Club Med Cancun Yucatan Family Activities

Kid-Friendly Recreation
Club Med Resorts, pioneers in all-inclusive vacations, also are leaders in providing children with interesting activities that go way beyond crafts and movies. With Club Med Cancun's rebranding as a family resort, the Cancun property rolled out a Mini-Club Med for ages 4 to 7 and 8 to 10 as well as a Junior Club Med for ages 11 to 13 and 14 to 17.

The Cancun property is especially nice for young teens. First of all, teens like the location: a long beach with views of bustling Cancun. The teens we spoke with don’t feel rusticated. Passworld, Club Med's teen facility a.k.a. the Car Wash, is inviting.

The enter the centrally located Passworld Car Wash, you walk through a doorway adorned with two roller-size, blue car wash brushes. The front ends of real Volkswagon Beetles line the lagoon side, their white seats with red stars turned toward the room, providing fun places to relax and watch the action. There's a boxing ring in the front of the room that, most of the time, we saw young kids jumping on like a ball bounce.

Metal drums, the kind you see in service stations, function as tables. At these, tweens play Connect 4 while others throw their chips in for a lively game of poker. Still others check their email at Passworld's computers.

Club Med attracts guests from Europe as well as North America. The teens, as well as the younger kids, seem to get around language barriers easily. When we watch a group of gangly 15 and 16-year-olds operate the Foosball table, we periodically hear laughter, triumphant shouts and cries of "Merde" and variants in Italian, Spanish and English yelled at missed plays.

The Junior Club Med program and Passworld operate during peak holidays or any time more than three guests ages 11 to 17 check-in. The program operates from Sunday to Friday with an introductory meeting on Saturday nights. For ages 11 to 13, activities run from 9:30 a.m. until 10:30 p.m and for 14 to 17 year-olds, from 10 a.m. until midnight. For both groups, GOs encourage flying on the trapeze at circus, learning Hip Hop dancing, taking part in games in the pool, and going sailing, windsurfing and kayaking. The older group also does waterskiing (minimum age is 12).

Both ages 11 to 13 and 14 to 17 share the same Passworld center. That may present a problem for some teens, especially for younger boys who may feel intimidated by the older, brawnier high schoolers.. Conversely, some older teens may look in, see a bunch of junior high "kids", and not want to participate. Encourage your ‘tweens and teens to try the activities with the group. They will be happier once they make friends.

Club Med also features a good activities program for ages four to seven and eight to 10 through the Mini-Club, which has both an indoor and outdoor facility behind gates. The supervised program operates from 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. and resumes at 7 p.m. until 9 p.m. for dinner and an evening activity. Although Club Med Cancun doesn't feature a waterpark, kids splash in two kiddie pools, presided over by lifeguards at select times. The pools' depths are 2 and 2.5 feet. Kids also romp on the slides and perform skits at the outdoor stage. Parents are welcome to use these facilities with their children younger than four years-old.

The air-conditioned, indoor Mini-Club's facility divides into three rooms, with a space devoted to younger kids and another to crafts. A padded floor and door protectors help prevent accidents. Generally, the GOs separate the group into ages four to seven and eight to 10. The younger group's ratio of GOs to kids is 1 to 7 and for the older group the ratio is 1 GO to 8 kids.

Kids in the Mini-Club move around the village enjoying many of the same activities as their parents and older siblings. Youngsters learn Hip Hop dance moves, how to swing on a trapeze and play tennis and soccer. The 6 to 7 year-olds and the 8 to 10 year-olds also go sailing. The highlight of the week-long program for all: a Hip Hop performance by teens, tweens and the Mini-Club kids.

With parental permission, kids age 10, and sometimes younger, are allowed to check themselves in and out of the program. For most children and teens, the age divisions work; sometimes, though, they don't. A woman we met, a veteran of 10 Club Meds, all of which her daughter loved, told us "My 10-year-old daughter feels the activities in the Mini-Club are too babyish for her. She doesn't want to do things with 8-year-olds." This mother from Springfield, New Jersey added, "It's fine because she found a group of 10-year-olds girls and they are running around the resort having a great time."

Family Friendly Recreation
Club Med Cancun's a good place to teach your kids to snorkel as a reef lies within yards of the resort's Mexican restaurant Las Cazuelas. Simply walk into the relatively shallow water (depths 3- to 5-feet) and let your kids be amazed at the underwater wonders. With ages 12 and older, be sure to try the waterskiing. The shallow, calm lagoon at Club Med makes it an ideal place to learn the sport, as well as perfect your style.

Play ping pong at the tables outside Passworld and, nearby for an extra fee, paint a ceramic figure. There's a billiard table in the back of the theater.

Along with beach walks, stroll the property in search of iguanas. Maximo, all five feet of him, can sometimes be found at Punto de Reunion, in the grassy area across from the Jade villas.

Swim together in the Caribbean or in the pool. Both have lifeguards. Ample lounge chairs as well as some wide, almost couch-like loungers dot the great beach.

If you need to troll shops, head to La Isla Shopping Village, an open-air facility bordering the lagoon. The complex features Johnny Rockets, Haagen-Dazs ice cream and many familiar chain, clothing stores. A find: the Ah Cacao Chocolate Cafe. Try the rich Mayan hot chocolate made with 72 percent cacao.

La Isla also houses the Interactive Aquarium. Jellyfish float in tanks, piranha swarm and you can find Nemo clown fish here too. The facility offers swimming with dolphins as well as the opportunity to be submerged in an acrylic cage and lowered into the wall-size shark tank where you get eyeball to eyeball with bull sharks, black tip sharks and other toothy critters.

In addition, at Club Med's Discovery Center you can book off-site excursions to Maya ruins, including a visit to Tulum, plus snorkeling and boating excursions.