The Maldives allows 275 days, and foreign flags can charter

The permit runs 90 days, and it stretches

The Maldives handles visiting yachts under the Foreign Tourist Vessel Regulation, 2024/R-2, and the shape of it is simple enough to plan a season around. A cruising permit comes from the Ministry of Tourism, and it has to be in hand either before the yacht arrives or within four days of inward clearance. It runs 90 days from that clearance. At 100 gross tonnes and above the permit costs USD 1,000, and below that threshold it is free. Clearance itself happens at one of three ports of entry, and which one you pick is a passage-planning decision rather than a formality.

Extending is where the number gets interesting. A yacht of 100 GT or more pays USD 100 a day to stay on past the initial 90, and a smaller one pays USD 50. Published summaries of the same regulation put the ceiling at 275 days in total, which is most of a year on one piece of paper, while one law firm's note on the regulation reads 365 days with the 275 as extension on top. That gap is not academic if you are planning a two-season Indian Ocean loop, and it is the first thing to have the agent confirm in writing. The documentation behind the permit is heavier above 100 GT: valid safety certificates, the captain's certificate of competency, minimum safe manning, hull, machinery, passenger and pollution cover, and an approval from the Ministry of Transport and Civil Aviation.

A foreign flag can carry paying guests here

This is the part that separates the Maldives from most of the places an owner already knows. The 2024 regulation renamed the old charter licence a passenger licence, and it is issued in the name of the appointed Maldivian agent rather than to the yacht, which is what makes it reachable for a foreign-flagged vessel at all. Any yacht carrying anyone beyond her own crew needs one. There is no equivalent route for, say, a United States flag wanting to work the French coast, and an owner who has watched a non-EU flag sit idle through a Mediterranean summer will recognise what that is worth.

The fee is a daily one, banded by length. Up to 20 metres it is USD 100 a day, to 35 metres USD 250, to 45 metres USD 400, and to 75 metres USD 550, with a surcharge of USD 5 per passenger on top. Above 75 metres the two published tables of the same regulation disagree, one showing USD 650 and the other USD 700, so a 90-metre programme should be costed with the agent rather than off a web page. Tax sits above all of it. Tourism goods and services tax has been 17 per cent since 1 July 2025, and green tax doubled to USD 12 per guest per night on 1 January 2025. Charters are written on MYBA terms with an advance provisioning allowance running 35 to 40 per cent, and that is where the fuel and the permits actually get paid.

Zamani Islands, and 120 berths that do not exist yet

There is no purpose-built superyacht marina in the Maldives today. Every yacht in the archipelago lies at anchor and works off her tenders, which is pleasant in settled weather and wearing over a 60-day stay. Zamani Islands is the answer under construction: eight islands in South Male Atoll, roughly 21 nautical miles from the international airport, developed by the UAE-based Atoll Estates and drawn by Killa Design. The marina is planned at 60,000 square metres with 120 berths, and the residences on the estate are being sold with a berth attached, alongside a yacht club, crew facilities and provisioning.

The timetable is phased, and it is worth reading as a construction schedule rather than an opening date. The experiential resort is due in March 2026, the second and most expensive in October 2026, and the third in March 2027, for 475 keys across the three. Atoll Estates, founded by Amit Majumder and Dmitry Bourtov, has said it intends the place to run on renewable energy, using building-integrated photovoltaics, indoor farming and zero-waste handling. What has not been published is a berth tariff, a marina operator, or a date on which a visiting yacht can book a night. Until one of those exists, the correct planning assumption for this winter is still an anchor and a tender.

The season is a monsoon, not a calendar

December to March is the season, because that is when the northeast monsoon is established and conditions across the atolls are predictable. Water sits between 26C and 29C, and visibility in the good months reaches 20 to 30 metres. November and April are workable shoulders. May to October is the southwest monsoon, wetter and windier, and it is also the only window in which the plankton blooms that draw manta rays and whale sharks occur, which is why a few owners deliberately take the weather rather than avoid it.

Distances inside the country are longer than the map suggests. A week out of North Male covers the central atolls and little else. Reaching Baa or Raa properly wants 10 to 14 nights, and a northern itinerary through Noonu wants a fortnight. The channels between atolls carry real tidal streams and should be transited on a current plan rather than a guest schedule. Baa Atoll is a UNESCO biosphere reserve, Hanifaru Bay is snorkelling only, and several atolls and marine parks require their own authorisation, so the itinerary has to be checked against the protected areas before it is promised to anybody. Agents issue the boundaries as mapping files the bridge can open directly.

Fuel, landfall and the numbers nobody publishes

The three ports of entry are Male, Uligan in the far north and Addu in the far south, and the choice is a routing decision. Uligan is the natural first stop for a yacht coming down off the Red Sea route, and Addu suits an approach from the south or a departure into the wider Indian Ocean. The established agents keep offices at all three. Fuel is supplied duty-free straight to the vessel, by truck alongside in port and by barge at sea, arranged in advance with grade reports so the engineer can decide before anything is pumped. Outside the Male area both fuel and provisioning carry a logistics premium that shows up in the advance provisioning allowance rather than the brochure.

The honest gap is traffic. Asia Pacific Superyachts, which keeps offices in Male, Uligan and Gan and has handled yachts up to 147 metres, puts current visits above 50 a year with average stays of 45 to 60 days. An older CharterWorld account of the same destination counts roughly 40 superyachts in total. The two do not reconcile, no authority publishes an arrivals figure, and so anyone quoting Maldives superyacht traffic at you is quoting an agent rather than a register. The same caution applies to the marina. Nothing about Zamani Islands has been tested by a visiting yacht, and every number attached to it is the developer's own.