Explore Luxury: Review of Waldorf Astoria Maldives Ithaafushi

I’ve been to the Maldives a few times now. On previous trips, I stayed at properties such as the Conrad Maldives and the all-inclusive Mercure Maldives.

This year, for my January birthday, I decided to indulge my Maldives addiction once again and booked 7 nights at the uber-luxe Waldorf Astoria Maldives Ithaafushi.

How was it? In short: incredible. Keep reading to learn all about my stay.

Booking the Waldorf Astoria Maldives Ithaafushi

If you were hoping to find some relief from this property’s eye-popping costs when booking your room, prepare to be disappointed. While I did redeem points for my stay, it was costly.

The Waldorf Astoria Maldives Ithaafushi is a Hilton property, meaning it participates in the Hilton Honors program, allowing members to earn and redeem Hilton Honors points for stays here.

This is good news, but this property also holds the distinction of being the most expensive Hilton property in the chain’s portfolio (it’s a tie with the Waldorf Astoria Los Cabos Pedregal).

Booking the Waldorf Astoria Maldives Ithaafushi on points costs at least 150,000 points per night — not for the faint of heart. Despite the high cost, it remains an incredibly popular resort due in no small part to the fact that the standard award rooms are overwater villas with a private pool. As a result, award availability is scarce, and finding award availability is more of a chore than actually earning the points required for a stay.

Hot Tip:

Use a site like MaxMyPoint to set alerts that will let you know when award space opens up.

Because I used up the points I earned from my Hilton co-branded card welcome offers a long time ago, I tend to buy points when they go on sale instead. In this case, I bought 360,000 Hilton points for 0.5 cents each, for a total cost of $1,800.

That wasn’t quite enough for my stay, so I enlisted my boyfriend to do the same. That still wasn’t enough points, though, so I topped up my balance using 15,000 American Express Membership Rewards points transferred to Hilton Honors at a 1:2 ratio.

We stayed for a total of 7 nights, spending 750,000 points in total. This is because Hilton gives the fifth night free on award bookings, and I used a free night certificate from my Hilton Honors American Express Aspire Card*.

*The information regarding the Hilton Honors American Express Aspire Card was independently collected by Upgraded Points and not provided nor reviewed by the issuer.

Was this incredibly expensive? You bet.

However, it was an amazing experience and totally worth it, especially when you look at what the nightly rates in January were if you were to pay with cash:

With taxes and fees, that total jumps up to over $2,350 per night. This means that over the course of my 7-night stay, I would have needed to pay a staggering $16,474 for my room.

Instead, I redeemed 750,000 points (purchased and transferred for a total of $3,600) and a free night certificate, bringing the value of my Hilton points to 1.9 cents apiece.

Since we value Hilton points at 0.5 cents each (the rate at which I bought them), I came out well ahead.

You’ll note that this strategy required no tricky credit card offers or methods of finding monthly spending, which means basically anyone can replicate this process.

Bottom Line:

Booking the Waldorf Astoria Maldives Ithaafushi was expensive — even with points — but it was more than worth it.

Paying for Incidentals

I wouldn’t normally include this section, but because this property is so expensive, you’ll want to maximize the rewards that you earn.

For our 7-night stay, we spent $10,534. That includes transfers, food, tips, spa visits, and drinks. While you don’t need to spend that much (we definitely splurged!), using a card that earns big rewards on Hilton spending is important.

I used my Hilton Aspire card to pay for our charges since it earns 14x points per dollar spent at Hilton properties. This means I netted 147,476 points on my card. Thanks to the card, I’m a Hilton Diamond member, so I earned an additional 165,120 points (tax and tips don’t earn points).

In total, I earned 312,596 points on this stay worth just over $1,500 — or enough points for 2 more free nights at the Waldorf Astoria Maldives Ithaafushi.

Plus, the Hilton Aspire card comes with up to $200 semi-annual resort credit, which I used to reduce my bill by $200.

Waldorf Astoria Maldives Ithaafushi Location

As its name suggests, the Waldorf Astoria Maldives Ithaafushi is located in the Indian Ocean’s island nation of the Maldives. The archipelago has almost 1,200 individual islands, mostly grouped into atolls, which are coral islands or reefs that surround a lagoon.

The numerous atolls of the Maldives create a stunning geography that has resulted in the nation becoming one of the most desirable travel destinations on the planet thanks to its intensely blue waters, sand that’s so white it could blind you, and — for travelers — private-island resorts that ooze luxury and exclusivity.

Because the archipelago is so vast, many resorts are located a significant distance from the nation’s capital, Malé, which is also the international gateway to the country. This means travelers need to take a seaplane to reach these resorts after they arrive in Malé. However, this property is actually located quite close to Malé, which means the seaplane transfer isn’t necessary — instead, you’ll board the resort’s private yacht.

While this may seem like a win-win scenario (waiting for the notoriously uncomfortable seaplanes can be tedious), it doesn’t mean you’ll be saving money. When I visited, it cost $1,021 per person for a transfer on the shared yacht. At least the Champagne was free …?

Hot Tip:

Interested in learning more about the property? Check out my article: “5 Things I Wish I Knew Before Staying at the Waldorf Astoria Maldives.”

Arrival and Checking In

After arriving at Malé International Airport (MLE), you’ll need to collect your bags and head outside, where you’ll find someone from the resort waiting to take you to a covered waiting area.

Since the yacht is shared among guests checking in on a given day, you may need to wait a bit before you depart. This happened to me — I waited about 30 minutes to depart.

After the 30-minute boat ride, during which I was given unlimited free Champagne (and at that price, you better believe I chugged some), we arrived at the Waldorf’s private dock.

Because my boyfriend arrived at the resort before me, I didn’t get to experience the check-in process. However, he said it went very smoothly, and he was escorted almost immediately to our villa.

Elite Benefits

As Hilton Honors elite members, there isn’t an awful lot you’ll get when staying at the Waldorf Astoria Maldives Ithaafushi.

Typically, Hilton elite status will grant some sort of free breakfast, but all guests at this property can enjoy a complimentary Champagne breakfast daily, so there isn’t any benefit there.

Otherwise, the perks are fairly limited and include the following for Gold and Diamond members:

• A free 30-minute addition on a 60-minute massage or 20% off the treatment of your choosing
• Daily happy hour from 9 to 10 p.m. at Peacock Alley
• Early check-in and late checkout

Other trip reports suggest that happy hour used to be from 4 to 5 p.m., which would have been infinitely more useful to me. Most people — myself included — go to bed early at these types of resorts, so I can’t help but suspect that the change in timing was to discourage guests from taking advantage of the free drinks.

The other main perk elite members (especially top-tier Diamond members) can look forward to at most Hilton properties is room upgrades. While this property isn’t specifically excluded from upgrades per the chain’s website, in practice, the property doesn’t offer complimentary upgrades.

It can happen on occasion (and even happened to me during part of my stay) but don’t bank on it when you’re booking.

Note that you can pay cash for an upgrade if you’d like, but it’s not really necessary because the base rooms are so nice.

However, I did receive a bottle of wine and a fruit platter upon arrival, which was a nice touch.

Bottom Line:

Those with Hilton elite status don’t receive many extra benefits at the Waldorf Astoria Maldives Ithaafushi.

The Villa

The star of the show at the Waldorf Astoria Maldives Ithaafushi is, without a doubt, your villa.

There’s really no question about this.

These villas impress on size alone — at 2,000 square feet (including the outdoor deck), there’s plenty of room to move around.

The bed greeted me immediately upon entering the villa, and immediately to the right was the minibar.

It featured the requisite Nespresso machine. Thankfully the pods were complimentary.

Bathroom

The closets were in a hallway that led into the massive bathroom.

As you’d expect, there was a double vanity in the bathroom.

There was also a large soaking tub positioned to provide incredible views of the private plunge pool and turquoise waters beyond.

Even though the tub was spectacular, the water inside it was … not.

I attempted to take a bath 4 times throughout my stay. The water looked like how it does above 3 out of the 4 times. While I did manage to get clean water once, I think this must be a common issue since it happened in 2 separate villas.

In addition to the indoor shower, there was a gorgeous outdoor shower area.

The toiletries were from the high-end brand Aesop and smelled lovely.

While I loved the villa, I also felt it was kind of tacky that there were so many items labeled for sale within the room. I understand the minibar — but bath bombs? At $10 each, they were so expensive it was insulting.

And sunscreen for $40?

When the resort charges over $2,000 per night, you should expect to be able to use the bathing products for free. Full stop. If the resort is so concerned about making an extra few bucks on its captive audience, the gift shop is the correct venue for that — don’t waste space in the guest rooms to advertise $40 sunscreen.

Deck and Pool

Of course, the best feature of all was the expansive deck.

The main attraction of the outdoor space, of course, was the (very large) private pool.

In addition, there were a couple of day beds (one shaded and the other in the sun), 2 lounge chairs, and 2 dining sets.

One of the most fun features was the pair of nets that served basically as hammocks suspended above the glistening water. In case you didn’t want to jump directly from your deck into the water, there was a ladder to use.

Bottom Line:

It seemed to me that all of the resort’s villas were built to live in. Unlike other resorts, you pretty much have everything you’d need within the confines of your villa.

Amenities

Most people spend their time in their villas, excluding mealtimes, and the resort is built to accommodate that. However, there is still a full suite of amenities available to anyone who’d like to use them.

Pool and Beach

There was an expansive family pool with views of the ocean beyond. It was sparsely attended, and I only visited the area to take photos of it.

Another pool was located within the spa complex. This was reserved for guests who booked a spa treatment.

Of course, there was a stunning white-sand beach to enjoy, though I rarely saw anyone utilizing this strip of sand. While I never spent any time out here, there is the option to enjoy full service, including food and drinks that are brought to your chairs.

Spa

I’m a sucker for a good spa, even when it costs me an arm and a leg. To that end, I booked 3 massages during my time at the resort, including a lovely couple’s massage.

I took advantage of prebooking treatments to save 20%, though you’ll want to be aware that these discounts don’t stack with any Diamond benefits. I found this out the hard way.

The rest of the spa includes the pool, a hydrotherapy pool, an ice fountain, a steam room, and a sauna, though pricing for these is more than $400 for a 2-hour session.

You’ll also receive a nice tea service.

Overall, I really enjoyed the spa, though it was very expensive (as you’d expect). For example, a 60-minute massage (with 30 extra minutes free) ran $285 after tax and tip. The full spa menu can be viewed online.

Gym

Who visits a gym on vacation? Me! At least when I need to take photos …

It featured a well-equipped cardio room with plenty of state-of-the-art machines.

There was also a room dedicated to weight-lifting.

Bicycles and Buggies

If you ever need to leave your villa, you can utilize the complimentary bicycles to get around the resort.

If you’re not interested in cycling, you can also choose to walk or take a buggy.

Note that the resort is huge — walking from end to end takes a good half-hour, so many people opt for the buggies. Since the walking path shares space with the golf carts, you’ll spend a lot of time dodging vehicles if you’re on foot.

Snorkeling

I’m dedicating an entire section to snorkeling because I know that it’s a top priority when booking a resort in the Maldives. The Waldorf Astoria Maldives Ithaafushi is still a fairly new resort, which generally means there’s been a lot of damage inflicted on the reefs during the construction of the property, and as a result, there isn’t much reef to enjoy while snorkeling.

While there are a few locations you can snorkel, none of them are great unless you’re staying in one of the true overwater villas.

Our villa was located over a sandy lagoon, and while it was nice to swim around, there were no fish to be seen.

There are 2 other general snorkeling options: a small reef at the far end of the resort, near the dive center, and a better reef located about midway through the resort.

The better reef is located on the ocean side and has a very strong current, so it’s only a good option for advanced swimmers.

If you’re staying in a true overwater villa, you also have access to an undisturbed reef (that others can’t get to) that features turtles, sharks, and tons of fish. It’s not as good as the Conrad Maldives Rangali Island, but it provides enough entertainment for a couple of days.

Other Amenities

The resort boasts a tennis court and padel court if you’re interested in playing.

If you’d like to pay $900 for some gauzy, see-through clothing, the gift shop has you covered.

Besides visiting the resort’s various restaurants, we spent most of our time outside the villa at Nava, the poolside restaurant that also featured a variety of fun games.

There are also 2 clubs available for families: Stars Club is for younger kids, while Nova Club is good for teens.

If you’re interested in paid activities, there are also a whole host of options available:

• Diving excursions
• Snorkeling
• Boat rentals
• Fishing
• Glass-bottomed boat cruises
• Jet Skiing
• Parasailing

Finally, live music was often playing around the resort, usually at Peacock Alley. The times for this can change, though, so you’ll want to ask your concierge what’s going on each night.

A weekly schedule of all activities can be found here.

Food and Beverage

In addition to the insane villas, the Waldorf Astoria Maldives Ithaafushi really shines when it comes to restaurants. I mean it.

There is absolutely no reason for a property of this size to feature 11 different restaurants, but here we are. During my weeklong stay, I visited a handful of them — and even liked a few of them enough to return.

Tasting Table

You’ll go to Tasting Table for breakfast each morning. It consists of a big breakfast buffet featuring Western and Eastern cuisine. Champagne is included, but soda is not, inexplicably.

I completely forgot to take any pictures here since I was too busy stuffing my face.

Tasting Table is open from 7 to 10:30 a.m. daily.

The Rock

You probably wouldn’t think that dining inside a stone cellar would be at the top of your must-do list for a beach vacation — but it should be. The Rock is only open to private parties, though they don’t charge extra for the reservation. We liked it so much that we returned twice! Since the restaurant only opens by demand, you simply need to text your concierge and have them set it up.

Before we get any further, yes, this restaurant was insanely expensive. But that’s in line with the rest of the experience at the Waldorf Astoria Maldives Ithaafushi, and at The Rock, you get the entire restaurant to yourself, along with a personalized menu, a private server, and a private chef. The food is outstanding, too.

Want to know just how expensive it was? A meal for 2, with a bottle of wine, cost a whopping $1,064.

In-Villa Dinner

Since it was my birthday, my boyfriend had planned one of those special beach dinners where the staff digs a spot in the sand to place a romantic table, and then everyone gawks while you eat.

However, it was raining the night the dinner was planned for, so the resort offered to set it up in our villa instead.

I was actually much happier with this, as I don’t love sand or having all those eyes on me while I eat. We spent a few hours wandering around the property while the staff transformed our deck into a beautiful dining space. They even brought speakers, set up special lighting, and laid out flowers.

Now, get ready for the food rundown.

We were served a full 10-course meal that included shrimp, filet mignon, lobster tails, whitefish, a rack of lamb, chicken skewers, bread, soup, dessert, and more.

It was so much food that by the sixth course, I was tossing it off the deck to a reef shark that had mysteriously appeared. The waiter even quipped: “Wow, I don’t know how you managed to eat all that!” as I guiltily tried to wipe my greasy lamb fingers on my napkin.

Regardless, I highly recommend this very expensive but genuinely incredible experience. Just don’t eat 2 days before your scheduled dinner.

The total cost? Just over $2,000, tip included.

Yasmeen

We visited Yasmeen just once during our stay, and although the food was good, it wasn’t superior to other options.

Yasmeen serves Arabic food (which I am obsessed with), and overall, it was very tasty — just not tasty enough to beat out the other options.

Like the rest of the resort, pricing is through the roof. Our total for appetizers, 2 entrees, and a bottle of wine was $512.

Yasmeen is open from 7 to 10:30 p.m. daily.

Li Long

Li Long was the other restaurant that we visited multiple times, mostly because its Peking duck was sensational. Also, because this was the view:

Li Long serves primarily Asian cuisine and is open from 7 to 10:30 p.m. daily.

The Ledge by Dave Pynt

The Ledge was our first stop during our trip and … well, I think it perfectly illustrates the cost and overall ludicrous nature of this hotel. Here’s a look at the menu:

At first glance, things looked pretty pricey, but there were some decent options. I decided to order the tacos for dinner. They seemed reasonable at just $11.

Can’t find them in this photo? They’re right there, just behind the bread. I just ate my boyfriend’s dinner instead.

The Ledge is open daily for lunch from 12:30 to 4 p.m. and for dinner from 7 to 10:30 p.m.

Nava

I mentioned Nava earlier since it’s where we spent most of our time outside the villa. The food here was casual and included pizzas and salads, though you can also just hang out without ordering anything.

Nava is open daily for lunch from 12 to 6 p.m.

Amber

Amber was the bar where everyone went to watch the sunset.

We didn’t actually spend any time here because the staff had warned us that it routinely became incredibly busy in the evenings.

Amber is open daily from 6 to 8 p.m.

Terra

Terra is the Waldorf’s most famous restaurant since it’s very exclusive and the tables are set within private treehouses.

Although we had reservations to eat here (which you should definitely book before arrival), we ended up changing them to visit The Rock again. This was primarily because Terra focuses on seafood, and I’m not a huge fan of fish. Plus, you aren’t allowed to make substitutions to the menu and there were only fish options available the night we had a reservation.

Terra is open daily from 7 to 10:30 p.m.

Glow

Glow is the resort’s health-focused restaurant. I didn’t eat here, though I did pop by to snap a photo for all of you!

Glow is open for dinner from 7 to 10:30 p.m. daily.

Zuma

The Waldorf Astoria Maldives Ithaafushi boasts an outpost of the international sushi hotspot Zuma.

I didn’t eat here because it primarily serves sushi, but I noticed that there were plenty of reservations available, which is great for those who don’t plan ahead.

Zuma is open daily for dinner from 7 to 10:30 p.m.

Peacock Alley

Peacock Alley is the Waldorf’s main bar, sharing space with the lobby. Although I never stayed up late enough to enjoy the free happy hour drinks, we did visit each night for a pre-dinner beverage.

Just really be prepared for sticker shock — expect to pay $14 for a beer, $25 to $30 for a cocktail, and upwards of $100 for a bottle of wine.

Note that after happy hour ends at 10 p.m., you can still take advantage of half-priced drinks until the bar closes.

Peacock Alley is open from 10 a.m. to 12 a.m. daily.

Bottom Line:

The Waldorf Astoria Maldives Ithaafushi has many different restaurants, whether you’re interested in treetop dining or Peking duck.

Service

The service at the Waldorf Astoria Maldives Ithaafushi was impeccable. We had access to a dedicated butler, whom we could text to coordinate activities, reservations, and specialty bookings.

In addition to setting up the insane in-villa dining, they also decorated our room for my birthday — and even made me a cake!

I’ll also note here that we were upgraded to a King Grand Overwater Villa during the last 2 nights of our stay. This wasn’t something I was expecting and I was absolutely thrilled to have the experience.

The Grand Overwater Villa featured an extra sitting room, a bigger deck, an in-room underwater viewing area, and best of all, really good snorkeling.

I still don’t know why we were upgraded, but I have my suspicions. A very large group arrived during our final 2 nights, and I think that they wanted to be placed near each other.

As a couple, we were the easiest to shift over, so we ended up getting the boot and getting the upgrade.

Final Thoughts

I’m a veteran when it comes to visiting the Maldives. I’ve loved every visit I’ve ever had, but the Waldorf Astoria Maldives Ithaafushi was truly magnificent. As soon as we left, I set another alert to book again. I haven’t done it yet — the price (in both cash and points) is a little too steep to book flippantly. But I’d highly recommend this resort to anyone looking for a bucket-list experience — I know I can’t wait to return.