At the beginning of this year, I spent four months travelling around Asia. Although I had a plan mapped out for the majority of my time, I knew there would no doubt be a few bumps in the road. So when our visas to India got rejected while we were in Sri Lanka, we couldn't think of a better place to visit than the Maldives.

And that's where the key point to keeping costs down when travelling to the Maldives comes in - travelling from Sri Lanka makes your flight not only much shorter (only 1 hour) but also much cheaper. Our flight from Colombo to Male cost only £100, and that was on the pricier end as it was last minute.

Following this, we chose to visit the local islands as opposed to the resort islands - this is the easiest way to keep your trip spend low. Each night we averaged £30 on accommodation, which we were more than happy to pay to essentially stay on the beach with stunning views of the most crystal blue water I'd ever seen.

In terms of food spend, each meal averaged about £5; breakfast was always included in the accommodation price. Also, because the Maldives is a Muslim country, it is governed by Islamic laws, meaning alcohol was banned. This meant we were spending less money in the evening and choosing self-care and downtime over any form of drinking or partying.

Activities are where you can spend a bit of money on the islands. Because we were backpacking, we chose not to do any of the pricier excursions, such as travelling to a resort island for the day, or snorkelling/swimming with whale sharks. We instead tried paddle boarding for the first time, and found ourselves amongst about 10 black-tip reef sharks, which was one of the coolest things I saw throughout that entire four-month trip. We also bought our own snorkels as soon as we arrived, as you could snorkel off the beach in most of these islands and there were so many unique and different types of fish; it was incredible, and essentially free.

So, if you are dreaming of going to the Maldives, but want to do it in a much cheaper way, I'd highly recommend paying the local islands a visit; it was a once-in-a-lifetime kind of experience.