Club Med - Sandpiper Bay, post pandemic

Alright. Clearly January 2020 was NOT the most ideal time to start up a travel blog. AmIright? Oh, well. I've never been one to lead the pack on fortuitous timing anyway. So here we are, an entire year later and not much to report. COVID-19 took over the world and our lives as healthcare providers. We did little more than work in our hospitals during all of 2020. Our boys moved schools/daycares to accommodate our busy hours and our family life was filled with change, unwelcome change.

Now, to start anew, both myself and my husband are vaccinated and anxious to start exploring again as a family of 4. We just returned from a get-away vacation to Club Med - Sandpiper Bay in St. Lucie, Florida. It was a remarkably enjoyable vacation considering the systematic changes and social limitations dictated by global pandemic response. Here are my highlights and take-aways, may you find them helpful and hopeful.

- Club Med is a global enterprise of more than 35, all-inclusive resort homes around the world. They cater to serving a well-rounded, diverse vacation experience to all travelers with attentive focus on family travel. We visited Club Med - Sandpiper Bay (CMSB) for the first time this month.

- CMSB offers kids clubs from babies through school-aged. We used the petite club med for our 2 year old and mini club med for our 5 year old. The staff are incredibly welcoming, sensitive, and compassionate. Our oldest has some separation anxiety and they seemed to ease his transition from mama & daddy fairly well and reported off each day. Our boys enjoyed splash pool, games, crafts, movies, and a daily activity that ranged from cooking to trivia nights. Having our littles in the kids clubs gave us a necessary respite from parenting that NO OTHER vacation has provided.

- CMSB, like most all-inclusive resorts, offers a buffet-like dining restaurant for all meals and a snack shack for the in-between times with limited options. Pandemic buffet looks different. While it is most certainly all you care to eat, you are served a single serving on a single plate from each option... so you have A LOT of plates. I honestly prefer this to standard, pre-pandemic, buffet for a few reasons. 1) I ate less and felt satisfied at a more appropriate time. 2) Serving sizes were appropriate (not American sized) so I sampled more options because I was eating less of each option. 3) Little baskets for kids made it easy for them to transport their own selections, even at 2 & 5 years old.

- CMSB is not a luxury destination. Rooms are simple, so you aren't stressed about kids damaging something, I appreciated this. Mini refrigerators are offered but stocked with limited options (water, soda, and juice) so we ended up bringing some milk back to our room. The rooms are plenty large and they provide a pack-n-play for little ones. We had to ask for additional linen after a bedtime potty accident and our requests were met timely and with sensitivity. I appreciate that the room had a bathtub... because showers with a 2 year old is just, UGH!

- Transportation to and from the airport was easy! Car seats were provided at no additional charge and arrival was timing.

- We opt to avoid the excursions but there are options to explore off the resort. We were just more comfortable staying close at this strange time. There are some age restrictions, so anticipate this when looking to use this service. IE: Our 2 year old was not able to sail so we weren't able to sail as a family.

- The resort is NOT beachside. The river inlet allows for some water activities (sailing, paddle boards, sand play) but the water isn't particularly clear so if you're thinking tropical sea, you'll be disappointed. We're from Minnesota, land of 10,000 lakes, and this was similar to lake beach with brackish water. We were content and comfortable and didn't see any alligators ;)

- If your babes are flexible, the resort offers evening entertainment that caters to families around 7pm. We didn't enjoy most nights because our boys desperately needed the early bedtime, but we did keep them up 2 nights and had a lot of fun playing family trivia and watching a trapeze show with live music!

- The best part about CMSB, in my humble opinion, is the staff. GOs are employees of the resort and they functions as servers, kids club attendants, entertainers, bar tenders, and customer service agents. While no one was particularly eager to offer, any time we asked for assistance, we were met with genuine helpfulness. Nearly all staff were kind, friendly, and seemed happy to be doing what they were doing.

Overall, I would absolutely return. We intend to explore more Club Med locations in the future for vacation. I felt the week went as smoothly as can be expected with little kids and it was truly the first "vacation" we've taken as a family where I felt relaxed and wasn't constantly considering the next thing on the itinerary. It was a blessing after this last year and needed break. In hindsight...

1) I should have ordered our last minute needs from Amazon pre-departure instead of the local Target (options were limited, like diapers).

2) I would have packed more casual clothing. I anticipated resort casual evening wear and this was NOT necessary. Honestly, next time, I'm just bringing tennis skorts and pairing them with a dressy tops for evenings. It was NOT necessary to pack the 4 dresses I brought. And (!) I'm going Berkinstock sandals and sneakers all the way and avoiding the discomfort of dress shoes.

3) I'll plan better plane activities (perhaps games and some interactive tablet activities) and bring along a blanket to encourage rest. The trip home was an afternoon flight and particularly challenging for our 2 year old.

Happy to field any more specific advice <3 Sending love, peace, and health!