"Welcome to the Maldives, where the sands are white as the smiles of the locals, where fish swim happily in the warm waters of the Indian Ocean, where the weather is a dream, and the deep rays of the sun waits to engulf you in their arms." -- visitmaldives.com
Maldives had been on my list of dream countries to visit since I first heard of it, along with Mauritius, the Seychelles, and Bora-bora. Then Air Asia finally made it possible to fly there without breaking your bank account. So in 2016 my partner and I flew to the capital, Male, and took a ferry to Maafushi, one of the inhabited islands.
Now the thing about the Maldives is that, it is made up of 1192 coral islands. There are 200 islands that are inhabited by locals (with only a few that are open to visitors), and 80 uninhabited islands with tourist resorts. The ones you always see in travel brochures are of course those 80 private islands, which are occupied solely by one resort per island. That's a lot to choose from. Some resorts cater to honeymooners while some are more family-friendly. Some offer water activities, some don't, so you've got to choose your island wisely. If your idea of paradise is spending a quiet time with your romantic partner, you might find it annoying to have noisy kids splashing around in the pool next to you. Likewise, if you like a lot of water activities, you might find the quiet honeymooners' resorts boring.
Realizing that you've made the wrong choice after you've reached your resort island would mean that you're pretty much fucked. The only way to get to another island is by a seaplane, which I assume doesn't fly everyday, and in the end the whole trip would have cost you your lifetime savings and your partner's, combined.
Even if I could afford the resort islands, I don't quite like the idea of being stuck in one resort for the entire length of my holiday. What if I don't like the food there? What if I want something that they don't have? I like being able to explore and experience the local culture. I like having many different choices on where and what to eat. So if you want to go to the Maldives on a backpacker's budget, do it like we did, and go to an inhabited island. Of course the beaches aren't as pretty, and you have to share them with the locals. But it was quite fun for us. We rented snorkels. We rented bikes and cycled around the island.
However, I still think that the Maldives is overrated. My main complaint is that, it's a Muslim country. On Maafushi, bikinis were only allowed on one part the island (where the waves were too strong for swimming anyway). The shops didn't sell alcohol, and there was no nightlife--the island was dead after 10 pm. Also, the food sucked. So yah, not exactly my kind of holiday. I could name many Thai islands that I would rate better than the Maldives.
Maldives had been on my list of dream countries to visit since I first heard of it, along with Mauritius, the Seychelles, and Bora-bora. Then Air Asia finally made it possible to fly there without breaking your bank account. So in 2016 my partner and I flew to the capital, Male, and took a ferry to Maafushi, one of the inhabited islands.
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| At the airport |
Realizing that you've made the wrong choice after you've reached your resort island would mean that you're pretty much fucked. The only way to get to another island is by a seaplane, which I assume doesn't fly everyday, and in the end the whole trip would have cost you your lifetime savings and your partner's, combined.
Even if I could afford the resort islands, I don't quite like the idea of being stuck in one resort for the entire length of my holiday. What if I don't like the food there? What if I want something that they don't have? I like being able to explore and experience the local culture. I like having many different choices on where and what to eat. So if you want to go to the Maldives on a backpacker's budget, do it like we did, and go to an inhabited island. Of course the beaches aren't as pretty, and you have to share them with the locals. But it was quite fun for us. We rented snorkels. We rented bikes and cycled around the island.
However, I still think that the Maldives is overrated. My main complaint is that, it's a Muslim country. On Maafushi, bikinis were only allowed on one part the island (where the waves were too strong for swimming anyway). The shops didn't sell alcohol, and there was no nightlife--the island was dead after 10 pm. Also, the food sucked. So yah, not exactly my kind of holiday. I could name many Thai islands that I would rate better than the Maldives.
