 | Flytrippers cofounder |
Caroline and I were in the exotic islands of the Maldives this April, right before our trip to Kazakhstan. We spent a few luxurious nights at a wonderful resort thanks to Marriott free night certificates, a few cheap nights before and after to optimize our time at the nice resort, and then a few nights on a local island near Malé for some great diving.
The Maldives is a great destination if you want to redeem your Marriott certificates, and it’s the absolute best time to finally get them with the record-high deal until September 22. However, on this particular trip, our certificates were from our US-issued cards.
I’m sharing a few details about my 2nd trip to this popular archipelago. Flytrippers aims to help you travel for less through our 3 types of content, namely flight deals, travel rewards, and tips/inspiration/news.
Here’s the overview of my trip to the Maldives.
Reason for my trip to the Maldives
I’m sharing why I did this trip, to get straight to the point.
Here are the 2 main reasons:
- Redeem our 85,000-point certificates at a luxurious resort
- Dive from a local island
Redeem our 85,000-point certificates at a luxurious resort
The Maldives are famous for their pretty (and expensive) resorts. With the 4 certificates all Canadian couples should get each year from Marriott Bonvoy cards, you could stay for 5 days and 4 nights at Le Méridien Maldives Resort & Spa (with the points top-up).
In our case, we had 3 Marriott certificates worth 85,000 points each from our US-issued Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant American Express Card, and we had saved them for an even better option in the Maldives (and a more accessible one; more on that below).
I also wrote a more in-depth review of the Sheraton Maldives Full Moon Resort & Spa, with the rooms and the rewards math from those 3 nights. It was a great stay!
Dive from a local island
We also wanted to do some diving, and it is much cheaper on the local islands than at the resorts. Most of the time, everything in resorts is overpriced anywhere in the world, as you probably know.
We stayed on Vilimale (also called Villingili), the local island next to Malé (the capital).
I had already been diving on another local island in the Maldives in 2019, and it was amazing; the best diving of my life, actually. So I wanted to go back.
Itinerary of my trip to the Maldives
I’m sharing the general itinerary of my trip, to give you the outline of the destinations I visited (maybe you saw them if you follow me on my Instagram stories).
Here’s my itinerary on a map.
We flew SriLankan Airlines from Jakarta with a stop in Colombo. After the Maldives, we flew to Almaty, Kazakhstan for a month.
This trip lasted 8 nights in April.
Here are the destinations I visited during my trip:
- Hulhumalé, Maldives 🇲🇻
- 2 nights (before and after the Sheraton)
- Furanafushi (Sheraton island), Maldives 🇲🇻
- 3 nights
- Vilimale, Maldives 🇲🇻
- 3 nights
Hulhumalé, Maldives 🇲🇻
Hulhumalé is a reclaimed island next to the airport. We used it as a cheap buffer before and after our 3-night stay at the fancy Sheraton Maldives Full Moon Resort & Spa.
This was so we could take the first speedboat to the Sheraton at 10 AM and the last boat back at 8 PM, and maximize our time at the resort thanks to our Marriott elite status (to take advantage of the 4 PM late checkout and early check-in).
Most guests just time the boat to their flights and skip this part, but we wanted to really optimize our time there.
Before the resort, we stayed at the Huvan Beach Hotel. It was 70 USD (35 USD per person).
It was pretty small, but the location was good.
After the resort, we stayed at the Transit Point guesthouse. It was 64 CAD (32 CAD per person).
The room was nicer, bigger, and better overall, but it is very close to a big mosque that does the middle-of-the-night and 5 AM prayers over loudspeakers, so it was not the best for sleeping.
Furanafushi, Maldives 🇲🇻
This is the private island where the Sheraton Maldives Full Moon Resort & Spa is located. It’s about 15 minutes from the airport by speedboat from the airport.
That’s why it was such a great choice. In the Maldives, many Marriott hotels (and non-Marriott hotels) are only accessible by seaplane, and those flights are often 500 USD roundtrip per person (or more).
Our resort’s proximity to the international airport made the extra transportation cost a lot more manageable (64 USD per person).
We stayed for 4 days and 3 nights by redeeming the great 85,000-point Marriott certificates.
I wrote a review of the Sheraton Maldives Full Moon Resort & Spa that I will not repeat here, but it was an awesome stay!
Vilimale, Maldives 🇲🇻
Vilimale is the local island next to Malé (also called Villingili). We stayed there because we wanted to be closer this time and explore a bit of Malé. We didn’t end up doing that after all, but the diving was great.
There are no cars on the island, so you have to take the ferry from Malé to get there. The ferry was very cheap: 3.25 MVR! That’s about 300 times cheaper than the speedboat to the resort (and they both take about 10-15 minutes). The ferry runs every 10 to 15 minutes.
This might all change soon, as they are currently building the Thilamalé Bridge to connect Malé, Vilimale, and the islands after that. That one is the Indian-built bridge, versus the Chinese one over to Hulhumalé that was already done when I first came in 2019.
We booked an apartment for 68 CAD per night (34 CAD per person). It was simple, but nice and well located. We worked from there as digital nomads, and it was easy to get groceries and food. Beware that outside the resorts, the local islands are dry, so there is no alcohol.
The dive shop, Divers Lodge Maldives, was just down the street. It is owned by an experienced local diver, and it was really nice.
Caroline and I both did 5 dives: 4 from the boat and 1 shore dive at night. It cost 130 USD per person for 2 boat dives and 55 USD per person for the shore night dive, for a total of 315 USD per person for those 5 dives, including equipment rental.
At resorts, it’s usually over 100 USD per dive, plus the cost of the equipment rental.
We dove Banana Reef twice (that one is closer to the Sheraton), because it was a great site, with amazing corals and lots of fish.
We also went to Lankan Manta Point, on the other side of the Sheraton. That one was not as memorable, but it was still pretty nice.
And we dove the MV Victory wreck, just by the airport. That was a really cool wreck with lots of fish. We didn’t really get inside much.
The shore night dive was right in Vilimale. It was great, with some bioluminescence and a ton of interesting plankton.
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Summary
We spent 8 nights in the Maldives in April: 3 nights at the Sheraton Maldives Full Moon Resort & Spa with Marriott free night certificates, 2 cheap buffer nights in Hulhumalé, and 3 nights on Vilimale for 5 dives. It was a short but fun trip.
What would you like to know about my Maldives trip overview? Tell us in the comments below.
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Featured image:Maldives (photo credit: Kevin Gagnon/Flytrippers)
