Club Med Québec-Charlevoix — Hotel in Petite-Rivière-Saint-François

In 2022 we went to Club Med Charlevoix and had a 10 out of 10 experience with two other couples. UNFORTUNATELY we returned in 2023 the same week and had a much less satisfactory experience. I will discuss - room - food - adult experience - entertainment - lessons: adult and child and overall experience.

We were 2 retired couples looking to experience the same great vacation we had the year before but it did not happen on so many levels. This is a warning for couples.

Rooms were excellent, but there is no house keeping unless you request it. I thought after two days someone would change the towels. My wife just took some from the cart that was in the hallway.

The building is amazing, pool, work out room has great equipment and my friends had a great spa day.

Food, there is more than enough and a large variety. It appeared a lot of food was reheated from the day before. I like sauages in the morning, I am sure I seen the same sauages from the day before dried up and falling apart. My wife and friends said the food was never ever really hot. Deserts were excellent. There were some amazing dishes and the staff tried hard to please. Overall a 7-8 out of 10.

This year they had a dinning room just for adults which was a bonus since children seem to run wild. I am a grandparent and there was little to no parenting.

There is a second dining area the Chalet which we went to for a tasting menu. The room has a great atmosphere food so so, but staff here were customer service oriented. The manager was fantastic and tried to maintain a high class location, but there were children running around and even when he spoke to the table of parents they did not care. We moved our seats. This room should be dedicated to adults for the evening, especially when I go onto the next section.

The entertainment area, or should I say the kids fun zone. The kids program they put on each evening is great, but when the adult entertainment starts you should not have to have 7 and under children running jumping on furniture with no parent supervision. I was concerned that there would have been injuries from jumping over the backs of sofas to other sofas.

The bar tenders I met were friendly but there was no consistency in drink making, everyone had their own style or did just did not know. They really tried hard and made the experience welcoming.

The entertainment was amature at best. It seems as if they just took staff and made up the show from what skills the members brought with them. They had a great band for the 6 to 7 pm hours. The MC was great same as last year, energy and gets the crowd going with the Club Med song at the end of the evening.

The ski hill is excellent with a wide variety of runs.

Lessons, I had an outstanding lesson with a mature instructor name Jack, but my wife did not have the same experience with hers. There was no lesson just a person in his 20s going for a ski with a group following him, as she said no instruction, do J turns and that was it. No feed back. BUT it gets worse. She did not go into any other lessons for the week.

Lessons for children. After our great visit in 2022 I considered bringing my two grandchildren here in 2024 ages 5-8 until I saw what happened on the hill. The instructor with a group of what appeared to be 6 to 8 year olds just skiing way infront of the group and young girl fell and lost her ski, my wife and I stopped and watched from below, there was not ski instructor to be seen as she struggled, I was taking off my ski to walk up the hill when he finally appeared. I have taken instructor lessons and this was not right way to teach. The other couple witnessed the same type on incident on a different area. This time no one came back and the child sort of worked their way down the hill. I would NOT put my grandchildren in their ski school on the mountain runs.

Club Med has a great reputation and in 2022 we were impressed and could not wait to return in 2023 but we will not go back in 2024. The location, building and facilities are 10 out of...

My family of 4 and I fell in love with Club Med Charlevoix!! Everything was great! We loved the quiet relaxation time and the busy time! We chose the outside parking that Charlevoix offers for free. It was about a 5 minute walk from the reception area. Right from check in, we were welcomed by a wonderful Brazilian lady, and checked out by an awesome lady from Guinea (I want to say their names are Thalia and Magdalene respectively…I feel horrible for forgetting their names as they were so sweet to us). Another lovely front desk staff lent us a baby carrier to use to go up the mountain since we forgot ours. GO Benoit was so lovely, he took us to a nearby waterfall to check it out. The Chief of the Village Mr. Jose Luis Martinez is the main and best MC for the nightly parties and we enjoyed talking to him here and there when we saw him around the property and watching the nightly performances. The dedication alone by the entire GO staff, no matter the attendance, was noteworthy!! Our kids too enjoyed the entertainment and after party dancing! Our bar tenders Simon, Jeremy and Attish took great care of us. Nathalie and Daniel from the Sales corner gave us tonnes of insight on Club Med Charlevoix, other Club Meds, and also things to do in Quebec and Montreal! We loved talking to them! We were able to book an excursion to the nearby village from Charlevoix, thanks to the wonderful lady who does the booking excursions.The nice lady also advised us on where to go for the Food tasting since we were interested in that tour but it was not being offered at the time. It was a wine tasting, chocolate tasting and blueberry tasting. The blueberry place was closed for the season and so was the chocolate one (for the day) but we got to go to the Wine tasting place called Hydromel Charlevoix. We got given a private tour of the facility since no one was there, my son got to see the bees and ask a bunch of questions about bees, and then we even got a complimentary extra glass of wine. We also got to taste the best ice cream we’ve had and visit some art galleries while touring the little village on the excursion. It was my husband’s 40th birthday on the 19th and he’s always wanted to bike down a mountain. He had previously owned a Mountain bike and was used to riding around the city in Osaka, Japan, but had never actually rode down a mountain. Raynald, his guide whom he loved working with, accessed his capabilities, coached him on some things and then they were good to go and he got to have his birthday wish come true! He loved the entire experience so much. We got to explore two waterfalls and climb to the Le Button which was the tip of Le Massif. Mr. Jose chief GO had a birthday message in a card delivered which we found on our bed the morning of my husband’s birthday. Thanks to the dinner staff dinner staff also for singing Happy birthday to my Husband at dinner and bringing out a cake. We loved the clean, healthy food we had everyday, the pastries were to die for! We enjoyed the pool, steam bath with the amazing peppermint/Eucalyptus type steam that it emanated, and all entertainment activities. Tina from the gift shop was fabulous. We had wholesome discussions about Bali and Indonesia in general, where she is from. She gifted us a curry, upon hearing that my husband makes us Nasi Goreng from Indonesia. We were sad to say goodbye to her. Angelique and the GO team were such a pleasure to watch, and we were able to catch her and have a chat. Our son was totally in awe. Unfortunately, early on, he caught a cold due to the change of season. We went to the infirmary and the lady was so helpful. She gave him some medicine but also pointed us to a nearby chemist in the closest village that we were able to drive to and get some medicine. The leaves were changing for fall and it was such a beautiful scenery to take drives. We also met such great guests, and enjoyed learning more about people from Quebec and Montreal and all of Canada. Thanks Andrea, for capturing some of our beautiful memories on camera for us. We can't...

My husband and I had no idea we have an All-Inclusive resort in Canada! Club Med at Charlevoix has only been open for under two years (December 2021) and is more geared for winter activities. We're not winter people, so we didn't know what we'd be doing on the "off season". After researching on the site and reading through reviews, we decided to take a chance and we're so glad we did!

Here's a detailed breakdown...

BOOKING: We took advantage of their flash sale and decided to book 3 nights, 4 days. This ended up being the perfect amount of time for us. Not too short...not too long.

CHECK-IN: Driving up to the resort is just beautiful and you immediately feel very welcome. The main lobby has very high ceilings and the entire place is decorated very much like a chalet. There was a short line at check-in, so we joined and were waiting not even two minutes before Carlos (reception staff extra-ordinaire!) came to introduce himself and bring us to the counter to check us in. Carlos was so friendly and gave us an in depth rundown of how everything works, meal times, excursion info, just the lay of the land. He even gave us his phone number so we could Whatsapp/text him any time with any questions we had. We did this twice during our stay and he got back to us right away with answers that were super helpful! As soon as we checked in, Carlos helped us out with parking our car and then showed us to our room.

ROOM: First off...the entire room was immaculate! We stayed in a Superior Room with a king bed and mountain view. It has a separate shower and toilet, which is always nice. The only thing we wished we'd had was a fan as neither room has one. Not a huge deal, just something we noticed. The AC worked perfectly in the room and was very comfortable. Honestly, with so many activities, you really don't spend that much time in your room anyway. If we had, we may have preferred to have streaming services available, but we didn't really turn the TV on that much the entire time.

FOOD: They have everything you could want and even have choices for picky eaters as well. Roberto in the kitchen was amazing! We had all of our meals at their buffet restaurant and each time, they had something different. I love that they proudly source dairy and meats from local farms and no surprise it's all very tasty.

AMMENITIES: We're big pool people...and the one at Charlevoix did not disappoint! It's a very large indoor pool and has a separate little kiddie pool at one end with water play areas and fun stuff for the little ones. Outside on the terrace, there is a great jacuzzi that fits about 6 adults comfortably with beautiful views of Mount Masiff on one side and the St. Lawrence River on the other. No matter where you sit, you have a breathtaking view.

SPA SERVICES: While we were there, we booked one relaxation massage each. Along with this massage, you get access to their private jacuzzi as well as a cold water pool next to it too. The day we did this, it was pouring out and it was amazing to be in the jacuzzi at the same time. We absolutely loved it and felt like it was our very own, private hot tub since no one else was out there. It's already an exclusive service...and I guess the rain deterred the other couples who were booked at that time. We loved it and are so glad it wasn't sunny that day! My masseuse was Joshua and my husband had Serena, I believe. (forgive me, her name escapes me at the moment). They were both so good and we were so relaxed and happy with our massages. Afterwards, you get all of the bells and whistles...a eucalyptus infused steam room, a bunch of different herbal teas to choose from, a comfy robe to wear while you're there and a quiet room with chaise-longes to chill on and relax. No one rushes you...everyone wants you to relax and have enjoy.

BAR & ENTERTAINMENT: There is a bar in the middle of it all where you can grab a drink at any time of day from 10am - 1am. Every night, there is live entertainment. Definitely check it out!

We'll be back in the...