Oh wow! We just got back from an eight day vacation to Club Med in Ixtapa, Mexico with one set of grandparents and my sister's family. It was really amazing, the most relaxing, fun vacation I've had with the kids. Partially because they are getting older and easier and partially because Club Med is totally set up for family vacations.

the setting

Sunsets, palm trees, crashing waves, white beach umbrellas against the blue sky. . .the setting was like something out of a dream. I never tired of looking at the horizon. Usually, when I go to an ocean, I have to lug a heavy cooler half a mile across foot burning sand and dodge attacks by seagulls. Here, I walked across grass or stone paths from my pool side chair to the beach, with perhaps a stop at the bar for my included drinks.

The rooms were fine. Great air conditioning, and a suite so we actually had a door between us and the kids. The theater, which doubled as the indoor playground, had great indoor/outdoor use, so when it poured, as it did one of the days, we just played in there while still feeling open to the world.

the food

My dad said it was the most variety of food he had ever seen at a buffet, and my dad has seen some nice buffets. Every night there was an American food station with hamburgers, hot dogs, French fries, pizza, etc.; a quesadilla station with ten different sauces and condiments; a fresh fruit section with the most delicious mangos any of us have ever had; a dessert section with cakes, cookies, and ice cream; vegetables, salads, as well as a made to order salad section; and a breads section. Then, there was the theme of the night featuring a different country with a ton of main dishes and salads from Italy or Brazil or Mexico, etc.

Rose wins the prize for most adventurous eater: beef carpaccio, mussels, steak, salmon, veal. . .she tried, and liked, so much. She was able to try all these foods because the sous chefs were very helpful in identifying which foods were gluten-free. Every meal we would have Antonio or Avish give us the tour, and they were careful. If they hadn't made the chicken stock themselves, they did not ok it.

David was quite happy having a hot dog and ice cream every night, but the chefs made, especially for our kids, cheesecake (their new favorite food), brownies, and meringues.

I do have to add a caveat to this gluten-free heaven: if you cannot tolerate the chance of cross contamination, you can't eat at a buffet. I watched a child rub the ketchup serving spoon on her hamburger bun. Our kids did feel a little uncomfortable by the end of the week, but I'm blaming that on six desserts a day and five (alcohol free) pina coladas.

the drinks

Club Med is an all inclusive resort and that includes the drinks. I did not notice anyone ugly drunk or even drunk. The kids went crazy for the virgin strawberry daiquiris and pina coladas. I upped my alcohol consumption from once a month to once a day. I tried wine, mango daiquiris, margueritas, and a mojito. The blended marguerita became my go to.

the staff

Enthusiastic, charismatic, engaged, fun, and helpful--I cannot say enough about the staff. I know they are told to say hello to you as you pass on the paths or sit with you at dinner or encourage your kids to join them in a dance around the pool, but they do so with such genuine enthusiasm. If Jesse Boom Boom did not want to put on a dog costume and dance with three year olds in 90 degree heat, I don't think a pay check would make the difference. They are having fun and infuse the place, especially the kids' activities with that fun.

the kids' clubs

Club Med has kids' camps for babies through teenagers divided into three year chunks. Once you are eight, your parents can choose to let you come and go. We let both kids be free. So, that meant David could join his group for archery and then spend the rest of the morning in the pool. He wasn't much of a joiner and preferred to make friends in the pool or ocean. Rose tended to be with her group in the morning, and then join us for beach time in the afternoon.

the activities

So, what could you do in kids' club? Archery, sailing, kayaking, tennis, feeding the iguanas, swimming, putting on shows, playing games, singing, dancing, and, the best of all, flying trapeze.

I had not quite realized that Club Med was a club sportif, so in addition to all that there are exercise classes all day long. John and I did zumba, salsa and bachata every day. We had forgotten all the salsa we had ever learned, so this was a great restart. Often, we were the only ones there, so we got a private lesson. Our teacher loved us. We loved her. It was a blast.

the shows

Every night the staff and the kids put on two shows, one for the littler kids like clowns or pirates and one for everybody. I just love seeing people gamely dancing away or doing acrobatics. The flying trapeze acts were probably amateur, but they were stunning to me. My kids, especially David, jumped right in and had a great time doing circus stunts and strutting in the fashion show. The staff had one excellent dancer who played Michael Jackson one memorable night. Then we had to educate the kids on the complexities of Michael Jackson.

the problems that weren't

heat and humidity. I was worried the ninety degree heat would kill me. I usually don't do well, like nauseas and panicky in that level of heat. But, with a pool inches away that I could jump in to, I didn't have a problem. Also, with three conveniently located bars, I drank a lot of water. No, really, water.

going different directions. We meant this to be a family vacation, i.e. actually spending time with all the family, and before we went we worried that with so many different activities we would never see each other. But it turns out the place is not that big. So when John and I were salsa dancing, we could see Rose on the flying trapeze. When Dad was at tennis, the kids could see him from archery. And we all easily found each other at the beach front.

on the moon. I fully acknowledge that going to Club Med in Mexico is not the same thing as going to Mexico. It's like going to a compound that could be anywhere, like the moon. I thought this would make me uncomfortable. But hey, I just acknowledged and embraced it. I did go on one excursion and saw temples and the ball field where the participants got the honor of their heads chopped off. I waved to some people working in a coconut field, but really, I was not in Mexico.

minor irritants

Before we went I talked to the kids about having an attitude of gratitude. Like waiting 40 minutes for your turn to go sailing is not grounds for whining. You get to go sailing! You are on the beach! Of course you run into problems. Rose got very scared about the flying trapeze. She also ate a bit of gluten the first day before we figured out the tortillas were not corn and got huge miserable bug bites that were terribly irritating and made it hard to sleep. I had a sunscreen fail and burnt my legs. But, self-care for the flying trapeze, survived the gluten, and Benadryl for the bug bites, lotion for the sunburn.

the takeaway

I'm not very good at lie on the beach and read your book vacations. I always think I should be writing poetry (which I did on the airplane and then dropped) or reading my book group book (which I brought and did not read though I did read three other books) or worry that all the fun is happening in the bar when I am in the ocean or vice versa (at one point I was in the bar watching the World Cup with John and had to convince myself that really, this was the right place to be), but I did pretty darn well on this vacation. I think all the activities were sufficient for my Puritan guilt and let me relax the rest of the time. I had a wonderful time.