The perfect blue water playground.
‘The ocean is approached as a place of wonder and learning,
where confidence is built slowly through understanding, trust, and play.‘
7 – 10 September 2026 / Avani+ Fares, Baa Atoll, Maldives
Our family freediving retreats are designed as gentle, immersive trips that empowers parents to confidently and calmly take their children into the ocean while teaching in-water skills to both parents and their young explorers.
Bring your family into one of the richest marine environments on Earth, a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve where manta rays and whale sharks gather just beyond the reef, and where confidence in the ocean is built slowly, together, as a family. Hosted at Avani+ Fares in the Baa Atoll, this four-day retreat is Ocean Travel’s family freediving offering brought to the Maldives: a gentle, immersive escape that empowers parents to confidently and calmly bring their children into the ocean, while teaching in-water skills to both parents and their young explorers. The retreat is shaped directly by Hanli and Peter’s own experience raising ocean-confident children, now aged three and six, across reefs, lagoons and open water around the world. Rather than teaching children to freedive, the week centres on equipping parents with the awareness, skills and mindset needed to guide their families safely into the lagoon and reef. Children develop confidence not because they are pushed, but because they feel held, by their parents, by clear systems, and by a respectful relationship with the ocean.
Learning together.
Rather than teaching children to freedive, the week centres on equipping parents with the awareness, skills and mindset needed to guide their families safely into the lagoon and reef. Children develop confidence not because they are pushed, but because they feel held, by their parents, by clear systems, and by a respectful relationship with the ocean.
HOW TO GROW AN OCEAN FAMILY
Throughout the week, parents are introduced to practical ocean assessment skills, including how to read conditions, assess risk, and make sound decisions when children are present. Understanding waves, currents, visibility, and weather becomes a shared language, replacing uncertainty with informed confidence. Safety is woven into every experience through adapted freediving protocols designed specifically for families, with an emphasis on supervision, communication, and conservative decision-making that never relies on bravado or pressure.
THE PERFECT ISLAND
We are based at Avani+ Fares Maldives Resort, an island retreat of beach and overwater villas set directly on the reef. Days begin steps from the water’s edge, with the jetty, house reef and calm lagoon all within easy, unhurried reach, ideal for a family group moving between pool, shallows and open water through the day. The resort’s dive centre, gives us direct boat access to Hanifaru Bay and the wider atoll when conditions and manta activity allow. Avani+ Fares has been recognised as one of the region’s leading family destinations, winning Joint Gold for Best Family Resort and Best Beach Resort at the Travel Trade Maldives Awards, a fitting home base for a retreat built around family confidence in the water.
Rooms and villas are comfortable and fully serviced, a gentler base than some of Ocean Travel’s more remote signature trips, chosen deliberately so that parents can focus on their children and the water, not on logistics. Petit Bistro, the resort’s dedicated children’s restaurant, and a range of family-friendly dining options mean mealtimes stay easy for younger travellers too.
SMALL GROUPS, WHOLE FAMILIES
As with all Ocean Travel retreats, this trip is kept small and personal. Hanli and Peter host and guide in the water and on land throughout, giving each family real attention as they build confidence together. You will share the week with a handful of like-minded families, getting to know one another over meals, water sessions and evening reflection under the stars.
BAA ATOLL MAGIC
Avani+ Fares sits in the west of the Baa Atoll, inside a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve and a short boat ride from Hanifaru Bay, one of the largest known feeding aggregations of reef manta rays in the world. The resort’s own house reef and lagoon offer calm, shallow water that is ideal for families finding their rhythm in the ocean, while more than twenty surrounding dive and snorkel sites hold reef sharks, turtles and vivid coral gardens for those ready to explore further. It is a setting that lets children move at their own pace, from the safety of the jetty shallows to the open blue of Hanifaru Bay.
PROTECT WHAT YOU LOVE
Hanifaru Bay’s status as a Marine Protected Area is a living example of ocean stewardship in action, and families leave the week with a firsthand understanding of why it matters. Conversations about conservation arise naturally, from watching manta rays feed to learning how strict, community-backed limits on boats and swimmers keep the bay healthy for the generations of marine life, and travellers, still to come.
INTENTION & FLOW OF THE WEEK
The deeper intention of the retreat is not to create young freedivers, but to nurture ocean-literate families. Children leave with a sense of belonging in the sea, and parents leave with the confidence to continue exploring safely long after the retreat ends. The ocean becomes not something to fear or conquer, but a place of shared joy, respect, and lifelong connection.
Four days and three nights, built around a gentle rhythm of arrival, play, exploration and rest. The retreat opens with check-in, an in-pool gear and confidence check, and a welcome dinner under the stars, before easing into family ocean games in the jetty shallows and a first snorkel session on the house reef. Midweek, we head out by boat to Hanifaru Bay, where manta activity dictates the day, alternating between turtle snorkeling and rope drift diving off the buoys. The retreat closes gently, with an optional sunrise meditation on the beach and one last stretch of ocean time together before departure.
2026 DEPARTURE
7 – 10 September 2026 / 4 Days, 3 Nights · Avani+ Fares, Baa Atoll, Maldives
