Maldives Time

The time in the Maldives now is:

The official timezone in the Maldives is UTC+5.

Island Time

Resorts do not always follow the official time!

In fact it's very common for resorts in the Maldives to be an hour ahead of Malé time, sometimes more. The further your island is from Malé the more likely it is to have it's own 'island time'.

A few islands may even have a 30 minute difference, opting to align with India which is UTC+5.5.

Why do resorts have different time?

The main reason is daylight.

With the Maldives located close to the equator sunrise and sunset are typically within half an hour of 6am and 6pm every day.

By moving an hour ahead guests can enjoy daylight between approximately 7am and 7pm. That's typically a more relaxed routine, and for many visitors it means an extra hour of useful daylight.

The unique geography of the Maldives makes this viable. With every resort being an individual island it's easy to do things differently.