Summary:

• Meals are expensive in the Maldives
• Especially if you are at a resort that is on its own private island
• Most items have to be flown in/shipped in
• All inclusive luxury resorts similar to the Caribbean is rare .
• Instead you have the option of adding meal plans once you book a hotel
• Three kinds of meal plans :
  • Full Board : Includes all meals . Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner . Depending on the resort they may restrict what restaurant you can have each meal at . For JW – if you went with this option, dinner could not be at the steakhouse without paying extra . They had 4 restaurants available for dinner and the full board only covered one restaurant option for dinner.
  • Half Board – Includes breakfast and dinner . This is an option if you are trying to save cost . Some people try to have a late breakfast and early dinner . Again resorts may restrict time lines for meals . At the JW breakfast finished around 10 am and dinner didn’t start till after 7 pm .
  • A La Carte – You pay for every meal .

How to choose a meal plan for Maldives?

A few factors to take into consideration:

• Cost conscious – if you have a specific budget or are on a tight budget best to get a copy of menus from your resort and do a few scenario analysis before picking a plan
• Your typical eating habits . Do you normally eat two meals or three .
• Preference for Variety. Many half and full board limit you to the same restaurant for your stay.

After reviewing the prices and the restaurant options at our resort we decided to go with a la carte pricing. The reasons being .

• We already had breakfast included due to my husband’s status with Marriott
• We wanted to have the option of picking restaurants vs having pre-defined choices
• We normally share meals . Each of us didn’t need an appetizer/desser

At the end of our stay our a la carte Bill was lower than if we had gone with full board . We had breakfast, lunch and dinner everyday.

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Can one person take half board/full board while the other doesn’t ?

We checked with our resort and this was not possible. All parties in your group must choose the same meal plans .

How do you optimize your spend on food in the Maldives?

We didn’t skip any meals . However I did take 2 packs of coke , mango juice and snacks ! My luggage was heavy. The drinks were worth it . Otherwise we would have spend 9 USD per coke ! Snacks – I brought too much. Pack lightly .