For most of our twenties, we tried to chase the endless summer around the world, my husband, being Australian, in search of the perfect wave and me vraiment européenne mostly for the perfect tan. Armed with a surfboard and a big bottle of huile de St Barth we explored, surfed, tanned and swam at some of the most beautiful beaches in the world. Living out of a backpack for months at times, we floated from island to island. Our budgets were small, and our worries even smaller.
Now we are both a bit older, our holidays seem to be a bit shorter and we have a little bit more to worry about with our 4 month old baby M on the scene. Even with these new constraints in our lives we recently hopped on a flight from Dubai and 4hrs later we were on a speedboat to paradise. We opted for an island close to the capital Male where the airport is located and after leaving home in the morning and half a days travel, we were in the Maldives. Perfection, exceeding all our expectations of a tropical paradise. We fell in love with the blues of the ocean, the whites of the sand and everything in between.
From the moment we stepped out of the plane, four months old M tightly wrapped in a carrier (we decided not to bring a pram and wouldn’t have needed one) and onto the island, kicked off our shoes (a pair of sandals will do), put away the credit cards and drivers license (mode of transport is by bicycle only), we were in love. So now that our holidays got much, much shorter, we found that 4 days at the Anantara Dhigu Resort and Spa was the just enough take some time-out, relax and get a first taste of this beautiful part of the world. Because this is the biggest problem you will face here – having to plan a return trip before you have even left…
I found the most important (and possibly most challenging) thing about being on tropical island close to the equator with a four month old baby is taking extra care of keeping it out of the sun as much as possible. Long sleeve, light linen shirts, high factor sun screen, a sun proof hat, long sleeve swimwear and lots of light weight swaddles for cover and protection from the wind are essential. Our kid and baby friendly resort was full of shady, cosy corners, so the hardest decision was really which spot to choose once it came to Matilda’s nap times.
As light as we travelled on our first visit, I have a feeling that there will be a fair few more pieces of luggage involved when we return with our little girl in June, including two surfboards from my husband, essential apparently, but more importantly lots of beach toys for M who will be 13 months old by then. Oh time flies, but at least in some ways it feels like the search is over, for the moment anyway. Can’t wait. Paradise found.
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