Last-minute Club Med resort deal in October: Mexico, Bahamas, Caribbean

There are still three more weeks in the month. Consider that when you hear that Club Med is offering a last-minute travel deal to Mexico, Bahamas and the Caribbean. Three-night getaways with departure dates this month start at $249 per person for its resorts at Cancun Yucatan and Ixtapa Pacific, Columbus Isle and Punta Cana, and Turkoise (adults only). But the sale is good for stays up to six nights, plus the seven-night Bahamas special.

Deal or no deal? When the sale crossed my desk, the first thing I noticed was that it was offering flights to the Bahamas for only $1 on Spirit Air. My gimmick detector went off, but I couldn’t help testing it anyway. The deal is valid on seven-night trips to Columbus Isle for flights out of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., (FLL) on Oct. 24 and 31 and Nov. 7. I tested booking the trip online for a departure on Oct. 24, and the total price for the all-inclusive trip including the flight for one person came to $1,352. Note that in this deal the single supplement is being waved for select room grades.

A quickie trip seems more realistic: I had to also test this deal for myself. I wanted to go to the Ixtapa Pacific Club Med in Mexico, but the cheapest way for us to take this trip would be to use our Delta miles and Delta doesn’t fly to Zihuatanejo. It does, however, fly to Cancun and I found flights between Los Angeles (LAX) and Cancun (CUN) for 70,000 miles per person plus taxes and fees of $126 per person. Three nights in the all-inclusive Cancun Yucatan (pictured) came to $648 for three of us including a 10-month-old baby. So flights and resort stay for four days, three nights came to $900. The Last-Minute deal saved $1,100 off its normal rates.

Family travel tip: It was nice to see that in addition to having a Mini Club Med for children ages 4-11, it has convenient baby gear at the ready including baby bed, changing table, baby bath, bottle warmer available in the room. They also have strollers by request and a baby corner in the restaurants for food prep.

Contact: Club Med, (888) 932-2582

– Jen Leo, Los Angeles Times Travel & Deal blogger

Photo: Club Med Cancun Yucatan. Credit: Club Med

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 7, 2009 at 11:09 am by Jen Leo and is filed under Cancun, Caribbean, Deals, Family & Kids, Ixtapa & Zihuatanejo, Mexico. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.