Maldives
Maldives
Twelve hundred islands, none of them more than two metres above the sea
Photos by Pedro Bariak, Upgraded Points, Datingscout and Matheen Faiz on Unsplash
Best time to visit all of Maldives
November to April (dry season)
Climate month by month
The next sixteen days in MaléOpen-Meteo
Average high and low · °C
Rainfall · mm per month
Best months to visit This month · wettest 220mm in May
Where it is
3.20°N, 73.22°E Open in Google Maps
Things to do
Several days- Snorkel your house reef at slack tide
- Dive or snorkel with mantas at Hanifaru Bay from May to November
- Take a night snorkel to see the plankton light up
- Spend a couple of nights on a local island for a fraction of resort prices
- Watch the fish market in Malé in the late afternoon
Maldives travel tipsthe general rules
Currency budget Maldives
Very expensiveResorts price and bill in US dollars and there is no need to hold rufiyaa unless you are staying on a local island, where small purchases are easier in cash. Resort bills carry a 10% service charge and 16% GST on top of the quoted rate, which is a bigger addition than people expect.
ATMs & cards
BML and MIB machines exist in Malé and on the larger local islands, and nowhere on private resort islands. Draw cash before transferring if you are staying on a guesthouse island.
Avoid these
- expecting any machine on a resort island — there are none
Use these instead
- BML
- MIB (Malé and larger local islands)
Resorts bill in dollars to your room, so cash is only needed on local islands. Draw it in Malé before the transfer.
Wherever you are: if the machine offers to charge you in your home currency, decline. That is dynamic currency conversion and the rate is set by the ATM's operator, not your bank.
Safety all of Maldives
Very safeOne of the safest destinations anywhere — crime against visitors is close to non-existent. The risks are the sea and the isolation: currents around channel entrances are strong, and a serious medical problem means a boat or seaplane to Malé. On local islands, this is a conservative Muslim country: cover shoulders and knees away from designated bikini beaches, and alcohol is legal only on resort islands.
Where to walk, and where to pay attention (3 areas)
Comfortable, including after dark
- Maldives — every resort island
Worth more attention
- Local inhabited islands, where alcohol is illegal and swimwear is not acceptable outside a designated bikini beach
- Currents in the channels between atolls, which are strong and which snorkellers underestimate
Our own assessment, not a sourced index.
Entry & visa Maldives visa rules
No visa neededup to 30 days
Granted on arrival to every nationality, with confirmed accommodation, onward travel and sufficient funds. The Maldives is one of very few countries that requires no advance visa from anyone.
Other passports
No visa neededup to 30 days
Free 30-day entry is granted to all nationalities on arrival.
How to get it: Nothing to arrange, but everyone must submit the IMUGA traveller declaration within 96 hours before arrival and again before departure.
Entry rules change often and depend on your passport, not where you live — the official page above is the authority, and the airline checks before you board.
Before you fly: the arrival card
IMUGA Traveller DeclarationRequired
In the 96 hours before you arrive, and again before you leave.
Have these in front of you before you start:
- passport
- flight number
- the name of your resort or guesthouse
Use the official link above. Sites that charge a "service fee" to submit one of these for you are not the government, and they want the same passport details the real form does.
Health & emergencies all of Maldives
LimitedRequired to enter
- Yellow fever certificate, but only if you are arriving from a country where yellow fever is present
Jabs worth having, and what happens if you need a doctor
Worth having
- Hepatitis A
- Typhoid
- Tetanus up to date
Getting treated
Resorts have a nurse or a visiting doctor and little else. ADK and Tree Top hospitals in Malé are decent, and there is a recompression chamber for diving injuries. Anything major means an evacuation flight to India or Sri Lanka. The distances between islands are the real problem, not the standard of care.
Divers should confirm their insurance covers the chamber and an air evacuation. Dengue occurs. Sun and dehydration cause more trouble than anything infectious.
Orientation, not medical advice — entry rules change and what you need depends on your own history. Check with a travel clinic four to six weeks before you go.
Food tip
GoodResort food is priced accordingly; a full-board plan usually beats paying per meal. On local islands, mas huni for breakfast and garudhiya fish soup are what people actually eat, for a few dollars.
Nightlife
Resort bars and nothing else, by law: alcohol is illegal on inhabited islands and served only inside resorts and on liveaboards.
- Resort island bars — which is the entire legal answer
- Maafushi — the guesthouse island, and its floating bar
Closing: Resort bars around 01:00.
On a guesthouse island like Maafushi there is no alcohol on land at all — the drinking happens on a boat moored offshore.
Getting around
Car needed- UberNot here
- BoltNot here
- GrabNot here
- From the airport
- Malé airport to the city is a MVR 100 taxi over the bridge; everything else is a boat or a seaplane
There is no ride-hailing, and on a resort island there are no roads. Transfers are arranged by the resort and are the single biggest cost after the room — confirm the figure in writing before you book.
Time zone and your working day
Indian/Maldives — 9 hours ahead of you
0 hours of overlap with a 09:00–17:00 day where you are — — your time, — theirs.
No overlap with a 09:00–17:00 day where you are. Working from here means one of you keeps odd hours — their day starts at 00:00 on your clock.
office hours both at once night
Their 09:00–17:00 is 00:00–08:00 on yours.
The working week runs Sunday to Thursday here, so Friday is the weekend and Sunday is not.
The difference from the UK, Europe, the US and ten more
Worked out against America/New York, which is where this request looks like it came from.
Getting online
Getting online: Airalo or Holafly — a data eSIM for Maldives, installed before you fly and working the moment you land.
Source: Ookla Speedtest Global Index · measured June 2026
Must-see
Where to base yourself
There is no mainland. Every choice here is which atoll, and the transfer to it decides both the cost of the trip and how much of it you spend moving.
Hulhumalé
The reclaimed island beside the airport, with ordinary hotels and guesthouses.
A bed within fifteen minutes of the terminal, at a fraction of a resort. Where sensible trips start and end, because domestic connections and seaplanes only fly in daylight.
10 minutes by taxi from Velana (MLE) across the link road.
North Malé Atoll
The ring of resort islands closest to the airport.
A speedboat transfer instead of a seaplane, which saves several hundred dollars a head and arrives at any hour. The reefs are busier than the far atolls, and that is what you are paying less for.
20 to 50 minutes by speedboat from the airport jetty.
Maafushi
A local island in South Malé Atoll, and the centre of the Maldives guesthouse trade.
The way to see the country without a resort budget: guesthouses, dive shops and day boats on an island where people actually live. Alcohol is not served on inhabited islands, which surprises people.
1h30 by public ferry from Malé, or 30 minutes by speedboat.
Baa Atoll
A UNESCO biosphere reserve in the middle of the chain, with Hanifaru Bay inside it.
Reef mantas gather at Hanifaru in numbers that happen almost nowhere else, and snorkelling with them is the trip people plan the whole year around.
25 minutes by domestic flight to Dharavandhoo, then a short boat.
The manta aggregation runs roughly May to November and peaks around the full moons of August and September.
Nearby day trips
Say a few words
Dhivehi
- HelloAssalaamu alaikumas-sa-LAAM-u a-LAY-kum
- Thank youShukuriyyaashu-ku-REE-yaa
- Yes / NoAan / Noonaan / noon
- How are you?Kihineh?ki-hi-NEH
4 more phrases
- How much is it?Kihaavarakah?ki-haa-va-ra-KAH
- GoodRangalhuRAN-ga-lu
- SorryMa-aafu kureyma-AA-fu KU-rey
- GoodbyeVakivelanva-ki-VE-lan
Resort staff work in English, but Dhivehi on a local island changes the temperature of every interaction.
Religion
Sunni Muslim
Islam is the state religion and the only one permitted — citizenship legally requires it. Bringing in religious material of other faiths, alcohol or pork is prohibited, and public observance of any other religion is not allowed.
Do's and don'ts
Do
- Cover shoulders and knees on inhabited islands, and swim in a t-shirt and shorts outside the marked bikini beaches
- Ask before photographing anyone, particularly women
- Respect the call to prayer — shops and offices close briefly five times a day
- Take shoes off before entering a home or a mosque
Don't
- Do not bring alcohol into the country. It is confiscated at the airport and is only legal on resort islands
- Do not bring pork, religious material of other faiths, or anything that could be read as idolatry
- Do not sunbathe or wear swimwear away from a resort or a designated beach
- Do not touch or stand on coral — it is illegal as well as destructive
Where to stay in Maldives
No Holistay rentals in Maldives yet — the platform is just opening up. Every listing here will have a video tour and the option to negotiate the nightly price directly with the host.
In the meantime, here is Maldives on the sites that do have the inventory — each search is already filled in:
- Booking.com hotels, guesthouses and apartments — the widest coverage almost everywhere
- Airbnb whole homes and apartments, and the better option for a week or more
How to get there
Fly into Velana MLE
1hfrom the airport, roughly
Speedboat or seaplane to the island, booked with the hotel and rarely cheap.
Google Flights · Rome2Rio for the trains, buses and ferries as well as the flights
