Vakkaru Maldives

Vakkaru is a reef island in Baa Atoll, a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve, 125 km from Malé and 30 minutes by seaplane. It was a coconut plantation before it was a resort and still carries over 2,300 grown coconut trees, so the island reads as shaded and green rather than bare sand.

111 villas and residences along 1.6 km of beach, with the house reef close in. We do not publish a rate on this page. Every Vakkaru trip is quoted by hand.

What this actually costs

We quote it as one number: the villa, the meal plan, the return transfer for everyone travelling, green tax and every other tax. International flights to Malé sit outside that. Three things move the total more than the villa name does.

• Your arrival time picks your transfer. The seaplane is 30 minutes and flies in daylight only. Land late and the alternative is a 20-minute domestic flight to Dharavandhoo plus a 30-minute speedboat, which runs later into the evening. Send us the flight before you book it, not after.
• Length of stay. The transfer is paid once whatever the length, so the fourth and fifth nights cost noticeably less per night than the first three.
• The pool is the real upgrade overwater. The Overwater Villa is 140 m² with a 40 m² sundeck and no pool, and there are 43 of them, so it is the category most people are shown first. The Overwater Pool Villa is 165 m² with a 35 m² pool.

On the beach the step is bigger for the money. The Beach Pool Villa runs 250 m² with a 34 m² pool and 196 m² of private beach, which is more space than any overwater category short of a residence.

Who this isn’t for

Families who have set their heart on an overwater villa. Every overwater category here caps at two adults and one child. A second child means the Beach Pool Villa, which takes two adults and two children, or one of the residences. Tell us the party before you fall for a villa.

Anyone who wants a fixed bill. Six restaurants, two bars, a wine cellar of over 680 labels and destination dining on a sandbank all sit outside a standard plan, and the extras here add up faster than the room rate suggests.

Before you book

• The big residences are single units. There is one Three Bedroom Beach Pool Residence, one Four Bedroom, and one Vakkaru Overwater Residence. If a group trip depends on any of them, ask months out, not weeks.
• The Parrotfish Club takes children aged 3 to 12 and runs 8:30am to 6:00pm. The Coconut Club and the overwater gym are open around the clock and unsupervised, which matters if you are travelling with teenagers.
• Merana Spa has 12 treatment rooms and Ayurvedic treatments by Siddhalepa, and the dive centre runs manta and turtle snorkelling. Both book out in season, so reserve on arrival day.
• Drinking water is produced on the island and there is no single-use plastic anywhere on it.

Tell us your dates, who is travelling and which airport you fly from, and we will come back with two or three villas priced as one figure with the transfer and taxes inside it, plus the seaplane and domestic routes costed side by side. Message our Maldives specialists on WhatsApp or send us an enquiry.