How to Book a Trip to the Maldives for Less

how to go to the maldives for less, maldives on a budget
how to go to the maldives for less, maldives on a budget

Today I’m going to be talking about how to book a trip to the Maldives for less – because it turns out that it isn’t quite as expensive as you might think! My mum and I managed to book our trip for a very good price, so I thought I’d share the tips and tricks that I’ve picked up through the process.

I want to start out by saying that obviously the Maldives is not a ‘budget holiday’ destination. You aren’t going to get a package deal for £400, like you do in Europe. But there are ways to keep the costs down and there are resorts that cater to a tighter budget.

maldives for less, maldives on a budget
maldives for less, maldives on a budget
maldives for less, maldives on a budget

Book in the off-season

This is really my no.1 tip for getting a good deal on a trip to the Maldives. We booked our trip for May, which is the start of the rain season. This means we did have quite a bit of rain during our holiday, but normally during the night or early in the morning. There was only 1 day that it rained the full day and we just went to the spa!

Going in the off-season means that prices are slashed in both the luxury and mid-range resorts. It is also a lot quieter, which we quite liked. Also, booking when UK schools aren’t on holiday yet also keeps the costs down. The flights are normally in less demand (all of our flights were practically empty when we went!).

Now, if you do book in the off-season you will get some rain. Some months will be wetter than others, but apparently May is one of the wettest and we still had a great time. There was still sunshine everyday (apart from 1) and we got rather good tans if I do say so myself!

Book a package deal (but shop around)

We actually booked our trip through Emirates, meaning that our price was inclusive of flights, hotel and transfers. We worked out that doing it this way saved us quite a lot of money compared to booking the flights and hotel separately. So I definitely think it is worth looking at package holidays!

However, shop around and compare the prices of resorts on different holiday provider’s websites. Our resort (Velassaru Maldives) was around £200-£300 cheaper on Emirates than it was on Thomson Tailor-made.

maldives for less, maldives on a budget
maldives for less, maldives on a budget
maldives for less, maldives on a budget

Seek out the ‘budget’ resorts

I think because of Instagram (I’m as much to blame for my Instagram shots too!) there is this misconception that the Maldives is made up of only luxury resorts filled with rich, beautiful people and celebrities. But this isn’t the case! There is a variety of hotels in the Maldives to suit a number of budgets.

When we were researching our holiday, we found 3 and 4 star resorts that were a very reasonable price for our dates. We decided that because we were going in the off-season (when prices drop) we’d opt for a more luxurious resort than normal as we were getting a great deal. So it’s really up to you & your budget for what you want to go for!

I actually got followed on Instagram by a hostel-like hotel in the Maldives while I was there, so you can go really budget if you like!

Go Full-Board or All-Inclusive

Ok so this isn’t so much a money saving tip in terms of booking the trip, however if you are going to the Maldives this will save you a lot of money (trust me!). As I mentioned in my review of our hotel, a holiday to the Maldives involves staying within the resort apart from if you choose to do day-trips to go snorkelling or diving etc. That means you will be eating and drinking in your hotel for breakfast, lunch & dinner whether you like it or not.

Now, because you are unable to leave your hotel/island to go somewhere else to eat the resort make the prices of the food very expensive. A burger in our hotel was $27 (US), for example. Therefore, it is in your best (monetary) interests to go for the full board or all inclusive options when booking your hotel.

These options are quite pricey at the booking stage (ours added on around £500pp I believe) but it is far cheaper than buying every meal every day at the hotel’s normal prices. We found that the full board option at our hotel was great, although drinks were not included. We aren’t huge drinkers, so this wasn’t a big issue for us, but if you are wanting to enjoy quite a bit of drink on holiday I’d try to find a resort that does all-inclusive.

maldives for less, maldives on a budget

So those were my tips for going to the Maldives for less! I wanted to just include the things that I actually found helpful in keeping our costs down – I know that using airmiles, booking in advance/last minute and using special discount websites can all be great but we just didn’t do any of those things for our trip!

I’d be happy to answer any questions that any one has about booking a trip to the Maldives, whether it is worth it etc. So please don’t hesitate to ask! This will be the conclusion to my Maldives content (although a few pics might pop up here & there) and I will be going back to ‘regular programming’ over the next week or so. But I am off to Spain (today, in fact!) so there will be more Summer/holiday content coming your way soon!

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