Traveling around the Maldives in February 2018. Key points

Key points

I will try to describe this trip even though almost two years had passed by the time I finally sat down to write it. I just never had enough time before. Still, while my memory is fine, my notes and photos let me reconstruct almost every day quite accurately.

We spent a long time deciding where to go in winter. New Zealand is far away, and we had already been there. Australia means too many crocodiles and giant spiders, so we were not ready for that yet, though I think we will go there one day. In the end we decided to fly somewhere warm by the sea, because Sveta kept telling me that we always travel through mountains while she wanted to swim and sunbathe for a change. We considered Thailand and the Maldives, kept switching back and forth between the two, and eventually decided that Thailand felt more like a destination for Russian booze tourists, so we chose the Maldives instead. In the photos they looked much more like paradise on Earth. Sveta handled the island research, because I was not very excited about this trip at first: I do not like staying in one place for too long. She found an island with a beach that was said to be among the top ten most beautiful beaches in the world. After comparing the pros and cons of different Maldivian islands, we settled on that one.

We made the final decision only three weeks before departure. We bought the flight tickets. The visa is issued on arrival, so this time we did not have to go to Moscow and prepare a thick pile of documents as usual. After buying the tickets, we chose a guesthouse on that island called Vilu Beach. A room facing the courtyard was about 10,000 rubles cheaper.

One more thing: before the trip Sveta also looked into whether tsunamis were a risk there. The islands are tiny, so in an emergency you cannot run up a mountain, only climb a palm tree. We read that there had been a tsunami there once, but it had not caused much damage. When we were already on the island, we asked a local how they had survived the last tsunami. He said the water had only reached a few meters inland and that was it.

Accommodation

There are two types of islands in the Maldives: islands for visitors and islands for locals. In the past tourists were not allowed onto the second type, but that restriction has been lifted. Even so, the host still has to prepare some paperwork for arriving guests.

We booked our hotel about two and a half weeks before arrival, and they immediately sent us a message asking us to email scans of our documents no later than two weeks before the trip so they had enough time to arrange everything.

We spent two days in hotels in Male and Hulhumale while waiting for the boat, because it was difficult to plan the arrival so that we could board the island boat right after the flight. I can tell you it was rough: in Male we walked to the hotel on foot, since the island is small, and got completely worn out because scooters and cars were honking everywhere around us. The island is so small that I do not understand why they need scooters and cars there at all. You can cross it end to end in half an hour, especially if you are not carrying luggage.

The hotel in Male had no windows, though at least it had air conditioning. The place felt a bit unsettling.

Hulhumale is a much better place to stay. It feels more like a European neighborhood: it is less cramped, there are sidewalks, cheap buses run there, and the airport is on the same island. So if you have a choice where to stay while waiting for your boat, Hulhumale is the better option. But if you fly to the Maldives and visit only Male or Hulhumale, you miss a lot, because the most beautiful places are on other islands.

One more funny detail: in Dubna we stuffed about three or four liters of water into our suitcases because we were afraid of poisoning ourselves before reaching our island. In the end that fear was unnecessary. Every hotel gave us bottled water, so we had more than enough. By the end of our stay we had accumulated a huge number of empty bottles. We even wanted to take them away in our suitcases so the island would have less trash, but there was no way to fit all of them in.

Visa

The visa is issued right at the Maldivian airport, so you do not have to arrange anything in advance. The only thing is to be ready to show your hotel bookings to the border officer. Ours examined them carefully. Also, as I mentioned above, if you are going to a local island, you need to book the hotel well in advance, at least two and a half to three weeks before the trip, so they have time to arrange the permit for you.

Transport

The Maldives are made up of atolls, round-shaped groups of islands, and to move between them you need either a boat or a local plane plus a boat. When we booked the hotel, we learned that boats to our island ran only two or three times a week, so we had to choose our flight around that schedule. Boats within the atolls can be very cheap. For example, the boat between Male and Hulhumale, where the airport is, costs almost nothing. I do not remember the exact price, but I think it was no more than about 100 rubles per person. Our boat to the island cost 15 dollars per person one way.

Money

The local currency is the Maldivian rufiyaa, but US dollars are also accepted almost everywhere. We brought cash dollars with us so there would be no payment issues. In the end we paid for everything with them.

Climate

In the Maldives, the air and water temperatures are almost the same all year round. The only thing is that their rainy season falls roughly during our summer and parts of spring and autumn. December, January, and February are considered the best months to visit. We flew there on January 31 for nine days, so the weather was supposed to be good. In the end, about three of those nine days were rainy. As the locals told us, that is unusual there. On the other hand, the rain came exactly when we could not go out into the sun anyway because we had already managed to get badly sunburned.

When we walked out of the plane at the Maldivian airport, my first thought was: how are we going to breathe here? The humidity felt unreal. But after a while we got used to it.

Internet and mobile connection

Using Drimsim there would have been too expensive. One megabyte cost an absurd amount of money, so we bought a local Dhiraagu SIM card instead. It cost 30 dollars, included about 15 to 30 GB, and worked for 30 days. I see different plans there now. My main concern was whether the SIM would work on the island at all. In the end everything was fine and it worked normally. The only weak spot was the beach, even though it was just 200 meters from where we were staying.

Safety

As far as I understood, the Maldives are generally safe. At first I felt a little uneasy because everyone around us had dark skin, but all of them were friendly and helpful with luggage. One man even walked us to the hotel for free just to show us the way.

I read somewhere that there are infectious diseases in the Maldives and that it is better to get vaccinated, for example against yellow fever. But usually nobody does that. It is not a continent after all. I think diseases spread there less easily because the islands are tiny and there are not many mosquitoes.

Trip cost

• 57 500 Flights
• 47 700 Hotel on the island (7 nights)
• 18 300 Entertainment
• 7 000 Taxi Dubna-Moscow-Dubna
• 3 700 Hotel in Male
• 3 000 Hotel in Hulhumale
• 1 900 Insurance
• 1 800 Internet
• 630 Market
• 500 Seaside cafe
• 325 Transport in the Maldives
• 300 Food at the airport

Total: 142 500 RUB.