The Maldives is a luxury destination, a beautiful beachside destination. But it does not necessarily have to be a costly destination. You can easily plan a budget trip to Maldives. I am not sure how or when this myth started spreading like wildfire across the world, but if there is anybody who avoided travelling to the Maldives because of this reason, I pity them. Possible reasons for them to have decided against travelling to the Maldives could be uneducated opinions from neighbours or transactional travel agents. Now, before we start off, I want to acknowledge the fact that there are costly resorts in the Maldives; I am not denying that. This does not mean that you will be able to travel to the group of islands only if you spend a fortune. Let us look at some possible ways to plan a budget trip to Maldives.

Lets us first clarify some things for you!

Yes! you can definitely plan a Budget Trip to Maldives from India
The minimum budget for a visit to Maldives would be Rs 50,000.
Understand what type of stay experience you expect and plan accordingly

One easy way to go around this would be to segregate the entire trip and observe what all costs you will incur. The costs that come to my mind for a Maldives vacation are:

Flights
Off season
Stay
Transfers
Food
Drinks (if necessary)
Activities

How to plan a budget trip to Maldives?

Here are some step where you can plan budget trip to Maldives that will help you in saving a fortune!

Book flights early to Maldives

Speaking of flights, the closer you are to the Maldives, the less the flights will cost you. This one is a no-brainer. But how do we save money on the flights regardless of where we start from ?

Book the tickets early ! Airlines follow the policy of pricing tickets based on demand and supply. Getting ahead in the line could potentially save you a lot of money. There will be no visa costs as the Maldives only requires an on-arrival visa, which is just a stamp on your passport once you land in Male – their capital city.

Below is an approximate cost of flights from India.

Departure Destination	Minimum Flight charge
Mumbai	Rs 14,000 (11 Hrs) Rs 8000 (3 hrs )
Delhi	Rs 12,000 (3 hrs ) Rs 8,000 (20 hrs)

Visit Maldives in off season

This is one destination that needs to be enjoyed for its luxurious stay. This is easily doable for someone planning a budget trip to Maldives. Yes, you heard that right. By choosing to visit the Maldives during the off-season, you can cut major accommodation costs. Therefore, it is advisable to visit the Maldives during the months of May and November.

Maldives Packages Starting @ ₹78,000

5* Resorts. Water Villas. Customizable Itineraries.

View Maldives Packages

Choose the right accommodation in Maldives

Now comes the next critical part of the vacation. The resort accommodations is another thing to focus on to plan a budget trip to Maldives. The island nation has resorts which charge exorbitant amounts of money and those which charge reasonably as well. There is no need to be scared if you come across resorts which charge your monthly salary for a one night stay. Did you LoL ? Well, I am not joking here…

The Maldives comprises of more than 150 inhabited islands. This will instil belief in anybody that there will be at least 5 of those islands which will have resort stays that fall under their budget. Be patient and keep looking ! Let me expedite that process for you… Here is a list of the top 10 budget friendly resorts in Maldives. Some notable budget-friendly resorts are:

Choose Beach front Villas instead of Water Villas in Maldives

Another pointer that might be helpful is that over-water villas are much more expensive than beachfront villas; this is mainly due to the difference in their maintenance costs. You can also opt for a romantic stay to include in your Maldives honeymoon package.

A budget trip to the Maldives cannot be executed properly by choosing to stay in Water Villas alone. So if you really do not have a preference, go for the Beach villas. But I would suggest not missing out on the Water villas in Maldives and finding the right balance to cut down on costs.

That is where split-stays come into play. Splitting your stay in the resort with a certain number of nights in a beach villa and some more nights in a water villa will result in affordability, and you will definitely not miss out on the overall experience of staying in both types of villas.

Below is an approximate minimum cost of Beach villa and Water villa.

Water Villa	Rs 40,000 / Night
Beach Villa	Rs 15,000 / Night

Choose the right mode of Transfer.

The major portion of your costs has been covered till now. Transfers are an important element that might make or break your plan. Once you land at the Velanna International Airport in Male city, you will need some form of transport to take you to the resort/private island.

These transfers could be done via: Speedboat, Seaplane, or Domestic flight + Speedboat. More often than not, the type of transfer is decided by how far the resort is located from the International airport. Resorts closer to the airport use a speedboat transfer and the ones far away use either a Seaplane transfer or a domestic flight + speedboat transfer.

Basic rule of thumb is to choose shared speedboats as they cost much lesser than the other two options. This will cost anywhere around 20 USD per person for a one-way trip. Seaplanes will cost you anywhere from 125 USD to 250 USD per person for a one-way trip. In terms of cost, Domestic flight + Speedboat transfers come in between the above two choices.

Save Money in Food and Drinks

Food and drinks are costly in the Maldives, and honestly, a person like me who eats a lot will end up spending more on the food than on the stay. So how do we tread carefully here ? The safest bet is to book all of your stay, transfers, and food as a bundled package. If you book all of these together, you will be able to save a lot. I had mentioned Reethi Faru as a budget-friendly resort, even though they operate a seaplane transfer. So resorts that offer seaplane transfers are not necessarily costly – it is just a matter of how you make the bookings.

Save Money in Water Sports

The final category is all about the activities: water sports, sunset cruises, candle-light dinners, floating breakfasts, etc. There is only one way to reduce costs on this front: by reducing the number of activities you indulge in. My suggestion would be to take up only the main activities that are famous in the Maldives.

Snorkeling and scuba diving through coral reefs, for example, are breathtaking experiences that you should not pass up. You can also bring your own watersports equipment, which will cut down on your costs on a major level. Selecting each activity based on your interests, budget, and experience is key. I am confident that you will now have a better idea of how to plan the perfect budget trip to Maldives !

Remember we spoke about transactional travel agents in the beginning? Well, we at Pickyourtrail are focused on being travel consultants and not mere agents. What I mean by that is we try to leave our customers more educated than when they came to us. We value quality over quantity. If you have reached this far, I sincerely hope that you leave more educated than when you first came here.