Island guide · Alif Alif Atoll · North Ari
A North Ari village with a long bikini beach — and the first island in the country to manage its waste.
A small, notably clean village island in North Ari, about an hour and a half by speedboat from Malé, with a long designated bikini beach, a house reef close to shore and manta trips offshore.
Best for
A beach-and-reef stay on a quiet, tidy island, with manta snorkelling nearby
An island guideavé doesn’t arrange stays on Ukulhas — this page is here to help you choose. The nearest islands we do arrange are Rasdhoo and Thoddoo.
Getting there
| Way in | Time | Fare, each way | When it runs |
|---|---|---|---|
| Shared speedboat from Malé or the airport | About 1½ h | About US$40–60 | Usually twice a day; land before about 4 pm |
| Public ferry from Malé | About 4 h | A few dollars | A couple of days a week, via Rasdhoo; days shift |
| Private speedboat | About 1½ h | On request | At any hour, booked ahead |
Times and fares as researched in October 2026, from operators’ and travellers’ reports. Boats move with the season and the weather — confirm the day’s with your guesthouse before you travel. Getting around the Maldives
What you’d come for.
A long stretch of designated beach along the island’s edge, set up for swimming and lying out — the one place on the island for swimwear.
Snorkelling straight from the shore: the reef edge is a short swim out.
Local boats run snorkel and dive trips to the manta sites and reefs of North Ari.
Half-day runs to an uninhabited island or a sandbank nearby, usually with lunch.
Ukulhas was the first inhabited island in the Maldives to run a systematic waste-management programme, and won a Green Leaf award for it in 2014 — it shows in the lanes and the beach.
Questions
By sea. A shared speedboat takes about an hour and a half from Malé or the airport, usually twice a day, for roughly US$40–60 each way — land before about 4 pm to make the last one. The public ferry costs a few dollars but takes about four hours, runs only a couple of days a week by way of Rasdhoo, and its days shift, so check close to travel.
Yes — a long designated bikini beach where swimwear is at home. Ukulhas is a Muslim village, so elsewhere on the island cover shoulders and knees.
Its long, well-kept bikini beach, snorkelling off the house reef and manta trips nearby — and its waste management: it was the first inhabited island in the Maldives to manage its waste systematically, which still shows in how clean it is.
No. Like every inhabited island in the Maldives, Ukulhas is dry; alcohol is served at resorts and on licensed boats.
No — this page is a guide to Ukulhas, an island avé doesn’t arrange stays on. The nearest islands we do arrange, end to end, are Rasdhoo and Thoddoo.
Stay close by, with avé.
avé doesn’t arrange stays on Ukulhas. These are the nearest islands we do — rooms, boats and days arranged as one journey.