The Maldives is undeniably one of the most dreamy, sought out vacation locations for travelers. It was at the top of our list for dream vacations so we decided it was the perfect spot for our honeymoon. It did not disappoint! The Maldives is known for its popular style of over water living quarters, we’ve all seen the pictures of these luxurious villas over water. Along with living the fantasized reality of living in the ocean and top notch amenities that are advertised comes the infamous price tag that is taboo. Nobody discusses the bill, its just automatically assumed to be the kind of price tag that the average person can not afford. While this trip was not one that follows our normal cost efficient style of travel it was worth most of the pennies, we wont say every because some were spent inadvertently. That is why we are here and you have made your way to this post. We will breakdown the trip and debunk some of the myths and provide facts surrounding traveling to Maldives. Get ready to take notes and plan your budget for a trip to the Maldives. Budgeting does not mean cheap, but where there’s a will there’s a way!

How Do You Get To The Maldives?

So let’s start with the logistics. We’ve discussed before, we live for flight deals and even for our honeymoon in the Maldives we were determined to catch a great deal. We started looking up the flights around 3 months before our planned departure date but because of Covid the price of flights have been all over the place. Some months have been extremely low and some ridiculously high. We used one of our favorite apps, Hopper, to track flight prices and decided to book 2 months out from the honeymoon. We purchased our flights for $600/each roundtrip. We have a blog post on how we track flights to find the best prices if you’d like more information about how to catch good deals! We live in Texas so there weren’t a lot of deals coming from our city but we found some good flights out of New York. Just to note, to get to the Maldives takes at least a day (24 hours) or more depending on your layovers. It’s not for the faint at heart but I can tell you when you arrive it’s well worth it!

Everyone that is flying to a resort on one of the islands in the Maldives, has to fly into the main airport, Velana International Airport in Male. From there you either take a boat or a seaplane to get to your final destination so the price of that needs to be factored in as it can be expensive. It makes it a lot easier when the resort takes care of it for you and adds it in the costs for the lodging. If they don’t you need to make sure you plan it on your own. We’ll talk more about that when we get into lodging.

How Much Does It Cost To Stay in the Maldives?

Picture this…endless beautiful hues of blue, pure white sand, and lush greenery. Waking up and looking out of the window to endless hues of blue water and the sound of the waves slightly crashing against the sides of the villa. Let’s be honest. The number one reason people dream about visiting the Maldives is staying in the over the water villas. We knew we had to experience this if we went! Before visiting, we did a ton of research on resorts in the Maldives on Google. There are quite a bit so it can be overwhelming. We started with the familiar big names, JW Marriot, Waldorf Astoria, etc, and the price tag was pretty high for those and then we did a google search of the top rated resorts in the Maldives and found a lot more that were reasonably priced. What is reasonably priced you ask? You can spend anywhere from $200 – $1,000+ on lodging in the Maldives depending on the amenities you’re seeking. It also varies if you want a beach villa or a garden villa (cheaper options) vs an ocean villa (more expensive). The villa we booked was an ocean villa at the Finolhu Resort around $700/night. To make it more affordable we originally planned to split our time in a beach front villa and the ocean villa since we were staying a week. That is until we found a website called Luxury Escapes. They were advertising Maldive packages that included ocean villas, an all-inclusive meal and drink package, and seaplane transfer to the resort for that same $700. So let’s break this down shall we? We’re typically not people that like to do all-inclusive as we like to try different restaurants and different cuisines. This is not your normal exploring trip. You are on a remote island and the only way off is by boat or seaplane so all of your eating and drinking will be on the specific island your resort is housed. The food and drinks in the Maldives are known to be expensive, so if you’re people that love to eat like us then the all-inclusive deals will give you a better bang for your buck. We tried every drink on every menu on the island and ate at all the restaurants so it was well worth it! Imagine paying for the food and drinks out of pocket….you would spend over $100 for every meal you had. As far as the seaplane goes, booking it through the resort made it seamless. Someone from the resort met us when we got off the plane in Male (capital of the Maldives), took our luggage and assisted us in checking in for the seaplane and escorted us to their lounge where we had refreshments while we waited to board. Recommend you booking the seaplane through the resort 100%! The actual villas themselves were great. Each villa came with a personal butler that came to clean your room 2 times a day. If you needed something during your stay you could contact the butler through WhatsApp and they would respond immediately. The best customer service we’ve ever experienced by far! If you wanted, their were golf carts that came every 5-10 minutes to take you where you wanted to go on the island.

What Is There To Do In The Maldives?

One of the things we weren’t sure about was what all we would be able to do on the island. Would we get bored? We sure didn’t! If you wanted to just relax you could definitely do that, which we did a lot of. But the resort had planned activities every day. We went to a white party that had fire dancers, there was a mermaid show at the pool, movie nights, mix and mingle parties, and more! They also had a gym on the island, we took an art class, there was shopping, yoga classes, and a spa! I can’t even name all of the water activities. They gave you complimentary snorkeling gear, we went paddle boarding, they had jet skis, parasailing, and so much more. The more basic water activities were included with your stay but other activities were an additional fee. For instance, the additional excursions like diving, fishing, and cruises ranged from $40-$200.

Is The Maldives Really Romantic?

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Now for the romance! A lot of people go to the Maldives for a romantic vacation, like weddings, anniversaries, honeymoons, and vow renewals. Because of that, most resorts have romantic packages or can set the vibes for you…for a cost of course! Some of what they have that you can take advantage of are a romantic room set up (rose petals, chocolates, etc.), special table set up at their restaurants, romantic sunset cruises, and private dinners on the beach. It puts a nice touch on the vacation!

All in all, the Maldives was one of the most expensive vacations we’ve taken by far. We spent somewhere around $6,000 for the two of us. But don’t let that discourage you! Although it was expensive, it was unforgettable! While this may not be somewhere we jet off to every year it will be one of our most memorable vacations to date!

Have you been to the Maldives? How did you like it? If not, what is stopping you from taking that trip??? Let us know in the comments!