The islands where people actually live
Around a thousand islands make up the Maldives; fewer than two hundred are inhabited, and only some of those have guesthouses. These are the ones worth knowing about — each with its own character, its own way in, and its own reason to go.
Narrow it down
Showing 7 of 25 islands
Photo · Warren Mills / 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…
1,270 residentsBikini beach
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…
583 residentsBikini beach
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…
976 residentsBikini beach
Photo · Marc Perreault / Google Kaafu Atoll
Guraidhoo
Guraidhoo sits in southern Kaafu with around seventeen hundred residents, which makes it a proper island community rather than a…
1,743 residentsBikini beach
Photo · Bilal Afzal Khan / Google Kaafu Atoll
Maafushi
Maafushi sits about 26 km south of Malé in Kaafu Atoll, and it is where local-island tourism in the Maldives first took hold at…
4,471 residentsBikini beach
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…
878 residentsBikini beach
Photo · Jenzy Ben / Google Kaafu Atoll
Thulusdhoo
Thulusdhoo is the surf island of Kaafu Atoll, and it wears that identity plainly. Two of the best-known breaks in the country sit…
1,801 residentsBikini beach