Recommendations for hotel/guest house in Male, Maldives!

[DiverGirl1972]

I just booked a liveaboard trip in the Maldives and will be staying the night before our trip leaves and the night before we fly back to the States. Does anyone have any recommendations for where to stay? I've been through the reviews on Agoda and Booking.com and every place has an equal number of positive and negative reviews so it's been tough to find one that stands out - for the right reasons.

Was hoping some of you might have a suggestion or two? We were hoping to stay at the Hulhule Island Hotel (as they serve alcohol! lol), but it was INCREDIBLY expensive or sold out.

Thanks in advance!

 

[kasha]

Hiya DiveGirl
We've stayed at Hulhule Island Hotel in the past and this years trip thought we'd do a guesthouse but having looked on Tripadvisor we've going to stick with the Island Hotel.
I know it come in more expensive than the g.houses but factor it into the overall cost of the trip and what the heck compared to some of the reviews I've seen. I don't want to wake up on the morning of joining the liveaboard and find I've been eaten alive (by what I don't know) during the night and then run into issues whilst on the boat.

If you do choose to go with the g/house option there's nothing stopping you going to the Island Hotel for a beer or two and food; the airport island isn't very big and all is within walking distance.
Enjoy the Maldives & the diving (take a reef hook)
Vicky

 

[DiverGirl1972]

Vicky, thank you so much for your response! That definitely helps puts things in perspective. Unfortunately, the HIH is sold out on the evening before we end our trip, so I'll still have find a guest house option for one of the nights.

It did make my day to know that we could still head over there to enjoy the facilities as well as a meal and a couple of beers regardless of whether we had a reservation or not. I saw online that they have a day package available for that very thing.

I appreciate the heads up about bringing reef hooks. I hope they're intuitive to use, as we've never had the occasion to use them before. If you have any more suggestions/tips about traveling there, I'd love to hear them! Thanks again