Planning the Maldives during COVID
The Republic of the Maldives is an archipelago composed of over 1200 islands, divided into groups of 26 different atolls, located in the Arabian Sea of the Indian Ocean. It is one of the most isolated travel destinations on the planet which has further promoted the idea of luxury and exclusivity. While there is no lack of information, with 132 resorts spread throughout the Maldives, it is easy to get overwhelmed when planning a trip.
Resort Transfers:
This one is huge, one time we found the perfect hotel within our price range, everything was looking good when the thought of “But how do we get there?” crossed my mind. Well a few trip advisor searches and a bit of google sleuthing later I discovered dreaded transfer fees. In this case my beloved hotel was actually located so far south that it required a 40 minute sea plane ride to get there, costing about $700 per person on top of our other airfare. Normally there are domestic flights to outlying islands with a follow on boat trip nut these have been stopped since COVID.
However, not every hotel requires a flight, most resorts are accessible by speed boat or even ferry which make the transfer significantly cheaper. The ferry may cost as little as $4 but take hours while the speed boat trips generally live in the $150 range for a 5-40 minute trip. The speedboat cost will usually correlate with the price of a hotel, so luxury resorts will charge a premium price for transfer- makes sense. Some resorts may cover transfer fees when a minimum stay duration is met, but if budget is of concern it is important to be aware of this before booking.
Originally I planned to stay at a budget friendly surf house for the first few days and save up some coin for the bougie overwater villa experience on the tail end. However, the cost of transfer fees ended up negating the benefit of hotel hopping.
Current COVID mitigations requires all multi resort stays to be approved by the Maldivian Government. This is a reduction from the original rule that confined guests to one resort per stay but is intended to increase the length of stays and many shorter multi stay requests have been denied. Additionally, on the topic of COVID- many budget friendly options like guest houses have not been able to reopen in accordance with government restrictions because of their inability to test appropriately.
Picking a hotel:
It is easy to pull up Booking.com, type in “Maldives” and think that besides some opulent details and crazy price tags everything pretty much looks the same…While that is kind of true, no matter what you will probably have: blue ass water, soft ass sand, and all you can enjoy sunshine-not all islands were created equal.
Local Islands V Resort Islands:
The Maldives is 100% a Muslim country, the only other comparable country is Saudi Arabia- with that comes certain restrictions pertaining to alcohol and modestly. However, unlike Saudi, the Maldives are almost entirely reliant on money from tourism so there are a lot of accepted work arounds that make it more welcoming for travelers.
All resort islands are exempt from religious restrictions and unlike the Middle East the cost of alcohol is quite reasonable (by nice resort price standards.) With that being said, if you have read my other recommendations you will see that I am ALWAYS recommending you that BYOB to vacations in Muslim countries but today that is NOT the case. We accidently smuggled in a bottle of tequila (out of habit) but didn’t realize that the Maldives are actually much stricter with imports until we saw a look of shock on our bartenders face when we mentioned the Patron in our room. There is really no need without the exorbitant alcohol tax so it is nice to order a fru-fru cocktail in lieu of spiking your own pineapple juice with a tequila filled water bottle.
Local Islands, however, face much more stringent laws. Alcohol is PROHIBITED. What is the work around you may be wondering? Booze barges serve drinks right off the coast- just not technically on the island. Additionally the style of dress is required to be much more conservative overall but designated beaches allow for bikinis. If you are looking for a more culturally enriching experience and willing to go without the lux amenities of resort life you will end up saving money hand over fist if you opt for a local island
I asked some of our resort staff friends what local islands are best for adventurers and was recommended Maafushi and Sh.funadhoo!
Diving:
Have you heard about rising sea levels and how the Maldives might just disappear one day? Well in order to combat that and also build some awesome new resorts for economic development they have begun to reclaim the land. Sometimes the building of artificial islands is detrimental to coral and sea life so depending on what resort island you pick quality diving may be harder to come by or a farther distance to travel. That is not to say you still won’t see some amazing sights no matter where you go.
We stayed at Saii Lagoon Maldives which is predominantly on a reclaimed island and had a great time diving the sea wall. By the end of the week we had thoroughly explored the entire island and seen: sharks, turtles, eels and dolphins. I would have loved to do a day trip to dive with whale sharks but those were just not accessible from our hotel. The resort was very active with coral rehabilitation programs so this wont be the case forever but good things do take time.
If diving is a priority for you then be sure to look up what islands are near your bucket list animals for the time of year you will be traveling as migration patterns will change what you can see and when.
Surf:
Eric is an Aussie and I have spend many years between Hawaii and California so we were very interested in finding some surf. As mentioned before, I was interested in staying at a surf house or local guest house- these are SO REASONABLY PRICED by comparison to major resorts. However, most had yet to reopen from COVID restrictions using our travel.
We were originally looking at Cokes Surf camp but when the booking agency, World Safaris, told us it isn’t reopening they put us on to an insane half board deal at Niyama, the aforementioned almost perfect resort with both quality surfing, an underwater resturaunt and that heartbreaking $700 pp extra sea plane ride. It was equal parts heartbreaking and responsible for me to pass on Niyama but I ultimately knew that the ocean waves would be more relaxing if I wasn’t going to be cash poor and living off soup for the rest of 2020.
Another notable and reasonably priced surf resort was Cinnamon Dhonveli Maldives with private access to Pasta point in addition to access at Sultans and Honky's. Six Senses Laamu, Ayada, Anatara, Club Med, Four Seasons, and Soneva Fushi were all reoccurring names in the best surf resort lists but between transfers or just price per night they were $$$ or our money would just not go far enough to get a boujee water villa (even with the pre season COVID deals)
An alternative option for the serious surf adventurer is to go on a surf charter and always wake up to the best waves. The guys at World Safaris were so helpful when were were looking, it would be the first place I would start my search if we were going back.
Underwater restaurants:
Everyone has seen pictures of iconic underwater dining in the Maldives, it is a super bucket list experience. You don’t need me to tell you they are expensive to know…they are expensive, but the real cost happens before you even step in the door. Located within some of the nicest hotels the Maldives has to offer, and also some of the farthest, the price of transit can be pretty hefty with all but one option requiring a sea plane if you aren’t already staying in the local area. All with their own claim to fame, the 5 underwater restaurants I found are:
Ithaa Undersea Restaurant
Located at Conrad Rangali Island, SW from Male via Seaplane.
Subsix
Located at Niyami, S from Male via Seaplane
SEA
Located at Anantara Kihavah, N from Male via Seaplane, or domestic flight when they are running under normal operations
5.8 Undersea Restaurant
Located at Hurawalhi Island Resort, N from Male via seaplane
Minus Six Meters
Located at OZEN by Atmosphere, S from Male via 40 min ($280 pp ) speedboat ride.
H2O
Located at YOU & ME Maldives. NNW from Male via seaplane
“But Mikaela….you didn’t go to a surf resort, a dive resort or an underwater resort?”
Truuuuuu. Unlike a lot of my lovely honeymooning friends celebrating a huge day, this was actually a vacation of opportunity (Never in my life would I have expected to say that) . Mother had just come to visit and I was seeing her off from Dubai, so I would be quarantining for 2 weeks regardless. Eric and I figured we might as well take the 4 hour trip and get some fresh air while I had the chance. At times I wanted to say “Fuck it!” and go all out with a baller budget but I am also a practicing travel hacker and I was able to save insane amounts of money and really stretch my budget using the Hilton Aspire card by AMEX and staying at Saii Lagoon.
COVID Though…
Travelers to Maldives are requires to have a negative PRC test within 96 hours, hotel reservations and a completed health declaration form prior to travel. Our resort organized a departure COVID test to be done in our room two days prior to leaving (because we flew through Dubai); the test was about $200 pp. Because everyone on island had been tested none of the guests wore masks- if you somehow contract the virus for the exit text then you self quarantine in a resort room at your own expense.
