Waldorf Astoria Seychelles - Trip Review: Nice Addition
Waldorf Astoria Platte Island Seychelles, just got back from 6 nights stay.
We stayed on hawksbill garden villa. Unfortunately it was really windy when we were there, so wasn’t able to do any snorkeling or water activities at all. We stayed at villa 4, on the south end of the island, close to the sandbank.
Our beach had lots of the seagrass, but we are expecting that coming this island. Some people might find it off putting but personally it added to the charm of the island. The seagrass are the reason for the abundance of sea life of the island.
Most of the development are in land, they had to do it this way to conserve the beach.
The island is a year round nesting ground for sea turtles. You can see abundance of wild sea life when you walk or bike around. It is swarmed with sand crab, hermit crab, rays, baby sharks and turtles to name the fews.
You learn to enjoy biking with tiny crabs poking from the trails. They also do have a tortoise enclosure where they had 7 endangered aldebara giant tortoises, which they are planning to bring more ! Those gentle giants are definitely a great addition to the island amazing ecosystem.
The villa itself is the star of the island. Other than breakfast, it does felt like you’re alone on the island. Most guests do end up squating on their villa. Each villa does come with it own plunge pool. Most villas are identical in layout, except for the bigger grand villa. They all come in a standard living room, bed room and bathroom. The room design and layout was very functional. The theme of tortoise shells, coconut and turquoise blue can be seen everywhere through out the design of the villas and common spaces. There are around 50 villas on the island, but we mostly seen probably 20-30 guests throughout our stay. Good mix of couples and young families.
Food can be tiresome, especially with having only 3 restaurants on the property, it can get repetitive on a longer stay. Breakfast is made to order of 15 dishes or so items you can order as much as you want. We tried pretty much all of them by the third day. Although the reef fish dishes was definitely amazing, we had fresh caught grouper two times for dinner. Definitely must order when you’re there. You can get it either at La Perle or Maison des Epices. You do have to pre-order it. Food is pricey but not as eye watering as Maldives level. Keep in mind, prices on menu is inclusive of 10% service charge and 15% tax, even with in villa dining. Expect $200-$300 dinner for a couple, sharing one appy, two entree and one cocktail each. We skipped desserts. They do grow organic vegetables and fruits on the island, which they use it in all the dishes. Moulin, a set menu only restaurant, does their cooking based on what the chef sourced from the garden that week. They also do delicious musk melon juices for breakfast !
Staff was definitely amazing and hospitable, with 4:1 staff guests ratio, most of them would know you by the second day.
Definitely do not skip the Moutya dance by the Seychellois’ staff, it comes with a cocktails and bites complements of the manager. They do provide snorkeling gears and reef shoes that you can keep in the villa. It is a coral island, hence the sands are a bit on the rougher side.
Overall it’s an excellent stay. We did this after a week safari trip from Kenya, it was nice way to wrap it up. It does require a bit of logistics to travel to Platte, we had to stay one night in Mahe as they only do one transfer per day. Depending on your arrival and departure from Mahe, you might need to do the same. We do wish we had more times to visit other island like Praslin and La Digue, as they would probably be a better representation of the Seychelles postcard pictures, but we felt lucky to be able to experience Platte Island. It is one of the unique additions to Waldorf Astoria portfolio.