When you want to travel the Maldives on a budget, Maafushi is definitely the best place to stay.
Cheap excursions from Maafushi Island
Sexy Beach | Sandbank in the Ocean
We went to a sandbank in the middle of the ocean which is called Furafathi ( also known as sexy beach by the locals ) and is located only a 15 minute speedboat trip away from Maafushi.
With a bit of luck you re the only ones on the sandbank and you can experience complete peace and privacy with only an umbrella, towel, and an esky filled with cool drinks and snacks.
When we arrived mid afternoon ( because we wanted to see the sunset ) some people were just leaving and there was only a newlywed couple who did their wedding photo shoot, which was amazing to witness.
At the end of the day with the sun setting, we were just with the two of us, till it was almost dark. ( Luckily our skipper didn’t forget about us and picked us up a bit later )
This excursion included the speedboat return and the esky with some snacks and drinks ( non alcoholic )
Book your sandbank excursion in the Maldives Right here
Relaxing at the Luxurious Holiday Inn Kandooma Resort
The other excursion we did from Maafushi was a resort excursion. Most resorts are all a short boat trip away from Maafushi and we could choose which resort we wanted to visit. Fihalhohi, Fun Island, Rihiveli, Holiday Inn Kandooma, Anantara or Biyadu to name a few.
Some were very secluded, some had more activities than others and the prices between the excursions varied from $50 USD to $350 USD depending on the amount of people and package.
We picked the Holiday Inn Kandooma, which was $135 USD total. The $35 USD was for our return speed boat transfer and $100 USD for the resort island fee, but this was basically your all-inclusive package as $100 USD was your minimum usable credit towards your final bill at the end of the day, which you definitely spend on your coffee, lunch, drinks ( also alcoholic )
When we arrived at the Holiday Inn Kandooma we instantly felt like we had landed in paradise. Even the speed boat trip from Maafushi to the Holiday Inn resort was an excursion itself as we crossed a few really nice looking water bungalows, amazing turquoise Laguna’s and tiny tropical islands.
At the resort it’s all about turquoise water, pearl white beaches, palm trees, cocktails, a really nice swimming pool, friendly people and beachy vibes.
There were a lot of couples and families with children. We spend all day relaxing, soaking up the Maldivian sun, walked around the island, did some snorkelling, had an amazing lunch and sunset drinks. We even found Lion beer!
Book your resort excursion in the Maldives Right here
All in all, a great way to enjoy a Maldivian resort style holiday on a budget. Just after sunset we were heading back to Maafushi to spend a nice evening eating and drinking at one of Maafushi’s restaurants.
Read more about Maafushi here
Maafushi is a great base to explore the Maldives
We only spend 4 nights on Maafushi Island, but if you have more time you could pick several resorts to spend the day at and have this Maldivian resort feeling everyday, but don’t pay for an expensive room you barely spend time in.
Spending time on Maafushi Island is also great, you can walk around the island, have a drink in one of the seaside restaurants, soak up the sun on the public beach or catch a fish with the locals.
Maafushi is a great base to discover the Maldives by doing excursions, and is suitable for every travel budget.
For more information about Maafushi and what to do and where to stay Read this
To book your excursions in the Maldives have a look Here
Don’t forget your Lonely Planet for your trip to the Maldives 🙂
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Hi Claudette.
We just read this comment!
Hope you had an amazing trip with your family to the Maldives? 🙂
Hiii dear,
It’s was a very interesting blog.Im planning on taking my family to Mafushi this Oct. Can you plz answer few of my queries.
1.How do book my day excursion to the resorts?
2.Do we need to book it online well in advance or on the spot?
3.Do they have options of an overnight stay at the resort?
4.Are we allowed to buy alcohol from Maldives duty free?
Thanks…..
@CLAUDETTE
India
Hi Heidi,
Thanks for your message. It’s so nice to hear you are off to Maafushi and doing the day trips from there! It’s the best budget way to see the beautiful Maldives.
I feel you when you say it would be great to have a stroll around and drink a nice glass of wine, but as far as far as we know, the floating bar is the only place in Maafushi to have an alcoholic drink. ( Which is where everyone heads too for sunset drinks apparently 😉
And of course, there are the island resorts who do have alcohol available.
Let us know how your trip was and if there is anything changed or different in Maafushi 🙂
Happy travels!
Jo
Hello! really great article, very informative. We are off to Maafushi (Kaani Grand sea view) with our family and propose to do the trips you suggest. Thanks to your responses to other questions I think we have a great starting point. One question, Ive understood Maafushi to be alcohol free but then seem to be hearing conflicting talk of ‘bars’ in maafsuhi. I know our hotel has a floating bar with alcoholic drinks but it would be great to take a stroll in Maafushi and have a cheeky wine too. So, can you get alcohol in Maafushi or not? Many Thanks
Hi Sandy.
Don’t worry! Maafushi is different, but definitely, a great base to explore the other resort islands, experience heaven on earth, but save big $ on staying in those expensive resorts.
We did the same and went to the Holiday Inn on Kandooma Island and we absolutely experienced the heaven on earth feeling. There are many more resort islands to choose from variating from luxury to very luxury.
Maafushi itself has a little beach area, but for the most amazing beaches we would recommend taking the excursions to the resorts ( which you can book at most hotels )
Yes, we know the Crystal Sands hotel. We had lunch there once and I suppose to be a great place to stay!
When are you visiting the Maldives?
Hi Ericka,
Sorry, I for our late reply. We are currently traveling through Bali and must have looked over this message.
Glad you find our article about the Maldives and Cheap excursions from Maafushi helpful.
Sri Lanka is amazing ( did you read our article about Sri Lanka already? 😉 ) and finishing off at the Maldives will be very relaxing, I am sure of that! When are you going?
I would personally recommend booking your excursions at the hotels. They are mostly open for negotiation ( especially if you book more excursions at the same hotel ) Also, often the hotels are organizing the excursions themselves, which made them more personal and it saves you often money because there is no 3rd party involved.
Also, shop around at the other little booking offices and hotels on Maafushi, to see who offers the best packages suitable for your wishes and needs.
Hope you are having a wonderful honeymoon!
Let us know if you want to know anything else 🙂
Jo
Really informative articles from your visit to the Maldives, thanks for posting it!
Traveling to the Maldives on budget to celebrate our honeymoon too, after 9 days touring SriLanka, and chose Maafushi to allow us more bang for our buck, so you’ve confirmed that, Thank you!
One question though, is it worth booking excursions online with tour operators before we arrive or with our hotel once we’re there. Icom tours offers the activities we want to do, (snorkeling with manta rays, whale sharks, sharks and turtles and reefs, resort and sandbank days, etc) but i think our hotel will probably do the same. Icom are offering a whale shark excursion for $100 each, but that includes lunch and other bits.
In your opinion is there any benefit from booking ahead or will be be really pleased/ impressed by what our hotel can offer us? Will we miss out?
Hello.
Thank you for sharing your experience.
My husband and I found a really inexpensive package flight+hotel in Maafushi and we’ve just quickly booked it.
Now we’ve started to wander if we did the right thing chosing this island…
We’d really like to experience that kind of “heaven on earth” feeling, but we’ve read that you can’t find it if you’re traveling on a budget in the Maldives, but only in those very expensive luxury and exclusive resorts… that’s really sad…
We’re going to stay at the Crystal Sands hotel: do you know it?
Thank you so much Priti 🙂 The bucket list never gets smaller right? 😉
Sounds like it was an amazing trip, the Maldives have been on my list for such a long time but I’m yet to visit. Thanks for sharing this, it’s great to know you can still travel to such an amazing place even on a budget! 🙂
Hi Jin! We booked our tours at the Ocean Vista Guesthouse, where we stayed in Maafushi. The accomodation is really nice and the people there are really kind and helpfull, they arranged everything for us for a really good price. Let us know if you want to know more about the Maldives.
Which agent you book that tour in Maafushi? Icom or any else ,can you recommend for me?
Thanks for your nice reply 🙂
That sounds like a great experience you had on the Maldives. And we agree that`s not expensive for all inclusive in the Maldives on your own private boat! Sounds amazing, not only for singles or couples but also for families! Thanks for sharing your experience
Nice, fantastic Maldives and excellent article !
We also tried to go Maldives on a budget last year … With 4 friends we chartered our own private traditional vessel for a cruise . We booked through a local travel agency (www.cruise-maldives.com) , and we paid 149 $/person per night… It might seem a bit expensive but when you think about it is really cheap as everything was included and we didn’t have to spend for any extras ( except alcoholic drinks and souvenirs). Boat was exclusively chartered for the 4 of us , we had our own private cabin (we are singles and were alone on board). Meals , excursions, equipment, water… all included . It was such a wonderful trip, we saw so much of Maldives, the local island, uninhabited island, sandbank, virgins snorkeling spots, amazing reef and lagoons… It was just like a dream , will definitely go back one day !