According to The Telegraph Maldives plans to reopen for travel starting July 1st, 2020 after being closed to tourism since March 27th. As part of this reopening there will be strict requirements as follows:
- Travelers will need to
- Apply for a tourist visa in advance ($100 cost, previously not required for many countries)
- Have a minimum of 14 nights booked
- Have sufficient travel insurance for the duration of the stay
- Must submit either a negative COVID-19 antigen test (virus is not currently in the body) or a positive antibody test (you’ve had the virus but have acquired immunity)
- Must submit another antigen test when landing at Malé airport (and must be isolated until this comes back. This will take between three and 12 hours)
- All resorts will be required to
- hold a stock of PPE equipment and have a certified medic on staff
In the article The Telegraph also points out that those arriving by yacht or private jet will be able to enter starting June 1st and July 1st is the date for commercial flights. I can see why the Maldives are doing this, at the moment they have relatively few cases (1,457 with 5 deaths). It seems that they are focused on getting the most wealthy visitors back first with things like the 14 night stay requirement. I think it will be hard to get sufficient travel insurance, especially when insurance companies know there is a real risk of travelers being turned away after arriving. It’ll also be a tough sell for wealthy travelers to have to stay in Malé until the test comes back. I suspect we will see resorts start to sell packages that fulfill these requirements.
Hat tip to OMaaT
ya no
With so many great options all across the world, I don’t understand why anyone would want to visit such a backwards country:
https://abcnews.go.com/International/unique-underwater-sculpture-maldives-destroyed-deemed-islamic/story?id=58146425
I tried finding the above on Wikipedia, but there’s no mention of it in the article for Maldives — it sounds like they’re working overtime trying to censor this story from being well known by the community.
Fair point. Would love to see a post on good alternaives to Maldives for folks looking for that kind of premium beach / nature experience.
14 night minimum? So… just 1.33 million Hilty pointsu for a “free” stay at the Conrad, minus the new visa fee, night in Male awaiting test, expensive yet worthless travel insurance, international flights that surely won’t be cancelled… this is fine. /s
Currently have a 7 night stay booked there for my honeymoon starting August 12th. Am I screwed?
Impossible to know if restrictions will be relaxed by then or not. Doesn’t look great though
Sure sounds like it. FWIW, I spent a few days in Maldives at a resort on my honeymoon on way to Sri Lanka. It was lovely and relaxing but I would never want to spend anywhere near 14 days there. If you love doing nothing but beach and downtime (I know some people do) maybe you will be different but for us even a week would be too much.
100% screw-wu-wuuud.
Imagine jumping through all these hoops and still getting infected anyway.
hoops are to prevent you from infecting others:)
don’t misunderstand them the other way around