Family Adventure in the Maldives: Tips for Travelling with a Toddler

The most common question we were asked about our holiday to the Maldives was “are all three of you going?” And while, yes, the Maldives is best known as a luxury, adults-only, honeymoon holiday destination, we had an absolutely incredible time with our three-year-old daughter.

It took a LOT of research, but we can confidently say that the Maldives is a toddler-friendly destination. Here are our top tips and tricks to help the whole family live their best Maldivian life:

Selecting the right hotel

There are hundreds of private island hotels in the Maldives, with a huge range of price points, and frankly it is overwhelming. Our advice is to determine your top priorities and use this to narrow down the choice. This will look different for everyone, but our must-haves were:

• A kids club that would accommodate a three-year-old at no additional charge

• A good coral reef, easily accessible for small children

• An excellent charge of snorkelling or diving with manta rays

• A mid-range price point, between £6000-7000 for flights and hotel

Some of this information was not readily available, so we spent HOURS scouring hotel websites for kids club information, searching Trip Advisor reviews for intel on house reefs, learning about manta ray migration and comparing package prices on Expedia.

We stayed at Kuramathi Island and were thrilled with our choice! There’s a full review of our Kuramathi holiday here.

You can see all of the Maldives hotels we considered for our toddler-friendly holiday here.

Do your homework

We really wanted our daughter to make the most of the Maldives (as much as a three-year-old can) so we started preparing at home a couple of months before we left. We talked a lot about coral reefs, tropical fish, reef sharks, turtles and dolphins, looked at photos of Maldivian fish, watched Finding Nemo (this was a big hit) and encouraged her to wear goggles and swim with her face in the water. Not all of this worked - swimming over a reef is very different to a swimming pool - but it meant that our daughter was really excited to explore all the marine life the Maldives had to offer. You could also introduce your child to new cuisine, such as curries, stir fries or tropical fruits, to make meal times a little easier.

What to pack

Beyond lots of summer clothes (just as many t-shirts as you can fit in your case!) and obvious essentials like sunglasses and a hat, here are a few items we found to be super useful:

• Two pairs of toddler shoes - we took Crocs and sandals. This gave us a spare in case one pair was really wet, an option to fully cover her feet from the sun and also toddlers love choices!

• Water shoes - the beaches are sandy, but there were sharp pieces of broken coral and shells. It also gave us peace of mind to know that our daughter was wearing shoes when she was swimming over the reef.

• Long sleeved swim wear - we swear by two-piece swimsuits (especially post-potty training) and took this one step further for the Maldives by ensuring our daughter was always wearing leggings and a long sleeve rash vest.

• Beach toys - a spade, collapsible bucket, mini watering can and swimming mermaid provided lots of entertainment on the beach and by the pool, giving us parents a few minutes of peace to sun bathe.

• Top tier snacks - we are big fans of a small bribe! Having some of our daughter’s favourite treats to hand - a chocolate oat bar or some fruit gummies - made our lives a lot easier when she was unwilling to leave the beach or pool.

We travelled with hand luggage only for ten days, and this was honestly pretty easy. We don’t dress up for evening meals and spent most of our time in swimwear. One thing that we overpacked was colouring books, stickers and small toys for meals. Eating in buffet-service restaurants meant that our daughter never had to for her meal, and therefore dinner-time entertainment wasn’t an issue.

Travel time

If you’re travelling from the UK (like us) you can’t avoid the fact it’s a 10+ hour flight from London to Male, plus your transfer to your chosen hotel when you eventually arrive. Our daughter is an excellent traveller (we just got lucky) but here are our golden rules to make long-haul flights a little easier:

• Unlimited screen time. This might not be for everyone, but our daughter will chain watch movies for 10 hours and we’re totally OK with that. Let’s be honest, most adults are doing the same thing.

• Unlimited snacks. My daughter is not going to eat very much of her inflight meal, and that’s fine. A hungry toddler, however, is not fine! On the flight home we were fresh out of snacks, but the British Airways cabin crew were incredibly helpful and kept us well stocked with biscuits, popcorn and stroopwafels.

• Don’t stress about sleep. None of you will get a solid 8 hours, but you’ve been through this before and you survived! We don’t force sleep at would be her usual bedtime, but rather wait until later when she seems really tired, then turn off all screens and create a dark, relaxing environment.

Find your groove

We all know that toddlers love routine (I think most parents do too) and toddlers on holiday are no exception. We would highly recommend that you find a routine that works for you, as a way to roughly structure and plan your time in the Maldives. Our days usually looked something like this:

7:30am wake up, get dressed and go to breakfast

8:30am kids club drop off, parents go diving or go on an excursion

12:30pm collect daughter and head for lunch

1:30pm return to room to cool down and rest, avoiding the strongest sun

3pm beach time, snorkelling on the house reef, swimming pool time

6pm watch sunset at the sandbank

7pm dinner time

Embrace the kids club

Our holiday in the Maldives would not have worked without some form of childcare. We had dreamed of swimming with mantas and diving in the Maldives for years - even before we came parents - and obviously our three-year-old wouldn’t be able to join us. After checking in and grabbing some lunch, our first priority was to check out the kids club. We spent time talking to the staff, playing in the splash pad and making sure our daughter was having such a good time, she’d be itching to come back. Short story: it worked, she was obsessed, sometimes didn’t want to leave and actually became so confident and independent as a result of her time there.

We hope these suggestions help you to make the most of the Maldives with your toddler in tow. It truly was one of the best trips we have ever taken, and would recommend to water babies and nature lovers of all ages.