It is a dream of almost everyone to visit Maldives at least once in a lifetime! The pristine beaches, the turquoise water, beautiful sand banks, luxurious villas, the dreamy under water life are very few examples what one can dream of to experience in their honeymoon.
But when it comes to plan the itinerary, the super costly water villas and resort force us to change our plan for future!! 😟 Now it is not a problem anymore, as there are plenty of guest houses and hotels are built up in local island so that travelers can experience the true beauty of Maldives within budget.
As per my experience, staying in a local island is far superior than the water villas as each resort is built up in a private island which totally isolated from rest of the country where you never get to know the local lives. But if you wish to experience the absolute solitude, then please go for this.
Me and my partner visited Maafushi & Guraidhoo island on our honeymoon in the month of December, 2019 which is a perfect time to be in Maldives. The weather during this time is super pleasant, mainly if you go for scuba or snorkeling you will experience the great sea life!
Let's get started with detailed itinerary which I am definitely sure will force you to make a plan with your loved ones to Maldives!
DAY 1: Traveling to Male from Mumbai
Male is the capital city of Maldives which a very small though beautiful one. You can visit the main attractions of Male city within two hours of your time if you wish to! We arrived in Velena International Airport at 12:45PM, once the immigration part is done we took a ferry ride to Male city from where you can get the speed boats/local ferry to go to your local island.
There are couple of points you need to remember when it comes to take a transfer from Airport to your respective resort/guest house.
If you are going to stay in resort/villa in a private island, you will be able to see counters for almost all resort/villas in the airport itself. They will take you directly in speed boat or sea plane which you need to do a prior booking via your online booking app. Though the sea plane cost is pretty much out of budget for a budget traveler (starts from min $200)
If you are staying in local island like we did, you can take a ferry from airport (Ferry direction is given in the airport) which will charge you just $1 per person. The frequency of ferries is very high and will take 10 mins to reach Male
Once you reach Male, you can have your lunch there. You will get a number of restaurants or local joints over there. Remember, the food price is higher than the local island.
If your destination is Maafushi island like us (which is a very famous local island) then you will get two options to reach there; local ferry & speed boat
Everyday at 15:00 local ferry to Maafushi leaves from Vilingili ferry terminal which takes only $3. But it is quite slow and takes close to two long hours reaching Maafushi. One can get to the ferry terminal by booking a local taxi (fare is near about $3, please do bargain!). Please be ready for a long queue as locals take this ferry for their everyday's commute( be there in time)
If you want a not so expensive but a relax journey, please take a speed boat from Male ferry terminal. Speed boat charge is $20, the rate is fixed for Male and Maafushi both. It takes around 30 mins to be at Maafushi which is quite great.
Three tour operators - Maafushi Tours, iCom and Shadow Palm operate these ferry services. One can board the sppedboats from Male main ferry terminal, you can ask anyone for the direction, locals are very helpful. We used Maafushi Tour service on our journey.
Here are their speedboat schedule: 1) Male-Maafushi: 9:00am, 12:00pm, 14:30,18:00 2)Maafushi- Male- Airport: 7:30am, 10:00am, 13:00, 17:00
Once reached at Maafushi, we are welcomed by our guest house manager who was waiting there to receive us and take our luggage. As soon as we stepped in, there was an instant love I felt for the place. It was a small island with beautiful beaches and more beautiful locals! They were super friendly and helpful.
After placing our luggage in our room, we had a conversation with our hotel manager who helped us to plan our activities with a sip of fresh juice. Though we wanted to compare the rates of the activities with other hotel/guest house/tour operators so that we can get a better deal. Then we headed to take a stroll on the beach and in search for a great dinner!
We ended our first day with a super delicious Maldivian meal and some good local music.
Day2: Exploring the local islands & Night fishing
Next day, we started our day with a grand breakfast which helped us to gather all our energy for the rest of the day. We stayed at Ethereal Inn hotel which offered us a great affordable stay, tours, food. After the wholesome breakfast, we headed to the beaches which was very close to our hotel. There is two main beaches in Maafushi; one is local Maafushi beach where bikini is not allowed, another one is Bikini beach where you can jump into the sea wearing your beautiful bikinis.
Long stretched beaches, soft white sand, turquoise water, horizontal palm trees, windy weather, the super clear water where you can see fishes without wearing the swimming glasses. At night one can experience baby sharks at the sea shore, it was a lifetime experience. It is advisable to bring a snorkeling gear or take it from your hotel on rent so that you do not miss exploring the sea life even at the local beaches. There were plenty of colorful fishes, corals, plants in the bikini beach which will definitely take your breathe away!!
The very same day, we went for night fishing arranged by our hotel only. It costs $25 for each person including dinner (our hotel was super good, they provided us free dinner each night with a great variety in menu). Night fishing was definitely a memorable one as we tried fishing in SEA for the first time, WHOOOH!! After two hours of fishing experience which needs a great patience of course, we caught one fish which was cooked for our dinner that night. Isn't it interesting!! Don't miss to add this trip in your itinerary.
DAY 3: PRIVATE RESORT DAY
It was the most exciting day of our trip.We booked a full day trip to Adaraan Ranhali Resort which includes full day stay, lunch buffet, full beach access with beach towel and welcome drinks. We were picked up from our hotel in the morning and transferred to the resort via speed boat for the whole day.
It was a warm welcome with iced tea which was quite refreshing! We were roaming here and there enjoying the serene beauty of Maldives. For all the Instagram lover, you can discover a frame wherever you aim your camera. After spending quality time in the beach,we headed towards the buffet. It was one of the tastiest buffet I have ever had, we were just waiting to jump in!
The day ended with exploring lots of colorful fishes, coral and many more!
THE WHOLE TOUR COST US $200 PER PERSON
DAY 4: HALF DAY TOUR
The second last day was another beautiful day with full of adventures.We booked snorkeling tour
which includes Dolphin watching, a new local island hoping, visit to a sand bank. Having lunch in a sand bank is a lifetime experience which one should not miss. And the wow part is these all things only cost us $25 for each!! Isn't that great? 😍
This was the last evening in this beautiful tiny island. We spent this time to collect some souvenirs for our loved ones! You will find many shops scattering over the whole island. After the shopping, we headed to the Maafushi tour booking centre to get the tickets for next day return to Male airport from Maafushi. They will charge you $20 for each ticket which is fixed for all operators in the island.
So we ended our last night with some candle light dinner arranged in the beach side by the hotel. You can easily surprise your loved one with a lavish beach side candle light dinner spending few bucks to any of the hotels of your choice (special recommendation: Arena Beach Hotel)
DAY 5: Time to say Good Bye!!
After having a delicious breakfast, we left our hotel and Maafushi with a heavy heart and a promise to come back again! The Hotel receptionist was very kind to accompany us towards the speed boat meeting point. It took us almost 30 mins to reach at the airport. Just make sure you did a pre-booking for the ride as last minute booking can lead you in a mess when it comes to catch a flight!!
FEW IMPORTANT INFORMATION:
The best time to visit Maldives is between November to March, you can enjoy the perfect blue sunny weather in this period
Always carry Dollars with you from your respective country itself, as there are very few ATMs and cards are accepted only in restaurants. In trips and shopping, cash are hugely accepted, I will suggest you to carry cash
$1000 is enough for 5D/4N trip for two persons (Excluding flight & hotel charges).
Maldive has an On Arrival Visa process which does not require any pre process, you just need to carry passport, print out of return ticket and your accommodation confirmation
Please carry a pen while travelling to fill the Custom Form
If you want to save money (not time) then try to take the local ferry if it suits you according to your flight arrival time, otherwise please go for the speed boat which is more convenient
For budget hotels, you can check booking.com or agoda.com , you can easily find decent hotels starting $45 per night
Some hotel recommendation : Ethereal Inn, Rosemary Boutique, Sunrise Beach, Maafushi Village, Kani Grand, Arena Beach hotel (All the hotel charge almost 12% tax along with hotel price, check the pricing info before booking the hotel.)
I will recommend you to carry at least one Snorkeling gear for experiencing the sea life in Maafushi beach or in your Resort trip (For other snorkeling tour, the gear will be given to you)
Apart from Bikini beach, women are not allowed to wear bikinis, even on streets also considering Maldive is a Muslim country
Alcohol is completely banned in Maldives, please do not carry any liquor with you. If you wish to drink, there is a Flotel bar in the middle of the sea where you can get drinks
Maldive has a lot of variety in food, specially sea food buffet and it is quite cheap too in Maafushi ($12-$15 per buffet meal and other options are starting from $2)
Some other islands which you can add in your list apart from Maafushi are: Guraidhoo, Fihalhohi, Biyadhoo, Hulhumale, Male island
I tried to make this blog informative so that you face no issues to plan a budget trip to Maldives.
Hope you will have a great trip! 😊