Avoiding extra transfer fees between Maldives hotels?
 

Hi, newcomer to Maldives here. Have 4 Marriott free night certificates that I was able to redeem. So, while I generally wouldn't spend $800/night on a hotel anywhere, I could this year!

Looking to visit the Le Meridien in June and then another place (maybe an all inclusive or something?) and seeing many hotels on islands fairly close by (not on the same island though). Do I have to return to Male and fly back? Are there intra-island boats? Would getting a boat end up costing as much as a flight and taking a whole day with departure and transfers etc? Doing research on Maldives hotel-to hotel transfers hasn't found me much information.

To avoid the extra $450-550 per person in fees, we'd probably just stay somewhere near Male if necessary since we'll have the 5 nights at the LM already, and adding cash nights there would be cost prohibitive. In addition, seems that many people say 8-10 nights at the same hotel might be a little boring, though I'm sure I could fill up my time!
Thoughts/ideas? Thanks in advance.

Congrats on the redemption. I just returned from LM Maldives. I thought 5 days might be too many, but in the end I woulda been happy with another few days. We met some likeminded miles and points people at the GM social, that really added to the stay (learned each other's secrets on the property and in the game, lol). Unfortunately that was on our last night, wish that social happened earlier.

In terms of the transfer, I know of no scheduled transfer between the resort islands. Private transfer might be possible, but you'll have to find that yourself, along with negotiate one-way transfer with LM (default is round trip).

Have you considered visiting a local island instead of another resort for your 2nd choice? I visited Ukulhas after the LM, and I loved it. Experiencing the real Maldives (life, food, people) was very interesting to me. Many such local islands can be reached by speedboat from Male. The accommodations are much, much cheaper than the resorts (mine was $75 per night), and while not as luxurious, I loved the cozy feel and the personable staff, they made me feel more like a king than the also-good LM staff.

No you do not need to fly back to the airport. You can either hire a speed boat from the resort or from the next local island. It also depends on which island you want to transfer. If it is in the same atoll then it is better to take a speed boat. All the atolls have local boats for hire.

did you go to a different resort in addition to LM? If so, how did you travel to the other resort?

We ended up using 5-night award (paying for 4), and then 2 single-night certificates (at the time they'd extended some in the pandemic, I think?).
So we stayed there 7 nights and it was fantastic! Good house reef, good food, nice upgrade from base villa to a lagoon villa (front door on land, room facing water with a ladder down to the water.
Sorry can't advise on switching hotels.