Review: Waldorf Astoria Seychelles Platte Island

February 26, 2025

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Wednesday newsletters always feature a hotel or flight review.

I recently enjoyed a wonderful holiday in the Seychelles with the Hilton Hotel Group. You can read my trip reports here:

Today: Review of Waldorf Astoria Seychelles Platte Island

Waldorf Astoria Seychelles Platte Island is a located on a private island, just over 130 km (80 mi) south of Mahé, in a pristine atoll fringed by palm forests and protected by its own coral reef. Home to native hawksbill turtles, eagle rays, manta rays and whale sharks, much of Platte Island’s surrounding scenery remains beautifully untouched, promising a plethora of firsts and an unrivaled sense of magic for guests. The ultra-luxury property houses an intimate collection of 50 seafront villas with personal concierge services, including one-to-three-bedroom villas as well as a master five-bedroom villa with expansive gardens. Each villa is designed with a fan-shaped style that gives the space an ascending pitched ceiling. The villas are also sensitively set back from the shoreline and feature expansive gardens that create an undisturbed place for sea turtles to lay their eggs. The resort combines Waldorf Astoria’s elegant service and 5-star luxury with Platte Island’s timeless surroundings to deliver a memorable experience for sophisticated travelers.

Waldorf Astoria Seychelles Platte Island features in my top 10 list of the best luxury resorts in the Seychelles.

Have you ever stayed at Waldorf Astoria Seychelles Platte Island? If so, what was your experience? Leave a comment.

In this review (more info and photos below my YouTube video):

PROS & THINGS I LIKE

The brand-new Waldorf Astoria Seychelles is located on Platte Island, one of the archipelago’s Outer Islands. For some context, the Seychelles are divided in the Inner Islands and Outer Island. The Inner Islands – which are mostly granitic islands – cluster mainly around the principal islands of Mahé, Praslin and La Digue, forming the cultural and economic hub of Seychelles as well as the center of its tourism industry. There are 43 Inner islands in total, and together they are home to the majority of Seychelles’ hotels as well almost the entire population of the archipelago. The Outer Islands are comprised of 72 coral islands and four atolls, and are situated towards the South, closer to Madagascar, and often hundreds of miles from the main island of Mahé. Remote and magnificently untouched (only a few are populated), the Outer Islands are flat and low-lying, and often form atolls around a central lagoon.

An idyllic haven offering an enchanted escape from the ordinary, Platte Island – home of the Waldorf Astoria Seychelles – is a tiny and remote island, surrounded by nothing but the vast 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) in the south to 550 metres (1,800 ft) in the north and a land area of 0.578 sq km (0.223 sq mi). Platte Island (meaning ‘flat’ in French) earned its name as a nod to its flat typography and forested sandy cay and used to be an uninhabited coconut plantation before it was transformed into the exclusive and blessfully remote Waldorf Astoria Seychelles Resort. The island is located 130 kilometres (81 mi) south of Mahe, the main island of the Seychelles, and can only be reached by a 20 minute plane flight (which is arranged by the resort).

Platte Island – home of the Waldorf Astoria Hotel – plays a crucial role in the conservation of green turtles and hawksbill turtles. Hawksbill turtles usually lay their eggs from September to March, with peak hatching activity occurring between late November to mid-January. During this period, guests can expect to see hatchlings emerging from their nests on a daily basis. But turtle sightings are guaranteed year-round, although safety viewing protocols are in place, particularly during the green turtle season, which spans from January to September. To enhance their turtle-watching experience, guests are encouraged to participate in guided beach walks led by trained staff. Offering valuable educational insights into the island’s role in the preservation of the Seychelles’ sea turtle populations, the guided walks give a chance to observe the turtles without disrupting their nesting or hatching activities or impacting their welfare.

Waldorf Astoria Seychelles Platte Island features an easily navigable layout. Bisecting the island (from north to south) is a runway for the small aircraft that transports guests daily to and from Mahé, the Seychelles’ main island. At the heart of the resort, on the western side of Platte Island, is a communal area, housing the lobby & concierge area, an all-day restaurant, a sunset bar, and an incredibly large swimming pool. Close by are also an exhibition (with information about the island’s natural wonders), a high-end boutique, a water sports center, a child’s club, a gym, and tennis & padel courts. Across the runway, on the island’s eastern side, one finds a beautiful spa and the staff quarters. Guests get stylish white bikes to get around, and buggy service is provided as well (24/7). Importantly, all the hotel facilities and pavilions are sensitively set back from the shoreline to create an undisturbed place for sea turtles to lay their eggs.

Designed by Eco-id Architects Pte Ltd, Waldorf Astoria Seychelles Platte Island’s distinct architecture and airy interiors blend luxury with earthy tones, stunning art, and high-end furnishings. The architecture of the resort’s main pavilion echoes the colored and patterned tortoiseshell of the island’s native hawksbill turtles, while the interior design is inspired by the coconut palm trees. Handcrafted elements, including driftwood artwork, celebrate the island’s natural beauty and support local communities. Seashell curtains, crafted from locally collected shells, cascade in the reception areas as a reminder of the ocean’s magnificence. Floor to ceiling windows and open spaces bring the tropical views inside, reflecting a true sense of place – anchored by the iconic Waldorf Astoria sundial clock as a timeliness center piece. The sundial clock was inspired by the Moulin Kopra, a Creole melting pot previously used on the island.

Waldorf Astoria Seychelles Platte Island features 50 one- to five-bedroom villas, which are scattered throughout the island and set back from the beach to protect nesting sea turtles. Inspired by the shell of the hawksbill turtle, the resort’s villas consist of faceted shapes, folding and bending to become large airy canopies. During my holiday, I stayed in a one bedroom Hawksbill Pool Villa, which was set along the island’s western shores. Designed with a fan-shaped style that gave the space an ascending pitched ceiling, the villa included a private pool and a lush garden fringed by coconut trees. On the inside, the villa featured an open-plan, contemporary design with sliding partitions for privacy and came with a salon, bedroom with king bed and a bathroom equipped with double vanity, stand-alone bathtub and indoor & outdoor showers. High-touch surfaces, such as bedside tables with intricate mosaic tiles, echoed the turtle shell shapes.

Waldorf Astoria Seychelles brings its culinary expertise to Seychelles Platte Island with three excellent restaurants that blend the best of international and local flavours. Celebrated Executive Head Chef Jane-Therese Mulry serves Creole-Latin fusion concepts, including tapas, oysters, and champagne, as well as delectable Asian and Mediterranean inspired cuisine against 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 evening culinary destination. The restaurant offers an immersive dining experience where tradition meets innovation through taste and authenticity. It prominently features live cooking stations and locally sourced produce, transformed into memorable dishes that emphasise its family-style service.
- Embodying the ‘soil-to-soul’ concept, Moulin Restaurant is the resort’s signature restaurant, located in a vegetable garden along the island’s eastern beach. The chic venue offer guests a holistic journey to conscious eating with fresh ingredients from the island’s garden. Moulin also operates as a cooking school during the day. Guests can join the chef on a one-hour tour of Moulin’s herb garden to learn about the resort’s sustainable approach to growing and harvesting fresh produce.
- Located in the main pavilion is La Perle, the resort’s all day dining venue. Each morning, La Perle restaurant offers a health-conscious, à la carte breakfast experience with a selection of hot and cold meals, and expertly crafted single-source Tanzanian coffee. At night, La Perle transforms into a high-end Mediterranean restaurant with flavors that take guests on a gastronomic journey from Spain to Türkiye.
- Private dining experiences are also available, and guests can even opt for lunch on the reef. Additional culinary experiences include a private barbeque, picnic-style breakfast, and floating trays in villas.

Besides its three dining venues, Waldorf Astoria Seychelles also offers three unique bar concepts, which are all located around the main pool area:
- Reflective of the brand’s iconic Peacock Alley lounge, the Parisian-inspired Peacock Terrace at Waldorf Astoria Seychelles Platte Island provides guests with daily delights and a creative beverage menu throughout the day, including a diverse range of teas, herbal infusions, and pastries.
- Evening stars set the stage for elegant pre-dinner indulgence and refined nocturnal sips at Lalin. The vibrant venue – which overlooks the pool – showcases an array of inventive cocktails crafted with artistic flair.
- Torti is the resort’s pool and beach bar, known for its customizable ‘bento box’ offerings and fresh sushi. The bar draws guests into a lively music-filled soundscape that harmonises with the relaxing cabanas and sunbeds arranged in the pool.

Only in the Seychelles are the exotic fruit coco de mer found. Its unusual double-coconut shape is referenced and abstracted in the design of the resort’s spa, lending sensuous curves to embrace the pristine and natural setting. The Waldorf Astoria Spa blends wellness technology with high touch therapies to deliver relaxation, rebalance and rejuvenation through individual treatments and personalised programs using sustainable ingredients such as organic seaweed, locally sourced coconut, and native plants. Designed to nourish the body, mind and spirit in a tranquil landscape, the spa also provides revitalising yoga, guided meditation, and mindfulness sessions to focus on breathwork and inner balance and is supported by thermal experiences including sauna, steam, and hydrotherapy. There’s also a fitness center on the island, featuring Technogym equipment, as well as an open air fitness studio, and tennis & padel courts.

Waldorf Astoria Seychelles Platte Island offers a thoughtfully curated line-up of local experiences for guests to enjoy. Guests can immerse themselves in the captivating world of fly fishing, for novice and seasoned fly fishers. With the guidance of expert instructors, guests can discover the island’s diverse ecosystems, learn about responsible fishing practices, and explore shallow flats and tranquil lagoons. Water sport experiences are also designed for guests to delight in the island’s pristine waters, with a range of activities including scuba diving, free diving, paddle boarding, kayaking and deep-sea fishing experiences. Guests can also participate in eco-awareness programs designed to build a deeper connection with nature, while actively contributing to the sustainable development of the island. Other activities include star gazing sessions, an alfresco outdoor cinema experience and dancing under the island’s night sky.

Waldorf Astoria Seychelles Platte Island has implemented several sustainability policies and initiatives to preserve and protect the diverse flora and fauna that also call the island home:
- The property has a resident Environment Manager & Marine Biologist and has fostered partnerships with local non-profit organisations – including the Island Conservation Society – to manage several projects that provide lasting solutions towards preserving the nature of the island.
- The resort uses a solar field to create renewable energy across most of its operations, and the island’s natural garden provides a large portion of the resort’s fruits and vegetables for a sustainable farm-to-table supply.
- The resort’s dedicated 2.5-megawatt solar farm allows it to power 95 percent of its operations by the sun, and water production through a desalination process leaves rain and ground water for vegetation. An on-site water treatment plant also supports the reuse of water across daily operations, ensuring a closed-loop approach to reducing waste.

The property is managed by Waldorf Astoria, which is positioned as the flagship brand within the Hilton Hotel Group’s portfolio. Inspired by their timeless environments and elegant service, Waldorf Astoria hotels deliver an effortless experience seamlessly, creating a true sense of place for guests through stunning architecture, Peacock Alley, refined art collections, Michelin-starred dining concepts and elevated in-room amenities. The original Waldorf Astoria New York was a place like no other: a marvel of the modern age with electricity, telephones, a bath in most guest rooms, and palatial public spaces, whose unique blend of personalized service, architectural grandeur and sophisticated style attracted leaders of industry, illustrious artists, and society’s elite. It also captured the imagination of hotel magnate Conrad Hilton, who kept a photograph of The Waldorf Astoria under the glass on his desk. On the picture he had written simply, “The greatest of them all.”

CONS & THINGS TO KNOW

IMHO, Waldorf Astoria Seychelles Platte Island is the best hotel in the Seychelles when judged by its world-class service, stunning villas, sophisticated dining venues, and wellness offering. That said, there are some thing you need to know when considering a stay here:

Platte Island – home to Waldorf Astoria Seychelles – is one of the Outer Islands, which feature a completely different landscape and topography as compared to the Seychelles’ Inner Islands. The Inner Islands (e.g. La Digue, Mahe, Praslin, North Island, Fregate Island) are granitic islands whose natural beauty is unsurpassed. Featuring lush jungle vegetation, a hilly landscape and the world’s most beautiful beaches, the picture-perfect Inner Islands represent the true Bounty Islands that the Seychelles are so famous for. The Outer Islands (like Platte Island) have a different type of appeal: these blissfully remote islands are mostly flat, often surrounded by a lagoon, and they feature coral beaches. If it’s your first time in the Seychelles, I highly recommend to combine a stay at Waldorf Astoria Seychelles with a few days on the Inner Islands to make sure that you also get to experience the breathtaking beauty of the Inner Islands.

Platte Island is completely surrounded by a single white sand beach, but it’s not the best beach in the archipelago. Platte Island’s beach is a coral beach, so the sand is not as soft as the powder beaches of the Seychelles’ Inner Islands; and during high tide, the beach nearly disappears in a few spots. In addition, Platte Island is surrounded by large seagrass meadows, so a lot of seagrass is present in the sea and also washes up on shore in certain areas of the island. Besides being visually not so attractive, the seagrass can also present a challenge for traditional beach activities like swimming and snorkeling. However, while the seagrass may bother some guests, it is the prime reason why Platte Island is home the biggest population of nesting turtles in the Seychelles since the turtles feed on the seagrass (around 600 to 700 turtles come ashore during the nesting season). So what the beach may be lacking in terms of beauty is more than made up by the turtle scenes you will witness. As a guest of Waldorf Astoria Seychelles, you have to respect the unique marine ecosystem of the resort (and feel privileged to be part of it during your holiday).

Getting to Waldorf Astoria Seychelles requires a short flight, which departs from the Seychelles’ international airport on the main island Mahé. All flights to the resort are chartered through a third party: Island Development Company Aviation PVT LTD. The flight – which takes only 20 minutes – is operated by a Beechcraft airplane that accommodates a maximum of 19 passengers. There’s usually only one scheduled flight a day between Mahé and the resort (although the plane can also be chartered for a private transfer), and the time schedule of the flight may not always align well with your international flights. It’s not so much of a problem when flying to the resort (since guests can wait for their domestic flight to Platte Island at Waldorf Astoria’s private lounge room at Mahe Airport) but it can be an issue when coming back from the resort (since lounge access is only offered prior to your stay at the resort, not after). Hence, I highly recommend to stay at least one extra night on Mahe after your stay at the Waldorf Astoria.

Waldorf Astoria Seychelles Platte Island is located 130 km (80 mi) from the nearest land mass (Mahe Island), so all excursions at the resort are entirely island based. As already mentioned, the property does offer a wide range of land and water activities, providing a balance of relaxation and adventure. However, the resort was still teething out some problems with its water activities during my stay (which may have been resolved by know). For example, during my five-day stay at the property, there was only one time slot available for diving, which was a pity given how much the resort praises its pristine marine eco-environment. The issue was that only one boat was present at the property, which had to take care of all the water based activities (so availability was problematic). Some of the water activities were sourced out to a third party, and it was my impression that there was definitely some room of improvement here in order to offer guests a more varied and reliable schedule of water based activities.

MY VERDICT

Location: 8/10
Design: 9/10
Pool: 10/10
Rooms: 9/10
Food: 9/10
Breakfast: 9/10
Spa: 9/10
Service: 10/10
Wow factor: 9/10
Value for money: 8/10
Overall experience: 8.8/10 – very good!

TIPS FOR FUTURE GUESTS & SAVE MONEY

Save money: get complimentary VIP perks when booking Waldorf Astoria Seychelles via Virtuoso:
- Room upgrade
- Daily breakfast
- Early check-in
- Late check-out
- $100 USD resort credit

Save money: make use of Hilton’s best rate guarantee. If you find a better rate, the Hilton Hotel Group will honor the lower price and take an additional 25% off the room rate for each night of your stay.

Save money: elite members of Hilton’s loyalty program, Hilton Honors, are well treated, with – amongst other benefits – complimentary room upgrade, early check-in or late check-out, and complimentary breakfast. Click here to read my review of the Hilton Honors program (with pros & cons).

Save money: read here my tips for getting the best deal at a luxury hotel like Waldorf Astoria Seychelles (and/or receive many free perks).

Read my tips for preparing your trip in time.

BEST TIME TO VISIT

The Seychelles is often sold as a year round destination and it is. However there is more chance of bad weather, that is to say rain, from November to March. The transitional months of October and April are excellent for a visit as the oceans are very calm and the weather balmy. During the dry seasons (May to September), it can be windy (causing seaweed on the south or south-easterly side of the islands) with rough seas.

HOW TO GET THERE

Waldorf Astoria Seychelles Platte Island is located 130 kilometres (81 mi) south of Mahe, the main island of the Seychelles, and can only be reached by a 20 minute plane flight. Flight transfers are arranged by the resort.

PHOTOS

Below is a selection of my photos of Waldorf Astoria Seychelles Platte Island. To view more photos (including breakfast and dinner at the different restaurants), click here.