Maldives on a budget trip: 4 days 3 nights with 13,000 THB each to fully enjoy activities of snorkeling with sharks, dolphin watching and a luxury resort visit!

Today, we are going to take you guys to Maldives for 4 days and 3 nights to snorkeling, watching shark and dolphin and visiting a luxury resort. All of this with a budget of less than 13,000 THB per person (excluding plane tickets).

Maldives, another dream destination to add in a Travel Bucket List that must visit one day. When thinking of Maldives, one naturally thinks of white sand, blue sea, a luxury resort in the middle of the sea, swimming to watch shark, and taking hot photos. Oh well, you probably also think that, is it possible to travel to Maldives with 13,000 THB??

It's possible but not the kind that you will get to stay in a luxury villa in the middle of the sea while sipping wine. If that luxury trip is what you are looking for, please skip this blog because we will take you to a budget trip but you still can enjoy all of those cool activities. If you are ready, please come with us :)

4 days 3 nights in Maldives to enjoy activities of snorkeling with sharks, dolphin watching and a luxury resort visit!

Day 1: From Male Airport to Maafushi Island, evening go for the Sunset Finishing tour

Day2: Go visit a luxury resort in the middle of the sea and take hot photos at Fihalhohi Island Resort 

Day3: Shark Bay Tour to dive with the nurse sharks, see dolphins, corals and take photos at Sandbank

Day 4: Travel back to Thailand

Things to know before traveling to Maldives

• No visa is needed, you can stay up to 30 days, but your passport must have a minimum of 6 months validity.
• Maldives is a country that consists of 1,190 islands. Each island is called "Atoll". People only live in 200 islands and 80 of these are resorts.
• The average temperature is 29-32 degrees (the weather is similar to Thailand).
• Low Season (Rainy) is from May to October, it rains often.
• High Season (Summer) is from November to April (best time to visit) but actually we can travel throughout the year, it's beautiful even during the Low Season.
• The languages used here are Dhivehi and English. 
• The currency used is Rufiah (1 MVR = 2 THB) but USD is also widely accepted.
• To use the internet, it's best to buy the local SIM card because roaming data from Thailand doesn't work, the price is about 30 USD.

If you are ready, let's go to Maldives...

A direct flight from Thailand to Maldives with an inexpensive airline, Air Asia.

From Bangkok to Maldives, Male Airport, the direct flight takes about 4 hours. We flew in the morning at 9.15 a.m. and arrived at Male Airport at around 11.50 a.m. Maldives' time is 2 hours behind Thailand's time.

The round-trip ticket including luggage starts at 8, xxx THB, subject to our travel dates. If anyone loves to take photos and bring lots of clothes, the luggage of 20 kg is 710 THB.

Check out the promotion price at AirAsia Bangkok-Maldives

Due to early morning flight, if you are hungry, you can order the food onboard. Air Asia's Satan menu is inexpensive and delicious. The menu starts at 120 THB including water.
We tried Bibimbap and Bulgogi chicken with Chef Hong recipe on the way to Maldives.

Male International Airport, Maldives 

After taking the luggage, we bought the SIM card at the exit of the airport. After that, it's time to take the speed boat to Maafushi island because we will be staying there.

Traveling from the airport to different islands

• Traveling to the island or accommodation> The cheapest way is Ferry but must check the time. It might not go to the island we wanted to go. The fare is about 2 USD. 
• Speed Boat > Reasonable price, easy to travel. Mostly it goes to islands or resorts near Male Airport of less than 50 km. The scheduled speed boat is 20 USD per person.
• Sea Plane is perfect for a resort that is very far from the airport because it saves time but at the same time, the fare is very expensive. 

Day 1: From Male airport to Maafushi Island 

This trip, we are going to stay at Maafushi Island which is the biggest local island of Maldives. We took the speed boat of about 30 minutes, the fare is 20 USD per person.  

For more information, please click  https://web.facebook.com/MaafushiTours 

Maafushi Island is located in the southern region of Male Atoll. In the Kaafu Atoll area, most people are fishermen. There is no pork because local people are Muslims. Most importantly, there is no alcohol for sale on the island.

There are many beaches, but Bikini Beach is the only beach for tourists wearing bathing suits. Although swimming suits are not allowed on other beaches, you can still enjoy the beach as usual. Bikini Beach is in front of Kaani Hotel.

Where to stay on Maafushi Island? 

Actually, there are many affordable hotels on this island, starting from 1, xxx THB depending on what you like. We are staying at Sunrise Beach & Spa, a 3-star hotel not far from the pier, about 400 meters away. The hotel is close to the public beach and about 200 meters from Bikini Beach.

Room rates start at 2, xxx THB/night. We book rooms with breakfast and dinner for 3 nights at 9,500 THB, down to 3,160 THB per night (prices depend on the time of stay). Please visit the website for more information. 

Note: Breakfast and dinner may not have a lot to choose from or the taste might not match with what Thai people like but it's alright to eat.

Got a room with a balcony and a sea view

We arrived at the hotel around 2 p.m., we then unpacked our stuff and rested for a while. After that, we went for a cycling tour around the island before going to Sunset Fishing tour at 5 p.m. 

On Maafushi Island, it does not focus on luxury accommodation, but rather as a local island that focuses on activities. So we got to experience Maldives in a different mood.

Not many shops or restaurants. Most of them are small shops of local people.

Do not ask for liquor stores on the Island, because it doesn't exist. There are only milkshakes, fruit smoothies, quite healthy :)

Close to our accommodation is a cozy cafe named Stingray Cafe'. The atmosphere is chill and cool.

At 5 p.m. we went to the pier for the Sunset Finishing tour.

Sunset Finishing is a fishing trip to see the sunset and experience the fisherman's life in the sea. Price:  25 USD/person, starting from 5-8 p.m. So please eat something beforehand.

Here is how the bait looks like. They will have us pull this 20 meters long fishing thing into the sea and wait for the fish to catch it. It's quite fun. I think if you like fishing, you will love this activity for sure. 

While resting, we went to take some photos on the second floor. The atmosphere is very chill.

This is the end result of everyone's work but not me because no fish catch my bait, haha. 

After that, we went back to have dinner at our hotel, took a shower and got ready to rest so that we could wake up early for morning beautiful shooting at Bikini Beach with no other people in a frame.

Day 2: Visit Resort Day Trip, a luxury resort in the middle of the sea and a hot photos time at Fihalhohi Island Resort 

Well, since we are already here in Maldives, it'd be wrong to not take photos of luxury villas in the middle of the sea right? But even if we didn't stay in luxury villas, we could also have beautiful pictures. We could save a lot of money by going with a Day Use  Package in which we can pay to use the facilities of the resort without having to stay at the villa. We can buy this tour package from any hotel counter, the price ranges from 100 USD - 200 USD per person depending on the resort. This is an inclusive price for transportation and food. We can enjoy the service just like a guest in the resort except that we didn't have room to stay. We can walk, take a photo and swim. The soft drinks, alcohol and a premium buffet lunch are also included. Normally, the tour starts from 9.00 - 17.00.

We booked at Fihalhohi Island Resort.  It is 100 USD/person. We needed to take a speed boat for about 30 minutes from Maafushi Island.

Fihalhohi Island Resort is a 4.5-star resort. It is so very beautiful. The room starts at 1x, xxx THB/night (not a room in the middle of the sea).

The resort is quite huge. Going from the lobby to each spot is quite far. We can walk to take pictures of each spot and have some drinks at the bar according to the menu that is included in the package.

There are so many spots for taking photos. Get all the outfits ready, you will definitely have all beautiful photos.

At noon, we went to have a buffet lunch at the resort's restaurant. It tasted pretty good and with many choices. After the food, we went to rest on the beach again.

We stayed until 5 p.m. before going back to Maafushi island. We continued walking and chilling in front of the beach because the energy still remained. If you don't want to go to a luxury resort tour, there are many water activities offered here. It is suitable for people who love sports, like Parasailing, Jet Ski, Flying Board and many more. The price for each activity is considered not so expensive depending on what you play.

Here is the evening atmosphere in front of Bikini Beach. We planned to take photos in the morning so there won't be any people.

After that, we went back to take a shower and had dinner before chilling out on a local fruit juice bar at "Juice Viber", where we could hang out like Maafushi people. 

"Juice Viber"

This is a local fruit here called Pine Fruit. The taste is a bit sour, it's good for making smoothies, quite delicious.

After delicious smoothies time, we went back to rest. Good night all, see you again tomorrow :)

Day 3:  Shark Bay Tour, snorkeling with the nurse sharks, see dolphins, and corals as well as taking beautiful photos at Sandbank.

This one day trip program of snorkeling with the nurse sharks, see dolphins, and corals as well as taking beautiful photos at Sandbank is from 09.30-16.00. The tour package costs 50 USD each. This price includes transportation, lunch, towel, beverages and snorkeling equipment. The staff takes photos for us free of charge of which we can take our USB to save those photos by the end of the day at our hotel lobby. We bought this tour package from the Sunrise Beach hotel. But you can also buy it anywhere you wish as the price is not different. 

Shark Bay Tour: 

Highly recommended as a must-do activity when you visit Maldives! It's so worth the visit. We got to see the real sharks, a non-aggressive Nurse Shark that we can swim nearby, but don't touch them otherwise you'll get bitten.

We took the speed boat to the sea for about 30 minutes. When we reached the destination, the staff used the fish as bait and soon they appeared. If you don't want to swim, you can also see these sharks from the boat. 

You would get some good shots with them if you can snorkel without a life jacket. We spent the time with the sharks here for about an hour before moving to another spot. 

A close up look, aren't they cute? 

Dolphin Watching : 

After that, we continued to watch the cute dolphins. There were so many of them but if you wish to swim with them closely, you might not be able to catch up with them as they swam so quickly.  

Sandbank Maldives: 

Sandbank Maldives is highly recommended, a landform consisting of a sandbar in the water where you can rest and take beautiful pictures with a beautiful beach middle of the Maldives' sea. If we want to take a picture from the drone, the fee of 10 USD for each person.  Unfortunately, our trip the drone was out of order. We could only take some photos with our GoPro, so we didn't get many beautiful photos from this stop T.T 

We had our lunch here right in the middle of the sea. They set up this umbrella for us to enjoy our lunch for about 50 minutes. 

After that, we continued for coral snorkeling which I think this spot is not as beautiful as we expected. There's a beautiful spot for that but it's a half-day tour that also takes you to swim with the sea turtles as well, but we didn't go with that program.

We enjoyed here until about 4 p.m. before going back to our hotel to take a shower and rest. 

This evening, we didn't want to have dinner at our hotel anymore but we would go try a pizza nearby our hotel. The price and taste were very good. 

We five people ordered two big trays of pizza (chicken and seafood topping), a spaghetti, chicken nuggets, a drinking water and we paid 35 USD or 7 USD each. The menu was in Rufiyaa but we could pay with USD.

After dinner, we went back to rest, to pack and get ready to go back home tomorrow.  

Day 4: Maafushi - Thailand

The last day, we woke up early to enjoy the sunrise at Bikini Beach because in the morning there were no people, we took beautiful pictures and the entire beautiful beach was ours :)

Before taking the boat to the airport, we stopped to buy souvenirs first as the boat leaves about 10 a.m. The souvenir shop is also near our hotel.

Our flight departed at 12.35 p.m. and we reached Thailand at 19.05 p.m. 

On the way back, we had Baked Shrimp with Glass Noodles. Wow, this menu was so delicious, great dipping sauce. I have to say that I will definitely have it again on my next flight with Air Asia.

That's it, our Maldives trip of 4 days and 3 nights with full activities but light budget. For those who plan to go to Maldives, with good planning, you won't have to pay much money.

Total expenses are 822 USD or 25,893 THB, or 12,946.5 THB each.

• 1 SIM card, share together is 30 USD.  
• A round trip of speed boat is 80 USD.
• The visit resort day trip is 200 USD.
• Sunset fishing trip is 50 USD.
• Day Trip Shark bay tour is 100 USD.
• 3 nights hotel including breakfast and dinner is 302 USD.
• Food and beverage is 60 USD.

*Note: Expenses are subject to change, depending on the time you visit or the price of the package purchased.

A direct flight from Thailand to Maldives with an inexpensive airline, Air Asia  

From Bangkok to Maldives, Male airport, the direct flight takes about 4 hours. A round trip airfare starts from 8,xxx THB depending on our travel dates.

Check out the promotion price at AirAsia Bangkok-Maldives

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See you guys again on our next trip... If you guys have any recommendation, please do share it with us.

Goodbye ^ ^

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