Feel like giving up with my Maldives trip! I am SO confused by it all...!!

[pinkysmamma]

I am planning a special trip to the Maldives in July, for my partner and I. It is to celebrate my Birthday :)

We are flying our from Dubai, x10 nights - and have already booked our flights on a non-cancellation rate (as they were so much more affordable!!)

I know it was VERY naive of me, but I didn't think it would be even half as hard as it is proving to be, to find somewhere to stay!

My partner doesn't fly well at the best of times, so he'd really like to avoid the sea plane. He's fine with boats, so we are happy to use ferries or speed boats.

I am looking for somewhere not too costly, since we are usually out and about / on trips during the day, so we aren't fussed about luxury or all inclusive. Ideally B&B or 1/2 board would suit us well.

Can anybody recommend a LOCAL island with great ferry / speedboat transfer links, please?

Having tried to look up the transport info online for the public ferries from Male, its proving nearly impossible and I'm almost at the stage now where it would be considerably less stressful to just give up and try again somewhere more simple 😅

OP I’ve been to The Maldives and was pretty terrified about the seaplane but also had heard stories from people we know about the speedboats being horrendous for feeling seasick and taking twice as long as advertised in bad weather. I decided seaplane would be the lesser of two evils and honestly I’d much rather go on a seaplane than a normal plane having done it. It wasn’t at all bumpy and the views were amazing. I’d try and talk your partner into it if you can as it’s a brilliant experience.

You mentioned day trips but I’m not sure it’s that sort of place. The only things they had where we stayed were diving and snorkelling trips. Most resorts are luxury, chill out and enjoy the sun, food and marine life. We spent most days diving, snorkelling, kayaking, paddle boarding and just chilling out.

Sheraton Maldives Full Moon Resort & Spa can be easily reached via boat from Male. Book on rhe Sherton site for a better deal.

So Maldives isn't really a budget holiday destination, near enough all the resorts are on individual atolls, if you want to stay in a resort they will organise all the transfers for you and you don't really need to think about that aspect at all. You can go on a website like simply Maldives and filter the resorts down to those with boat transfers and it will give you a list of options. If you are wanting a more budget holiday, then there are some cheap hotels in Male and near the airport and undoubtedly around the other population centres that are scattered around, but you'd really need to research how much there is see and do. Male is pretty tiny and everywhere else is going to be even smaller.

I’ve only been to the Maldives once so might be wrong, but I think you’ll need to be full board — it’s basically one hotel per island (I think), so there won’t be lots of restaurants (or day trips) you can choose from. Having said that, I think most places run snorkelling trips etc.

What’s your budget? We stayed at the Chaaya Lagoon (now called Cinnamon Hakuraa-Hura.

It cost us £4.5k for two people for 14 nights, including flights from Heathrow, and seaplane transfers, and a water villa, a few years ago. We loved it, even though it wasn’t the most expensive.

For 10 nights, their website says it’s $2700 for both of you all inclusive, plus free speed boat transfers.

https://www.cinnamonhotels.com/cinnamon-hakuraa-huraa-maldives/offers/stay-long-pay-less?gclsrc=aw.ds&gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=13160869131&gbraid=0AAAAADRZXZkWJ7oW3JjjIrydg0h7bOOl-&gclid=CjwKCAjw56DBBhAkEiwAaFsG-hj3c5vLDWdW5OfZGzVUiCYvy8sthn4sv2FjxIvYm7t1bFJ_BQnZzRoC3vcQAvD_BwE

There are plenty of Travel Counsellors in Dubai. Proper travel consultants backed by a 5 star trust pilot rating.

https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/www.travelcounsellors.com

Just choose one and get in touch. Hopefully they can help you.

www.travelcounsellors.ae/find-your-travel-counsellor/?search-location=Dubai+

omadu and darawandu

The sea plane is fine, honestly, and I say that as a nervous flyer myself. You are more likely to have a bumpy experience on the big plane. The view from the window is lovely on the seaplane. Doing a boat only transfer really narrows your options.

We went to Lily Beach and it was pretty faultless. The food was amazing. It doesn't have its own reef straight from the beach so we had to take a boat out each day but it wasn't far and no problem at all.

Bear in mind that each Maldivian island pretty much just has the one hotel on it and you are a captive audience for the entire trip, so do your research and pick well. If you really want to avoid the sea plane then I'd suggest phoning or emailing the hotels you are interested in and asking them how to book the transfer boats.

I used to live and work in Dubai, most likely for the airline you're planning on travelling with red hats.

As a passenger, I really do hate flying. Could you ask him to walk around on the flight? They will allow him to as long as the seatbelt sign is off. From Dubai to Malé it’s only around 4 hours from start to finish. I can’t advise anything for the domestic flight but I heard from pilots who have a layover in Malé that the main island isn't great.

If he really couldn’t fly, could you look at Ras Al Khaimah? My friend recently stayed at a resort there and it pretty much looked identical to the Maldives.

The Maldives do not have a good human rights record. As you are coming from Dubai that may not overly trouble you but I wouldn’t holiday there
https://www.amnesty.org/en/location/asia-and-the-pacific/south-asia/maldives/report-maldives/

I’ve been 3x and I don’t understand why you wouldn’t go AI? It’s not a place to be budget friendly and where do you intend to go exploring? Also rainy season In Dubai that has endless indoor activities and places vs pouring in Maldives with not much to do is a huge difference. Going AI gives you the option to stay in with good food and onsite activities should it rain down.

I haven't stayed on a local island, however they do seem to be very popular with travellers concerned with budget. Do note, as mentioned earlier, they won't have alcohol available and it is illegal to import it.
Tourist tax is very high ATM so remember that this will be added to any food, drinks, trips and accommodation.
I wouldn't be overly concerned by wet/dry season. This February (considered best month for weather) has seen the worst flooding in their history. I've been several times during the summer months (42 days in total) and had rain for one morning. Every other day was beautiful.
As for island choice I would visit the tripadvisor forum for maldives and maldives holidaymakers on Facebook. Both are full of very experienced maldives travellers and many stay on local islands.
Also have a good look on YouTube. Some great information on there.

Sorry I meant to add Dhiffushi is a very popular local island. I think you can getting a ferry from Malè in a little over half hour. There will be a good selection of guest houses on this island.

can you explain a bit more? And give suggestions for good places?

Are you on Instagram? Search okay.kara.travels. She’s been to the Maldives and has loads saved on her pages and definitely used ferries/ boats. Her name is Kara wildbur if that search doesn’t work ! Happy planninb it’ll be worth it!

I went in the supposed "rainy season", warm light rain for maybe 20 minutes, once or twice a day, then back to normal, maybe one day of typical UK type of rainfall for a couple of hours one day, that was it.

I would consider a resort rather than a local island. Alcohol is completely banned on the local islands and you will find more basic offerings in the restaurants.
there are some decent priced resorts that will offer a bit more luxury and many include transfers.
there are lots of really good offers on at the moment.

Was this the Lily Beach in South Ari Atoll? Because that definitely has an accessible house reef.

Yes, but my memory of it was that while you could wade out from the floating bungalows, the better snorkelling involved a boat trip? My DH definitely did a couple of boat trips but I don't actually enjoy snorkelling in deep water so I didn't go. It was a few years ago and I'm not much of a snorkeller anyway, more of a loungerer and cocktailer, so perhaps I am misremembering.

Re: the AI debate, we were a bit concerned because we'd heard it can be enormously expensive even for a bottle of water on an island where you have no option to buy everything from your one hotel. We figured that at least with AI, although it was expensive, we knew what we were in for and wouldn't have an enormous shock coming to us.

At Lily Beach I actually cannot remember whether alcohol was included, but I do remember that the food was incredible in terms of freshness, choice and quality we couldn't have asked for better and we came away thinking the whole thing was very fair value for money.

Few things that I hope help - firstly most hotels will sort your transfers (for a fee) so don’t try doing that independently, secondly all inclusive is almost always most cost effective or full board (it is usually a small island with one hotel on it so not exactly lots of alternative options). Islands with lots of hotels or b&bs in same place are a very different experience to the one resort islands. Look for a good house reef. Destination2 has accommodation only options that you can book from Dubai and have info about transfers etc. Ignore the flight packages, www.destination2.co.uk/destinations/indian-ocean/maldives

Have you tried going to the location on googlemaps then searching ‘hotels’, they have rates and review scores then clicking through to the website, or using trivago or agoda or booking or hotels dot com websites? You can filter by your budget and dates then of course. That’s what I usually do (sometimes book direct eventually). I would also google ferry routes etc to narrow it down (some routes are shown on the maps and are clickable, too. Another option is to search for blogs by someone who lives out there?

Apologies if you’ve tried all this already … I can see others have provided some links and similar options. Don’t give up @pinkysmamma ☺️

They will definitely run snorkelling trips to other reefs, and snorkelling a submerged reef is a great experience, but Lily Beach is widely thought of as having one of the best house reefs in the entire Maldives.

OBLU, helengeli.

booked a package deal with virgin, flew into Male airport and got a 30 minute speed boat to the island. North atoll.

i would see whether you can get an earlier flight to Sri Lanka and just do 4 days in the Maldives. It’s pretty being on a desert island but I was bored by day 3 as only activity is sun bathing so took scuba lessons. Sri Lanka however is amazing