All-inclusive resorts do a fantastic job catering to the needs of adults and have proven adept at anticipating the demands of families vacationing with young children. But one client group that has fallen through the cracks is teenagers. Not children any longer, but not quite adults either, teens sometimes get lost in the shuffle. With the addition of its new feature, The Ramp, Club Med has shown some real creativity in meeting the unique needs of adolescents. 

The Ramp debuted last month at Punta Cana, Dominican Republic. The company refers to it as "the ultimate teen lounge" designed for guests between the ages of 14 and 17-an age group too old for the village's Mini-Club Med, which caters to ages two to 13-who are independent enough to want some space between them and their parents.

"One unhappy teenager can make a vacation go south," says Mark Wiser, vice president of marketing, Club Med Americas.

The resort's vision for the project was to create a dynamic experience that allows for spontaneous social experiences, regardless of nationality, gender or other barriers. "We put a lot of effort and research with teens to create a space that answered their needs: a space that is athletic, social and where they can get away from their parents for awhile," says John Vanderslice, president and CEO, Club Med Americas.

The creative process included intensive think-tank sessions, architectural brainstorming and valuable input from teens. "Teens are as important as any other group at Club Med," says Vanderslice. "Modern teens are different. They're more savvy and sophisticated."

Studio Red at Rockwell Group, which designed The Ramp, drew on a survey by Coca-Cola (a partner in the project) of teens that found that honesty was one of the things that mattered most to them. "Honesty is important to them," said one of The Ramp's designers, Craig Kanarick. "They know when they're not getting an honest experience, and they'll reject it."

THE ULTIMATE TEEN LOUNGE

While many resorts are content to create a game room for teens and then call it a day, The Ramp project was designed from the beginning to be more than a room filled with video consoles. It is a two-story, open-air lounge with a ramp for skateboarders and rollerbladers slopping down from the top-floor deck. Since the pitch is pretty steep, there will be "G.O.s" (Club Med staff) on hand at all times to ascertain skill levels and qualify just how high up on the ramp the kids can rollerblade or skateboard. Also on the top floor are benches for stargazing or people watching.

One of the unique aspects of the design is a large hammock bolted into a cutaway section of the floor; the kids can stand on the hammock and look down into the lounge below, allowing for easy and fun communication between levels. The deck also affords great views of the beach, as well as the village itself. Downstairs are the sofas, a jukebox programmed with a teen-certified selection of tunes, a foosball table and a self-serve soda fountain bar featuring flavored syrup shots.

The creators of The Ramp showed a real understanding of teens' mixture of shyness and sociability. Upon check-in, each 14- to 17-year-old receives a welcome packet that includes access to a personal mailbox at The Ramp. The mailbox allows the village to keep teens up-to-date on functions and activities, and the kids in touch with each other. They can use the photo booth to take a picture of themselves that they can put on their mailbox, identifying their mailbox, creating the opportunity for sending notes to someone they may have seen at The Ramp who they hadn't met yet. "In these days of e-mail, we were really surprised at how the teens really responded to handwriting 'low-tech' notes to each other," adds Wiser.

The village also will be scheduling evening activities, such as "Waterworld" in the pool, themed dance parties, and "Club Night," a teens-only dance party at the disco.