Maafushi to Fulidhoo Island, Maldives: 3 Transportation Options to Consider

by Jackie
Published: Updated:
Two lawn chairs and an umbrella on the white sandy beach of Fulidhoo Island, Maldives at sunrise

During your Maldives planning, you’ve decided to stay on the local islands of Maafushi and Fulidhoo. So, what are the transportation options to get between these two islands? 

We’re sharing 3 transportation options that you can take from Maafushi to Fulidhoo – a public ferry, speedboat, or a snorkeling excursion. 

We personally took the excursion route as we made a mistake with the public ferry schedule, so we’ll share more below. 

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1. Take the Public Ferry

The public ferry is an affordable and local way to travel between islands. It only costs 53 Maldivian Rufiyaa ($3.50 USD) per person one-way. 

The ferry travels from Maafushi to Fulidhoo every Sunday, Tuesday, and Thursday. It departs Maafushi at 11:35am and arrives at Fulidhoo at 1:20pm. The ride is 1 hour and 45 minutes. 

Click here for the ferry schedule and change the departing island to Maafushi. 

A blue, yellow, and red ferry approaches the Male’s Henveiru Ferry Terminal dock

This is the government public ferry that travels from Maafushi to Fuldihoo. Photo is at Male’s Henveiru Ferry Terminal

Just show up at the Maafushi dock between 11:20am-11:25am, board the ferry, and pay for the ride onboard. 

We took the ferry from Male to Maafushi and then Fulidhoo (with a stop in Maafushi) to Male and Airport. While they were slow-paced, they were comfortable. There was plenty of space to walk around and feel the ocean breeze. 


2. Take a Speedboat

Another option is to take a shared speedboat from Maafushi. 

It’s recommended to ask your accommodations to arrange the transportation as they have a better idea of the scheduling and cost. Usually, the speedboat comes directly from Male Airport to Fulidhoo. 

Expect to pay between $25 to $40 per person. It’s a pricer option but the speedboat travels at a much faster pace than the public ferry. 

This is an ideal option if you’re short on time. The boat will arrive in less than 1 hour.


3. Take an Excursion with Dropoff at Fulidhoo

The last option is to take a snorkeling excursion from Maafushi and have the speedboat drop you off at Fulidhoo. 

This is what we took as we needed to go to Fulidhoo Island on a Wednesday. We made a mistake with reading the ferry schedule as it only ran on Tuesday and Thursday. 


Unfortunately, we couldn’t change the schedule for our trip. So, our accommodations on Maafushi and Fulidhoo recommended the excursion route. 

Our Maafushi hotel, Island Ambience, suggested the Sharks Tour from Velaa Trips. But Velaa Trips wasn’t running the tour on Wednesday. 

So, we booked the Shipwreck Tour from iCom Tours on a Monday as the tour departed every day. (We already had a whale shark excursion planned on Tuesday). The cost was $65 per person. 

Jackie Szeto, Life Of Doing, is underwater with nurse sharks and fish swimming around her

Photo credit: iCom Tours

The Shipwreck Tour included swimming with lucky dolphins, seeing sting rays, swimming with nurse sharks, snorkeling around the shipwreck, and lunch on a sandbank. After lunch, the iCom Tours dropped off 6 of us at Fulidhoo Port. 

Everything worked out as we had an amazing snorkeling day trip and transportation to Fulidhoo! The excursion was 100% worth it.  

What about our luggage? We packed light with only our backpacks. We brought them onto the speedboat and gave them to the tour guides. They kept the luggages in a side storage area to prevent the luggages from getting wet during the trip. 


Final Thoughts

Depending on the amount of time and budget, you may choose one option over the other two. 

If we read the schedule correctly, we would have taken the public ferry from Maafushi to Fulidhoo. But taking a snorkeling trip with a stopover at Fulidhoo was a fantastic alternative. It was better than expected as we had an amazing time seeing the marine animals.  

We encourage you to read our other Maldives posts to help with your planning: 

If you have any questions about getting to Fulidhoo, please ask in the comment section below.

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Two lawn chairs and an umbrella on the white sandy beach of Fulidhoo Island, Maldives at sunrise

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