Travel to the Maldives should be on the list of every person who would like to visit all the most beautiful points of the planet Earth. But many are stopped by the well-established myth “The Maldives are very expensive!”. Not true. A trip to one of the paradise islands of this archipelago can be really budgetary, as we did.
Trip background
We have chosen February for our trip since this is one of the best months to visit this country – there is a season! Of course, initially, we decided to get acquainted with the proposals of tour operators, explore the country, choose an island and so on. Offers of tour operators did not inspire optimism – from $ 4000 for six nights on the island of Male. If you want to see the Maldives “paradise tale”, then I do not recommend to stay in Male. The state capital is very dirty, unsuitable for a quality beach holiday (and you thought why go to the Maldives?). Therefore, we immediately abandoned the idea of searching for trips through which agencies and decided to plan our visit on our own.
Island selection
When you start to study the topic of travel to the Maldives, then you will turn the number of islands to which you can go. But do not panic – I will help with the choice.
Argued that the northern Maldives (if counted from Male) is better than the southern. Therefore, we began to storm the top of the map from Male and read reviews of travelers. The reviews are different, but the essential thing that finally stopped us was the price of moving to another island. After all, only hydroplanes fly to distant islands, and this is really expensive. You can take a closer ride on a high-speed boat (such a minibus) or on a freighter, where there is a deck for passengers (by the way, such public transport in the Maldives). Naturally, on a freighter is cheaper, but it is very long.
For all these reasons, we chose Todd Island. This island is 60 kilometres away from Male and the price of a one-way ticket on a high-speed boat (about 1-1.5 hours) is $ 35.
Hotel reservation
Naturally, we booked the hotel on Booking, but if we could find the direct site of our hotel, we would book it directly. As a result, we stopped our choice at the four-star hotel Relax Residence. Now he has a website relaxresidencemaldives.com, where you can book accommodation for the desired dates and discuss all the details with the owner of the hotel in the chat. And all this without any commissions and intimidation cancellation of the reservation on Booking.
The hotel is the best on the island! It has everything: clean rooms, air conditioning, fast Wi-Fi, delicious food (especially fish), daily cleaning, compliments from the hotel – everything is all you need on holiday in this heavenly place.
Buying tickets
Naturally, initially all the tickets we looked at the SkyScanner and Aviasales. To fly without further ado, we looked only for a direct flight. We found an advantageous offer from Aeroflot (only they fly there straight) and immediately bought it. Round-trip tickets for one person cost us $ 500 from Russia, and this is in the very season for this resort. Very profitable.
Handling all the nuances of arriving in the Maldives
It seems that everything is there: hotel reservation, airline tickets, a rough idea of the way to the island and the hotel. But this frightening gulf between the arrival and the transfer to the boat did not allow us to fall asleep. But in the end we contacted the owner of the hotel, he gave us the boat schedule (by the way, our high-speed boat stays specially for tourists arriving by Aeroflot) and we realized that everything would be fine. As a result, upon arrival at the place, we explained the guys behind the racks in broken English to where we needed to go and some 30 minutes of waiting, after which we were loaded onto a high-speed boat, and we rushed to our hotel.
The description of the rest and all the pros and cons of our journey is another story. Look for the second part on the Internet.
