I needed a holiday.

With my own business and three young kids, life is crazy. I’m constantly busy, exhausted and dying for a break.

When we booked our trip to Mauritius it seemed like the perfect time to book ourselves an actual break. One where things wouldn’t be crazy, we wouldn’t feel like we were herding our kids around attractions constantly and Josh and I could actually have some quality time together and by ourselves.

When I started researching the perfect place to do this, the answer popped up immediately.

Club Med.

I have always wanted to stay at Club Med because they always sound luxurious and easy. Since having kids, I absolutely love all inclusive and how easy that makes everything and I had heard that Club Med had the best kids club of anywhere.

There’s also plenty to do at Club Med. Since we get bored easily and are definitely not the type to be happy just lying on a beach, it sounded perfect for us.

Mauritius has two Club Meds and we decided to give it a go.

We are so happy we did!

What is Club Med?

Club Med is the perfect solution if you are looking for a Mauritius all inclusive (or for an all inclusive experience in the other countries where they operate). Everything is included from meals to activities to cocktails to entertainment to kids club.

We have stayed at a few all inclusive resorts and, honestly, none have measured up to Club Med. They definitely take all-inclusive holidays to Mauritius to another level with fabulous food, all day dining, generosity with drinks and an amazing activities program.

The only things you pay extra for is premium alcohol (like if you want to pick your bottle of wine), purchases from the shop, room service, excursions and the day spa.

For those of us with kids, Club Med has a real focus on families and all kids are welcome. There is an outstanding kids club (all the details below!). The general rule is kids 4+, but many Club Meds have a toddler program and some a baby program which are at an extra cost.

Club Med also distinguishes itself with top rate staff. Everyone I came into contact with was at least bilingual and all were friendly. Club Med staff are called G.O.s (Great Organisers) and go out of their way to get to know you and make you feel welcome and included.

Club Med Albion review

Club Med La Plantation d’Albion is simply fantastic. If you are looking for resorts in Mauritius, you cannot go wrong with this option. From arrival to check out, everything was smooth and easy.

Below, I step through all the different aspects of a stay here including transfers, our room, activities, entertainment and Mini Club.

Transfers

Our Club Med experience started the second after we walked through customs at the airport before we entered the public area. We saw a sign for the resort and were given cold water and whisked out a side exit into a waiting van which was complete with a baby car seat and booster seat for the kids.

The driver answered our questions and was soon driving us the 50 minutes to the resort. It is perhaps the easiest arrival experience I have ever had!

Our room

We stayed in connecting Club and Suite rooms with a sea view. They were both great!

You can see the inside and outside of the rooms here:

Both rooms were clean, comfortable and well furnished with fun extras – like towel animals! The kids loved seeing the different animals every day.

The Club Room is the cheapest room type but is still lovely and a good size. There’s plenty of cupboard space, day bed, couch, TV, desk, and a fabulous bath tub.

The suite is amazing with a separate living area with day bed, couches and a big coffee table. There’s a separate toilet off the living area as well as a big cupboard which was perfect for our baby gear.

The bedroom has a desk area, king size bed, lots of cupboards and a huge bathroom with twin vanities, massive bath tub and candles. There’s also a door that leads to an outdoor shower.

Both rooms have mini bars and, thanks to having a suite, these were full and replenished daily included in the price. We also had fruit delivered to the room every afternoon.

The best part, however, was definitely the furnished terraces which were right on the beach. We loved having this outdoor space right by the ocean. It was also surprisingly private thanks to it not being a swimming beach. I spent a lot of time sitting out on the terrace and I highly recommend paying the extra to get a room with this feature especially if you have a kid that naps.

Club Med Albion Villas

Club Med La Plantation d’Albion also has a separate section of villas (called Club Med Albion on their site). There’s the option to do a tour of one of the villas and I did this.

The villas are just amazing. They come in 2, 3 and 4 bedroom configurations. Each bedroom has its own bathroom with outside access so they are quite private.

Each villa has a large living area in the middle with a kitchen to the side (with fully stocked fridge) where a private butler cooks your breakfast and prepares tea in the late afternoon.

The best part, however, is definitely the beautiful yard which is complete with private swimming pool and an amazing outdoor living area with dining and lounging space. If you have young kids, they even set up a pool fence.

Guests use all the facilities of the main resort and also have a private butler for two periods twice a day who take care of everything for them.

Food

The only thing that concerned me about booking a week in Club Med was the food.

Since living in Penang, we have become really fussy about good quality food and when I think about all inclusive resorts and buffets, good quality is not what comes to mind. Quite the opposite.

Thankfully, Club Med Plantation d’Albion proved me wrong. Buffets can be fabulous! We ate at the main buffet restaurant for most meals and everything I ate was superb.

There’s great variety and there are chefs working at the different sections making sure the food is always fresh. There are options which are made to order and some dishes are already plated and taste extra fantastic. There’s a good range of western food with some Asian options. There’s also a section of Mauritian food which is mostly Indian and I loved it.

There are eating options all day long, but the best food options are at meal times.

There are two main restaurants. We mostly ate at the main one, Restaurant La Distillerie, as the other one, Restaurant Le Phare, is adults only except at dinner time and it wasn’t open all nights when we visited.

Restaurant La Phare is just gorgeous though. We had dinner here one night right by the ocean and the scenery and sounds of the ocean made for a special experience. The food was also great and it was nice to be served.

The service was great in both restaurants. Even at the buffet, the attendants get drinks, help carry plates and help with entertaining Baby J. We had a waitress in the main restaurant who became quite attached to Baby J and would be brilliant with getting him food and making sure we were happy. She would also set up the table ready for us in her section so she got to serve us.

You can order special wine with your meals (for extra cost) or have the house drinks which come out by the bottle if you want.

The snacks during the day are quite simple. We loved the bar by the pool as they would have fruit and bakery items so Baby J could have some fruit while we had a cocktail. It was lovely.

Dinner time usually had a theme – like “white” or “blue and white”. Nothing difficult and you don’t have to do it. We usually didn’t and we didn’t feel weird.

All in all, I am very impressed by the food at Club Med La Plantation d’Albion. I never got bored of it, as I feared, quite the opposite. I really enjoyed meal time.

Facilities

Club Med La Plantation d’Albion is full of facilities.

The resort is basically split into two areas – one is the Zen area which is focused on peace and tranquility and one is the main village area.

Each of the areas has a main focal point where there is a pool, a restaurant and some other things. The main pool and dining area is also home to reception, a shop, a tour desk and a theatre. It’s also the entry to the swimming beach.

In the Zen area, there is another pool (with absolutely superb views at sunset), restaurant, gym and day spa. Kids are only allowed in this area to go to the restaurant at dinner time.

Across the middle of the resort are various sporting facilities. There’s tennis, golf, trapeze, archery and soccer.

On the beach, there are water sports. There’s also a dive centre, fitness centre and table tennis near the main pool.

There are so many things, in fact, that I have no doubt left many things off this list.

The resort itself is quite big, not that you would realise it initially. It’s been very well constructed to blend into the surroundings.

There are electric golf carts to get around and we found one at our door within minutes of ringing for them. It’s also very nice to walk around with beautiful landscaping and many paths.

Of course, there is also the beach. It’s a lovely stretch of coastline which is nice and calm and worked well with our kids. There are many lounge chairs and day beds to relax on as well. You can see it below:

There are also many nice touches – like a stand by the beach with drinks and towels where you can help yourself. Towels are also sitting on many of the lounge chairs that line the beach areas.

There is also an infirmary which is staffed 24 hours by knowledgable nurses and they have a doctor on call. We tried out this facility as I brought a chest infection with me to Mauritius.

It is incredibly well run and professional and they had a doctor to see me within an hour and a half. The doctor brought all medications with him and it was all very easy and a good price.

Activities

There are so many activities at Club Med La Plantation d’Albion. You really can be as busy or quiet as you want to be.

There are schedules around the place but I recommend downloading the Club Med app for your phone and then you can see it all including the opening hours of the restaurants.

There are classes for basically all the sporting facilities mentioned above. You can have tennis/golf/sailing/etc lessons. There are fitness classes all day long. You can even learn how to fly on a trapeze!

There’s live music, games, tournaments, pilates, many things.

We tried archery, tennis, kayaking and some other water sports. There are plenty of people to help and make sure you learn and have a great time.

There’s also the option to book many day tours from the tour excursion desk and a taxi stand just outside the hotel if you would prefer to organise it yourself. Mauritius is a beautiful country to explore and it’s definitely worth making the effort to get out and see more.

You can read our list of things to do in Mauritius here.

Mini Club and Club Med with kids

It’s not just the adults that have activities all day long, so do the kids with their own activity program through the Mini Club (Club Med for kids’ club).

Mini Club deserves its own section as it’s amazing.

Seriously, amazing.

Our kids never wanted to leave.

One of the biggest reasons I first started looking at booking a Club Med vacation is that I had heard such good things about their kids club.

It’s all true.

This is no run of the mill kids club. The kids get to do tons of cool stuff and learn new things too. It’s an incredibly engaging and fun activity schedule and the kids never wanted to leave.

The staff are also top rate, multilingual and do their best to accommodate everyone’s needs. I was impressed by the feedback and questions they asked.

There is a Mini Club area but the kids are also taken to the facilities around the resort and do such awesome things as archery, flying on a trapeze, going on boat rides and paddling on kayaks.

Of course, the exact activities depend on the kids’ ages and preferences. 7 year old S did everything, 5 year old Z is more hesitant and stuck to soccer over archery and trapeze.

Kids under 4 have their own area of the Mini Club. 12 month old Baby J was able to join in with this when we paid for a baby sitter which was a reasonable price, professional and incredibly easy to organise. 2 and 3 year olds have their own special (paid) program.

Around the resort, kids are also very welcome (except in the Zen pool area). Baby J was treated like a rock star. Many people must work at this Club Med and it felt like the majority of them were calling him by name after a couple of days.

You can also arrange a “Baby Welcome” pack which includes a whole lot of baby equipment in your room. We had a cot, sleeping bag, baby bath, change mat, bottle warmer and nappy bin.

I often find buffets quite difficult with kids. It’s hard to help them, carry everything and get a moment to actually eat and enjoy the experience. This was very easy at Club Med as the staff are around all the time to help and are very proactive in doing so.

Entertainment

There is some fabulous entertainment at Club Med La Plantation D’Albion. Every night there was some type of show or event to attend as well as live music at different times of the day by the pool.

The nightly dinner was sometimes set up around the show. For example, for the circus performance pictured above, dinner was outside around the pool with tables arranged all around. Everything was stunningly presented and stuck to the white theme of the night.

Another night, there was a Las Vegas theme where dinner was served in the theatre so you could eat and drink while watching the show.

The staff are very friendly and often around to help you with anything or join in. The idea is that the G.O.s’ sit, eat, play, perform and do everything with and for you. It’s a nice set up.

Our verdict

Club Med La Plantation d’Albion totally exceeded all our expectations – and our expectations were very high.

I expected an easy, fun holiday, what I didn’t expect was just how top rate everything would be, primarily because I have never experienced anything as good before.

Everything was superb from the room to the food to the staff to the facilities, grounds, entertainment, everything.

The attention to every single detail in this Mauritius accommodation is amazing and it leads to an amazing experience.

We have travelled a lot and stayed in many fabulous places but Club Med La Plantation d’Albion wins. Holidays don’t get easier, more quality and better than this.

The kids absolutely loved it. They wanted to be in Mini Club all the time. They were able to try so many things and have new experiences in a safe environment while Josh and I had a chance to relax and have a break.

It was perfect.

We visited this resort in June. This is winter in Mauritius and I worried that it was going to be too cold for us.

This wasn’t the case and actually the weather was perfect. I found 22 degrees here felt much warmer than it does back in Melbourne. We were shorts, t shirts and dresses during the day with a light jacket or cardigan in the evening.

I think June is a great time to visit as there aren’t as many other people and it was nice to have plenty of privacy and most things to ourselves. There were still enough people to give the place atmosphere when we wanted this though.

If I have to complain about something, it is the meal times. They do start half an hour earlier for families but 7pm is a bit late for us – usually the kids are in bed by then.

It wasn’t too much of a problem for the big kids. We would get them to have a nap and then they were ok. It was harder with Baby J though who we couldn’t get to sleep extra in the day to make up for it.

Definitely one of the biggest positives of Club Med are the staff. Everyone we came into contact with was friendly, helpful and just brilliant. As I mentioned above, we had a favourite attendant at meals who just made things so easy for us.

The ladies who would clean our room were brilliant. Not just because they made our rooms look amazing but because they would help out if we were in there. One day, I was there alone with Baby J and Z and struggling to get them out of the door. She helped.

These are just two examples of what every staff member was like.

If you are considering family holidays to Mauritius, you would be crazy not to consider staying here.

We loved the Club Med experience and we can’t wait to do it again. I’ve already been checking out the ones in Asia and working out when we can next visit one. I can see a lot more Club Meds in our future! And I can see us returning to La Plantation d’Albion.

It is the most beautiful, wonderful holiday I have ever had.

You can read our full guide for Mauritius here.

Disclaimer: We were guests of Club Med. As always, all views are my own.

Have you stayed in Club Med? Would you like to?

Tags:  Accommodation Mauritius Travel Blog