Damselfish
Contributor
The thing about the Maldives is, almost everything is on a separate island, including most of the zillion hotels & resorts. Male and the airport are not even on the same island. The Hulehule Airport Hotel is on the airport island and is the only hotel you can drive to, of course there's a shuttle. The rooms were nice, the restaurant was fine, the pool/bar was a good place to hang out. It probably makes the most sense.
There are other hotels and resorts on nearby islands a very short water shuttle from the airport but I don't know anything about them or if that makes sense for one night. Might depend what time you get in. Perhaps check with your liveaboard where they generally pick you up and if they have any other suggestions. We were picked up by boat back at the airport and shuttled to the liveaboard; I expect that's common if not universal. (The airport has docks where other airports would have a taxi stand.) Maybe they would pickup by boat at a nearby resort if you asked.
If you want to be adventurous you could take a water shuttle to Male and stay someplace there, but for one night with luggage I doubt it's worth it the trouble. You could always stay at the airport hotel and take a water shuttle to Male if you really want to check it out. We didn't, what we heard was it wasn't worth the bother and resting and trying to get closer to local time seemed more appealing at the time.
There are other hotels and resorts on nearby islands a very short water shuttle from the airport but I don't know anything about them or if that makes sense for one night. Might depend what time you get in. Perhaps check with your liveaboard where they generally pick you up and if they have any other suggestions. We were picked up by boat back at the airport and shuttled to the liveaboard; I expect that's common if not universal. (The airport has docks where other airports would have a taxi stand.) Maybe they would pickup by boat at a nearby resort if you asked.
If you want to be adventurous you could take a water shuttle to Male and stay someplace there, but for one night with luggage I doubt it's worth it the trouble. You could always stay at the airport hotel and take a water shuttle to Male if you really want to check it out. We didn't, what we heard was it wasn't worth the bother and resting and trying to get closer to local time seemed more appealing at the time.