Suggested Budget – We recommend bringing around £500 for activities (if you want to do something everyday, we’d say around £800) and food would cost you around £200 for a week.
Destinations
Maafushi, Maldives: A Budget-Friendly Island Paradise
Maafushi is a local island that’s in the Maldives, not too far from the Capital, Male. My husband and I contemplated on booking a trip here as we wanted the ‘social media worthy’ experience for our honeymoon, so we thought, ‘would a local island really make us rethink of our honeymoon as a special place, or is it just a travel which is more for adventure?’ So we booked Mauritius instead. However, long story short, due to flight cancellations and us budgeting and not purchasing travel insurance, we had our flights cancelled. So after £1,700 down, we decided to book for the Maldives local island, Maafushi and just hoped for the best. And we couldn’t have made a better choice.
Upon Arrival
Upon arrival, we were shocked at how friendly and polite all the locals were and how many tourists were actually here. We thought we’d be unsafe but believe me, we were in one of the safest countries we’ve ever visited, and this is staying only a few miles away from a prison on the island!
Everything beat our expectations. The culture, the people, the island and the peacefulness we found there was unmatched. So lets break it all down with costs, pros and of course like every other, some cons.
Costs:
Travelling
from Amsterdam to Abu Dhabi, and then to Male = £1800 (for both of us)
From Male to Maafushi, we used a speedboat which cost £20 each.
The stay at Maafushi – we stayed at a beautiful villa (which operated like a hotel) called Rehendi Villa, for 6 nights and a large room, we paid £480.
For activities which are included below, we paid £280-300, for both of us during our entire stay.
Activities
Our
first package deal which the hotel and local resort centres offer included:
- Full day speed boat trip/tour to another island (it was from around 9am – 3:30pm)
- Taking photos/videos with sting rays.
- Swimming with nurse sharks (you get the opportunity for drone pictures/videos but this costs around £40 – we brought our own drone but do some research on where you’re flying from prior to doing this).
- Lunch (some rice and a drink, nothing too fancy). Location was lovely though, we stopped at a sand bank where we took some pictures.
- Watching dolphins’ swim.
- Speed boat back to your local island.
Honest review: it was a lovely experience, I cannot swim and there were many others who weren’t confident swimmers, however the tour guides offer support to those who still want to try and swim with the nurse sharks, can be a little scary for those who haven’t swam in the ocean before, but the water isn’t too deep and you get a lot of help. Everyone needs to wear a life jacket and flippers which the guides will provide, bikinis are not permitted at the local islands so do wear a cover up (this doesn’t include the sand bank).
My husband had done a jet ski car boat ride with a guide on another day too, which cost £120. He said he loved it so 10/10.
Romantic dinner at the beach (this cost us £100 not including the food:
- A dinner is set with some candles by the beach, in a heart shape where a table with two chairs is allocated in the middle.
- The dinner is pre-planned so you choose what you have whilst you book the dinner (I suppose this is more for convenience).
- Food options are from the hotel menu which you’re staying at, or the hotel you book the dinner from (majority of villa/hotels offer this at Maafushi).
- The waiters will take photos for you if you wish to have them taken.
- Overall it was lovely, but the food is mediocre, we found this at most restaurants there, however we later learnt that most things are imported here so the options would be quite limited. We ordered two pizzas and a drink which was around £20. Pizzas are like the frozen ones you get back home, so not great.
*There are lots of other activity packages you can purchase, we suggest purchasing whilst you're there and haggle a little with the guides*
First visit reviews/tips:
Not the best for non-swimmers
Maafushi is beautiful, especially if you want a chilled holiday without doing too much, but I would say the activities are of course more to do with swimming, so its not the most ideal place for non-swimmers. But you can certainly stroll by the beach with a book to relax.
Dress code:
As Maldives is a Muslim country, the dress code for beaches is ‘modest’ or at least no bikini. However there is a beach where you can wear bikinis and is made to cater everyone.
Costs and Currencies:
I would say the food is relatively cheap, breakfast is normally included in the villa costs, however the food was not up to scratch for us. We didn’t enjoy it, apart from some burgers we bought. We did enjoy some snacks around the area in the local shops. They have some cute shops for summer clothes (for men and women) which are usually no more than £20-30 for an outfit which we think is fair.
The currency in Maafushi is Maldivian Rufiyaa however they also prefer/accept USD.
