It wasn't until I was my early 20's, I think, that I really began to have interest in staying at the better hotels. Probably because of childhood experiences staying in average American hotels and motels, I wanted to experience things beyond that...well, really beyond that. I was based in Asia by that time, and luxury hotels were more of the norm than the exception. Even if you didn't stay in one, there was always dinners at these hotels, functions, meetings, and many of the popular clubs were there, too.

Holidays around Asia were relatively inexpensive, and it didn't take long before I started staying in more upscale hotels around the continent. I had to travel for work a lot as well, and by the time I owned my own company, I wouldn't hesitate to book myself into the nicer business hotels on work trips.

But probably it was when I met my wife almost ten years that I really became fond of luxury hotels. She loved to travel as much as I did, and when you have someone permanent to share experiences with, it seemed to be worth it so much more. We made it a point to try to stay at the best hotel or property in any city that we went for holiday, taking about three or four trips a year, and soon we graduated to only wanting to stay in suites. Probably because of our inexperience, we always wanted to stay in a better room than we did in our previous trip. Many of our holidays were to resort towns around Asia, so villas began becoming an option, as they were quite common and affordable. We started to love the service of these resorts, loved going to spas together and getting massages, loved getting picked up by a golf cart to go to the clubhouse or the beach, and just loved the laid-back atmosphere of these properties, which were an oasis especially since our normal daily lives in were high-stress Asian urban environments.

We had stayed in various resorts around Asia before we came across our first Aman. I was aware of Amanresorts before from reading various articles, but no one I knew had stayed in one, so I didn't really have an idea of why or how they would be better than the resorts that we had stayed at. It wasn't until a friend had their wedding at an Aman did I understand. The villas they rented for the ceremony and the reception were just flat-out amazing. Not just huge and with epic ocean views, but the architecture was truly stunning, even within the villas. Really blew me away in terms of the grandness of the spaces, and opened up my imagination to this almost "fantasy" world, and made me realize it was real and within grasp.

After that wedding, we decided to do our first Aman trip, which was the Aman Bali Experience a few years ago. That was easily our best trip together up until that time, and we have never looked back!