Where is the Best Area to Stay in Maafushi Island (Maldives)?

Maafushi Island is a very small island that measures around just 1.3km in length and 0.3km in width. Therefore, no matter where you stay on the island, it is still within walking distance to the popular beaches. This article was last updated on 05 July 2019.

Best Area to Stay in Maafushi

Personally, I feel that it’s ideal for tourists to stay towards the northern end of the Island, where the beautiful beaches are located. Looking at the aerial picture on top, you will see that the popular Public Beach, Bikini Beach, and Water Sports Beach are all located in this area. Do note that only Bikini Beach allows tourists to wear skimpy swimwear. It is illegal to expose your skin in public on other parts of the island. On the south side of the island, it is not as scenic. Coral Beach (towards the south side) is basically a dry beach with no sand, and few people go there. Also, the Maafushi Prison is located on the southern tip of the island.

Hotels and Price Range

On the North side of the island, there are many awesome hotels like Velana Beach Hotel, Crystal Sands Hotel, Kaani Beach Hotel, Arena Beach Hotel, Shadow Palm Hotel, Stingray Beach Inn and Sun Tan Beach Hotel. The price of these hotels range between USD 80 to USD 150 per night.

The above are all premium hotels in Maafushi. If you are a backpacker who prefer to stay in budget accommodations, the popular choices on the North side of the island include Water Breeze Maafushi, Maafushi Inn, Sunshine View and Isle Beach Inn. For these hotels, the prices range between USD 50 to USD 70 per night.

We recommend going through the reviews and best prices of the hotels on Tripadvisor before making your decision.  You can refer to Google Maps to see the exact location of all the above-mentioned Maafushi hotels.

During our holiday in Maafushi, we stayed at Velana Beach Hotel, which is a premier boutique hotel with excellent accommodation, service and food. It is just a five-minute walk from the popular Public Beach and Bikini Beach. We enjoyed every single minute of our stay here! It is also a child-friendly hotel; we saw the Velana staff making many thoughtful arrangements for a couple and their toddler son during our stay. This is one of the more expensive hotels in Maafushi, but it was definitely worth the premium we paid. For travelers who are willing to spend a little bit more for comfort, this would be a very good choice. You can read our full review of Velana Beach Hotel.

Another hotel that we would recommend is Arena Beach Hotel, as it is located directly on the beautiful Bikini Beach. It may get slightly noisy during the day as many tourists come here. However, if you prefer to stay in a bustling area, this would be a good choice.

This article is part of our completely free and fantastic Ultimate Maafushi Travel Guide. Why spend days researching when all your holiday information is simply a click away?