Moving to Male with a baby

Hi Artezian!

Welcome to Expat.com!

Armand

Hi Artezian,

I also moved in couple of weeks ago, cant tell you in detail but if you are moving with family I think hulumale is better place to live, it is peaceful, less crowded with new relatively new apartments and easily accessible from male via ferry, just 20 mints ride.

Regards,
Jamil

You can look at platinum residence in hulumale. You can get help I don't think there should be any problem in that. Maldives is expensive

Hello, we ( my husband and 2 kids) have been living in Hulhumale for 9 months now. We had the same problem in deciding where to live. My husband went to the Maldives to check it out and he decided that it would be best to live in Hulhumale. Malé is very busy and not a real great place with kids. Although there are lots of expats living in Malé, and with a baby it is ok to live there, but once your Child starts  to walk Hulhumale is much safer.

We live at Platinum Residence, which is one of the most luxurieus appartements you can get here. (There is a pool which makes it great to live here..) Up till now all the appartements are taken, but I heared of two coming available (2bedroom here start from around 1800 dollars and up, and the 3 bedroom will be around 2500 up to about 3000 dollar). There are all nationalities in our block, and about 8 families with kids.

The expats moms have a page on FB (moms from Malé and Hulhumale), so if your wife would like a social live here, she could easily get together with other moms here, from all different nationalities.

They are finishing a new building next to ours, and it is said to be finished in August (not sure if it will be though, still looks like they have a lot of work to finish.)

There is a speed boat from Hulhumale to Malé which takes about 5 minutes, it just  does not go after 6pm. After 6 you have to take the Ferry which takes about 20 minutes.
I do not know what the prices are for app in Malé, but I think that for a 2 bedroom you have to think around at least 1000 dollars and up.

Villingilli is not a place. I would advice if you do not want a to big of a culture shock. (We needed about a month to get adjusted to live in the Maldives, but now we love it here).

Let me know if you have any other questions.
Sigrid

On your other questions :
Healthcare is not great in the Maldives (so hopefully you won't need any (there is a hospital in Hulhumale, but probably the one in Malé is better (bigger). But for serious problems it is recommanded to go abroad, even locals go abroad for operations ... ( if they have the money). There are some good pediatricians in Malé.

We did not bring a lot, you can probably find lots here, and you learn to live with the things here. We did bring some toys for the kids, because what you find here is mostly from China, and it breaks easily.

Don't really know how difficult it would be to find a nanny... Finding one is probably not so hard, getting her here on a work permit is probably the hardest part. Just some help in the house from a non live in help is probably the easiest to get in Malé.

Hope this info helps a bit.
Greets,
Sigrid

Many thanks Sigrid, we'll definitely check out Platinum Residency if there is any availability. 

On a separate note, did you ship anything from Europe to Maldives (personal items)? I'm trying to get a quote from DHR and FedEx (for up to 100kg), but it seems to be difficult -- please let me know if you would recommend anyone. Thanks.

My husband looked up a moving company on the internet. We moved from The Netherlands, so we used a Dutch company called KHZ international movers. Don't know where you are moving from, but I'm sure you can just look up a moving company on the internet. We moved just a couple of boxes with clothes, toys for the kids and some other little personnel stuff.