The Maldives is undeniably a stunning country, and I can truly understand its global appeal as a paradise, because it really does look like it. However, I’m uncertain if it always feels like one. Let me clarify from the start that this is my personal experience and not a generalisation of the entire country.
Nestled in the heart of the Indian Ocean, the Maldives is an archipelago that spans across 26 coral atolls. Geographically, it is situated southwest of Sri Lanka and India, comprising over 1,000 islands, each with its distinct charm.
Choosing which island/islands to visit in the Maldives is like choosing a single dish to order at an Indian restaurant… impossible. It may sound unbelievable, but your experience will vary depending on where you are; it’s not all just sun, sand and sea. What might, however, make this decision easier is considering one of two options:
- The Maldivian-famous private resort islands that are renowned for their overwater villas.
Or
- The more newly discovered (and much more affordable) way to visit the Maldives: a local island.
Both options promise an entirely different experience of the country.
HISTORY OF THE MALDIVES
The Maldives is still a relatively recent travel destination by international standards. The first resort opened in 1972, and since then, island construction has skyrocketed to the current 160 resort islands in the country. Local islands hadn’t yet opened for tourism, so holidaymakers (as most do today) would land in Male and immediately transport to their hotel, staying put until departure. For a long time, this was the only way to visit the Maldives, but arguably, you were never truly experiencing it.
By literal terms, yes, you were in the country of the Maldives (and had a Maldivian stamp in your passport), but culturally, you could be anywhere in the world. These international resort islands were like private governments, with one of the most noticeable changes being the allowance of alcohol. The Maldives is considered a Muslim nation, so alcohol, or any intoxicating substances, are banned across the country. But, to a Westerner, what is a holiday without a pina colada by the pool or sex on the beach (not literally!)? To appeal more to their target audience, the government allowed the importation, sale, and consumption of alcohol, but ONLY on privately-owned resort islands.
There is hardly anything local on these islands; the hotel’s restaurants are Italian, Japanese, or buffet-style, and the only language you’ll hear is English (or Russian). In fact, I’m pretty sure most people leave the country with sunburn and not even a clue about how to say ‘hello’ or ‘thank you’ in Dhivehi. And you know It’s a dire situation when the closest you get to a country’s culture on your holiday is the airport.
I’m not knocking the acceptability of this way to holiday – if your goal is to relax, why bother with the riff-raff? I too would enjoy a margarita sitting in my private plunge pool at sunset. However, I’m only emphasising that there’s much more to the country than the Four Seasons, Hilton, or Conrad, and that, despite how much we all love it, there’s beauty beyond the breakfast buffet.
Until the late 2000s, staying confined to your resort island was your only option for visiting the country. However, in 2009, in a sudden change of events, the country went a step further and started opening up its local islands to tourism. This change meant that, for the first time, locals could generate money from smaller-scale tourism opportunities like small hotels/guesthouses or locally-run excursions. And It also meant that tourists could spend less money visiting the Maldives because they weren’t forced to stay in big, expensive resorts, and the money was finally going into the pockets of maldivian people and not CEO’s in california. In my opinion, it was a win-win for both teams, and it still is.
WHERE WE CHOSE AND WHY
It took a lot of research to find the perfect place for us. Choosing between hundreds of islands was never going to be easy. However, a few factors helped narrow down our options:
Transport links and proximity to capital
Most likely, your point of entry into the country is the international airport in Male. To reduce costs, time, and risks, we wanted to be somewhere not too far or hard to get to from the city. With my dad having a fear of smaller planes, a seaplane was not an option, so we couldn’t travel too far away. This left a speedboat as our only option (which still covers a lot of the country). Also, as with anywhere in the world (and after reading some things online), I knew the boats only run when the weather permits them to, so we couldn’t be anywhere without a direct route back to Male. It’s possible that they cancel boats going back to the capital, but oh, it is almost common that they cancel boats going between islands!
Isolation
Although being close to the capital is a benefit regarding transport, the closer to Male you are, the busier it is, and the less ‘Maldives-like’ it’ll seem. They famously say, the further away you are from the city, the more beautiful it is. To me, this is untrue because it’s not like crystal-clear blue waters have a fear of urbanisation. But if it’s peace and tranquillity that you crave, then this statement you have to swear by. Because of this, we pretty much ruled out islands south of Male like Maafushi (the most famous local island out of them all) or any other island in the south Male atoll. Being the closest and quickest to the airport, it makes sense why budget travellers opt for this location as it’s still pretty. But, for me, it looked overbuilt, overcrowded, and not the coconuts and palm trees I was looking for. I was then led to the Alif Alif Atoll. Essentially, parallel to the capital’s atoll sits Alif Alif Atoll, famed for having quite a few of the country’s most expensive resorts but also housing some beautiful local islands. Not too far from the capital, but far enough for it to feel less busy. Not overbuilt but a good amount of accommodation options, and still as beautiful as the stock photos. I felt like Goldilocks… Alif Alif Atoll was the perfect choice.
Beauty
Yes, it needed to be accessible, but I didn’t come all this way to see murky seawater and concrete. I looked at almost every source possible when finding what these islands looked like beyond the advertisement agencies’ over-edited photos. I searched TikTok, YouTube, Google Maps, and Google Earth. This also helped me narrow it down a little more.
Activity
Listen, talk all you want, but even the Maldives can get boring. As someone who is always on the move, I feared for my thoughts on spending an extended period on a tiny island. But to my surprise, I completely embraced ‘island life.’ Although, of course, upon research, I couldn’t predict this, so I made sure that wherever we were had some sort of excursion centre as well as a few eating options on the islands, just more than a beach, a cafe, and a port (still, this is more to offer than the private resort islands, lol).
Fame
I knew that I didn’t want to go to the most popular island there was because where’s the peace in that? I also knew that we were looking to visit more than one island, so I ensured that there was at least one undiscovered beauty on that list.
Taking all of this into account, it made the most sense that the Alif Alif Atoll should be where we based ourselves. So we looked into this region, and to my surprise, most of the islands in the Maldives do actually have their own quirk and, in many ways, feel and look quite different from their neighbours, although they are mostly essentially small local towns with a few shops, restaurants, and a gorgeous wrap-around beach.
Here’s what i gathered regarding the north alif alif atoll local islands
- Radhoo: The main island close to sandbanks
- Ukulhas: smaller islands with best snorkelling apparently
- Mathiveri: more lowkey island with gorgeous bikini beach
- Ferdihoo: quietest/most undiscovered island with best bikini beach
- Thoddoo: biggest and greenest island
To see as much variation as I could squeeze in, we’d fly in from Male, take a direct boat to Rasdhoo, spend a couple of nights here, take a boat to Thoddoo and spend a few nights there, then a boat to Merthiveri and spend a couple of nights there, then another boat to Feridhoo and spend a couple of nights there, and then back to Male. It was a hefty itinerary, but with a lot to see and a lot to do, that was the plan!
MY EXPERIENCE
So, I guess our experience prior to landing in Male was partly to blame. Long story short (you can view the long version here): the day before we were due to leave Sri Lanka, Maddox got bitten by a stray dog. Initially brushing it off, we thought nothing serious. This was until concerned locals referred us to a hospital. Here, Maddox was told he’d need a full set of rabies vaccines and treatment. In addition to the treatment that day, he was told he had to strictly follow a set plan for his next few doses, one being a couple of days after we had landed in the Maldives. Confident he could get it in the Maldives, we continued with our plan until we were told that he couldn’t, but then told that he could, and then couldn’t again. At this point, we were stressing and contemplating getting on the plane. Then we were reassured that he could, in fact, get the vaccine in the country’s biggest hospital. So, we took the flight. We landed in Male, and then we were told that he actually couldn’t get his next dose. The entire country had not a single shot of the vaccine… and it never did. Apparently, as the country has no dogs, rabies has never been a serious risk, so they haven’t had the need for it. Of course, after that situation, we end up in probably the only country on the planet without any dogs. Just our luck, haha. But in all seriousness, you’d think regardless of dog population or not, with a disease that would 100% kill you, they’d at least have a couple of emergency doses sitting at the back somewhere. Also, being so close and directly linked to India and Sri Lanka, I thought it would be essential. But clearly not… this obviously wasn’t the best start to a ‘relaxing beach holiday.’
We landed in a rather wet and windy Maldives (more pathetic fallacy?) and were kept waiting for our promised transport for a good hour and a bit. We were quite chaotically directed towards a harbour in which it seems like hundreds of tourists wait for their boat, but no one actually knows when and where it is. Despite all of the chaos and lateness, it did eventually come, and weirdly enough, we were the only ‘tourists’ on the boat. I say weirdly enough because there were other people around us on the dock going to the same island, but they were all taken to a different boat. This didn’t affect much, I guess, other than the fact that the captain spoke little to no English. So, if it weren’t for me, Google Maps, and the Maldives’ surprisingly strong mid-Indian Ocean data connection, we’d probably still be on that speedboat today!
RASDHOO
We arrive in Rasdhoo, and our first impressions are… meh. Granted, it’s cloudy, it’s late, it’s wet, and we were on the port side (notoriously the ugly part of the island). I had hope, however, that my opinion would change the next day. And it did, but not so much. Unfortunately, the next day was also cloudy, so we still didn’t manage to experience all that the Maldives was so famous for. Also, with the added stress of Maddox now being more than a boat and a plane away from his next dose (due the next day), it wasn’t the most peaceful of times. Maddox’s diving lesson that afternoon was cancelled because of the rough waters, and coincidentally, so were the boats back to the capital. So even if he wanted to go back to the airport immediately, he couldn’t. I think Maddox was more relaxed about this than anyone. I mean, he usually is, but considering he could’ve had rabies, he didn’t seem so concerned. To be honest, we all kind of knew he didn’t have it; it was just precautions.
Still unsure of what to do, we woke up the next morning, this time with a little long-awaited sunshine, and everything seemed a lot better. But today, we were leaving Rasdhoo, and to be honest, I didn’t really mind. It wasn’t that pretty, especially compared to what we had coming. Realistically, we were only there as a first stop to see the surrounding sandbanks – one of which we were told was on a private island, and security would come kick us off, and the other barely visible because of high tides recently. I wouldn’t suggest Rasdhoo for your Maldivian holiday. But if you were to stay here, you would have to stay at Club Galliano. Definitely the current nicest accommodation option right outside of Bikini Beach and amazing staff.
THODDOO
We were told that the public boat (1 pm, $2 pp, daily – except Fridays) was cancelled last minute because of the weather. But it was sunny and not windy? We obviously couldn’t argue and had to make do. We ended up paying someone to take us to Thoddoo on his small speed boat for something close to £120… for a 30-min ride. Shockingly, I can get a Saturday night Uber out of London for less than that! We’d obviously just paid that man’s rent for the year; oh well. Looking back, I don’t know how a large boat couldn’t take the waves, but apparently, this small dinghy could. Either way, us arriving at Thoddoo earlier than planned turned out to be a blessing in disguise. Now this is what the Maldives looks like.
Thoddoo was the island I was most excited to visit as it was one of the bigger local islands, and much of it was being used for agriculture. It sits alone outside of an atoll and is the largest producer of watermelons in the entire country, among other fruits. Needless to say, it had a reputation that I needed it to uphold. I was expecting bike rides with roads aligned with palm trees to fruit stands and eating mango in the sea, and I did just that.
Regarding the rabies situation, Maddox had two options. Either fly to Sri Lanka, get the vaccine, and fly back or simply fly home early. We were still figuring out which one made the most sense. Anyways, we unpacked and headed straight for the beach, spent a while in the waves and walked along stretches of sand that looked exactly like a scene from “Cast Away.” All of a sudden, a huge dark cloud swept over the island with probably the coolest and most detailed cloud formation I’d ever seen. Naturally, most people headed back into town before the expected downpour. We got lunch somewhere, and to our surprise, it didn’t actually rain at all. One thing about these islands is after dark there is NOTHING to do. Unlike the resort islands like mentioned earlier, the local islands don’t have alcohol; there is no bar scene, or any scene after dinner. There was a place that showed English football but… not really my thing. I spent the rest of the evening relaxing.
The next day we woke up, and there it was… clear clear skies. Eager, I left early to go on a bike ride and photograph the island. Wow… just wow. I can’t even put into words how insanely amazing this piece of land was. Roads that led to blue waters and fruit trees and palm trees and coconuts. It was paradise. I got a good spot on the beach before the swarms of Russians arrived (because there was an insane amount of Russians on this island – and they’d flock to the beach in large groups) and not long after Maddox and Bernie joined me. We spent the morning in the water and then went to get a BBQ fish lunch. What’s a better meal to get on a hot day on an island? At this point, Maddox had come to the decision that he was going to go home early. Anyone reading this, don’t feel bad for him. At home, he had his cat, his girlfriend, and no parents… it was an easy choice. We spent the rest of the day in the water, then relaxed, and watched the sunset from the beach, and then went for dinner (to a surprisingly tasty Chinese restaurant?! How random – on an island in the middle of nowhere). The next morning was an early one, 5 am wake-up for Maddox to catch the first boat en route to the airport in order to catch his flight home. We said our goodbyes, and he left. He told us that the boat ride was insanely bumpy. Which was weird because it didn’t seem that rough, and again, it was sunny. In fact, for the rest of the trip, it was just pure hot HOT sun. to be honest, later that day they cancelled the rest of the boats leaving the harbour, so maybe it was worse than it looked from shore. But do you see now how frequent boat cancellations are?
With Maddox gone and just the two of us, we had more reason to sit back and relax, and we did just that. I spent the rest of my days honestly going from beach to fruit bar and back to the beach. I read which is something I regretfully haven’t done in too long, and I just enjoyed the slow pace of life. And I loved it. I was eating better, I felt happier, and I felt more full, and I miss it. Not that London doesn’t make me feel ‘full’ because how can a place this big and busy not, but it just doesn’t do what that island did for me. And I can’t explain it.
We did, however, try a couple of times to go on boat excursions, but both times they were cancelled because of the weather. I wouldn’t think that a place that basically relies on the sea would be so susceptible to weather-related disruptions in its activities. But we did manage to go night fishing, which was a gorgeous experience. Despite spending our time on land or within the island’s perimeters, at no point was I ‘bored’. We did paddleboarding, jet skiing, snorkelling with turtles. I have to say, the Maldives really is an amazing place.
We were meant to, at this point, get on a boat to Feridhoo (what was meant to be the quieter but further island), but we thought that it would risk us getting back to the airport in time as it isn’t a direct route back to Male, and also the island was smaller and had less to offer than Thoddoo, so we decided to extend our time there instead.
With our departure date coming up and more boat cancellations, we were pretty worried about what would happen with us. And of course, the night before we get told that our 1 pm boat to the capital was cancelled, leaving us with the 6 am option. This meant packing quickly and heading to bed early, also not managing to go for a last morning swim. I had no choice, so reluctantly we made our way to the boat, got on, and everything was fine. And then… it started getting a little bumpy, then bumpier, then bumpier until it got to a point where I genuinely (no word of a lie) felt like the boat could capsize. I had my music on full volume for dramatic effect, of course, and clutching onto my armrest like it would save me. One thing about me is I can handle plane turbulence to an extent, but I cannot handle a rough boat ride. Finally, I could see land, and soon enough we were on land, in Male, one of the densest capital cities in the world.
MALE (pronounced mah-lay)
Let me also add, contrary to what I was saying earlier, the capital city, Male, has been open for tourists to visit for as long as any other part of the country. After all, it’s the main port of entry. It just isn’t, of course, what comes to mind when you think of a vacation in the Maldives.
Male is an interesting place. We were only there to avoid risk as we were flying home the next day, but we also found it interesting to see such a place. Walking around, I genuinely felt like I was in a real-life KidZania; things were miniature, like shops were smaller, street lamps were shorter – it all felt so petite. Admittedly, Male was boring; the food scene was nothing special, the museums were interesting but not super fun, and there was no art scene, just the same touristy shops.
My favourite things to see were the vegetable and fish markets, which were genuinely interesting, especially to photograph. In all honesty, am I happy I saw Male? Absolutely. But would I go back? Probably not.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Listen, the Maldives really is a beautiful country; that’s without a doubt. The people are kind, the culture is relaxed, and it quite literally resembles a visual paradise. But despite how gorgeous it all was, it wasn’t a million times more beautiful than similar-looking water in Europe, and I’ve seen clearer seawater in Zanzibar, for example. My point is, the Maldives is gorgeous, but I don’t think it’s much more stunning than other places I’ve been to (arguably easier and cheaper to get to). There is a lot of risk with weather-related cancellations, even in the ‘dry season,’ which can really mess up plans.
Unfortunately, the food scene was hit and miss, a lot of badly made western foods. Although when we could eat locally, it was really nice. We particularly loved mas huni and make it at home! And ofcourse it goes without question that the fruit was as fresh as could be. Maybe not much was going on; it was very quiet and uninteresting outside of the beach but like I said, it proved to be more than alright for me. Yes, other places (with equally nice beaches) tend to have more going on beyond the shoreline but despite there not being a plethora of things to do, I’m happy we took this route rather than the overpriced and overdone ‘resort’ option. We got to learn about a different culture, meet new people, make new friends and experience a new way of life. So yes, maybe it isn’t much but there is more to this country than sun, sand and sea. There’s farmland, there are schools, there are families, there are flavours, there are tall buildings, and short ones, there are stories, and people your age. I’m not saying don’t stay on a hotel island but consider also getting to know more about the country you’re sunbathing in.
In all honesty I can’t come up with an overall thought, so take everything I’ve said in this article and make your own mind up.
I’ll leave you with this:
I’m so happy I got the chance to see the Maldives, and I adored my time there (more than it probably seems like here), but I wouldn’t rush back to go again, even if given the opportunity.