Assessment: Waldorf Astoria Seychelles Platte Island

Wednesday newsletters all the time function a lodge or flight overview.

I lately loved an exquisite vacation within the Seychelles with the Hilton Resort Group. You may learn my journey stories right here:

As we speak: Assessment of Waldorf Astoria Seychelles Platte Island

Waldorf Astoria Seychelles Platte Island is a positioned on a non-public island, simply over 130 km (80 mi) south of Mahé, in a pristine atoll fringed by palm forests and guarded by its personal coral reef. Dwelling to native hawksbill turtles, eagle rays, manta rays and whale sharks, a lot of Platte Island’s surrounding surroundings stays fantastically untouched, promising a plethora of firsts and an unequalled sense of magic for company. The ultra-luxury property homes an intimate assortment of fifty seafront villas with private concierge providers, together with one-to-three-bedroom villas in addition to a grasp five-bedroom villa with expansive gardens. Every villa is designed with a fan-shaped type that offers the area an ascending pitched ceiling. The villas are additionally sensitively set again from the shoreline and have expansive gardens that create an undisturbed place for sea turtles to put their eggs. The resort combines Waldorf Astoria’s elegant service and 5-star luxurious with Platte Island’s timeless environment to ship a memorable expertise for classy vacationers.

Waldorf Astoria Seychelles Platte Island options in my prime 10 listing of the greatest luxurious resorts within the Seychelles.

Have you ever ever stayed at Waldorf Astoria Seychelles Platte Island? If that’s the case, what was your expertise? Depart a remark.

On this overview (extra information and pictures beneath my YouTube video):

PROS & THINGS I LIKE

The brand-new Waldorf Astoria Seychelles is positioned on Platte Island, one of many archipelago’s Outer Islands. For some context, the Seychelles are divided within the Interior Islands and Outer Island. The Interior Islands – that are largely granitic islands – cluster primarily across the principal islands of Mahé, Praslin and La Digue, forming the cultural and financial hub of Seychelles in addition to the middle of its tourism business. There are 43 Interior islands in complete, and collectively they’re house to the vast majority of Seychelles’ accommodations as properly nearly the complete inhabitants of the archipelago. The Outer Islands are comprised of 72 coral islands and 4 atolls, and are located in direction of the South, nearer to Madagascar, and infrequently lots of of miles from the primary island of Mahé. Distant and magnificently untouched (only some are populated), the Outer Islands are flat and low-lying, and infrequently kind atolls round a central lagoon.

An idyllic haven providing an enchanted escape from the extraordinary, Platte Island – house of the Waldorf Astoria Seychelles – is a tiny and distant island, surrounded by nothing however the huge expanse of the blue Idian Ocean. The island measures about 1,300 metres (4,300 ft) from north to south, with a width from 250 metres (820 ft) within the south to 550 metres (1,800 ft) within the north and a land space of 0.578 sq km (0.223 sq mi). Platte Island (which means ‘flat’ in French) earned its identify as a nod to its flat typography and forested sandy cay and was an uninhabited coconut plantation earlier than it was reworked into the unique and blessfully distant Waldorf Astoria Seychelles Resort. The island is positioned 130 kilometres (81 mi) south of Mahe, the primary island of the Seychelles, and might solely be reached by a 20 minute aircraft flight (which is organized by the resort).

Platte Island – house of the Waldorf Astoria Resort – performs a vital function within the conservation of inexperienced turtles and hawksbill turtles. Hawksbill turtles normally lay their eggs from September to March, with peak hatching exercise occurring between late November to mid-January. Throughout this era, company can anticipate to see hatchlings rising from their nests each day. However turtle sightings are assured year-round, though security viewing protocols are in place, significantly in the course of the inexperienced turtle season, which spans from January to September. To boost their turtle-watching expertise, company are inspired to take part in guided seashore walks led by skilled workers. Providing invaluable instructional insights into the island’s function within the preservation of the Seychelles’ sea turtle populations, the guided walks give an opportunity to watch the turtles with out disrupting their nesting or hatching actions or impacting their welfare.

Waldorf Astoria Seychelles Platte Island options an simply navigable structure. Bisecting the island (from north to south) is a runway for the small plane that transports company each day to and from Mahé, the Seychelles’ foremost island. On the coronary heart of the resort, on the western aspect of Platte Island, is a communal space, housing the foyer & concierge space, an all-day restaurant, a sundown bar, and an extremely massive swimming pool. Shut by are additionally an exhibition (with details about the island’s pure wonders), a high-end boutique, a water sports activities middle, a toddler’s membership, a health club, and tennis & padel courts. Throughout the runway, on the island’s japanese aspect, one finds a fantastic spa and the workers quarters. Friends get trendy white bikes to get round, and buggy service is supplied as properly (24/7). Importantly, all of the lodge services and pavilions are sensitively set again from the shoreline to create an undisturbed place for sea turtles to put their eggs.

Designed by Eco-id Architects Pte Ltd, Waldorf Astoria Seychelles Platte Island’s distinct structure and ethereal interiors mix luxurious with earthy tones, gorgeous artwork, and high-end furnishings. The structure of the resort’s foremost pavilion echoes the coloured and patterned tortoiseshell of the island’s native hawksbill turtles, whereas the inside design is impressed by the coconut palm bushes. Handcrafted parts, together with driftwood art work, rejoice the island’s pure magnificence and help native communities. Seashell curtains, crafted from regionally collected shells, cascade within the reception areas as a reminder of the ocean’s magnificence. Flooring to ceiling home windows and open areas carry the tropical views inside, reflecting a real sense of place – anchored by the enduring Waldorf Astoria sundial clock as a timeliness middle piece. The sundial clock was impressed by the Moulin Kopra, a Creole melting pot beforehand used on the island.

Waldorf Astoria Seychelles Platte Island options 50 one- to five-bedroom villas, that are scattered all through the island and set again from the seashore to guard nesting sea turtles. Impressed by the shell of the hawksbill turtle, the resort’s villas include faceted shapes, folding and bending to develop into massive ethereal canopies. Throughout my vacation, I stayed in a one bed room Hawksbill Pool Villa, which was set alongside the island’s western shores. Designed with a fan-shaped type that gave the area an ascending pitched ceiling, the villa included a non-public pool and a lush backyard fringed by coconut bushes. On the within, the villa featured an open-plan, modern design with sliding partitions for privateness and got here with a salon, bed room with king mattress and a toilet outfitted with double self-importance, stand-alone bathtub and indoor & out of doors showers. Excessive-touch surfaces, similar to bedside tables with intricate mosaic tiles, echoed the turtle shell shapes.

Waldorf Astoria Seychelles brings its culinary experience to Seychelles Platte Island with three glorious eating places that mix the perfect of worldwide and native flavours. Celebrated Govt Head Chef Jane-Therese Mulry serves Creole-Latin fusion ideas, together with tapas, oysters, and champagne, in addition to delectable Asian and Mediterranean impressed delicacies in opposition to sweeping vistas of the Indian Ocean.
- Housed in a pavilion on the island’s southern tip, Maison Des Epices is the resort’s Creole-Latin fusion and night culinary vacation spot. The restaurant gives an immersive eating expertise the place custom meets innovation by style and authenticity. It prominently options reside cooking stations and regionally sourced produce, reworked into memorable dishes that emphasise its family-style service.
- Embodying the ‘soil-to-soul’ idea, Moulin Restaurant is the resort’s signature restaurant, positioned in a vegetable backyard alongside the island’s japanese seashore. The stylish venue supply company a holistic journey to acutely aware consuming with contemporary substances from the island’s backyard. Moulin additionally operates as a cooking faculty in the course of the day. Friends can be a part of the chef on a one-hour tour of Moulin’s herb backyard to be taught concerning the resort’s sustainable strategy to rising and harvesting contemporary produce.
- Positioned in the primary pavilion is La Perle, the resort’s all day eating venue. Every morning, La Perle restaurant gives a health-conscious, à la carte breakfast expertise with a choice of cold and warm meals, and expertly crafted single-source Tanzanian espresso. At evening, La Perle transforms right into a high-end Mediterranean restaurant with flavors that take company on a gastronomic journey from Spain to Türkiye.
- Non-public eating experiences are additionally accessible, and company may even go for lunch on the reef. Extra culinary experiences embody a non-public barbeque, picnic-style breakfast, and floating trays in villas.

In addition to its three eating venues, Waldorf Astoria Seychelles additionally gives three distinctive bar ideas, that are all positioned round the primary pool space:
- Reflective of the model’s iconic Peacock Alley lounge, the Parisian-inspired Peacock Terrace at Waldorf Astoria Seychelles Platte Island supplies company with each day delights and a artistic beverage menu all through the day, together with a various vary of teas, natural infusions, and pastries.
- Night stars set the stage for elegant pre-dinner indulgence and refined nocturnal sips at Lalin. The colourful venue – which overlooks the pool – showcases an array of ingenious cocktails crafted with creative aptitude.
- Torti is the resort’s pool and seashore bar, identified for its customizable ‘bento field’ choices and contemporary sushi. The bar attracts company right into a vigorous music-filled soundscape that harmonises with the stress-free cabanas and sunbeds organized within the pool.

Solely within the Seychelles are the unique fruit coco de mer discovered. Its uncommon double-coconut form is referenced and abstracted within the design of the resort’s spa, lending sensuous curves to embrace the pristine and pure setting. The Waldorf Astoria Spa blends wellness expertise with excessive contact therapies to ship leisure, rebalance and rejuvenation by particular person remedies and personalised applications utilizing sustainable substances similar to natural seaweed, regionally sourced coconut, and native crops. Designed to nourish the physique, thoughts and spirit in a tranquil panorama, the spa additionally supplies revitalising yoga, guided meditation, and mindfulness periods to concentrate on breathwork and inside stability and is supported by thermal experiences together with sauna, steam, and hydrotherapy. There’s additionally a health middle on the island, that includes Technogym tools, in addition to an open air health studio, and tennis & padel courts.

Waldorf Astoria Seychelles Platte Island gives a thoughtfully curated line-up of native experiences for company to get pleasure from. Friends can immerse themselves within the fascinating world of fly fishing, for novice and seasoned fly fishers. With the steerage of professional instructors, company can uncover the island’s numerous ecosystems, find out about accountable fishing practices, and discover shallow flats and tranquil lagoons. Water sport experiences are additionally designed for company to thrill within the island’s pristine waters, with a spread of actions together with scuba diving, free diving, paddle boarding, kayaking and deep-sea fishing experiences. Friends may take part in eco-awareness applications designed to construct a deeper reference to nature, whereas actively contributing to the sustainable improvement of the island. Different actions embody star gazing periods, an alfresco out of doors cinema expertise and dancing below the island’s evening sky.

Waldorf Astoria Seychelles Platte Island has applied a number of sustainability insurance policies and initiatives to protect and shield the various wildlife that additionally name the island house:
- The property has a resident Surroundings Supervisor & Marine Biologist and has fostered partnerships with native non-profit organisations – together with the Island Conservation Society – to handle a number of initiatives that present lasting options in direction of preserving the character of the island.
- The resort makes use of a photo voltaic area to create renewable vitality throughout most of its operations, and the island’s pure backyard supplies a big portion of the resort’s vegatables and fruits for a sustainable farm-to-table provide.
- The resort’s devoted 2.5-megawatt photo voltaic farm permits it to energy 95 p.c of its operations by the solar, and water manufacturing by a desalination course of leaves rain and floor water for vegetation. An on-site water remedy plant additionally helps the reuse of water throughout each day operations, making certain a closed-loop strategy to decreasing waste.

The property is managed by Waldorf Astoria, which is positioned because the flagship model inside the Hilton Resort Group’s portfolio. Impressed by their timeless environments and chic service, Waldorf Astoria accommodations ship an easy expertise seamlessly, creating a real sense of place for company by gorgeous structure, Peacock Alley, refined artwork collections, Michelin-starred eating ideas and elevated in-room facilities. The unique Waldorf Astoria New York was a spot like no different: a marvel of the fashionable age with electrical energy, telephones, a shower in most visitor rooms, and palatial public areas, whose distinctive mix of personalised service, architectural grandeur and complicated type attracted leaders of business, illustrious artists, and society’s elite. It additionally captured the creativeness of lodge magnate Conrad Hilton, who stored {a photograph} of The Waldorf Astoria below the glass on his desk. On the image he had written merely, “The best of all of them.”

CONS & THINGS TO KNOW

IMHO, Waldorf Astoria Seychelles Platte Island is the perfect lodge within the Seychelles when judged by its world-class service, gorgeous villas, subtle eating venues, and wellness providing. That stated, there are some factor it’s essential to know when contemplating a keep right here:

Platte Island – house to Waldorf Astoria Seychelles – is likely one of the Outer Islands, which function a very totally different panorama and topography as in comparison with the Seychelles’ Interior Islands. The Interior Islands (e.g. La Digue, Mahe, Praslin, North Island, Fregate Island) are granitic islands whose pure magnificence is unsurpassed. That includes lush jungle vegetation, a hilly panorama and the world’s most lovely seashores, the picture-perfect Interior Islands characterize the true Bounty Islands that the Seychelles are so well-known for. The Outer Islands (like Platte Island) have a distinct sort of enchantment: these blissfully distant islands are largely flat, usually surrounded by a lagoon, and so they function coral seashores. If it’s your first time within the Seychelles, I extremely advocate to mix a keep at Waldorf Astoria Seychelles with just a few days on the Interior Islands to just remember to additionally get to expertise the breathtaking fantastic thing about the Interior Islands.

Platte Island is totally surrounded by a single white sand seashore, however it’s not the perfect seashore within the archipelago. Platte Island’s seashore is a coral seashore, so the sand is just not as gentle because the powder seashores of the Seychelles’ Interior Islands; and through excessive tide, the seashore almost disappears in just a few spots. As well as, Platte Island is surrounded by massive seagrass meadows, so quite a lot of seagrass is current within the sea and in addition washes up on shore in sure areas of the island. In addition to being visually not so enticing, the seagrass may current a problem for conventional seashore actions like swimming and snorkeling. Nonetheless, whereas the seagrass might trouble some company, it’s the prime cause why Platte Island is house the most important inhabitants of nesting turtles within the Seychelles because the turtles feed on the seagrass (round 600 to 700 turtles come ashore in the course of the nesting season). So what the seashore could also be missing when it comes to magnificence is greater than made up by the turtle scenes you’ll witness. As a visitor of Waldorf Astoria Seychelles, you must respect the distinctive marine ecosystem of the resort (and really feel privileged to be a part of it throughout your vacation).

Attending to Waldorf Astoria Seychelles requires a brief flight, which departs from the Seychelles’ worldwide airport on the primary island Mahé. All flights to the resort are chartered by a 3rd social gathering: Island Growth Firm Aviation PVT LTD. The flight – which takes solely 20 minutes – is operated by a Beechcraft airplane that accommodates a most of 19 passengers. There’s normally just one scheduled flight a day between Mahé and the resort (though the aircraft may also be chartered for a non-public switch), and the time schedule of the flight might not all the time align properly along with your worldwide flights. It’s not a lot of an issue when flying to the resort (since company can wait for his or her home flight to Platte Island at Waldorf Astoria’s non-public lounge room at Mahe Airport) however it may be a difficulty when getting back from the resort (since lounge entry is barely supplied previous to your keep on the resort, not after). Therefore, I extremely advocate to remain a minimum of one additional evening on Mahe after your keep on the Waldorf Astoria.

Waldorf Astoria Seychelles Platte Island is positioned 130 km (80 mi) from the closest land mass (Mahe Island), so all excursions on the resort are fully island primarily based. As already talked about, the property does supply a variety of land and water actions, offering a stability of leisure and journey. Nonetheless, the resort was nonetheless teething out some issues with its water actions throughout my keep (which can have been resolved by know). For instance, throughout my five-day keep on the property, there was just one time slot accessible for diving, which was a pity given how a lot the resort praises its pristine marine eco-environment. The difficulty was that just one boat was current on the property, which needed to care for all of the water primarily based actions (so availability was problematic). A few of the water actions have been sourced out to a 3rd social gathering, and it was my impression that there was undoubtedly some room of enchancment right here with a view to supply company a extra diversified and dependable schedule of water primarily based actions.

MY VERDICT

Location: 8/10
Design: 9/10
Pool: 10/10
Rooms: 9/10
Meals: 9/10
Breakfast: 9/10
Spa: 9/10
Service: 10/10
Wow issue: 9/10
Worth for cash: 8/10
Total expertise: 8.8/10 – excellent!

TIPS FOR FUTURE GUESTS & SAVE MONEY

Lower your expenses: get complimentary VIP perks when reserving Waldorf Astoria Seychelles through Virtuoso:
- Room improve
- Each day breakfast
- Early check-in
- Late check-out
- $100 USD resort credit score

Lower your expenses: make use of Hilton’s greatest fee assure. For those who discover a higher fee, the Hilton Resort Group will honor the cheaper price and take a further 25% off the room fee for every evening of your keep.

Lower your expenses: elite members of Hilton’s loyalty program, Hilton Honors, are properly handled, with – amongst different advantages – complimentary room improve, early check-in or late check-out, and complimentary breakfast. Click on right here to learn my overview of the Hilton Honors program (with execs & cons).

Lower your expenses: learn right here my suggestions for getting the perfect deal at a luxurious lodge like Waldorf Astoria Seychelles (and/or obtain many free perks).

Learn my suggestions for making ready your journey in time.

BEST TIME TO VISIT

The Seychelles is commonly offered as a 12 months spherical vacation spot and it’s. Nonetheless there’s extra likelihood of unhealthy climate, that’s to say rain, from November to March. The transitional months of October and April are glorious for a go to because the oceans are very calm and the climate balmy. Throughout the dry seasons (Might to September), it may be windy (inflicting seaweed on the south or south-easterly aspect of the islands) with tough seas.

HOW TO GET THERE

Waldorf Astoria Seychelles Platte Island is positioned 130 kilometres (81 mi) south of Mahe, the primary island of the Seychelles, and might solely be reached by a 20 minute aircraft flight. Flight transfers are organized by the resort.

PHOTOS

Beneath is a choice of my pictures of Waldorf Astoria Seychelles Platte Island. To view extra pictures (together with breakfast and dinner on the totally different eating places), click on right here.