Top 10 things you need to know about the Maldives

Welcome to the Maldives, the world's most PRISTINE and sublime beach vacation. There's a lot that goes into planning a trip to the region, so we're here to share the TOP TEN THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW BEFORE YOU GO TO THE MALDIVES! After ten hotels and endless plane rides around the country, we have learned SO much about what it's like to travel to the Maldives. In this video, we will tell you the most important things to keep in mind when you book a trip to the Maldives.

Whether you have booked a hotel already or are looking for advice on what hotels, what room types and what the heck the transfers are about, we have you covered.

As we mentioned in the video, check out these great links for booking comparisons and ideas:

While on some vacations your arrival or departure times don’t really matter because all you have to do is get to your hotel via taxi or car, arrival and departure times in the Maldives can make or break your trip. It is critical to pay attention to your flight schedule for a few reasons. Since the Maldives is a country made up of many islands, your transfers include sea planes, regular planes and boats. If your transfer to the hotel is via sea plane or boat, those hours are pretty limited to daylight. Planes are a little bit of an exception, but they also operate on somewhat limited hours. If your flight is set to arrival around 9pm or 10pm as many do, you will need to spend one night on Malé before transferring to your hotel. The best arrival times are early morning to ensure you are able to catch the first transfer out to your hotel.

If you're looking for something specific, feel free to skip ahead!
00:00 - Intro
00:37 - Where is the Maldives?
02:14 - What is the best time of year to visit the Maldives?
03:43 - Arrival/Departure Times into MLE
04:51 - How to find hotels in the Maldives?
06:51 - How to book hotels in the Maldives
08:11 - Transfers in the Maldives
11:52 - Beach Villa vs. Water Villa
13:52 - Additional costs to plan for
17:10 - Maldives is a Conservative Muslim Country
19:00 - Is the Maldives right for you?

There are a few ways to transfer to hotels in the Maldives: boat, plane or sea plane. Depending on the distance from Malé, your hotel may offer a boat transfer. Boat transfers are often less expensive than flights and have more flexibility around hours of operation.

One of the most difficult decisions you will have to make are whether to choose a beach villa or an overwater villa. I know, tough life. But really, this is important. People always ask us what our preferred room type is or assume we will always pick the overwater villa, but that’s not necessarily true. Not all overwater villas are created equal. Some hotels will offer overwater bungalows, but they will be smaller and darker than their beach villa counterparts or simply not over desirable water. Sometimes, the beach villa is significantly nicer, larger, with access to gorgeous sandy shores and blue water with a bathroom the size of the room itself. We have stayed at properties before where we have actually moved rooms due to the overwater villa being far less appealing. For example, one overwater hut we stayed in, you could actually not swim from the balcony due to the grassy bottom and six inches of water. We decided it was much more pleasant to stay in a gorgeous beach villa that accessed pristine teal water AND had a private pool.

Check out some of our related content for more info:
AND

WHAT QUESTIONS DO YOU HAVE ABOUT THE MALDIVES? Let us know in the comments below!!
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Maren Engh & Max Jallifier

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[karlomanojlovic]

Off the topic. The way she looks at you while you talk, she's a keeper man. I mean, like, wow.

[boreilly]

I've looked at a lot of Maldives videos this week. This one is the best by a mile. Essential viewing for anyone planning a trip to Maldives.

[cjack]

To maximize my stay, I'm going to do at least 6 nights: 3 in beach villa and 3 in water villa. This gives me the chance to experience both sides on the property. It's also cheaper too. The beach villas are usually cheaper and can be booked with points. Going to do this for each property I go to. Unless, I don't like the beach villas for a particular propery, then I will do the full 6 nights in a water villa or vica versa.

[dianareardon]

Excellent. . What an informative video chocked full of all the stuff you should know before you go ! Like a roadmap for the Maldives! Thanks for all the info.

[MrSundewAnnolva]

Thought this is really a great informational video, many thanks to both of you!

[brothersman]

This is a very informative video of The Maldives. I have been to the Maldives 5 times and agreed with your points. In addition to what you said, some water villas in one resort will be cheaper than beach villas in another resort. The best weather is in February and March which is the high season but you can still get great deals in these months. Being a Muslim country, no alcohol and pork when you arrive at Male Airport.
For people from the UK like I am, stopover either at Doha, Dubai, Istanbul or Abu Dhabi from London Heathrow, Birmingham or Manchester

[PinaCoco]

Really detailed video, definitely will help me to choose the best option for me 👍🏼

[roxannecampbell]

Thank you both ever so much. What a great video! it's very helpful 😊

[mofi]

Nice comprehensive video. Would be nice to include tips when going with family and kids in terms of kids Friendly Islands, kids clubs, and what activities can be done with kids specially infants. Also would be nice to touch on drones and accessible house reefs saving costs for snorkelling trips

[leslie]

Very useful information 👌 basically you answered all my questions. Thanks a lot!

[michellelawas]

I love how very detail you guys are in this video. Thank you so much for sharing.

[deannaholt]

Funny story - - I was looking up Qatar Qsuites and you guys popped up, so I watched. Then I start looking for vids about SAii Lagoon Maldives - - and there you guys are AGAIN - and I was like - HEY! It's the honeymoon couple!! They went to the resort I wanna go to!! 😆 (Turns out you went to more than a few of them. 😉Anyway, really enjoy your vids, they're very comprehensive and well put together and I really appreciate all the work you put in to them. I noticed another commenter mentioned talking about fams more - - which is ironic - - because I came on to ask if you could include us solo travelers as well. Not sure if either of you have traveled solo or not but don't forget about us. We're out here and HEADIN' TO THE MALDIVES. (Even tho I'm solo gal and you two are a couple - - I still like and subscribed because we have the same taste in travel destinations!! So cool! Happy travels and thanks again! 🙂

[TroyParry]

From Singapore, it’s cheapest and quickest to book an early morning flight to Malaysia (Kuala Lumpur) and then into Maldives. You can get there before hotel check in! I booked separate one-way tickets which was half the price of a direct flight, with a 2 hour gap between flights.

[HenriOlivier]

Thanks for sharing, my friends! LIKE 51

[lindalundmark]

Another great video!!! :-) I hear you are booked for Sepetember. What resorts are you goint to visit? I hope you have discovered Hurawalhi and Kudadoo? ;-) Kandolhu is a total gem too!

We have booked Hurawalhi (4th visit) and Milaidhoo (2nd visit, thanks to you guys!) for February 2022.

[JonHuang]

Just stumbled on this video while planning a surprise five year anniversary + late honeymoon trip. This video is SO informative/helpful. I felt a lot more confident planning and researching our trip now.

[johnconstable]

Very informative videos and some excellent advice both here and in the individual resort reviews. I'm looking at them carefully to help understand what each resort offers so I can decide where to go next! The only thing I can think to add to your excellent presentation is for AI (all inclusive) dining packages, they are not all created equal either so your advice to check the small print and do research is spot on. Well done!

[DaCake]

Hey guys, really love your videos. Been bing watching them for days now. In your opinion, which resort would you say had the nicest water surrounding the over water villas? I'm interested in making the 26 hour journey to Maldives this year and I'm looking for villas with beautiful calm shallow water. You've been to so many resorts, so I thought maybe a few stood out to you. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

[danr]

My fiancé and I are looking into hotels atm and this video helped tons . Thank you

[AVA]

I’m secretly planing a 10 years anniversary trip for me and my wife and I’ve watched many videos about the Maldives. Never have I seen a video like this one. So much useful information and now I’m sure I’m going to book a trip the coming days so I can surprise my wife. Great work you guys! Thanks so much for the inspiration. 🙏🏽👏🏽