My wife and I just came back Club Med la Caravelle in Guadeloupe. We had previously visited the Club Med in Punta Cana and had liked it (but that was 15 years ago) so we were expecting pretty much the same. We have over the years traveled to a lot of all inclusives in the Caribbean most recently to the Grand Sirenis in Riviera Maya (July 07).
We knew La Caravelle had just had a makeover so I was expecting larger rooms then Punta Cana, great food and also good service like most all inclusives.
Room:
We had what they call a Club room, which means I guess sleeping quarters only. No view, no balcony, no reading chair and small.
Restaurants:
They had one buffet restaurant "l'Hibiscus" which constantly ran out of food, utensils & plates !!! The service was lousy every day. We had to tell them to leave the bottle of wine at our table because we knew they would never come back to do refills. Every morning at breakfast (except if you got there at 7:00am), tables weren't set after the first serving. You had to find your own tablemats, utensils, coffee cup, coffee, sugar, milk, etc. At least if the food was great you might forget about the service but it was just so, so.
The other restaurant was "La Biguine" where you were served at the table. This one was my favourite, we had to reserve around 10:00am the previous day to be able to get in the 50 seat restaurant. It was directly on the ocean with a spectacular view of the sunset. The service & food here were very good.
Beach:
This is the highlight of this hotel, clean water, white sand, not too busy, just a wonderful place to sit down and relax.
Pool:
Very ordinary square pool with nothing special to it.
Activities:
Lots of water sports, tennis, archery, volleyball, etc. I personnally enjoyed skin diving at both ends of the beach where sand turned to coral and attracts wide varieties of fish.
Staff:
I've never been to a resort where the staff had such an attitude!! They don't seem to care about the guests at all. Mainly at the Mango Bar on the beach where I though a guest was going to have a fight was the cocky barman and the Hibiscus where I consider it a self-serve.
Overall:
A three star resort at best

The beach of Club Med in Ste Anne is the best of Guadeloupe. Sports facilities are great, such as windsurfing, kite surf, tennis, kayak, etc. The kids club is very friendly, although they only accept kids over 4. Rooms are very large, with a great view even for the standard ones, and they accomodate families in interconnecting rooms which is very convenient. Food is plenty and of good quality - bearing in mind it's all included. We did find the service a bit lazy and the beach restaurant is difficult to book in the evenings. All in all, a very good place to stay, especially with kids.

Food tainted, gastro problems for 4 days. No real concern from staff, "doctor in the nearby town" was the general reply. No responsibilty for guest welfare. I observed other people eating rice and bananas-just like me.

Outside bar and snack bar did not wash glasses, just rinsed them off and reused.

Sprayed for insects with some insecticide laden smoke--really gross and smelled awful.

Very poor communication from management regarding 10 delay in return charter flight.

we made our 1st trip to a club med this month (2 weeks, low season). it was a bit risky with the weather, and the last 2 days it poured with rain all day long. but for the most part we had excellent weather and went home with great tans! we stayed in the basse terre building. the room was clean, renovated and had a balcony. it was a bit of a walk to the beach, but this was not a big deal.

we did a lot of the sports activities, and the go's were always very attentive and friendly. the gym was very small and not geared to weight training.

my main criticism was the food at "la biguine". u have to make a reservation and there is huge demand for a table. this was surprising given that the food there was inedible! one of the guests even sent her meal back. i had fish which was so over cooked, it tasted like cardboard. after 2 bad experiences, we gave up and went to the main restaurant (buffet) where u can at least pick out the food u eat. the food there was ok, nothing extraordinary.

be sure to bring strong mosquito repellant and something for the bites - i was ok but my friend was constantly bitten in the evenings.

overall we had a great time, and as we do a lot of sports, it was the ideal holiday if u don't want to spend the whole time at the beach. it is definitely biased to french speakers (i am, but my friend is not) so i spent a lot of time translating. but this is inevitable when 90% of the clientele is francophone. we got an excellent deal for 2 weeks, and it was well worth the money.

we will definitely do club med again!