Reise-eSIMMalediven

It will usually connect, and it is usually expensive. Most operators place the Maldives in their top roaming band and exclude it from daily and "worldwide" passes. Check your own price list before you land — or use a travel eSIM and settle the cost at home.

In almost all cases, yes. Resorts are covered by the national networks, generally with 4G across the island, the villas and the jetty. It is on the transfer between islands, and on boat trips well away from land, that you should expect gaps.

It helps more than you would expect. Resort Wi-Fi is often slow in the overwater villas and on the beach, sometimes limited to a basic tier unless you pay, and it does not exist at the airport jetty, on the speedboat or on an excursion. Mobile data fills those gaps and gives you a fallback for calls home.

5G is available in and around Malé and at a growing number of islands, with 4G almost everywhere else that is inhabited. Whether your plan uses it is shown on each plan's card.

No — a Maldives plan covers the Maldives. Sri Lanka has its own plans, and if you are combining the two with India or the Gulf on the way, a regional plan is the simpler choice.

At resorts everything goes on the room bill and is settled by card, with prices quoted in US dollars. On local islands guesthouses and dive centres take cards too, but cafés, small shops and ferries are easier with cash — rufiyaa, or small dollar notes, which are widely accepted.