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Use our Travel forum for recommendations on everything from day trips to the best family-friendly holiday destinations.

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Original poster

Maldives with 11 month old baby

23 replies

LifeofByron · 13/04/2009 14:59

Hi we are thinking of going to the Maldives for 2 weeks in September with DD who will be 11 months old at the time. We're Australian and have already done the UK-Aus longhaul with her so we can cope with survive the journey and we and she will be ok with the heat. I'm more wondering whether anyone has any recent experience with particular resorts that they'd recommend (or avoid) if travelling with a baby. We've been to the Maldives a couple of times before but have only stayed in resorts geared more at couples- and we know we won't be going back to any of those for, I don't know, 18 years or so?? Any thoughts/advice appreciated.

OP posts:

Littlefish · 13/04/2009 15:09

Do you definitely want a resort? I found an amazing villa when I was looking last year. We couldn't get the flights we wanted, so we couldn't go in the end.

Villa Larmony

Littlefish · 13/04/2009 15:10

Oh pooooo. Just realised that the villa is in Mauritius, and you're going to the Maldives . At least they started with the same letter

Original poster

LifeofByron · 13/04/2009 15:18

thanks anyway Littlefish- they are in the same neck of the woods after all. ps. the villa looks fab but we do just really want to go back to the Maldives. sentimental reasons...

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Hersetta · 14/04/2009 14:16

I believe Bandos is particuarly child friendly or you could try Lily beach if you don't mind a sea plane transfer.

Original poster

LifeofByron · 14/04/2009 22:48

thanks Hersetta will look into those

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mumoverseas · 17/04/2009 05:26

I second the Bandos recommendation. we've been there three times, the most recent being christmas 2007 when DD was 14 months old and before that we went when she was around 5 months old.
We love it for various reasons. It is only around 15 to 20 mins to the resort from the airport by speedboat whereas some resorts are several hours by boat or a seaplane transfer.
It has an excellent medical centre with european doctors (and also one of the closest resorts to Male in case of a real emergency)
It has a FREE kids club from 8am to 5pm (and babysitting after then at a small charge) for children aged from 8 months. We left DD there a few times when we went diving which is also excellent. They have a fabulous house reef which means no long boat rides unless you want to so its easy to drop off kids at the club 5 mins walk away and be in the sea minutes later.

Only negatives are the shop on the island is very limited and from memory only had about 2 different jars of baby food so I'd take that if she is still on jar food and also take nappies. There are several restaurants which are nice and one which is 24 hours which is handy if she is an early riser.

babyOcho · 17/04/2009 21:36

We went to the Maldives in March, DD spent her 1st birthday there. Went to Bandos - may have even been mumoverseas who suggested it!

Bandos is a v short transfer and geared up for babies.

The cot they provided was a proper full sized cot with proper mattress and linen, they have high chairs in all the restaurants. There is a baby pool as well as a big pool - both are good for 11/12mo babies. They have a creche, we didnt use but it was there if you wanted to use it.

We went full board and DD does BLW so the buffet was perfect. We got a bit bored of it, but she loved walking around choosing food to eat. There is the 24hr restaurant there so you can always get milk/food if you need.

DP went diving and he said it was quite well run. The spa is quite good (massages, I'd give the facials a miss).

If you fly with Sri Lankan they do non-stop flights into Male from Heathrow and they are pretty baby friendly.

The thing that annoyed the hell out of us was that the room we had was joined onto another, not detached. There was a family of 4 next door who were noisy, but I am sure that DD screaming at 4am annoyed them as well!

mumoverseas · 19/04/2009 14:01

glad you seem to have had a good time babyOcho, shame about the noisy neighbours though. We got around that one last time by booking one of the two water villas. Lovely and quiet but stupid money for what it is.

Word of warning to OP, if you are thinking of booking the standard rooms only have a shower, no bath whereas the deluxe rooms which are not that much more expensive have a bath as well and are much larger.

diedandgonetodevon · 19/04/2009 14:17

Another vote for Bandos here!

Original poster

LifeofByron · 22/04/2009 09:05

thanks everyone- sounds like Bandos is the way to go. and now the sun has come out here, I am truly in the mood for planning a good holiday

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mumoverseas · 22/04/2009 16:44

Original poster

LifeofByron · 17/05/2009 17:44

hi again, inspired by all the recommendations for Bandos I'm in the process of booking my holiday now. Just had one question - DH wants to stay in a water villa whereas I (paranoid mum) think that staying in a water villa with 11 month DD is a bad idea. mumoverseas did you stay in a water villa when your DD was 14 months old (and presumably mobile)? i'm just a bit worried about how to manage a DD who i guess will be crawling if we're surrounded by water. or am i just being paranoid and it's no different from staying close to the beach? DD is not yet crawling (she's not quite 7 months) so I find it hard to imagine just how vigilant you have to be once you have a mobile baby- but I'm assuming it's very vigilant!

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Original poster

LifeofByron · 17/05/2009 18:14

bump

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Owls · 17/05/2009 18:23

I haven't stayed in a water villa with very young children but the thought of it puts me off.

When we stayed in one, there was nothing to stop you walking off the decking straight into the sea. The steps down into the sea were unguarded as well. It was fabulous for us as adults but no way would I want to be following an 11 month old around all the time in one of those!

Never been to Bandos but do they not do beach villas?

Original poster

LifeofByron · 17/05/2009 18:32

thanks Owls- I agree with you and think DH is not really thinking it all through. I just want to make sure I'm not being neurotic. Bandos do have beach villas and i think they look great. it just seems to me that it's asking for trouble to be staying in a room suspended over the sea

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xfabba · 17/05/2009 18:44

We went with a 22 month old to Kanuhura Resort and stayed in a beach villa for that reason and didnt seem worth the extra cost when we wouldnt be able to realx on the deck anyway. It was very child friendly (kids club, childrens tea etc) but as we went outside of school holidays, he was pretty much the only baby on the island when we were there. It was great, he got loads of attention from all the broody honeymoon couples - they were all out on the water villas though and we personally felt it was better to be in one of the more out of the way beach villas than the water villas as I think the "oh a baby, how cute", might have worn thin if they'd heard him crying at 2 in the morning! (actually, he was very good, but you know what I mean).

The other thing you might want to consider is the sea plane transfer. ds1 wasn't bothered by it but it did mean we arrived on the jetty for cocktails and welcome by the resort manager covered, and I mean covered head to toe, in vomit.

Original poster

LifeofByron · 18/05/2009 09:50

Thanks xfabba. I'm sure it wasn't remotely funny at the time but your sea plan transfer vomit story did make me laugh. I will be laughing on the other side of my face when it happens to us....

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mumoverseas · 18/05/2009 10:29

Hi lifeofbryon,
ref watervilla, we stayed twice, the last time was for my 40th when we stayed for 10 days (xmas 2007 when DD was 14 months) and the easter before we stayed there for a few days when we got upgraded for the last few days.

Ref water safety, there is a large private balcony on the back of the 2 water villas which is pretty well guarded with wooden railings around. There are steps down to the sea but it is easy to put one of the two large wooden sun loungers in front of the steps to block off little ones.

with regards to the other types of villa, as said before, the standard doesn't have a bath, just a shower, deluxe is nice, has a bath and a small lounge area, garden villas are near the pool and smaller (IIC) than the deluxe and the jacuzzi beach villas are nice but REALLY NOT SAFE for toddlers. This is because the ground floor is the lounge with a little walkway through to a lovely open air jacuzzi but there are open steps up to the bedroom above (sort of mezzanine type arrangement) and you couldn't safely have a little one in there.

we loved the water villa but crazy money. Mind you, its a lot cheaper booking a package from the UK than booking direct like we did. Am very jealous you are going, love it there

xfabba · 18/05/2009 14:34

lifeofbyron - don't worry, even we found it funny once we managed to get to our villa and DP was worse hot as had been holding ds1. The worse thing was that there was no escape - normally when your child does something like that you can slink off, have a clean up and carry on pretending you didnt just have vomit dripping from the ends of your hair. But of course you arrive at the end of a long jetty with nowhere to go but to face the meet and greet party. There was only us and two (horrified and slightly splashed) honeymoon couples. The funniest bit was there was one person offering us cocktails and another one handing out wet towels - and she offered us an extra one like that was going to make any difference! The resort manager was doing the customary spiel about the island (standing well-back, in his white linen ensemble) and we were just saying yeah, yeah, tennis courts, pool, great, can we PLEASE just go to our accomodation now!

Aaaaaagh, fond memories. We did have a great holiday though and he wasnt sick on the way back ......

Original poster

LifeofByron · 19/05/2009 07:48

Thanks very much mumoverseas - I really can't wait. I've only just gone back to work and suddenly the prospect of all being on holiday together is really keeping me going. Thanks again xfabba - I can just picture the scene, especially the appalled honeymoon couples and resort manager all decked out in his best white linen!

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Hersetta · 19/05/2009 10:44

A lot of maldive resorts won't even let you book water villa's if you have young children as they aren't safe - go for a beach villa instead.

tommypickles · 20/05/2009 08:13

Any of the islands that take children are always very welcoming of them, look at www.totstoo.com they have a couple of the islands that love kids.

Original poster

LifeofByron · 20/05/2009 23:16

Thanks very much Hersetta and tommypickles. That totstoo website is great- for various reasons we're having second thoughts about Bandos and are looking at Rangali, which is on totstoo and they have a good offer. Fingers crossed. I need this holiday. But there is no way we'll stay in a water villa. My DH is relatively impractical on these things....

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