The clouds broke as a group of 15 women waded a few metres into the Indian Ocean before forming a circle. They bobbed gently with the help of polystyrene floats. I dug my toes into the warm sand and listened as the lap of waves was punctuated with koo-ooo call of the Asian Koel, a type of cuckoo, and hum of the women’s chatter.
It was 6am on Maafushi, a public island in the Maldives that’s about 45 minutes by speedboat from the main island, Malé. I was a few days into a group tour with travel company Plotpackers – to which I had arrived solo.
The Maldives is more commonly associated with romantic breaks – couples make up 60 per cent of Maldives packages booked with online tour operator Thomas Cook, for example. The view from my water taxi to Maafushi certainly fit the honeymoon bill. We zipped past palm trees, overwater villas and white-sand beaches.
For many, the cost this paradise destination is prohibitive, especially if travelling solo. The average price for a week-long stay at a private island resort in the peak season is around £7,000 for two (sharing a room), including flights, according to online travel agent Travel Republic.
There are ways to visit the Maldives on a budget, however, such as staying on a public island or visiting in the wet season, from around May to October. Meanwhile, as demand has grown for solo travel, several tour operators now offer group trips geared towards those travelling without friends or a partner. I had signed up for the latter with Plotpackers.
The company was founded by young British entrepreneur Louise Truman in 2023. After a difficult experience while backpacking on her own in Latin America, Truman wanted to offer solo travellers, especially women, an organised way to travel with like-minded people. I joined a group of 18 people –15 women, three men, all in their 20s – who had come, variously, from the UK, the US, Canada, Egypt, and Germany.
Plotpackers has gathered a following for its trips to countries across Latin America, Asia, Africa and Europe. Its seven-day Maldives breaks cost from £899pp, which includes B&B accommodation (I shared a bedroom and a bathroom with two women) in a beachside hotel on Maafushi, transfers, three excursions, one lunch, a day at a private-island beach resort and the help of a guide.
It is cheaper to stay on public islands and some cater to tourists (Photo: Plotpackers)It was a great way to meet other travellers. But over the course of my trip, I realised that much of it could be organised independently for about the same price and without sharing a bedroom.
Maafushi, which is 0.8 miles long and 300 yards wide, accommodation starts at around £40 a night. A meal and a drink at a local restaurant costs around £12. Excursions cost up to £75 each, and day visits to private islands are around £130.
If I booked excursions, a private-island day trip, secured the cheapest accommodation with breakfast, had simple lunches and dinners, and paid for boat transfers from Malé (around £60), I could’ve budgeted around £800, plus flights – although I wouldn’t have had the expertise of a local of guide. On top of the £899 for a Plotpackers package, UK travellers can expect to pay an extra £700 for a direct, return flight to the Maldives when the next trip takes place in February.
One expense lacking from the trip was alcohol – it’s banned from the public islands. On Maafushi, fruit stores lined sandy narrow lanes in lieu of bars. There are adaptations to cater to foreign tourists. The west side of the island includes a “bikini beach” and restaurants that serve dishes such as spaghetti bolognese and chicken burgers. On the east side of the island, however, bikinis are banned, fishermen dock their boats and crabs scuttle across the sand unimpeded by crowds.
The boat excursions were a highlight of Isabella’s tripSimilar tranquility can be found on private islands, such as the one I visited on a day trip with Plotpackers. It had a pristine beach secluded by low-hanging palm trees as well as three alcohol-serving bars and a spa. It was fun to try, but my highlights of the trip were touring Maafushi and the Indian Ocean with Lei, our guide. A Spanish national, she had lived in Maafushi for seven years.
Lei took us “shark and sting-ray spotting” at twilight on a beach on the east side of the island. “Look for a reflective light,” she told us. “That will be a shark’s eye.” Red eyes soon reflected off our torchlights.
Such moments helped me see why Plotpackers has loyal customers – nearly half the group had been on another tour with the company. The bonds formed are another selling point. I became friends with my roommates. We timetabled the use of the bathroom and discussed our days before bed. It was a relationship I hadn’t experienced since leaving university.
I swapped numbers with several other travellers, too. The group was never short of laughter or conversation – which was wide-ranging. I chatted with a group of women in their early 20s about holiday romances and spoke to an ambulance technician about the NHS.
Plotpackers helped to form friendships, gave confidence to people who were new to travelling alone and removed the stress of organising a place to stay or finding a guide – but there were a few gripes among my group.
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Some thought the itinerary was sparse compared with other Plotpackers trips, which had offered activities on most – if not all – days. Then there was the added cost of lunches and dinners. But it was possible to keep extras expenses to a minimum by, for example, swapping an additional excursion (bought locally) for a $4 return ferry trip to another public island, Gulhi.
My most memorable moments were on our snorkelling excursion. First, we stopped at a reef where I saw octopuses squeezed into rocky crevices. On another stop, Lei showed us a clownfish, and a Hawksbill sea turtle grazing on seagrass.
Back on the boat, Lei danced with excitement, and we followed her gaze to spot spinner dolphins. As we watched them leap out of the sea, a low-fi soundtrack playing from the speakers of a nearby yacht, I felt glad to have shared the Maldives experience with the group of strangers-turned-friends that were dotted around the deck.
Booking it
The writer was a guest of Plotpackers. Its next Maldives trip is from 15-21 February from £899pp, plotpackers.com. Return economy flights from London to Malé start from around £700.
More information
Visitors must complete a traveller declaration within the 96 hours before their flight arrives in the Maldives, imuga.immigration.gov.mv/traveller . Tourists are given a 30-day visa on arrival. visitmaldives.com/en
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