Until a few months ago Maldives was my dream destination, meant for honeymoon or a destination saved for a special occasion; not that i couldnt find an alternative, but for the sole reason that it is shitty expensive, splurging a ridiculous amount of money (couple of lakhs). But all of this changed when an acquaintance of mine did her Maldives journey solo on 30k, which made the backpacker in me research more on this, and given the researching capabilities of mine, it wasnt hard to get more details. I found a zillion blogs on How to Backpack across Maldives, and tada, the seed in me took roots.
Since most of my year was packed with other travel plans i just had a small window in the month of December when all this could be planned and executed, and given that my sister recently moved to Singapore, my whole week of New Year’s was wide open, all i needed was a plan and a companion to trudge along with me. My answer was right in front of me, MY MOTHER. The sweet soul that she is, i was pretty sure she would enjoy this journey and would form a great companion. And given the fact that I am her carbon copy, i was sure she will be adventurous and a backpacker enthusiast just like me.
FLIGHT:
The actual execution of my plan began when i found cheap airfare tickets to Maldives on SpiceJet. Although i am sure these tickets could be found for much cheaper rates, 12.5k per person was not a bad deal either. We fly in an out of Kochin, which works perfectly well for me, as Kochin is just an overnight train journey from Bangalore.
6D/5N in Maldives, with one day at Hulhumale, 2 days at Fulidhoo and 2 days a Maafushi. If you have more days on your hand i recommend exploring few more local islands or if you dont mind splurging, visit a resort island for couple of days.
VISA:
Maldives offers visa exemption to many countries, India being one among them. You get a free 30 days visa exemption. Ones you land at the airport, show the immigration officers your stay booking receipt and return ticket and voila you are stamped in.
ISLANDS:
Maldives is an archipelago with a zillion islands on it. While it is impossible to cover all of them i managed to visit 5 of them: Hulhule (Airpot island), Hulhumale, Male, Maafushi and Fulidhoo.
STAY:
Finding a budget stay in Maldives is difficult if you do not know where to look for. I highly recommend airbnb for Maldives (you can get upto 1000 off by using my referral, click here), followed by Agoda and Booking.com. Unlike SE Asia where you could find a stay for 5-10$, Maldives will cost you more than double. My Hulhumale stay cost me 2k, which was the cheapest i could find, whereas Fulidhoo and Maafushi cost me 2.5k per night, and this was because i booked it 3 months in advance. The cost for the same room’s almost increased by 50% by end of Nov beginning of Dec.
FOOD:
Most of the stays in Maldives include breakfast, which is either a Maldivian breakfast consisting of Roshi (chapathi) and tuna curry made of tuna, coconut and chillies or bread toast, omlet and butter and jam.
Lunch and Dinner option are very limited. Rice, variety of fishes, fried rice and fried noodles, spaghetti are the only options available on far away islands like Fulidhoo that would cost you anywhere between 5-10$ . The Maldivian food would cost you 5$ and as you go towards western food options the cost increases to 10$. I dint have much of a problem with food as most of my luggage weight was because of food. I had an entire trolley filled with breads, ready to eat packets, rice, electric cooker, tea kettle, snacks, juice packets etc…My last experience in Cambodia taught me a lesson of not taking food lightly, and especially now when my mother is tagging along. She is pure vegetarians with no eggs, no meat and no seafood, so i couldnt risk starvation. Their is very little options for veg folks at the local islands, one can survive with these food but mind you there is no variety, a travel cooker is definitely life saver.
Food at Hulhumale and Male are way better, atleast they do have a ton of cafes and pizza joints.
TRANSPORT:
Government ferries are the best to travel to local islands. They dont cost you a fortune and are available atleast 3 days a week (Sun,Tues and Thurs for Fulidhoo) depending on the island you are visiting, so plan accordingly. My ferry from Male to Fulidhoo cost me 53 MVR/person (3.5 USD, conversion rate 1USD=15MVR) and it is a 3.5hrs journey. This ferry stops at Maafushi, then Fulidhoo and then make its way to next island. My journey was on a Thursday, so the ferry leaves Male at 10am and reaches Maafushi at 11.30 and Fulidhoo at 1.30.
We caught the 11.00am ferry from Fulidhoo to Maafushi and then the 7am ferry from Maafushi to Male on Monday which cost roughly 30MVR.
Speed boat is another option. On shared basis, speed boat cost 50$ per pax to Fulidhoo and 20$ per pax to Maafushi from Male. An entire speed boat would cost you 350$ from Male to Fulidhoo. Similarly speed boat from Fulidhoo to Maafushi would cost you 150$ divided by the total number of people in the boat. Sometimes due to some unforeseen reason govt ferries get cancelled, during which speed boat is the only option available. It takes 1hr b/w Male to Fulidhoo and 30min b/w Male to Maafushi. Shared speed boats work the same days as govt ferry, but they start at 11am from Male to Fulidhoo and 2.30 from Fulidhoo to Male
ACTIVITIES:
The different set of activities thyt can be done on these islands are:
1. Snorkeling: Cost roughly 25$ depending on the count of people.
2. Visit Picnic Island: Cost is 25$ plus an entrance fees of 10$.
3. Fishing trips: 150$ for day trips and 80$ for night trips. This is the boat cost and not individual cost. So more the folks lesser the per head price.
4. Scuba diving: 95$ per head.
CURRENCY: Maldives work on MVR which is 4 times stronger than INR. But they do work on USD as well. I carried enough of USD’s from India and converted 30 usd to MVR for internal transports and ferry costs. Ones you reach Maafushi or Fulidhoo, everything works on usd. If you plan on converting your local currency to USD i recommed doing it from your home country where the exchange rates are good. Ones in Madives convert few dollars to MVR from the airport. The conversion rate is 1USD=15MVR. I recommend this because, upon returning back to home country, if you have any MVR’s left you can convert it back to your currency only at the airport upon showing them the original receipt. Their is no other way of converting MVR’s to USD’s or any other currency.
EXPENSE: Approx expense.
Flight tickets for 2 pax: 25k
Train tickets to Kochin from Bangalore for 2 pax: 1k
Stay for 5 days for 2 pax including breakfast: 12k
Food shopping in India: 2k
Food in Maldives for 2 pax: 2k (we dint from out much. we ate 3 times while in Maldives)
Internal transport in Maldives (taxi, ferry & bus) fr 2 pax: 2k (30USD or 450MVR)
Activities like snorkeling for 2 pax: 6k (more if you plan on doing scuba)
Note:
1. Alcohols are prohibited in Maldives. Only resort islands are allowed to serve them. Local islands do not allow alcohol consumption. Also carrying alcohol in luggage is also against the rules. If you happen to be carrying some, you can deposit them at the airport and collect back while departing.
2. SIM cards can be brought from Male or Airport. 3$ for the sim and 15$ for a top up with 1GB data pack. The networks works at all islands. Spending 18$ on a sim seemed unnecessary which is why i dint buy one. All my guesthouses provide me with free wifi which is enough for me to update my social media handles and contact home.
3. Bikinis are not allowed at all beaches especially while visiting local silands. Use them only on the bikini beach. Maldives is a Muslim country, flashing your body parts is not in their culture.
4. Maldives work on Sat to Thurs basis. Fri is an off for almost all services as they pray on Fridays. So do not plan any major things on Friday.
Maldives on budget is no longer a dream. So book your ticket and off you go:)
Bon Voyage!
I & My Flipflops 
nice one 🙂 will plan for it too 😀 cheers 🙂
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Yayyy 🙂 Cheers to that 🙂
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