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Among award travelers, one of the most well-known and aspirational Hilton Honors properties is the Waldorf Astoria Maldives Ithaafushi. After reading and writing about this property for years, I was thrilled to finally stay at the Waldorf Astoria Maldives this August.
Awards cost a whopping 150,000 Hilton points per night — and that's if you can find standard award availability. But savvy award travelers know you can redeem Hilton free night certificates at almost any Hilton property — including the Waldorf Astoria Maldives.
When standard award space opened in late 2023, my wife Katie and I snagged two back-to-back nights using free night certificates. (While we had to call to book, you can now book Hilton free night certificates via chat). Then, when an adjacent standard award night opened, we splurged the 150,000 Hilton Honors points to string together three consecutive nights at one of the most luxurious — and expensive — Hilton properties in the world.
It was surreal to write this story while enjoying the views I'd seen in pictures so many times. So, here's what you need to know if you too want to make a dream trip to the Waldorf Astoria Maldives come true.
Page Contents
- Waldorf Astoria Maldives Basics
- How to Get to the Waldorf Astoria Maldives
- Villa Types at the Waldorf Astoria Maldives
- Hilton Diamond Benefits at the Waldorf Astoria Maldives
- Is the Waldorf Astoria Maldives a Good Use of a Hilton Free Night Certificate?
- Things We Enjoyed About the Waldorf Astoria Maldives
- Things We Didn't Love About the Waldorf Astoria Maldives
- Our Waldorf Astoria Maldives Review
Waldorf Astoria Maldives Basics
The Waldorf Astoria Maldives is one of four Hilton Honors properties in the Maldives — at least before the addition of SLH properties to the Hilton portfolio, which added another five Hilton properties in the Maldives. It's the most aspirational and luxurious Hilton property in the Maldives and one of the top in the world.
The villas at the Waldorf Astoria Maldives are massive, with the smallest being 2,518 square feet. Best of all, standard award nights book into a two queen-bed reef villa with a private pool and direct access to the ocean.
Related: 9 Things We Love About the Hilton Honors Rewards Program
How to Get to the Waldorf Astoria Maldives
The Waldorf Astoria Maldives arranges mandatory luxury yacht transfers from Male's Velana International Airport (MLE). The airport is 41 miles from the resort, and the hotel-arranged yacht journey takes about 45 minutes each way.
Considering the resort's large size, we were very pleasantly surprised to get a 14-passenger two-bedroom yacht staffed by five staff entirely to ourselves for our journey to the resort.
The resort utilizes a fleet of eight yachts of various sizes. But the yacht that carried us to the resort had two bedrooms, three bathrooms, an air-conditioned seating area, and open-air seating in the back of the main deck and upper deck.
A friendly Maldivian staff member offered us a choice of complimentary coffee, soda, or champagne (Nicolas Maillart), and he continued offering refills until we disembarked at the resort. He also offered us a choice of six types of snacks from a wooden box.
A contingent of staff greets guests at the dock. Our concierge for the stay (Mo) and the manager on duty (Ana) provided a friendly greeting.
On our return to the airport, we shared a similar-sized two-bedroom yacht with three other groups (for nine total passengers). One group opted to take a bedroom, and the other two stayed in the air conditioning, so we opted to take the entire upper deck to ourselves. We lucked into the same cabin attendant as our first airport transfer, and he checked in on us often to ensure we didn't need any refills.
Whether you book a paid or award stay, the round-trip yacht journey currently costs $1,021 total per adult. This is a significantly higher transfer cost than you'll face for most other Maldives resorts — including those that require you to arrive via seaplane. So, make sure you factor this and the other costly aspects of the stay into your budget before snagging award availability.
Related: 15 Best-Value Hilton Honors Points Redemptions for Luxury Stays
Villa Types at the Waldorf Astoria Maldives
The Waldorf Astoria Maldives offers three villa types: beach, reef, and ocean. Within these categories, you'll find one-bedroom villas with one king bed or two queen beds. Some villas are considered “grand” and offer additional living space.
Every villa offers a private pool. The reef and ocean villas provide guests with direct ocean access, while the beach villas offer beach access.
The beach villas and reef villas are closest to the resort's restaurants and amenities — which is important considering the resort's road stretches 2.2 miles (3.5 kilometers) from tip to tip.
The resort also has some two- and three-bedroom villas, as well as its two Stella Maris Ocean Villa duplexes and Ithaafushi – The Private Island. But don't expect to get a free upgrade to any of those.
King overwater villa with pool
Thanks to our Hilton Diamond status — as well as some luck visiting during a lower occupancy period — we were offered a complimentary upgrade from a reef villa to an ocean villa for our three-night stay.
Walking into the villa from the overwater walkway is impressive. You'll find resort-provided bikes waiting by the outside door, but you can bypass those to walk straight to the outdoor area of your villa.
I've seen images of this outdoor area so many times, but it looks even more impressive in person. The pool is massive, and I counted seating for 18 people between the four sun loungers, six seats at tables, seating for four on two swing benches, two lounge chairs, and two overwater nets. You'll have no lack of places and ways to relax and enjoy the view.
The pool seemed lightly heated, and the weave on the overwater nets made them surprisingly comfortable.
My wife Katie loved sitting on the overwater nets at sunset and was surprised to see a large stingray swimming near and under the nets on two nights.
We enjoyed swimming just a minute or two from our villa to the house reef located outside every ocean-facing reef or ocean villa. We also appreciated the large drying rack on the pool deck.
The inside of the overwater villa is massive, too. From the main entrance, you'll enter into a sitting area and bedroom. The seats looking out toward the pool are comfortable and are where I wrote most of this story.
From the bedroom, you'll walk over glass flooring that provides a view of the ocean toward the bathroom. On either side of the glass flooring are closets.
Of course, we had to get a photo through the glass flooring.
The bathroom is large, with an indoor shower, a massive egg-shaped bathtub, and double sinks. The toiletries are Aesop branded. But note that no complimentary sunscreen or after-sun gel is provided — as we found in other Maldives resorts on this stay.
You'll find gender-specific bathroom amenities in canisters labeled “His” and “Hers.”
Next to the sinks, you'll reach the outdoor shower. You can also access this outdoor shower from the pool deck — which is very useful for rinsing off after a dip in the pool or the ocean.
Related: How Many Points Can You Earn on Hilton Stays?
Hilton Diamond Benefits at the Waldorf Astoria Maldives
Hilton Diamond members get some extra perks on stays at the Waldorf Astoria Maldives. During our August stay, the stated Hilton Diamond benefits included:
- Free Wi-Fi
- Late checkout, subject to availability
- Drinking water in the villa daily
- Mixology and sommelier selection of crafted beverages daily from 9 p.m. to 10 p.m. at Peacock Alley
- 50% savings on selected drinks at Peacock Alley from 10 p.m. to 11:30 p.m.
- In-villa welcome amenities (fruit plate and bottle of Francois Labet Pinot Noir 2022 for our stay)
- Additional 30 minutes for a selected 75-minute massage
We also enjoyed complimentary breakfast each morning as a Hilton MyWay benefit.
Related: How To Get Free Breakfast at Hilton Hotels
We enjoyed snacking on the fruit plate and wine throughout our stay.
But the most useful benefit for us was the 9 p.m. to 10 p.m. drinks in Peacock Alley, where the staff proactively asked if we'd like more drinks throughout the hour.
We stayed longer and enjoyed the 50% savings on select drinks most evenings, as we enjoyed the live music.
Hilton Diamond status typically requires you to accrue 60 nights, 30 stays, or 120,000 base points in a calendar year. But you can get complimentary Hilton Diamond status as a perk of the Hilton Honors American Express Aspire Card. Or you can upgrade to Diamond status through the end of the next calendar year after spending $40,000 on purchases on the Hilton Honors American Express Surpass® Card in a calendar year.
Related: Using Hilton Credit Card Spending for Elite Status
Is the Waldorf Astoria Maldives a Good Use of a Hilton Free Night Certificate?
The Waldorf Astoria Maldives is certainly one of the best uses of a Hilton free night certificate if you're interested in a trip to the Maldives.
The Waldorf Astoria Maldives is one of the few properties that charges 150,000 points per night for standard award nights. 150,000 points per night is Hilton's current cap on standard award night pricing, so you'll use your free night certificates for maximum points value at the Waldorf Astoria Maldives.
However, unlike some other hotels — where you might end up with close to zero out-of-pocket cost when using a free night certificate — the Waldorf Astoria Maldives requires a substantial out-of-pocket cost. At the very least, you'll have to pay more than $1,000 per person for the round-trip yacht transfers. But, you'll likely also want to pay for some food, drink, and tips. And you may want to splurge on a spa treatment or excursion.
You can earn Hilton free night certificates through the Hilton Aspire and the Hilton Surpass. We used Hilton's award calendar view to find standard award availability across two consecutive nights. Then, we set up award availability alerts using Awayz for the two surrounding nights and redeemed points for the third night within minutes of getting an email alert.
Related: Which Hilton Honors Credit Card Is Right for You?
Things We Enjoyed About the Waldorf Astoria Maldives
We eagerly anticipated our Waldorf Astoria Maldives stay for months and had high expectations from the brand and this specific property. But, we were still pleasantly surprised by the following aspects of our stay:
- Overwater villa: Our overwater villa was one of the most over-the-top accommodations we've ever experienced. The outdoor area was large enough to host a group, and the inside was very well-designed.
- Easy to reach house reef: Most Maldives resorts have a house reef, but it's sometimes difficult to reach. So we loved swimming just a few minutes from our villa to enjoy the reef. At points, snorkeling on the reef felt like we were swimming in an aquarium.
- Self-serve games: We enjoyed playing pool, table tennis, and foosball at Nava beach club, but we also stopped by the paddle ball court for a quick game and shot a few hoops on the tennis court. We appreciated that although you could reserve the tennis court and paddle ball court, you could also stop by and use the readily available equipment if it wasn't already in use or reserved.
- Peacock Alley in the evenings: We don't usually enjoy listening to live bar music. But we loved listening as the musicians played old favorites at Peacock Alley each evening. We also appreciated the proactive service at this bar, especially during the Hilton Diamond hour each evening.
- Bikes: Since the Waldorf Astoria Maldives is 2.2 miles long and our villa was far from most restaurants and bars, we enjoyed having bikes to get around the resort.
Related: When Do Hilton Honors Points Expire?
Things We Didn't Love About the Waldorf Astoria Maldives
As with any stay, there are always going to be some aspects you don't love. Here's a few things we didn't enjoy about the Waldorf Astoria Maldives:
- Island time: The resort operated one hour ahead of Male's typical time. This might not be annoying to guests who only visit the Waldorf Astoria, but we found it confusing since we stayed at other Maldives resorts before and after our stay. The staff at the airport and on the yacht told us to set our clocks to Bangladesh time.
- Some maintenance issues: We encountered a few issues I wouldn't expect at a high-caliber resort. For example, I cut my finger on a sharp object when climbing up my villa's ladder from the ocean and our villa's deck needed to be sanded (we didn't get any splinters, but it seemed possible). The back tire of my bike was also underinflated. The resort staff were quick to fix issues once we alerted them, though.
- Expensive food and drink: Food and beverage options onsite were expensive, even for the Maldives. You can find menus with current pricing here. For example, a cheeseburger at The Ledge costs $66, chicken shawarma at Yasmeen costs $91, and a tuna poke bowl at beachside cafe Nava costs $50. And that's before a compulsory 10% service charge and 16% tax. That makes the price of a cheeseburger more than $84 before any additional gratuity you might want to leave.
Related: How To Pool Hilton Honors Points Quickly and Freely
Our Waldorf Astoria Maldives Review
A stay at the Waldorf Astoria Maldives was a splurge for us, even though we used two Hilton free night certificates and 150,000 points for our three-night stay. After all, that's a lot of points and we still had out-of-pocket costs for the round-trip yacht transfers, food, beverages, and tips.
We spent our time enjoying the resort's included amenities, such as snorkeling on the very accessible house reef, relaxing in our villa, and playing games near the Nava Beach Club. These activities gave us plenty to do, so we didn't find a need to book any excursions or spa treatments.
I'm happy we splurged on this stay and recommend others who can afford the transfer fees and onsite costs to do so with their Hilton free night certificates. But, I don't expect we'll return as Hilton (and other hotel loyalty programs we use) offers many other Maldives properties we've yet to try that have more modest out-of-pocket costs on award stays.
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