise everyone woke up at 9:30am so we had to rush down to breakfast before it closed. There was so much choice & the fresh fruit was the biggest hit with the little ladies.
We then headed to the pool for a couple of hours. It was heaven, lots of sun loungers & you could order drinks from the pool so you didn’t even have to move 😉 They even have a kids bar which the little ladies loved. And snacks galore. We had the most relaxing days and I really think the little things like not having to sort out food and drinks all day long was one of the key reasons!
There are also free activities to do every day including aqua aerobics in the pool, yoga and tennis classes. We didn’t do either but I had fun watching the aerobics 😉
After a few hours playing in the pool we headed for lunch. Lunch is served at the same restaurant where you have breakfast. It is buffet style so just allow yourself a lot of time to go back and forth! Although we discovered later that day, that you could also order room service breakfast so we did that for three mornings where we were feeling really lazy.
We then headed to the beach. It’s a two minute walk away from the pool and is breathtaking. The sea is shallow and safe for the little ladies (with us alongside them of course 😉 and there are more staff on hand at the beach serving drinks and fresh towels on the sun loungers which are included in the holiday stay and there are plenty, so no strategy or early starts needed to bag one!
The little ladies would often nap on the beach or around 5pm we would head back to the room where they would relax, watch a little TV and get ready for dinner. The bedrooms were cleaned every day so we would always go back to a tidy room.
Each night the evening buffet would start at 7:30pm and would be there would be a theme for the evening. The first night was breathtaking, it was dinner served around the swimming pool, everything was white and everyone was dressed in white and there was a trapeze / acrobatic show after dinner. And when we had sat down to dinner our GO “Gentle Organiser” came to sit and eat with us. We were quite taken aback and asked if he was sure he wanted to sit with us and our crazy trio of little ladies but actually having another adult at the table and someone they didn’t know meant they ended up being on their best behaviour 😉
There is also a kids activity each evening that you can either take them too or book them in with the mini club and they take care of them, this varied from Disco, face painting to arts and crafts.
Throughout the holiday the “GO’s” would join us for dinner which made this a really different holiday to what we had experienced before and the idea of a community and getting to know other people from all around the world was really lovely.
The routine above is what we did every single day apart from one day trip which I will tell you more about. The weather was perfect. It was a little cloudy some days but a consistent 28/30 degrees and quite humid. The clouds were welcome with the little ladies as we could stay outside all day.
The Kids Club
On our third day at the hotel we went to see the kids club and meet the GO’s there and to get a feel for it. We have been to quite a few French campsites over the last few years but have not felt comfortable leaving them. It did feel different at Club Med and that evening we were invited to a family dinner with other parents the GO’s of the mini club and the children so the little ladies and us could get to know everyone better. The next morning all three little ladies went along for 2.5 hours and loved it! We explored the rest of the resort which was really beautiful. My husband more so than me 😉 wanted to keep the little ladies with us for the rest of the holiday and to be honest, I think they just wanted to spend the entire time with Daddy throwing them into the pool but if you have really active little ones who want to do activities and make friends on holiday, it is great to have this option.
The day trip
On day six of our holiday we went on a day trip. There is an excursion office at the hotel where you can book onto a ton of trips. The ones we were most drawn to, the little ladies were a little young for so we opted for a more flexible trip out by booking a taxi driver to take us to “Casela” which was a wildlife sanctuary. We all loved it! The giant tortoises were definitely a highlight for us all.
We stayed there for half a day and then we headed to a local beach called Flic en Flac. We wanted to go at the weekend when it would be busy and lots of Mauritians would be there to and it was absolutely brilliant. This is one of my favourite pictures of the sun glistening on the water.
Highlights
I have a couple more highlights to share. One is by the little ladies and the other by myself and the husband.
Daily Crepes
Every single day at 4pm there would be crepes with Nutella served by the pool. The little ladies were in chocolate heaven and they looked forward to this moment. They made friends with the Chef and would feed pancakes to the birds 😉
Mauritius Night
One of the evenings towards the end of the holiday was a celebration of all things Mauritius from the food to the dancing and entertainment. The walk to the buffet that night was beautiful and we were greeted by Mauritius singers and after dinner we headed to the beach for a fire breathing show and traditional Mauritian dancing. It was definitely my favorite evening.
I have to say that every morning we woke up here, I felt incredibly lucky to be in such a beautiful country and was blown away. Mauritius just took my breath away, it’s a truly magical place and will have a place in my heart forever. I will definitely visit the island again.
Hope you enjoyed reading about our stay at the very beautiful La Plantation d’Albion. Please feel free to ask me any questions or leave me a comment. And if you missed my trip on Instagram, head over to my highlights and tap on Mauritius to see lots of pictures and videos of our time there.
