Which local island for a couple
You will not get an overwater villa. You will get a village, a reef and a sunset that costs nothing — and considerably more of the country than a resort shows you.
Photo · Ilija Jevtic / Google Alif Alif Atoll
Bodufolhudhoo
Bodufolhudhoo has just over seven hundred residents, which puts it among the smaller guesthouse islands in Alif Alif. That size…
Photo · maldivian_abo / Google Alif Dhaal Atoll
Dhangethi
Dhangethi sits on the eastern rim of South Ari with a little over nine hundred residents. It is one of the older guesthouse…
Baa Atoll
Dharavandhoo
Dharavandhoo is the way into Hanifaru Bay. The bay sits within the Baa Atoll UNESCO Biosphere Reserve, and in season the currents…
Photo · Aleksandra Jopek / Google Kaafu Atoll
Dhiffushi
Dhiffushi sits at the eastern edge of Kaafu, at the end of the chain rather than in the middle of it, with a little under…
Photo · Hamdhoon Hameed / Google Alif Dhaal Atoll
Dhigurah
Dhigurah is long and thin — the name means "long island" — and that shape is the point. A single sand spit runs off the southern…
Photo · Lucie Mohelnikova (other way holiday) / Google Baa Atoll
Fehendhoo
One hundred and ninety-eight people live on Fehendhoo. That makes it the smallest inhabited island covered here — smaller than…
Photo · AROUND THE WORLD / Google Baa Atoll
Fulhadhoo
Three hundred and forty-one people live on Fulhadhoo, on a long sandbank at the southern edge of Baa. It is one of three small…
Photo · Eduard P / Google Vaavu Atoll
Fulidhoo
Four hundred people live on Fulidhoo. That number explains most of what the island is: a few sand streets, a handful of…
Photo · Petra Caganova / Google Baa Atoll
Goidhoo
Goidhoo has just under six hundred residents and shares a reef with Fulhadhoo and Fehendhoo in the south of Baa Atoll. Of the…
Photo · Hussain Solah / Google Kaafu Atoll
Gulhi
Gulhi is a small island in southern Kaafu with fewer than a thousand residents, and its main advantage is position: it sits on…
Photo · Rune Tollefsen / Google Kaafu Atoll
Huraa
Huraa lies in northern Kaafu with around sixteen hundred residents, close enough to Malé that the transfer is short and far…
Photo · Angelo Greco / Google Vaavu Atoll
Keyodhoo
Keyodhoo has a little over six hundred residents and sits in Vaavu, the atoll with the fewest people in the country and some of…
Photo · Richard Newman / Google Alif Alif Atoll
Mathiveri
Mathiveri sits at the northern end of Alif Alif with fewer than nine hundred residents — small enough to walk end to end, large…
Photo · Mohamed Fazeel / Google Alif Dhaal Atoll
Omadhoo
Omadhoo lies in the eastern chain of South Ari with a little over nine hundred residents. It is less visited than Dhigurah or…
Photo · hassan kuleys / Google Alif Alif Atoll
Rasdhoo
Rasdhoo is a diving island first and everything else second. It sits on its own small atoll just north of Ari, and the drop-off…
Photo · Denis Ivko / Google Vaavu Atoll
Thinadhoo
Two hundred and fifty-eight people live on Thinadhoo. That makes it the smallest island covered here by a wide margin, and it is…
Photo · Carlos Alberto do Amaral / Google Alif Alif Atoll
Ukulhas
Ukulhas made its name doing something unglamorous: it sorts and manages its waste. On an archipelago where rubbish disposal is a…
Photo · Salt Fish / Google Noonu Atoll
Velidhoo
Velidhoo has around eighteen hundred residents and sits in Noonu, an atoll better known to divers than to beach travellers. It is…
What to ask before you book
- Smaller islands are quieter but have fewer places to eat. On an island of four hundred people, that can mean two.
- Unmarried couples sharing a room is entirely routine in guesthouses; nobody will ask.
- A sandbank trip at sunset is the closest thing to the resort experience, and most guesthouses arrange one.