Go Together Life

🏝 Trip At-a-Glance: The Maldives

• Destination: Club Med Kani, North Malé Atoll, Maldives
• Travel Time: ~20 hours from the U.S. East Coast (with Abu Dhabi layover)
• Best Season: November–April (dry season, peak sunshine)
• Length of Stay: 4 days / 5 nights
• Best For: Dreamers finally checking the Maldives off their bucket list, families who love both adventure and lazy beach days, resort dabblers
• Highlights: Overwater swings, snorkeling with sharks (cue Ally’s panic), sunsets and sunrises from the same island, family volleyball “competitions,” eat-all-you-can buffets
• Difficulty: Easy. Unless you count the long flights and surviving water aerobics with Daniel

For most of our travels, we strike a balance: some careful research to lock in our must-do highlights, and plenty of wiggle room for unplanned adventures. We’re not high-maintenance travelers. Sure, we enjoy luxury and the cultural highlights, but we also love seeing the real side of the places we visit. Think bucket-list adventures meets local living.

And for more than 20 years, one dream sat right at the very top of our list: the Maldives. White sand, warm seas, and endless blue skies. For years we put it off, assuming the cost (and the long flights) would make it unattainable. But when we finally dug into the research, we realized it wasn’t nearly as out of reach as we’d thought. Sure, an overwater villa at a 5-star resort will set you back, but we had our sights set on something different: Club Med Kani, a 4-star, all-inclusive resort with beachfront bungalows. Friends Willem and Erica had raved about it, and that was good enough for us.

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Getting There

Our route took us through Abu Dhabi, with a layover on each end. The desert safari stopover was an instant win with all nine of us. The flights themselves were long but manageable. Though Adam, may beg to differ. He sat between the twins both ways, and spent most of the trip as a human pillow.

We planned our trip for April, leaving behind chilly U.S. weather and walking straight into sweltering heat in both Abu Dhabi and Malé. Malé itself was our first surprise. Until 2009, tourists weren’t even allowed to stay on islands inhabited by locals. The city is just four square miles, one of the most densely populated in the world, and very different from the idyllic postcard version of the Maldives. Fascinating to fly over, and we can’t wait to explore the city on our next trip, but not our final stop. Like most visitors, we headed straight from the airport to our resort transfer.

A short boat ride later, turquoise seas, scattered island resorts, big smiles, we pulled up to Club Med Kani. We were welcomed with cocktails and warm hospitality… which helped soften the blow when Ally and Jon discovered their bathroom hadn’t been properly cleaned. Not exactly the dreamy start they’d imagined, but every trip needs at least one “well, that happened” moment.

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Life on the Island

From that moment on, the island delivered everything we’d dreamed of. Club Med Kani sits on its own island, about 1 km long, which you can walk around in about 20 minutes. White sand everywhere. Sunrise on one side, sunset on the other. Swings over the water, poolside lounging, and warm ocean swimming at every turn.

We’re not usually “resort people,” but we went all in: themed dinners, group activities, even water aerobics in the pool (Daniel will never forgive us or recover). Nights were filled with live shows and, yes, some questionable line dancing. Ally’s commitment was impressive, the rest of us? Not so much.

We had one hilariously competitive family volleyball game at sunset where we discovered that, collectively, we have zero volleyball talent. Adam hit a poor bystander square in the head, arguments erupted over balls “in” or “out,” and we laughed until our stomachs hurt.

Then there was the group of women we kept running into, the ones who always seemed to be doing yoga poses in prime photo spots. No matter where we went, there they were, bending and stretching in the sand. We dubbed them the Camel Toe Mafia (CTM). Don’t ask. Just… don’t.

Of course, in true Mandy and Patrick fashion, we also bumped into a family from South Africa they happened to know. Because of course they did.

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What We Loved Most

• The island’s small, private feel—like it was ours alone
• Snorkeling excursions (yes, there were sharks, and yes, Ally survived)
• Swimming in warm turquoise water on all sides of the island
• All-inclusive dining that meant eat everything, all the time. This was particularly impressive as everything except the seafood had to be shipped to the island.

We spent four days and five nights in paradise and loved every minute, even Mandy, who usually prefers vacations with a side of adrenaline and chaos.

Much to the teens’ delight (or so they claimed with eye-rolls), we took hundreds of photos. The island was impossibly photogenic—every palm tree, swing, and turquoise horizon begging to be captured. Eventually, in a moment of good-natured exasperation, Daniel pulled a full ‘Homer Simpson,’ quietly retreating backward into the nearest bushes until only a rustle of leaves betrayed his escape.

The Maldives had been our dream for two decades. And it was every bit worth the wait.