How much cash for 1 week in The Maldives?

[PDR]

I am pretty sure there won't be an ATM on the island so just wondering how much cash people think we might need for 1 week?

We are going all inclusive including drinks and snacks...

We don't dive....

Maybe a few bits in the gift shop/postcards?

A spa treatment or two but I guess this can be charged to our room and paid by c/c on check-out.

Some magazines/snacks at the airport on the way home?

And tips.....

ALSO is it best to take US$?

Its all billed to your credit card at the hotel so just set a budget and go from there.

I think we spent around US$200

This is taken from the Foreign Office's travel website re the Maldives:-

Island resorts in Maldives are generally expensive and you should bring sufficient funds. There are no cash machines and travellers' cheques are used infrequently. Major credit cards are accepted at most resorts and hotels. US dollars can be exchanged at the airport, banks or hotels.

Yes, take USD but the hotel is likely to take pounds too.

You can charge pretty much everything to your room, even postcards from your gift shop!

Depends on what 'all inclusive' is really that! We went all inclusive (we thought!) as well but ended up having to pay for drinks and it's not cheap. Anything with milk (milk shake, ice cream etc) is expensive and we also got bored eating at the all-inclusive and ended up eating elsewhere a couple of times.

Spa treatment is about US$80-100 and I had three in 2 weeks there and DH had a couple too.

Don't bother with the shops at the airport, they really sell nothing but tourist tat. I was desperate to find some quality souvenir but NOTHING. We actually paid to go into the exclusive lounge (I think it's USD$20 each) as it was air-conditioned and had free food and drinks and we had a 18-month-old and that really helped in 'containing' in one place! Enjoy, I am jealous!

angel1976 thank you for all the info!

Our AI package definately includes all drinks (even minibar drinks) - otherwise we might need a mortgage to cover our bar bill!
Can't believe your's didn't include drinks!

The airport lounge sounds like a good idea so will probably do that.

I think I'll take US$200 cash and put anything else on the credit card.

We are not big drinkers (well, I don't actually drink and DH has the occassional wine/beer!) so that wasn't a big problem except then 18-month-old DS1 got hooked on milkshakes at USD$6 (or was it 8 ) a pop! Ouch!

If you have a little one(s), the airport lounge is worth doing as the main airport is hot, chaotic and busy. It was fun eating the little food (they had mini sandwiches, burgers that sort of thing!) and one of the magazines (a really posh one detailing all the resorts in the Maldives, costing USD$50 in the resort gift shop) mysteriously found its way into our bag.

Have fun!

we just added it all to a bill payable at the end by credit card. all we bought were ice creams now and again, and a few souvenirs. everything else was included. we maybe spent £20.

PDR - everything was billed in our resort, so it was very easy to let things add up so be careful of that, you could not pay for things as you went which was a bit irritating to be honest!

I charged everything to room in Bandos and when I went to check out on last evening the entire system went down and they couldn't take cards. Man in reception didn't even have swipey thing.

They seemed suprised I didn't have $1500 in cash . I was quite happy to wait in resort for it to be fixed - no matter how long it took Sadly it was up and running next morning.

Also remember for services (sports, diving, spa - they may add a 10% charge).

You may want to tip room boy $10-20 a week and you'll no doubt have someone on island that goes out of their way to be outstanding service wise and you'll want to tip them. I know a lot of peeps don't tip in AI - although you are immersed in luxury the Maldivian workers aren't rich at all and it is all appreciated.

Good point quattro. We went to Bandos too and spoke to quite a lot of staff there and found out that they earn (in high season) about US$500 a month; US$300-$400 on a quiet month. It's not an easy life, they are away from family most of the year, if I am not wrong, they have the option of working a set number of days and get a number of days off or working 10 months and then 2 months off. We tipped them all quite a bit as we took about US$200 and mostly used that up in tips.

Our room boy was a lovely old man who gave DS1 a beach ball and always stopped for a chat. I think we tipped him about US$50 (for two weeks though), same for the creche staff and then a bit more (maybe US$60-$80) for the waiting staff as there were obviously quite a few of them! We thought that overall it's a small amount for us in the long run but makes a bigger difference to them iykwim.

oh yes angel1976 forgot creche staff....

Do you know, when we returned last year, one of the creche ladies from the year before remembered DS when she saw our names on the booking list and finally arrived for check-in. She had moved jobs to train for a career on reception but while we were there she used to take her lunch breaks in the creche just to play with him...she didn't even tell us - one of the other girls did....

Quattro That is so sweet! It's funny as DS1 was only 18 months old then and he was initially quite upset on being left but they were so good with him that I never had any qualms about leaving him for two hours every day just so I could relax a bit (I was 30 weeks pregnant then).

We would love to go back there again when DS1 is bigger and can actually do the activities in the kids' club.

Quattro here's hoping the card machine goes down

Good to note you all think highly of creche at Bandos. If we decide to come back with DS will def look into going there!

Counting down the days............. !!!

Have a lovely lovely time, the Maldives is such a special place. Am keeping my eye on prices for July on a weekly basis.