What you really get for your money in the Maldives

Annabel Fenwick Elliott stayed at resorts of all shapes, sizes and prices to discover the true meaning of value

As someone fortunate enough to have seen a lot of the world, I am resolute in my view that the Maldives is the best holiday destination on Earth (unless you find sand and sea boring). Having developed considerably from 1970, when the Indian Ocean archipelago was still a largely uninhabited collection of 1,192 fishing islands, today there is little to distinguish one from another (there are more than 150 operating as resorts, with about a dozen new offerings launching each year).

Competition is fierce between brands to differentiate themselves in what is essentially a parade of whitesand, turquoise-rimmed microcosms dotted with overwater villas. Standards are high, as are prices, which range anywhere from about £300 per night to more than £2,000.

But is it possible to visit this paradisal corner of the planet on a shoestring budget? And are the most expensive establishments really so much more amazing than their more moderately priced neighbours?

That’s what I set out to discover when I toured seven of them, from the absolute cheapest I could find (a ramshackle inn on a local atoll for £11 per night) to the priciest (an exclusive £4,000-per-night island of dreams) and several in between.

With my fiancé Julius in tow, I judged each of them on five key criteria – setting, design, service, facilities and food – and then chose three examples to compare. I found a fair few surprises, especially in the median ranges, where similarly priced resorts are not created equal. We stayed at two sister resorts under the same Marriott umbrella, the second (Le Méridien) being easily three times more marvellous than the first (the Sheraton), despite being in roughly the same price bracket; from £440 per night.

Cora Cora, newly launched in autumn 2021, was overpriced at £570 per night for what it offers, while I was blown away by Sun Siyam Olhuveli, a fantastic option with packages from as little as £175 per night for a family of three. For the purposes of the following in-depth comparison, though, I chose Le Méridien as the mid-range option, as it turned out to be my favourite overall.

At the cheapest end, while there are guesthouses on islands bookable for under £100 per night elsewhere, they tend to be far-flung, and difficult and prohibitively expensive to reach. So instead I hunted down the lowestpriced all-inclusive hotel I could find that was accessible from Male via public speedboat; Ithaa Beach Maldives, on the local island of Guraidhoo.

Booking all-inclusive in the Maldives, I learnt, is all but essential unless you are teetotal with the appetite of a sparrow: you’ll be on an island without any other dining alternatives, and the à la carte menu options at each resort we visited, across every price point, were fall-off-your-sun-lounger exorbitant. All the packages examined here are thus all-inclusive.

It’s worth noting also that there is certainly an upper limit to how splendid a resort can be. Several years ago I visited what used to be the priciest option in the Maldives; Coco Privé, a now-closed private island with a £32,000-per-night price tag, and it was no more luxurious than Kudadoo. So no matter how much cash you are rolling in, you won’t find better – or need to spend more – than somewhere like Kudadoo.

THE SETTING

ITHAA BEACH

This being located on the local fishing island of Guraidhoo, a 35-minute public speedboat ride from Male, it is governed by strict Islamic laws that don’t apply to resort-only islands. So though Ithaa is positioned on a quiet beach and just a short distance from the calm, clear sea, its location was wasted given that swimwear here is prohibited everywhere except for a small fenced-off “bikini beach” area on the other side of Guraidhoo. While the view is nice, it’s a shame not to be able to sunbathe or cool off in the water.

LE MÉRIDIEN

Delightful. This pristine, moderately sized nine-hectare island on the northern Lhaviyani Atoll has the advantage of being far enough away from Male (90 miles; a 35-minute seaplane ride) that it is free from the ugly construction sites and high-rise buildings that blight the skyline of other resorts (such as the Sheraton, similarly priced and also owned by Marriott, but with far inferior views). The surrounding reef was beautiful, fully stocked with fish and turtles, and close to an impressive 50 dive sites and two shipwrecks.

KUDADOO

A convenient five-minute speedboat hop from its less expensive sister Hurawalhi (many guests split their stay between the two), Kudadoo nevertheless feels like a world of its own. It’s a tiny, perfectly formed island, also on the Lhaviyani Atoll (45 minutes by plane), which can be circled on foot in less than 10 minutes, and had the best reef we experienced; a technicolour drop teaming with fish and spinner dolphins, just a few strokes from the deck of our villa.

Kudadoo wins for the quality of its reef, but Le Méridien’s location is almost as good. A vital and often overlooked factor in choosing a resort is how isolated the

Private dining: Annabel and her fiancé Julius enjoy a taste of paradise on Kudadoo

iAway from it all: Kudadoo is a tiny, perfectly formed island, close to a stunning reef