Diving holiday with a baby?

[lindsaygii]

I'm an experienced diver, with lots of longhaul travel to far flung dive places under my belt...

But I usually travel and stay as cheaply as I can, and don't worry about anything except the diving I'm going to do.

Now I have nearly five month old ds... I have been promising myself one last trip before I become a poor student for two years.

I realise I won't be able to dive all day like I used to. But I would like to be able to do a few dives over a week, say.

So - I need a decent hotel with good childcare that I can trust, somewhere lovely...

My choices would be SE Asia (anywhere) or the Caribbean (although it looks expensive just now due to the dollar/pound thing).

Has anyone done a holiday-with-diving with a baby? Any ideas, please?

It's the childcare thing I'm most worried about - I don't know how to choose, or tell what they'll be like at a distance.

are you mad...a long haul flight with a baby...rather you than me!!

TBH I dont think I would trust a babysitting service elsewhere in another country, especially with LO so young.
Could you maybe ask a f amily memeber to come with you? Could you ask around for a few friends or friends daugthers to go with you?? Any chance you would leave LO behide for a few days?
Iknow Im not helping but i just think its huge risk, and tbh i dont know what training/police checks they do for staff in other places.

Bandos Island Resort and spa in the Maldives.

I've been three times and love it. The diving is fabulous and they have a free childrens club which is open from 9am to 5pm for children aged over 8 months (so you'd need to wait a few months)
The kids club is literally 2 minutes walk from the padi dive centre and there is a lovely house reef if you don't want to go too far from your little one and of course lots of boat dives.

The island is one of the closest to the airport at Male (around 20 mins by boat) and has a decompression chamber (which hopefully you won't need) and also a good medical centre which in my opinion is a must when you have young children.

We've done loads of diving holidays with the kids, one when DD was 4 months old in Gozo. We went with this company, and they were really helpful.

www.familydiving.co.uk/

Thanks very much mumofsatan and 'senseandsenility* - exactly what I was looking for!

I've posted on a dive forum too, and a couple of people suggested the Caribbean, but it looks very expensive just now what with pounds and dollars being what they are...

A company I dived with before in Thailand offered to help sort out the baby (the people running it have small children), so I may look into that, but I think when not diving (that is, most of the time) I'd be deadly bored there myself...

No advice, just here to reminisce about my pre-dc diving days

I know, I know....

If you are anywhere near Bristol I'm trying to get together some divemums so we can join the same dive club then babysit each other's children while we take turns in the water!

Not near Bristol, but sounds like a very good idea!