I’ve written about (and loved) travel for years, so today I’m launching a new feature on my blog, Travel Fridays. I’m going to be writing about travel news and cool ideas for family travel. Look for regular posts every, er, Friday.
For kids, learning to dive is a big leap, usually into an unglamorous cement swimming pool, to learn the basics. My stepson, who’s now mad for diving, took classes in the rather unglamorous surroundings of the local leisure centre pool. But now – for the first time –parents can get kids as young as 8 hooked on the idea of diving in classes in the Maldives that take place in an aquamarine sea, with fish darting around their feet.
The Four Seasons Resort Maldives at Landaa Giraavaru is the only resort in the world that has the waiver from the Professional Association of Diving Instructors (PADI) for early in-water instruction for kids.
Its new PADI Seal Team programme for children aged 8 to 12 teaches kids in the resort’s sheltered lagoon, giving them the basics they’ll need to become divers. (Seal Team instruction everywhere else takes place in a pool.) They learn navigation and search and recovery and go on “missions” set by the instructor.
Children 10 and over can take part in a 3-hour taster session and ones 12 and over can take part in the PADI scuba diver certification program that includes two ocean dives and is credit toward open-water certification.
It’s all part of the resort’s philosophy to both marine conservation and education – along with its sister property the Kuta Huru near Male) it has 12 marine biologists on staff – and also family-oriented activities. I met the General Manager Armando Kraenzlin in London not long ago where he talked excitedly about the Maldives being the only country in the world that has banned shark hunting and snorkelling lessons run by marine biologists so kids know what they’re seeing. “Diving has become a bit like skiing,” he said. “A diving family stays together and holidays together. It’s not just hitting the beach somewhere.”
Although, of course, in the Maldives they have that too.
Picture: www.padi.com
how much mone do you have to pay
how much money do you have to pay