A British woman living in the Maldives for nearly 20 years said it is the perfect place to bring up a family, even though living costs are higher than in the UK. Chloe Esme took a job in the Maldives, a country consisting of 1,192 islands, as a destination representative for a travel company based in the UK when she was 21 years old. Now 40, she has never looked back.
Her employer initially offered her the chance to live in the Maldives for six months to look after customers staying at the luxury resorts on the islands , but she decided to stay. She went on to have three children, and the family of five live in the world’s smallest capital city, Malé. Although renting her two-bedroom apartment costs similar to what it would in the UK, electricity is more.
“It’s about £300 a month,” Ms Esme said. She added that she missed the convenience of popping to a shop, because “retail parks and shopping centres don’t exist here”. While Ms Esme and her partner both work and her children go to school during the week, their proximity to luxurious resort islands make for the perfect getaway.
“The kids dream about spending their weekends going to these islands, swimming and eating ice cream under a palm tree,” she said. “We don’t go every weekend, but we go for special occasions. “Life here offers so many unique experiences for my children.
Instead of learning to swim in a cold, sterile pool at a dreary sports centre, they have grown up swimming in the warm, clear .