Beach day at Kibbutz Maagan Michael – Handmade Hawaiian Swimsuits

I don’t know about you, but I think I could have a beach day just about every day. We grew up going to the Jersey shore every summer for at least a couple of weeks. And it was beach day, every day. From 10am to 4pm at the beach. Let’s just say I returned at least five shades darker. But we would do everything-boogie boarding, skim boarding, paddle ball, swimming, long walks, even occasional surfing. Our dad grew up with a beach front house, working as a lifeguard on the beach so we were taught how to do EVERYTHING. What to do in case of a riptide? Got it. Shark attack? Check. Expert swimming? We better be.

So for us, there was little better for us than moving to a country with 273 km (170 mi) of coastline. To say the least, we have explored MANY of Israel’s amazing beaches.

One of our absolute FAVORITE beaches is the private beach at Kibbutz Maagan Michael. When we first moved to Israel we did a program there for five months, called Ulpan, to learn Hebrew. It was half a day of work on the kibbutz (which paid for our accommodations and food there) and half a day of studies. Normally tourists can only visit the kibbutz if you have a friend of a friend, but fortunately we made many friends there (including Brooke’s boyfriend) so we are always welcome to return for a visit.

Just a bit about a “Kibbutz” in case you aren’t familiar with the term is a communal settlement, historically farming related. It’s a super interesting concept where socialism is at the heart of the functions. On a traditional kibbutz, everything is shared. All money earned goes to the kibbutz and the money is distributed evenly among all the members, making sure that no one is ever lacking. If you want to learn more about a kibbutz and the history click here.

So back to our adventures, this beach is really amazing! Kibbutz Maagan Michael is general is pretty awesome! It offers three little islands that you can swim out to (one of them being a protected nature reserve that you cannot disturb), a little surf shack with various water sport items belonging to the kibbutz members, and a long private beach.

Our plan for the day was to go Supping (Stand up paddle boarding), play some Matkot (paddle ball), and just relax on the beach. We got up early, took our bikes where we usually both ride together on the same bike (me on the handlebars while Brooke sits and pedals), and went down the long palm tree lined sand path towards the beach.

These Hawaiian style swimsuits were handmade and designed by us 🙂 The feel and the vibe of the kibbutz beach is very tropical so we thought these prints would patch perfectly. We found the coordinating fabrics at one of our favorite fabric stores and just had to get it. I went for a criss-cross neck design with high waist bottoms (also made a low waist pair for sunbathing).

Brooke went with a simple tie front with some small straps. Also with high waist and low waist options.

Here are the original sketches for the swimsuits:

Do you like how they turned out?