Maldives, from the clear blue of the ocean to the white sand of the beach

The purpose of writing this travelogue is that if you are fond of traveling, swimming, and the sea, and you have a young child, put the Maldives in your travel list and travel to it without a Maldives tour, even the first trip, because planning for this trip is very convenient and easy.

And where is the Maldives?

Maldives is an island in South India that has a water border with Sri Lanka. Maldives is the smallest country in Asia both in terms of population and area. This country is also considered the lowest country in the world. This country separated from the British Empire in 1965 and became an independent country. The Republic of Maldives currently includes 1192 coral islands, the largest of which has an area of ​​5 square kilometers.

The most important source of income of this country is tourism. According to the historical traditions of Maldives, a cleric named Yusuf Tabrizi brought Islam to Maldives and currently the official religion of this country is Islam and Sunni. In the second century AD, Maldives was known as the island of money, and the reason was that a kind of sea mollusk, which was the international currency at that time, was dumped in large quantities on the coast of this country through the sea, and for this reason, this island was called magical.

At the time of this trip, we had a nineteen-month-old infant, and since most flights and hotels usually do not charge special fees (except for taxes and insurance) for travelers under two years old, we decided to find a suitable destination for traveling with a child, and according to our research, we found that the Maldives is a great destination for traveling with a child. We took the flight from the Qatar Airlines website, which cost fifty-five million tomans for a flight with Qatar Airlines from Mashhad to Male (the capital of the Maldives) for the month of April (for two adults plus one baby).

We also got travel insurance from Saman website for three people in the amount of five hundred thousand tomans. Maldives does not require a visa and entry and exit stamps will be stamped on your passport upon arrival at no cost. And as for the hotel, the hotel plays the most important role in the trip to the Maldives. You should choose which of the Maldives islands is more suitable for you according to your interests and budget.

We had a baby with us and our goal was more than this trip to relax. Therefore, for us, choosing a private island that is less crowded and more peaceful than the local islands was a priority, and in addition, having facilities for children to play was one of the other factors involved in our choice. Therefore, after a month of checking the websites of TripAdvisor, Booking and Last Second, we chose the Bandos four-star top hotel on the Bandos private island. A hotel that was highly recommended by families with children.

It is not possible to book this hotel without a credit card from the booking site. Therefore, we found the hotel’s email from the trip advisor website at the address: [email protected] and emailed them the travel date and requested to announce their packages on this date. The hotel reservation team responded within a few hours and sent us their packages. Our choice was four nights stay in beach rooms + breakfast for two adults and one baby + round trip transfer by private speed boat + all charges and taxes, after announcing the hotel’s final discount, they sent us the final amount of $1560.

We informed the hotel in the next email that we don’t have a credit card and we will settle with the hotel in cash when we arrive, and the hotel immediately replied that there is no problem and sent us the final voucher. Also, the hotel asked us to email them our tickets 24 hours before the flight to coordinate the transfer. The hotel sent us two links, the first link was about the rules related to Corona in the Maldives, which announced that starting from February 2022, PCR test is not required to enter the Maldives and only the two-dose vaccination card is sufficient.

And the second link was about the Maldivian immigration office, which was a form where we had to answer information such as photo and passport information and some simple questions about physical condition, and after completing the form, a barcode was issued to each person, which we had to save in the phone (which was checked by the airline during the return trip).

It should be noted that after the hotel announced the price, I called several travel agencies in Tehran and Mashhad, and except for one agency in Tehran, the others announced that this hotel was not in the list of hotels on their contract, and the amount that the same agency informed us was 300 dollars more than the hotel’s announced amount, and it was not reasonable to pay this amount for booking a tour considering the convenient conditions of travel to Maldives.

In fact, the agencies do not do any additional work for the traveler to travel to the Maldives. This country has a visa on arrival, which is free. The traveler does not need a leader for this trip, and the transfer counter for most hotels is located in the Maldives airport itself, and the hotel provides all the facilities and services to the traveler, so there is no need to book through an agency.

Our flight was with Qatar Airlines. We were on a two-hour flight to Doha, and after a two-hour layover, we took a four-hour flight to Male. We booked the seats 24 hours before the flight through the Qatar Airways website. The seats were very comfortable and the flight had a lot of empty seats. Qatar Airways gave special importance to children and during the flight they brought separate treats for the children several times (from dolls and hygiene boxes including diapers, lotions, creams and wet wipes) to providing us with a mobile bed for children. A quarter of an hour before landing at Male airport, you can see big and small islands in the middle of the ocean from the plane window, which is a beautiful and unique view (so reserve your seat as close to the window as possible).

Maldives airport was small but crowded. As soon as you hand over your luggage on the way out of the airport, most hotels have counters that make transfer arrangements. Our departure transfer was done immediately. We arrived at Bandos Island after 15 minutes with a special fast boat in which we were the only passengers. After arriving at the hotel and being treated with two kinds of welcome drinks and paying the contract fee to the hotel, we went to our room with the island’s mini electric cars. There was a double chair and a large double bed and a baby bed.

The bathroom was extremely clean and had three large closets with a large mirror, a refrigerator, a tea maker, and a detailed minibar. There were also a number of beach towels and two large umbrellas in the room. In general, the room was quite large and excellent, and it was completely cleaned every day, and 5 large glass bottles of water were charged daily, so that we did not need to prepare extra water during the trip.

And the facilities of our hotel:

The island has several clubs and restaurants, which, naturally, due to the fact that it is an island of Maldives and the value of our national currency, the prices are unfortunately very high. On average, each meal in the restaurants of the island cost 30 to 60 dollars for a person. Of course, by taking some food and ready-made food from Iran, you can save money to some extent. The best restaurant on the island was the Huven restaurant, which had a great view of the sunset. This restaurant had a 20% discount on the menu for lunch. Romantic dinner ceremony (120) Dollars and barbecue dinner (65 dollars) was also performed near this restaurant and in general, it was the best restaurant on the island in our opinion.

Breakfast was served at the Galleria restaurant, which was the main and central restaurant of the island, and fully covered all tastes, and for the children, complete facilities such as chairs and children’s dining utensils and breakfast suitable for children were also served. It should be noted that there was a child sitting on almost all the tables and this indicated that this island is really suitable for children.

The most luxurious hotels in the Maldives

About sports entertainment:

The island had a great soccer field – a volleyball court – a children’s playground – a tennis court – a badminton court and a full gym, which was fully equipped and extremely clean, and not only was the rental of additional equipment free, but the rental of equipment was between two and twenty dollars per hour depending on the type.

Photography on the island:

Everywhere we looked on the island was an attractive location for photography, and interestingly, we also saw two pregnant women on this island who had come to the island for pregnancy photography. The cost of using the hotel’s photography team ranged from $150 to $750.

In terms of medical services:

The island clinic was active 24 hours a day and the cost of a general practitioner visit was $22 (75) from 8:00 am to 8:00 am and $95 (95) from 10:00 pm to 8:00 am.

Water sports on the island:

The cost of water activities on this island started from 40 dollars for a 40-minute boat ride with a glass bottom boat – 120 dollars for snorkeling (for 4 hours) and the most expensive tour of this island (350 dollars) was for swimming with a wall (for 8 hours). Snorkeling equipment rental was also 30 dollars per day. The cost of the same water activities in the local islands was reduced by a third, so if you are looking for water activities in the Maldives, it is better to spend the first two days of the trip in the local islands. Spend some time on the water tours and then spend a few days relaxing on the private islands.

Transportation on the island:

All the local islands have a sea bus from Malé that departs every hour and the ticket price during our trip was between one and two dollars depending on the location of the island. As a result, there is no need to pay for a private boat transfer (it is only important to mention that the hotels on the local islands do not have a counter at the airport and you must coordinate with the hotel reception by email before your trip so that they can guide and make the necessary arrangements for your transfer.

But for private islands, you must use private boats and all these islands have a transfer counter at the airport. In addition, it should be remembered that if you plan to transfer by sea buses, you should know that the working hours of these buses end at 6 in the evening at the same time as the sun sets and start again at 8 in the morning, and if you arrive in Maldives later than 6 in the evening, you must spend the night at the airport.

Our program:

1. This island is one of the best islands for traveling with a child, but I do not recommend this island for a trip for two and for a honeymoon, because due to the presence of a large number of children, the noise on the island is undeniable, and it may not be pleasant for a trip for two.

2. Book plane tickets preferably from the main websites of the airlines. Our experience has always shown that intermediary sites (even the famous ones!) are weaker in informing about flight cancellations and rescheduling, and usually do not take any special action in case of cancellation for a replacement flight, and the passenger must take action again through the airline’s main website, or even protest and follow up.

3. We stayed in Maldives for 4 nights, and if we didn’t have time and financial constraints, we would have liked to stay in the island for a whole week.

4. The turning point and golden point of our trip was visiting the best places to see in Maldives, i.e. coral reefs and snorkeling next to all kinds of attractive and beautiful fishes and aquatic life around living corals, which we had never seen before in any trip of this quality, and the sad point of our trip was that during the long stop on the return flight at Doha airport, all countries were allowed to use the 4-hour city tour of Doha, except for the citizens of 4 countries, which unfortunately included the Iranians.

5. The cost of this trip was 0 to 100 for a family of 3 (2000). The dollar rate at the time of our trip was 45 thousand tomans.

6. The trip to Maldives was for us a trip where from morning to night our eyes were either on the clear blue ocean or on the whiteness and softness of the sands and our ears were filled from morning to night with the peaceful sound of the island or the sound of children’s happy laughter…

and over….