Backpacking In The Maldives🇲🇻: My Stay At Chao Guest House, Maafushi Island

 

In The Maldives, I ended up backpacking 4 islands. I could have done more in 4 days, which almost ran into Day 5, but this was enough for me, and enough of The Maldives, for this lifetime. The fourth and final island in my The Maldives tour was Maafushi. It promised so much yet gave so little. Maafushi was raved about online!! Had I missed something here? A concrete jungle of unfinished buildings, bars with no life and cats jumping on tables in every bar to eat the food that waiters had failed to put away. Call me old school, but I guess I just had high standards when I worked in over 20 bars across 3 continents, including Asia. I wasn’t inspired at all by Maafushi Island, but at least I had a decent place to rest my head for the night – Chao Guest House. Let’s give that a quick review and maybe a sightseeing guide to Maafushi sometime.

Chao Guest House is a good budget option in Maafushi. Maafushi is small – this won’t be hard to find. And no surprise that I backpacked all I wanted to see in a short sharp 24 hours here – I’d say you could day trip it. Longer term stayers tended to leave the island for snorkelling, diving, boat cruising etc. But hey I’ve done so much of that, I was here to backpack and beachpack Maafushi itself only.

We had a welcome drink on arrival at Chao Guest House – thanks! I was backpacking with Amer from Egypt, a cool solo traveller from Cairo with an eye on business and cultural seekage. The welcome drink was a blueberry juice – non-alcoholic of course. Alcohol is illegal on Maafushi, as it also was on Male – 2 of the islands I backpacked.

I was in Room 7, Amer in Room 5. We were the only two guests here and the place was classed as “quite new”, which for me means this will rise to the top. I was glad we were two of the first guests and I guess this is the first standalone travel blog post on it. I checked into Room 7 upstairs, before going out for the night. Here are some photos from Room 7.

Wi-Fi was surprisingly fast, both in the room and downstairs, and free. A Godsend, but I was backpacking so fast I didn’t have much time to dwell. I banged out a chapter of Average Inhabitant though, simply easy stuff now.

Breakfast was also provided, but please double check that beforehand. Tea and coffee and water was free 24/7. Result! When there is no beer, how lovely is a cup of the Earl of a 2 a.m.!

Plus my room, Room 7 had a balcony view and this was brilliant because I particularly enjoyed the MIX of weather here – too many hot days in the sun on my Rainy Summertime tour and I finally got that thunderstorm. A real bliss listening to it and watching the rain fall on my balcony just before the Call to Prayer. I had a Mosque outside – The Maldives is a strict Muslim country hence the Mosques being prominent, the chicken sausages (which in fairness, I had got used to by day 4) and the 0.0% beers. Yippee! Here are a few photos of my balcony view.

A few more photos of Chao Guest House, which is definitely the place to stay on a mediocre island. Still…it’s only my opinion. Who am I to judge cat food conrete jungles at tropical islands away? Get it booked and then decide for yourself. You’ll probably snorkel dive reefs.

Oh and there is a licensed alcohol bar here, located offshore – it’s legal – a boat ride away. As you can tell though I was uninspired to fork out money to see that floating bar in action. Good decision Jonny…

And a few photos of my time backpacking Maafushi. Aw…as I started writing this blog post, I don’t feel so grim or cynical at the end. Maybe I just had bad days. I did fly the Northern Ireland flag at the main football stadium though…okay good luck all of you, especially Chao Guest House, and even maybe Maafushi. I’m a big softie with a 230-country judgemental mind, I guess. The beach photos look decent right enough.

Here are the details for booking a room At Chao Guest House, Maafushi Island, The Maldives:

Here are some videos from My Stay At Chao Guest House, Maafushi Island, The Maldives: