The three things that decide a Maldives trip.

The Maldives has two seasons, not four, and the difference between them is money rather than misery. Understanding which weeks you are buying is the cheapest upgrade available to you.

Written by Axis Journeys

Dry season: December to April

The north-east monsoon brings the postcard: clear skies, flat seas, the best underwater visibility of the year and the highest rates of the year. If your priority is guaranteed sunshine and glassy water for photographs, this is the window you pay for.

Peak is mid-December to mid-January. Expect five- to ten-night minimum stays, compulsory festive gala dinners charged per person, and the year’s highest transfer loads. A New Year villa is often 2.5 to 3 times its May price for the same room.

February and March are the sweet spot: reliably dry, seas settled, and priced meaningfully below the festive fortnight. April is hot and still, with the first surf arriving on the eastern atolls and water temperatures at their highest.

Green season: May to November

The south-west monsoon is widely misunderstood. Rain generally arrives in heavy bursts of an hour or two rather than for days on end, the lagoons stay warm, and the light between squalls is often better than anything in February. What you do get is wind, more chop on the crossings, and the occasional written-off afternoon.

In exchange, rates fall hard, 30 to 50 per cent below dry-season equivalents at many properties, with the free-night and half-board upgrades that fill our offers page. Most of the value we find for clients sits in May, October and November.

When the big animals arrive

Green season is also the wildlife season. Hanifaru Bay in Baa Atoll, a UNESCO biosphere reserve, fills with feeding reef mantas from roughly May to November, peaking August to October, and on the best days that means dozens of animals and occasionally over a hundred in one shallow funnel of water, sometimes with juvenile whale sharks among them.

The site is tightly regulated, and rightly so: snorkelling only, no scuba, a guided visit of about 45 minutes, a daily cap of roughly 80 visitors, a conservation permit of about USD 20 per person, and rangers on the water enforcing it. Boats are limited inside the bay lines, so access is rationed, and a resort with permit access matters more than proximity on a map.

Sightings cluster around the full and new moon, when tidal flow concentrates plankton in the bay. If mantas are the reason for the trip, build the dates around the lunar calendar and give yourself four nights in Baa rather than two.

Whale sharks are a separate story: juveniles are resident year-round around Maamigili in South Ari, which makes that atoll the more reliable bet if you want one encounter rather than a spectacle.

The taxes nobody quotes you

Three government charges sit on top of every Maldives holiday and they have all moved recently. Green tax has been USD 12 per person per night at resorts since January 2025, double the old rate, with children under two exempt. Tourism GST rose from 16 to 17 per cent on 1 July 2025 and applies to the room, the food, the spa, the excursions and the transfers. Airport departure tax is now USD 50 in economy, USD 120 in business and USD 240 in first.

Add the near-universal 10 per cent service charge and the real number is roughly 28 to 30 per cent above the headline nightly rate before you have bought a single cocktail. Any quote that does not show those lines separately is not a quote. It is an advertisement. Ours always shows them.

Month by month, honestly

January: flawless weather, worst value, book a year out. February–March: the best all-round compromise. April: hot, still, excellent visibility, building surf. May: first rains, big price drops, manta season opens. June–July: windiest, cheapest, best for surfers and divers who do not mind chop. August: manta peak begins, European school-holiday pricing partially offsets green-season discounts. September–October: our favourite value window: manta peak, soft rates, short showers. November: seas settle, rates rise slowly, last good manta weeks. December: two different months. The first half is calm and sensibly priced, the second is the most expensive fortnight of the year.