Traveling to the Maldives was so different from what we expected. Yes, we went to the Maldives and we were not on our honeymoon, neither did we spend thousands of dollars on our trip! Wonder how we did it? We travel with Visitor Maldives, they specialize in affordable tours in the Maldives mixed with experiential travel. We got to experience the real Maldives immersing ourselves in the local culture and had fun doing half-day excursions to different places. We went island hopping to experience different islands in the Maldives and this is how our 4 day trip to the Maldives with Visitor Maldives looks like:

Day 1 - Hulhulé/Male

On our first day we arrived at Velana International Airport located in Hulhulé Island. Right after immigration, there was already a person from Visitor Maldives waiting for us at the entrance (it was easy to recognize him because he was holding a board that had our names in it). He was very friendly and nice, he helped us with our luggage and took us to the ferry.
Our first stop in our Maldives holiday was Malé, the capital city of the Maldives. There are three ways to get to Malé: by shuttle bus/taxi, speed boat, or ferry. The cheapest option is the ferry, it’s less than $1 US dollar and it only took us 15 min to get from the Airport to Malé. We board the ferry, enjoyed the beautiful ride, and in less than the blink of an eye we were
already in Malé City. Upon arrival, there was also a staff from the hotel waiting for us to help us with our luggage. On the first day we stayed at Hotel Jen, a beautiful 4 star hotel in the middle of Malé City.

Malé is a small city, it is only 5.8 km long, there’s no need to use a taxi while in Malé, since it’s small you can literally walk anywhere. After checking in to Hotel Jen, we were ready for our first Maldives experience: a walking tour around Malé. We met our tour guide at the hotel lobby, it was also easy to recognize him because he had a “visitormaldives.com” board on his hands. He was a local Maldivian with a lot of knowledge about the history of the Island.
Our guide took us to different spots including the local food market where we got to see a lot of the Maldivian culture and we got to try different fruits and candies from the local shops. Right next to the food market is the fish market, a very unique place with all types of different fish, it was interesting to see how fresh fish is cut and traded between locals. After the local
markets we went around the island visiting different places including historic monuments, the mosque, the president house, the parliament, a cemetery, and the shopping street where we went shopping for some souvenirs. It was a nice tour were we got to immerse into the real local Maldivian culture.

After the tour was over we had lunch at a local restaurant we found on our way back to the hotel. Tuna is definitely a must try during your holiday in the Maldives. We really like a local dish called Mas Huni, which is basically tuna, coconut, onion, and chili finely chopped and mixed together. It’s typically a breakfast dish but we loved it so much that we had it for lunch and sometimes even for dinner! (lol, that’s how good it is!) We totally recommend you
to try Mas Huni, we are pretty sure you’ll end up having it three times a day as well!

We headed back to the rooftop at Jen Hotel after lunch, where we relax for a while and enjoyed the sunset with a nice view of Malé City. We had dinner at the hotel and went to bed right after, we wanted to rest since there were even more experiences waiting for us the next morning.

Day 2 - Malé/Maafushi

The second day of our Maldives trip started with breakfast at Jen Hotel. It was a breakfast buffet with all types of different dishes from around the world, including Sri Lankan, Indian, Maldivian, and American cuisine. The day couldn’t have started any better. Right after breakfast we were ready to board the speed boat to our next destination: Maafushi Island. On the second day we stayed at Velana Hotel, they arranged the transportation for us, in about half an hour we arrived at Maafushi Island. The staff from Velana Hotel were waiting for us at the port and helped us with our luggage.

We checked in to Velana Hotel, and then we took some time to walk around and explore the island. We had lunch at a local restaurant and then went biking around the island with bicycles Velana Hotel provided us. In the afternoon we had an excursion scheduled: parasailing. We went parasailing with Maafushi Dive. To be honest, at the beginning I was a little bit nervous but there’s nothing to fear. It was such an amazing experience, it literally
feels like you are flying and it’s completely safe. It was a 15 minute ride in the air, and it was totally worth it! We could even spot different boats and island from above. After parasailing, we had a delicious dinner at Velana Hotel, and went off to bed.

Day 3- Maafushi/Thulusdhoo

On the third day we had breakfast at Velana Hotel and then went on a speed boat to our next destination: Thulusdhoo Island. It was about 45 min ride on the speed boat. On the third day we stayed at Reef Edge Hotel, a nice place right in front of the beach. The hotel had some bikes for the guests, and we went right on to explore the island with the bikes as we arrived to Thulusdhoo. While biking around, we got to see the locals on their day to day life, we saw some kids playing football, a couple of locals entering the mosque, and
some of them working at local shops. We also found different cute swings by the beach, we had fun riding the swings and of course took the time to snap a couple of pictures.

We went back to the hotel for lunch, and then went on to a sunset cruise excursion to watch the sunset at a sandbank. It was such a magical and beautiful experience to end our holiday in the Maldives. We went back to the hotel for dinner, and enjoyed the beach for a while before going to bed.

Day 4 - Thulusdhoo/Hulhulé

On the last day of our trip we woke up early to watch the sunrise by the beach. It was so beautiful and peaceful… just like paradise. After sunrise, we enjoyed a delicious breakfast at Reef Edge (had Mas Huni one last time of course!) and headed over to the speed boat for our transfer to the airport.

Traveling the Maldives with Visitor Maldives was definitely the best decision we could have made. We saw a different side of the maldives that is not usually advertised. We got to immerse ourselves in the local maldivian culture, tried different local dishes, explore three different islands, had fun excursions, and spend way less money that we would have spend
with just one night at a resort. There is definitely more to see in the Maldives, we can’t wait to come back and go on even more excursion and explore other local islands.

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