Can you really backpack The Maldives on a Budget?

This was a question I was very intrigued by before we set off on our journey. Is it actually possible to travel to and across the Maldives on a backpackers budget? The concept of “The Maldives” in Western culture, is that it’s a honeymoon destination, reserved for special occasions only or the super rich. It’s a land of all inclusive resorts and over-water bungalows costing upwards of £1,000 per night. And in fact, that was very much the case, as until 2009, tourists could only stay on the resort islands and exclusive hotels.

But things are slowly changing. Since 2009 the local islands have been open to tourists. Guesthouses and homestays have popped up, and tourist infrastructure is booming.

However, the islands are still very remote, a lot of the food and more is imported, and for the atolls further away from Kaafu/Malé, it’s more and more expensive to live.

Getting to the Maldives

For us, one of the main drivers initially for coming here was the cost of the flight. We had wanted to go to India, but I am OBSESSED with Google Flights, and was on map view trying to see which was the cheapest Indian airport to fly into from Manchester, when I spotted a flight to the Maldives for less than £300 one-way!

If you don’t know already, Google flights is a treasure trove for budget travel, especially if you have flexible dates. In fact, I have a whole post about how to book cheap flights here!

You can select your departure airport and set the destination to “anywhere” to see a list or map view of all flights. Adjusting the filters for flight duration and number of stops (I usually opt for less than 20 hours and just 1 stop) helps even more.

graphic showing how to find cheap flights with the google flights tool

graphic showing how to book cheap flights with google flights

Then once you find your destination, you can play with the dates to find the cheapest flight.

In the end, the flight we booked was an amazing Etihad flight, with a nice 3 hour layover in Abu Dhabi, good timings (9am flight) for just £311 each!!! That included all checked baggage too.

walking along the boardwalk in male, the maldives with my 2 backpacks really backpacking maldives

Options for budget travellers in the Maldives

As I mentioned, I think there are basically a couple of options to stick to a budget in the Maldives. They are:

Travel to only one island for the duration of the trip
Travel to islands accessible by public ferries
Stay on islands with good house reefs
Stay near the airport

So let’s dive into each option.

Option 1 – Travel to only one island

One of the most expensive things we encountered travelling in the Maldives was the transport itself. Public speedboats are common, but they usually only go to and from Malé/Hulhumale and the island, and can’t be used to travel between islands or atolls. So if you want to visit multiple islands, it would become very expensive. These speedboats also cost upwards of $65 per person.

So one option is to pick one island, which you think will serve all your needs, had good budget accommodation, good local food and lots of local activities, and just go to one island.

If we would have done this, we would have easily picked Fulhadhoo as our dream island destination. This island was perfect in many ways. It was large, with a big forested area, a huge sandbank, the most amazing turquoise water, a beautiful house reef, and you can arrange almost every kind of trip or excursion from this island. From manta ray, to whale sharks, they even see whales here!

a huge manta ray feeding off the coast of Fulhadhoo turns in the water touching the surface with its fin

The island is served by a public speed boat (Atoll cute) once a day, and costs $65 per person each way. There are several guesthouses on the island, we paid less than £30 each a night to stay here at a very highly rated guesthouse, Three Hearts. We loved it here.

the most turquoise water you have ever seen laps a jungle-fringed beach in Fulhadhoo — Turquoise water at Fulhadhoo

And we also found that the cost of the day trips here were very reasonable, the tours were always private, and the cost was for 2 people together! For instance, the Manta Snorkelling was $80, it was a private boat for 2 people, plus a guide and driver (And Simbe the guesthouse owner joined us!). We left at 6am, and saw 5-6 mantas, we stayed with them for about 2 hours. On Dharavandhoo, the manta snorkelling was $60 each in a shared speed boat…

a long curving sandbar on Fulhadhoo in the Maldives has 2 beaches and clean turquoise water — Fulhadhoo sand bar

The caveat here is that you should choose an island which you think will serve all your needs for the duration of the trip, and to not feel like you’re ‘missing out’ by not visiting other islands.

Option 2 – Visit islands serviced by public ferries

If the fear of missing out on other islands is too much, then you can do some island hopping on the cheap. There are some public ferries (slow boats, not speed boats) which service some of the atolls.

rows of seats on the public ferry from Mahibadhoo to Male — The slow boat from Mahibadhoo to Malé

There is very little information about this online, but there is one resource here: https://mtcc.mv/schedules-2

This is where I found that Mahibadhoo, part of the South Ari Atoll, is serviced by a slow boat to and from Malé 3 times a week.

the mahibadhoo male public ferry timetable — The cost of the ticket from Mahibadhoo to Malé as of July 2024

the cost of a ticket and the receipt for the public ferry from mahibadhoo to male — The cost of the ticket from Mahibadhoo to Malé as of July 2024

Then once in an atoll, there are local ferries which move like buses between the islands, you can also find information on these on the MTCC website and in pdf downloads from the site. This means that island hopping within an atoll is entirely possible for very very cheap.

This is how we visited Dhigurah and Mahibadhoo. Mahibadhoo is connected to Male via the slow boat costing approximately £2.70 each, then there is a boat connecting Mahibadhoo to Dhigurah which costs just £1.10 each.

the ferry schedule for South Ari Atoll — Ticket price from Dhigurah to Mahibadhoo as of July 2024

a green ticket showing the price of the public boat from Dhigurah to Mahibadhoo — Ticket price from Dhigurah to Mahibadhoo as of July 2024

I know there are also slow ferries to other atolls, the most common being Maafushi in South Malé Atoll, but this island seemed too touristy for us, and we wanted to escape the crowds. Even Dhigurah was a little too touristy too, so it’s a fine balance.

Option 3 – Stay on islands with good house reefs

After transport between islands, the next biggest expense is probably the day trips and tours, either private or shared. We found a huge difference in prices of the tours. As I mentioned, on Fulhadhoo, tours were relatively cheaper. On Dhigurah, the manta snorkelling (shared trip) was $300 for 2 of us! (We obviously didn’t do this!!).

So one obvious way to stick to a budget is to not do any tours or excursions, and instead, get in the water on your own at the islands house reef. Both Dave and I are confident swimmers, and both experienced snorkellers, so we had no issue just walking into the water with our own masks and snorkels and spending hours under the waves on our own. Most of the reefs here are very safe and sheltered.

a man and a woman snorkelling in Dharavandhoo — We had our own masks, but you can easily rent, and some places will lend you them for free (we got free flippers everywhere!)

There is plenty of information online about each island, and even sometimes just looking on Google earth or satellite, you can see how good or accessible the reef might be from the beach.

I did a lot of reading, and all the islands I picked because they supposedly had good house reefs. For instance, Baa Atoll, we stayed in Dharavandhoo, which is not known for being the most beautiful island… In fact, it’s mostly an airport serving the atoll and the surrounding resorts. Maalhos was apparently a more beautiful island, but I read several blogs and websites which all states that Dharavandhoo had the best house reef in the region. And it did not disappoint!

Mahibadhoo, on the other hand, was supposed to be the same. We stayed here over the far more popular Omadhoo island because I had read that the house reef was incredible. However, we arrived to find much of the coral dead or dying… Very sad.

the house reef off kiha beach in dharavandhoo — Dharavandhoo house reef

the house reef and limited coral in dharavandhoo — Dharavandhoo house reef

the house reef in fulhadhoo is full of red coral — Fulhadhoo house reef

bleached and dead broken coral of the house reef in Mahibadhoo but still life - a spotted eagle ray and trumpet fish — Mahibadhoo house reef

the bleached, broken and dead house reef at mahibadhoo — Mahibadhoo house reef

a huge coral full of blue reef fish at the house reef of Dhigurah — Dhigurah house reef

If you’re on an island with a good house reef, then there is already lots to see and do on your own, for free, without needing to go on any tours or excursions . However, in reality, you still probably will need to do tours to see the bigger animals like mantas and whale sharks, as these don’t often pop up in the house reefs, but still, limiting the number of expensive tours is one way to stick to a budget.

Dhigurah sand bar has 2 beaches just metres away

Option 4 – Stay close to the airport

If spending money (and time) travelling to distant atolls isn’t your cup of tea, or perhaps the cheap flight lands on a day where the public slow boat isn’t running (most only run a couple of times a week), then staying in Malé or Hulhumalé is your next best option. You can take a cab (and use various apps to reduce cost, like Avas ride app (like Uber)) to your guest house, and this way you don’t even need to take a speedboat or slow boat.

There are a lot more restaurant options on these capital islands, which means eating is often cheaper, and we were both pleasantly surprised by just how nice Hulhumalé was. And the day trip we went on was only $45 each to 3 pristine snorkelling points.

a black tip reef shark in the reef near Huhulmale and male

an anenome and clownfish near Huhumale and Male in the Maldives

a sting ray near Hulhumale and male in the maldives — Snorkelling from Hulhumalé

What about accommodation and food?

On Dharavandhoo we stayed for £16 a night each. In Fulhadhoo it was £28 a night each. Dhigurah was £27 a night each, Mahibadhoo was £14 a night each and Hulhumalé was £19.50 a night. So overall, not bad. And all except the AirBnB in Hulhumalé included a simple, but free, breakfast, which was a nice bonus to save money.

In Dharavandhoo we were able to eat locally for around £8 each a day, the same in Mahibadhoo. Fulhadhoo and Dhigurah were a little more expensive, maybe more like £10-15 a day each.

breakfast in fulhadhoo - an omlette with seasonsed potato wedges and a sweet cake — Breakfast in Fulhadhoo

Overall, food and accommodation was fairly reasonable.

In conclusion

So, is it really possible to travel to the Maldives on a budget?

Yes it is…

…but you won’t!

I say that because, yes, in all honesty it’s totally possible, if you limit your transport between islands, eat locally, look for deals on hotels (last minute deals were the best, and always cheaper than booking in advance) and if you take advantage of some of the stunning house reefs and just do the odd one or two excursions, it’s entirely possible to backpack Maldives on a relatively modest budget.

But, some warnings… We tried to take public slow boats from Dharavandhoo to Fulhadhoo and there was some confusion amongst the locals about the timings, and even if it went to Fulhadhoo, despite having the schedule online. In the end, we took a speed boat which cost us $150 for the both of us, a completely unexpected spanner in the budget.

a boat enters the harbour at fulhadhoo over bright turquoise waterm with fulhadhoo island in the distance — Arriving into Fulhadhoo

Also be aware that you may need to “double up” on some trips in order to get lucky… In Dharavandhoo we tried (AND PAID!!) to see mantas twice, but failed both times… And on Dhigurah we heard of some people paying to go whale shark snorkelling every day for 4 days back to back, and seeing nothing… We went once and got lucky… Some places seemed to offer a discount if the trip wasn’t successful (in Dharavandhoo we only paid $20 each if not successful, $60 if it was), but others didn’t (the whale shark one in Dhigurah didn’t), so negotiate this before you set off.

And finally, when you are there, and you start to see the wonders under the sea, it’s very hard not to go on more trips… We budgeted for one excursion per island, the plan was one manta trip in Dharavandhoo, one snorkelling trip in Fulhadhoo, whale shark snorkelling in Dhigurah and one on Mahibadhoo. But we ended up doing 2 failed manta attempts in Dharavandhoo, plus one snorkeling tour. 3(!) trips in Fulhadhoo, eek, one manta trip (which was successful), night snorkelling, and an ocean snorkelling trip. One whale shark trip in Dhigurah, one Nurse shark trip on Mahibadhoo, and a final snorkelling trip from Hulhumalé… But we have to say, each trip was well worth it (except maybe the nurse shark one).