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Club Med 2
- The cruise Nice to Nice (4 days)
- Commissioned 1992
- Passengers 373
- Crew 200
- Decks 6, with 164 cabins
- Length 187 metres
The ship
With Ritz-Carlton Yacht Collection, Four Seasons, Aman and Orient Express trailblazing a new category of cruising – the hotel superyacht – there is a hospitality brand that pioneered the small-ship, resort-at-sea experience more than 35 years ago: Club Med. Today the 187-metre-long vessel is part of the French all-inclusive champion’s Exclusive Collection, its top-tier selection of resorts, chalets and experiences. With five masts and 2500-square-metre sails launched at the push of a button, Club Med 2 is also the largest sailing yacht in the world – a crown it’s set to bid au revoir to this year when Orient Express Corinthian makes its first splash in the water.
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Boarding
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It’s all very relaxed. I’m travelling with my eight-year-old daughter and there are only a handful of people in front of us checking in. Once our turn comes, our names are crossed through with a yellow highlighter from a printed-out passenger list at a makeshift desk on the quay in Nice’s small, picturesque port. Onboard, we waste little time having our photos taken and passenger cards printed out, and soon I’m sipping a welcome flute of champagne in the Yacht Club Lounge as a crew member gives us a quick rundown of the ship.
The design
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The ship feels as breezy as the Mediterranean coastal resorts we are calling at on this short, three-night sailing: Santa Margherita Ligure, on the Italian Riviera (for Portofino), and Saint-Tropez back on the Cote d’Azur. It celebrated a big birthday (its 30th) in 2022 with a €9 million ($14.5 million) interior refit. The design brief was clearly to channel beachy Riviera vibes, with a palette of blues, greens and yellows common across the lounge and dining rooms. Rope trimmings and plenty of brass and stainless-steel fittings are a reminder that this is a boat with serious sailing stripes.
The spaces
The lower three decks are cabins only, with public areas concentrated on the top three. Nothing’s cramped, and there’s a natural flow from the vast outdoor areas into the interior Yacht Club Lounge (which feels big enough to fit all 373 passengers), and duo of bar areas named for some of the resort towns the ship is most at home in: Cannes and Portofino. The top deck is where the mass of Burmese teak used in the build – 2700 square metres – comes into its own, with ample sunbathing space and no threat of the sunlounger wars common on mega-ships.
The stateroom
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What’s better than a double sink in your cabin? Two separate bathrooms. Our 36-square-metre suite was clearly, until the 2022 refit, two distinct cabins now merged into one, with certain original features – such as the individual bathrooms – maintained. It’s the most spacious cabin I’ve slept in at sea, with twice the usual cupboard space, handy for hanging the floaty dresses I’ve packed for the themed nights (red and white/elegant/all white), and with a separate lounge area to the king-size bed. The cabins continue the nautical theme and display a definite penchant for polished wood surfaces, although not a single one has a balcony. Instead, we watch as a moody Mediterranean Sea is whipped up into a frenzy in Saint-Tropez from the quartet of portholes in our suite.
The crew
As with its resorts on land, Club Med’s GOs (“Gentil Organiseurs” or “Gentle Organisers”), are a key ingredient in the onboard experience, and the reason the ship has such a high return rate of passengers. One minute you’ll be eating dinner with a group of them in the Saint-Tropez dining room; the next moment you’ll be watching those same people on stage in the Yacht Club Lounge performing a dance show before you’re swept up in their conga line snaking out towards the aft deck for the first of the night’s legendary Crazy Signs group dances.
The food
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Mirroring its resorts, Club Med 2 is all-inclusive, so there’s nothing extra to pay for food and drink onboard. Breakfast and lunch is a buffet-style affair in Saint-Tropez, the casual top-deck dining room. For dinner, we can choose between a la carte in Monte-Carlo, the formal dining room with a focus on regional and French classics, the likes of provencal pissaladiere (an onion focaccia) and gigot d’agneau (slow-cooked lamb leg) or an encore in Saint-Tropez. It becomes clear on the first night that, somewhat surprisingly, most people’s preference is the buffet, with its live cooking stations, rotating menu of freshly cooked dishes and gigantic cheese station.
Wellness
Sport and wellness are central to the Club Med experience, and it’s no different onboard Club Med 2. There’s a gym, a daily yoga school, two plunge pools and a spa (the only service you’ll have to pay extra for). What sets it apart from any other Club Med offering is its aft-deck marina platform that is lowered when the ship is at anchor, becoming a launching pad for watersports. We take a kayak out for a spin in choppy Portofino waters while others try to remain upright as they water ski and paddleboard.
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Entertainment
While this isn’t a mega-ship with an all-day program of shows and other entertainment, I haven’t experienced anything at sea before quite like the theatre of the crew being presented to the passengers on the back deck as we pull out of Nice port to the soundtrack of Vangelis’ Conquest of Paradise. It sets the tone for a roster of GO-led post-dinner shows that don’t take themselves too seriously: my favourite is the can-can performance set to a carousel on the large screen of Paris’ greatest landmarks. The late-night DJ keeps guests dancing until the wee hours of the morning; that’s what I hear, at least, as I’m tucked up in bed at a respectable hour with my daughter, the only passenger under 18 onboard our sailing.
The verdict
Club Med 2 is not only an engineering marvel, but also a delightfully fun ship that carries the relaxed, informal spirit of Club Med across to the water. There’s no denying that the whole experience is overwhelmingly French in terms of crew, guests and language spoken onboard (although the crew can all converse in English), but if you’re looking to broaden your cruise horizons, I can’t imagine a better way than this sailing a la francaise.
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The details
The Club Med 2’s three-night “Portofino and St-Tropez” return cruise from Nice departs September 21, 2026, and visits Portofino and Saint-Tropez. From $651 per adult a night, including premium accommodation, all-day dining, open bar, water sports, wellness activities and entertainment. See clubmed.com.au
The rating out of five
★★★★
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Swell
In typical French style, a gouter – or afternoon tea of cakes and sandwiches – is served between 4pm and 5.30pm daily, and it merges into a pre-dinner setup in the aft deck bar, when the sweeter treats are replaced by savoury snacks such as garlic prawns.
Not so swell
High winds keep us confined to the vessel for the entire day in Saint-Tropez, and also cause the anchor to get itself into such a twist that we’re unable to cruise back to Nice for our planned disembarkation the following morning. Fortunately, there’s a general sentiment that the unexpected is part and parcel of cruising, and everyone takes the change of plans in good humour.
The writer was a guest of Club Med.
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Chrissie McClatchie – Travel writerAdvertisementAdvertisement