One of the things that hasn't changed (too much) is the wide offerings of sports available. You have everything, from sailing to water skiing, from tennis to wakeboarding, and from basketball to snorkeling. The sad thing is that, in the past, it used to be free (included in the lodging cost) to scuba dive, but not anymore. You have to pay extra for the scuba trips, and you also pay for jet skis, golf, horseback riding, and quad biking. Change is not always good.

The village is huge, and to walk from the entrance to the main compound area will take you a good 15 minutes. This was the very first hotel in the whole area, and it was secluded and isolated from civilization. Fortunately, they got the tip of the island; otherwise, they would be located in the very middle of the hotel strip by now. Being away from the other hotels is good if you plan to spend your whole vacation inside this one, otherwise you will need to take a costly cab to go downtown for shopping, dining, or getting to the airport.

The food is excellent by buffet standards. I have sampled other hotel's buffets, and they pale in comparison. The offering is huge and fresh, and you will be happy whatever your choice is.

I haven't mentioned the beach and ocean, as there is no need to do so. This is the Caribbean - the sand is white and won't burn your feet and the water is so clear that you may think you are diving in a pool. With that said, this is the beach to be. With European clientele, you will see a lot of topless woman. Their Website Club Med>

Despite all the space however, the club has a very "concrete" feel to it. Everything's been paved, even the paths for foot traffic.

The village is centered around the main building complex, which contains the pool, reception (very nicely done!), main restaurant, theater, shops, bar, club, etc. There are signs everywhere so it's pretty hard to get lost. Nothing is crammed in. The disco is set up facing the ocean, so the music is not really heard anywhere else on the club. Cool ocean breezes moderate the club's temperature. An outside area is also great for cooling off and chatting, as well as a circular platform/stage right outside the disco.

The swimming beach on the 'strip' side is joined with the other club's beaches. The sand is nice, but huge chunks of coral in the water mean you have to be careful. The slope in the water is pretty steep. This side of the beach is really the only place where you will see non-Club Med'ers - by law, Mexican beaches are public, so you will have non-GM's wandering the beach. Locals try to sell you jewelery, parasail rides, etc., but they are not agressive. On the other side of the peninsula (that separates the "strip" side from the more empty side), is the sailing shack, snorkeling, and the other restaurant. The beach here is narrow and the sand is rough. Swimming is possible, but you'll need teva's or some other sand-shoes. I also believe that Club Med discourages swimming off the main swimming beach.

Towards the windsurfing shack and second restaurant (La Palapa), just offshore, is an anchor point and docks for motorboats and jetskis that some amusement park rent out miles away. It is a constant source of noise, and wrecks the view. During the day, there are usually more then 50 boats scoooting around, following the leader through the lagoon behind the club, and generally causing a nuisance. Club Med is powerless to prevent it, as the water is technically public, and these rides generate a LOT of revenue for someone. I will talk more about this in the relevent sports sections.

Continuing along the beach, there is a second night club that they open occasionally. In two weeks we were there, it was only open once, and we didn't go. At the tip of the property is the sailing shack. They used to have a shuttle to get you here from the main building - it ends up being almost a 15 minute walk. I think they still do when the property is at its busiest.

The hotel buildings are spread around the property nicely, and never exceed more than 4 floors. In typical Club Med style, they've tried to integrate them well into the surroundings. I can't say so much for the other hotels on the "strip". The buildings all have outside corridors, and some are quite far from the main building/restaurant (10 minute walk). If this bothers you, ask for a closer room. Our room was very clean (no carpet, as is normal for Club Med). Air conditioning worked great (although we heard of some people having problems with humidity due to over-AC).

The building we were in had a sunken area by the door to the balcony, giving it a nice multi-level/larger room feeling.

There is a very funky towel drying/rock statue thing outside on the balcony. I'm not sure why I'm mentioning it, except that it's typical of the stylings that Club Med try to integrate into their property.

On our oceanview room there were some chairs facing outside. The ground floor oceanview rooms open right up onto the beach - very nice, although not that private. As I mentioned, almost all rooms will have some sort of view of water. Unfortunately our ocean view also included a view of the hotel strip - if we'd gotten a room on the other side of the club, we might have just been looking at water (although it would still be plagued by noisy jetskis and motorboats during the day).