Club Med Michès Playa Esmeralda is the off-the-beaten-path alternative to the company’s original Dominican property in Punta Cana.Naomi Buck/The Globe and Mail
This past February, levelled by abdominal surgery – on top of 15 years of single parenting – I began turning the all-inclusive concept over in my mind. I’d never been a fan. I was not one to wrap myself in decadence in the middle of some poor tropical country. But March Break was shaping up to be yet another marathon of making-the-most-of-it in muddy Toronto. My teenaged sons had never been south, never even dipped their toes in an ocean. If not now, then when?
The only all-inclusive chain that came to mind, thanks to the earwormy “Hands Up” jingle from the TV ads of my childhood, was Club Med. And its new resort in the Dominican Republic, billed as “eco-chic” and “unspoilt,” even sounded somewhat up my alley.
Club Med Michès Playa Esmeralda is the off-the-beaten-path alternative to the company’s original Dominican property in Punta Cana, which opened in 1978 and kicked off an explosion of development on the island’s easternmost point. As we cut past hawkers and taxis driving out of Punta Cana airport, I was glad to be leaving tourist central behind as we headed westward along the island’s northern shore.
An hour and a half later, we turned off the highway, through Club Med gates and down a narrow drive. It was pitch dark and the lush foliage of the rain forest scraped against the van’s windows. My normally ultracool kids were practically bursting with excitement.
At Club Med Michès Playa Esmeralda you can walk miles along the beach, well beyond the resort’s property line, and find nothing but virgin sand, coconut grove and the odd gecko.Naomi Buck/The Globe and Mail
Arriving at the resort’s main building, a thatched-roof construction framed by majestic palm trees, we were greeted by a small army of employees and whisked by electric club car to an open-air restaurant, furnished in bright watermelon pinks and greens, whose kitchen was about to close. As the lone waiter presented my kids with their favourite (if unoriginal) meal – burger, fries and Coke – my younger son fixed me with a meaningful stare and pronounced, with the wisdom of a 14-year-old: “This is how you live your best life.”
The sentence resonated with me throughout the week.
Club Med Michès Playa Esmeralda opened in 2021 (following a pandemic-aborted start in 2019) and is the first resort on this wild swath of the Dominican Republic’s northeastern coastline. More are already under construction but, for now, the place has a Treasure Island quality – you can walk miles along the beach, well beyond the resort’s property line, and find nothing but virgin sand, coconut grove and the odd gecko. The resort is huge, stretching more than 93 acres and its low-rise accommodations are organized into four “villages” catering to a different traveller type. Our unit, in the family-friendly Explorer Cove, was spacious, bright and featured a private patio overlooking a profusion of palm and eucalyptus trees. Sleeping with the sliding door wide open, we awoke each morning to a symphony of birdsong. It wasn’t long before we were calling it home.
But unlike at our real home, everything was new and luxurious – and we always found it tidier than we left it. I quickly learned the pleasure of having a bed turned down for the night, one of many perks that has earned this resort its five stars. And while there is no environmental virtue in flying south for a week, I appreciated the resort’s sustainability aspirations including the provision of glass (not plastic) water bottles, water refilling stations everywhere and bamboo takeout cups and containers.
A network of meandering pathways connects the myriad facilities, including tennis and pickleball courts, a spa, an adults-only Zen Oasis, a yoga treehouse, an outdoor circus trapeze and a beachside restaurant. At the heart of the resort are outdoor pools, a central bar and dance floor, and the main restaurant, a Marché-style buffet surrounded by indoor and outdoor dining patios. Every culinary tradition was to be found here. Dishes are prepared à-la-minute by chefs in attendance and beautifully presented. Coming from mid-winter Toronto, the mountains of fresh papaya, mango, passion fruit and melon seemed like a mirage.
There’s an astonishing array of things to do. There’s also the option of doing nothing at all. I spent our first morning just sitting on the beach in the dancing shadow of a palm tree, feasting my eyes on the turquoise expanse of the Atlantic and the ragged mountains of the Samana Peninsula on the horizon. I was also coming to terms with the larger, bewildering reality: that nothing needed to be done. There was no schedule, no deadlines, no driving, no cooking, no laundry – and basically, no kids.
At the heart of the resort are outdoor pools, a central bar and dance floor.MAUD DELAFLOTTE/Club Med
Within hours, mine had latched onto the small herd of teens that cruised the resort with a couple of fun-loving staff. Together they played beach volleyball, swam and, come nightfall, partied together. My sons were also quick to enter tournaments, try their hand at wing foiling (the latest incarnation of windsurfing) and attempt some Cirque-style manoeuvres on the swinging trapeze. In an era of helicopter parenting and liability paranoia, I found the Club Med approach – try everything, enjoy everything – very refreshing. Only on our last day, as my highly active 15-year-old was dangling from a rafter in the resort’s breezeway, did I hear a staff member politely suggest he return to the ground.
In my post-operative state, there was no trapeze-swinging for me. I did take part in a gentle yoga class in the treehouse, stumbled my way through a couple of salsa and bachata classes and enjoyed a state of post-massage nirvana, reclining on a chaise in the otherwise empty garden of the spa.
Prior to this trip, I knew very little about Club Med. Its Belgian founder, Gérard Blitz, served in the French Resistance during the Second World War. When he launched the inaugural “village de vacances” in 1950 – a modest collection of tents on the Spanish island of Majorca – he aimed not only to offer Europeans a complete getaway but also to promote intercultural understanding. Thus, the all-inclusive holiday was born. And while there’s nothing modest about Club Med’s empire today, which encompasses more than 80 increasingly high-end resorts the world over, a trace of Blitz’s internationalist vision seems to live on.
Unlike every other hospitality experience in my book, the staff at Club Med mix freely with the guests. For a person in my position – single parent, ditched by her children, gregarious by nature – this was a boon. I got to know Gentils Organisateurs (or G.O.s as the Club Med staff are known) from all over the world. Many were locals who had made their way out of urban poverty into jobs as resort photographers, entertainers or sports instructors. Their stories were quite remarkable. My kids have played a lot of good tennis, but never against a self-taught Dominican who picked up the sport while working as a resort ball boy, helping to put food on the family table. So much for my assumption that the all-inclusive experience would, by definition, be hermetically insular. As Haiti was devolving into anarchy at the other end of the island, I was getting first-hand accounts from Haitian employees whose families were living through it.
Rooms at this location came equipped with umbrellas, bug repellent, beach towels and water bottles.Club Med
One day, my sons and I joined one of the resort’s excursions. We travelled inland on a safari bus, crossed a lagoon and mangrove swamp in a fishing boat, and ascended the local Montana Redonda – a glorified hill – for a commanding view of the coast. We met coconut harvesters, fishermen and rice farmers along the way. Our Dominican guide, who spoke four languages and identified all the fauna by its Latin name, was something between a walking Wikipedia entry and a stand-up comedian.
As our week drew to a close, I could see my kids trying to figure out how to preserve the experience. One brought an improbably large, algae-coated chunk of coral back from the beach and tried to wedge it into his bag. The other was busy pocketing little jars of guava jam from the breakfast table. In the end, all that made it home were a trinity of tiny seashells, an abundance of memories and a whole new appreciation for what a complete break can do for body and soul. More than I had ever imagined.
If you go
A network of meandering pathways connects the myriad facilities, including tennis and pickleball courts, a spa, an adults-only Zen Oasis, a yoga treehouse and an outdoor circus trapeze.Naomi Buck/The Globe and Mail
If you are tempted by the idea of a digital detox, this is your chance. My teens didn’t bring their phones and they didn’t miss them. Bring cards and books for travel days.
Parents can rest assured that their kids will find activities and friends. Club Med has this down to a science: fun staff, great facilities and a variety of programs geared to different age groups.
If you’re single and hate eating alone, you probably won’t have to. Staff eat with guests, so chances are, someone might ask to join you. And if you prefer to eat alone, no offence will be taken. The people-watching is superior.
Nightlife at Club Med is lively. There are dress themes for dinner, which some guests take seriously and others ignore. There’s after-dinner entertainment (music, dance, circus acts) every evening, followed by high-energy dance parties.
Rooms at this location came equipped with umbrellas, bug repellent, beach towels and water bottles. Do pack ample sun protection. If you forget something, there is a well-stocked gift store with basic necessities, plus an on-site nurse with basic medical supplies.
The writer was a guest of Club Med, it did not review or approve the story before publication.