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destination · Maldives
Maldives in 2026: green tax doubled, departure fees jumped, and the lowest country on earth is charging visitors to save itself
Review of Maldives
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Share your experienceThe Maldives is 1,192 coral islands across 26 atolls, 298 square kilometres of land scattered over roughly 90,000 square kilometres of ocean, with a 2024 population of about 601,269. It is the world's lowest-lying country: average elevation 1.5 metres, maximum 2.4 metres, and at current rates sea-level rise is projected to make it uninhabitable by 2100. That fact sits underneath every other fact about the place. Tourism started with a single resort, Kurumba, opening on October 3, 1972, and now dominates the economy, contributing close to 30 percent of GDP by one measure and generating more than 60 percent of foreign currency earnings. 2025 was a record year: 2.25 million arrivals, up about 10 percent, with travel receipts projected above USD 5.4 billion, up 15.8 percent on 2024 and past the national USD 5 billion target. 2026 has continued upward, with 474,920 arrivals in January and February alone, a 10.4 percent increase on the 430,356 in the same period of 2025. The government has been taxing that growth deliberately. The resort green tax doubled from $6 to $12 per person per night effective January 1, 2025, with smaller accommodation still collecting $6, revenue earmarked for reef protection and coral bleaching response; it brought in more than USD 27.31 million in just January and February 2026, up 63.7 percent on the USD 16.68 million in the same two months of 2025. Departure fees for foreign nationals rose too: economy from $30 to $50, business from $60 to $120, and first class from $90 to $240. The structural thing to understand before booking is that the Maldives runs two parallel tourism products under one flag. Resorts occupy private islands and can hold licences to serve alcohol. Local islands, where Maldivians live and work, are dry: alcohol is prohibited on beaches, streets and public areas, guesthouses on inhabited islands cannot and will not serve it, and importing alcohol is illegal, with luggage screened on arrival and any bottles confiscated. Neither model is a trap, but people who book a cheap guesthouse on a local island expecting resort behaviour, and people who assume a duty-free bottle will survive customs, are the two most reliably disappointed groups. The 2004 tsunami is the other reminder of exposure, having caused damage estimated at more than US$400 million, roughly 62 percent of GDP at the time.
What was great
The product is exactly as advertised, which is rarer than it sounds. Private-island resorts across 26 atolls give you a beach, a reef and a horizon with nobody else on them, and the guesthouse alternative on inhabited local islands has opened the country to travellers who could never have afforded the 1972-model resort economy. The reef diving and snorkelling are world class, and the government is at least visibly funding protection: the green tax generated more than USD 27.31 million in January and February 2026 alone, earmarked for reef protection and bleaching response. The country is also very good at the logistics of this. A record 2.25 million people arrived in 2025 and travel receipts topped a projected USD 5.4 billion, and the seaplane and speedboat transfer network that moves them works. If your trip is genuinely about a beach and a reef, almost nowhere delivers it more reliably.
What nearly ruined the trip
Cost, and the fact that the costs keep being added after you have chosen. The resort green tax doubled from $6 to $12 per person per night on January 1, 2025, and departure fees for foreign nationals rose from $30 to $50 in economy, $60 to $120 in business and $90 to $240 in first class. On top of that sit GST and resort service charges, and the transfer to your island, often a seaplane, is frequently the single largest unadvertised line on the bill. The second thing is that the one-island-one-resort structure means you are committed. There is no walking to a cheaper restaurant, so resort pricing on food and drink is effectively a captive market. If you go the guesthouse route on an inhabited island instead, understand the rules: local islands are dry, alcohol is prohibited on beaches, streets and public areas, guesthouses cannot serve it, importing it is illegal and bags are screened on arrival. And under all of it is the physical reality that this is the world's lowest-lying country, averaging 1.5 metres and topping out at 2.4 metres above sea level, projected on current rates to become uninhabitable by 2100, with the 2004 tsunami having already caused damage of more than US$400 million, about 62 percent of GDP.
Safety
★★★★☆ Mostly fineValue for money
★★☆☆☆ OverpricedComments
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