Trip Review - Club Med Columbus Isle, May 1-16, 1998.
This was my fifth trip to Columbus Isle, so I guess I must like it. In a few words, Club Med is basically "summer camp for adults", however, Columbus Isle is more "really nice summer camp", it is much nicer than your normal Club Med.
Getting There:
Basically, there are only two options, the Club Med Charter from Miami (twice on Saturdays and Sundays) via American Eagle, or Bahamas Air from Miami or Nassau (a few times per week) and hope your luggage arrives.
Or you could charter your own plane. The runway is VERY short, and full of potholes! There is an ongoing project to extend the runway, but I have watched it for over two years, and it doesn't look all that close to being finished!
Normally, the flights from Miami to San Salvador aren't any problem, on American Eagle ATR-42s, however, this trip was a bit more exciting. I arrived early on Saturday in Miami, and was on standby for the first flight (and booked on the second flight); however, the flight was full, so I had to wait, not a problem, as I had expected to. However, as people were arriving for the second flight, Club Med announced that the first flight hadn't been able to land at San Salvador because of weather! It had returned to Miami, was being refueled, and would go back again. But that meant they didn't have a plane for us!
After an hour or so, they found us a plane, but than they needed a pilot. After not too long, we get a pilot, and off we go...for about 3 minutes...just long enough to take off, turn around, and land. Engine problems, fun fun fun, we got fire engines and everything. The fire engines at Miami Airport are "Dayglo Green".
American Eagle "stored" us in a satellite terminal while waiting for another plane. But they brought us munchies and drinks. Eventually got to Columbus Isle 4 hours late.
The Island:
San Salvador Island is an "out island" in the Bahamas. It is actually quite far east, and is in someways more like an Atlantic Island than a Bahamian Island. It is separated from the rest of the Bahamas by deep water.
There is only one other resort on the island (the Riding Rock Inn), a few tiny villages with a few tiny shops, about a 1,000 residents (maybe), a couple of bars and a bunch of churches! There are a couple of Columbus Memorials to see, an oil powered lighthouse, and lots of great beaches!
The Village (Resort):
Columbus Isle is a "Club Med Finest", and they put a lot of money into it. The common areas are all very nice, with a reading area (with very comfortable couches), a nice TV room, artwork (from all over the world) everywhere, even in the bathrooms.
The rooms are much nicer than most Club Meds, good to moderate views of the ocean, big bathrooms and closets, artwork in the rooms, TV, phone, minifridge.
There are also small "garden view rooms with shared bath"; which are small, but still nice for Club Med. And CHEAP CHEAP CHEAP. Columbus Isle is starting to become a secret singles hangout, because it is such a good deal.
The main restaurant is quite nice, with great food. And has tables of various sizes. Not just all tables for eight like most Club Meds. Has the "standard" big Club Med buffet, with lots of choices for every meal. Each dinner has a "theme", but there are always many standard items available. I am AMAZED at how good the food at Club Med is, considering how many people they feed.
There are two annex restaurants, but I only ate at the Italian one. It was good, but I am not a big fan of Italian food, so I normally just eat at the main restaurant.
Late lunch is at one of the annex restaurants, which is on the second floor, and has a great view out over the ocean. I ate late lunch there almost every day. Not quite as many choices as the main lunch restaurant.
Club Med includes reasonable wines and beer at meals. I believe the beer is Kalik, a Bahamian beer, quite drinkable.
The Guests:
The village holds 500 guests. There were about 350 the first week, and 300 the second. This village is rarely full, only in July/August (Europe on vacation) and the Christmas Holidays. One of the office staff said one week in late January they only had 95 guests!
The guests were about half Europeans (mostly French) and half Americans (mostly Californians). A few people from other European countries, and a few from other states, Canada, South America, etc. But it was amazing the number of people from California.
In general, this is a couples village. But there were a moderate number of single people, probably 40-50, more than I have seen here before. They no longer have any "singles get togethers" or activities here, but I think they should. At least a "singles happy hour" once or twice a week. There were a few single people I didn't meet until the last day I was there.
There were a 3 or 4 children, except for one they were all fine. I heard the one was a real brat, but I never had any problems. There are more children when the village is full. There are no special facilities or activities for children.
Because of all the Europeans, and the remote location, there is a reasonable amount of toplessness, even around the pool area. This doesn't cause any problems, except for the occasional American who isn't used to it. There is a small amount of "clothing optional" on the farther beach areas; and if you leave the resort and find your own beach no one will care.
Of my five trips, this was the only one with reasonable amounts of partying. But the disco still was pretty quiet many nights, but it was rocking a few nights.
The Scuba Diving:
This is why I go! Club Med has three very nice catamaran dive boats (two 45', one 55'). They can hold about 45 divers each, but they are BIG boats, with large bow areas and sundecks, so while they are underway it isn't crowded even when they are full.
The buddy divers use the outside racks, and the groups the inside racks. The buddy divers go in first (if they are ready), so you can hit the water before the groups, and never see them the whole dive. Getting back onto the boat can sometimes be a traffic jam, but just hang out at 15' and wait, no big deal.
Almost every dive site is a wall dive. The top of the wall is usually about 40', dropping down to 200' or MORE MORE MORE. A few places it just goes forever. This means there are normally three different areas at each site; down over the edge of the wall, on the reef at the top of the wall, or inside the reef in a usually sandy area. And you can go either direct along the wall. So you can dive the same site two or three times, and not have it feel the same.
The walls and the coral life are very good here. There is a moderate amount of big things to see, sharks, turtles, rays, moreys, lots of big grouper, barracuda, etc. However, because San Salvador Island is quite far out into the Atlantic, there aren't tons of schooling fish like some places. But there are also lots of little things to see, shrimps, crabs, etc. In the winter, there are Hammerhead Sharks all the time. This trip in May I saw four, but in another week or so most will be gone, out into the cold water.
The water temp was in the high 70s, and getting much warmer later in my stay. In late summer it is in the mid 80s, even down at 100'. The visibility was about 120'? Some days only about 60', but most better. The weather was still being dominated by westerly winds, which is the winter pattern, which made it wind and choppy a few days.
The daily dive schedule is two boats in the morning (two tanks each), and one boat in the afternoon (one tank). When they get crowded they run more boats.
Other Sports:
The main sport of the village is scuba, followed by snorkeling and laying on the beach. But there are other sports, tennis, sailing, kayaks, windsurfing, beach volleyball. There is waterskiing in the summer (starts May 1) but it was too windy most days I was there.
But the wind made for pretty good sailing, nice Hobie 16s. But the last two days it was even too windy for sailing! Very unusual weather for May. But it was still nice and warm, and only rained (a little) once during the day.
The beach is awesome, and great water. Altho there isn't much snorkeling right at the village, twice a day they go by boat to good snorkeling spots.
There was beach volleyball almost every afternoon.
I went to aerobics a few times, and wasn't impressed with the instructor. But she was only filling in, as the new instructor hadn't arrived yet. The weight room is OK, but not much.
Overall, and Random Thoughts:
Basically, I like this Club Med a lot. It has nice facilities, pretty grounds, a great beach, good scuba, etc. However, it is "Club Med on Valium", and is very quiet and laid back, especially for Club Med. Lots of couples and scuba divers, but a reasonable number of single people, who were actually partying this trip!
But there isn't much else to do on the island, it is basically an overgrown sandbar, with great beaches.
You can now rent scooters at the (tiny) airport, this is new.
Comment about Club Med Management. Club Med has been losing money, and their solution to this seems to have been to "dumb down"; i.e. lowering prices and cutting service. Things that have been available in the past are gone or going? Examples: previously Columbus Isle had bicycle rides, three times a day. They no longer have them, and they haven't been replaced with anything else. (They claim it is seasonal now, but I doubt it will be back). The early breakfast used to be at the annex restaurant, by the scuba area. It has been moved to the main restaurant, presumably to save money, etc.
If you have comments or questions, please email me.
Steven Goodman Thanks, Steve. - Denny