Before you go
The Maldives is a thousand islands and two ways of visiting them. A few facts settle most of the questions people arrive with.
Two ways to do it
A resort is its own island: pick the hotel and you have picked the island, the beach and the reef, and everything is priced in dollars. Local islands are the inhabited ones, with guesthouses and homestays run by the people who live there, a public beach for swimming, and cafés that charge local prices.
Getting there
Every international flight lands at Velana, the airport island beside Malé. From there a stay is reached by seaplane, by speedboat, or by a domestic flight and then a boat. Each stay on this site says which, and how long it takes.
Seaplanes fly in daylight only. Land in the evening and a seaplane resort means a night near the airport first, so a late arrival suits a stay reached by speedboat. See the stays a speedboat away.
Local islands are also served by public ferries, which are slow, cheap and run to a fixed timetable. Search the ferry timetable.
Fridays
Friday is the weekly holiday. No public ferry runs anywhere in the country on a Friday, and most routes between atolls go back through Malé rather than across. Plan a Friday as a day on the island, not a day of travel. Speedboats and seaplanes are unaffected.
On a local island
Swimwear is for the designated bikini beach and nowhere else; away from it, shoulders and knees covered is the courtesy. Alcohol is not sold on inhabited islands. Resorts have neither rule, and some guesthouses arrange a boat to a nearby sandbank or resort for a day of both.
What the price leaves out
Green Tax is charged per person per night on top of the rate, and the transfer from the airport is billed by the property, not the airline. At resorts a service charge and tax are added to everything bought on the island. Ask for the all-in figure for your dates before you book, and whether the transfer is included in it.
Money
US dollars are accepted almost everywhere and are what resorts and transfers are priced in. Cards work at resorts and larger guesthouses; on a small island, carry some cash. Rufiyaa comes from ATMs in Malé and on the larger local islands.
General guidance, not the rules of any one property. Stays list their own transfer and tax terms; the ferry timetable is MTCC's own. Check both before you travel.