Luxury Hotels - Aman sveti Stefan new trip report

We are currently staying here and having a wonderful time! I thought I should write this after the last posting which was quite unfavorable.

Due to the late arrival of our flight, we spent our first night in Dubrovnik. Having been there before and having no desire to stay longer we were picked up by Aman the next morning for our drive to the resort. Just as an FYI, we stayed at villa Dubrovnik - a relatively new virtuoso hotel. It is outside the walled city and right on the water with marvelous views. It would not rate as a true luxury hotel IMHO, but was very nicely done and is a good alternative if one should choose to stay there. To be fair we arrived late and left mid morning so probably not fair to review.

We had decided to add stops in Perast and Kotor to our resort transfer as we only have 5 nights in the resort and thought it made sense to do along the way, and it did! Only thing I would have changed would have been to leave earlier in the morning as the day was hot! We had no wait at the border as the driver took us around a different way ( the local way) and if we had gone straight to the resort would have easily been there in 2.5 hours. The Aman had also arranged for lunch at a lovely restaurant between Perast and Kotor which was an old mill on the bay. It added a nice stop between touring.

We are staying in a deluxe sea view cottage with a terrace. The room itself is very small, but the terrace is incredible with one of the nicest, unobstructed view you can imagine. Full on sunset every evening also! It is suite 40. We had the opportunity to look at one other room in this category - suite 18. The cottage itself was much larger as it was two floors. However, the view not as good, and the loo is on the bottom floor, with the bedroom upstairs. So we elected for the smaller room with the amazing view from the terrace. On our second day we also looked at suite 41, the Adriatic suite which we absolutely love, and would have moved in, but it was only available for 2 of our 5 nights and right in the middle of our stay so we did not want to move twice! Next time! The resort is quite full so hard to look at rooms. Tried to see the sveti stefan suite but booked our entire stay. Same with Villa milocer, but we might see a room today between check out and check in!

Our experience with the facilities has been very good. We like the beaches and have not minded the walk, although it has been quite hot, so would be nice if they had a boat transfer. I thought I had read they would offer, but when I ask people look at me with blank stares so not available! Of course car transfer always available which is nice but we have not used except to queens chair for dinner last night.

Food has been good so far and we like the restaurant variety. The only meal I found kind of average was at the piazza On the island where I ordered lamb for dinner and found it very average. Queens chair was excellent for dinner, and villa milocer very nice for lunch. We are trying the latter for dinner tonight and perhaps olive tree for lunch. So nice to have the variety!

Coming up we have booked a sailing yacht for tomorrow, and are looking at doing a 2 hour trip on the riva this afternoon. More later, but so far we are really enjoying it! Fingers crossed, no noise keeping us up at all hours!

Great to hear that you are enjoying yourself. Do go on the Riva late afternoon or early evening before sunset and take a bottle of wine. We went south and saw a wonderful little photogenic church on an island ( as well as some crowded beaches that made us love sveti Stefan even more!)! It was one of our highlights last year.

Sounds great! We look forward to hearing more.

We like the beaches and have not minded the walk, although it has been quite hot, so would be nice if they had a boat transfer. I thought I had read they would offer, but when I ask people look at me with blank stares so not available!

Surprising indeed as we did it twice. It was 40°C when we were there last August and they offered boat transfer from island to the Pier just by Villa Milocer.

Did you hear any news of when the main restaurant, pool, and gym building on the island will be constructed and open?

Did you hear any news of when the main restaurant, pool, and gym building on the island will be constructed and open?

Island pool, gourmet restaurant, a few more rooms, gym scheduled to be finished for next season. They did discover and are restoring a church as was said earlier. You can see the pool has been built, but still not usable. It is also much smaller than the original plan because of the church. They don't seem to be working on it now with guests, but they plan to have it open for next season. They also plan to have the big new spa behind queens beach open as well. It should add quite a lot to an already wonderful resort!
They do also have room service on the island this year - things from the piazza. They say no hot breakfast, but we asked for omlettes and they brought them without question and they were warm and delicious!

Thanks for sharing

The boat transfer was also not available two months ago when we were there, hope it will come back next season.

Boat transfer was available som days during our stay last year. When it was not available it was because of wind and waves.

We have continued to enjoy our stay at Sveti Stefan. We have tried each restaurant now so I feel I can comment on those, as well as the facilities.

We had a special dinner organized at Villa Milichor one night and they did a terrific job. They did the roast chicken stuffed with truffles that had to be ordered 24 hours in advance and it was superb. They also did some custom dishes for us which was really nice. Their executive chef is quite experienced with this being his second stint at Aman having worked in between at Oberon in India. Considering the no. Of restaurants he oversees, it is a hard job, but he does it well.

We had dinner at the Olive Garden last night. Very informal, but if you want to try the local cuisine this is the place to do it, we had the spinach and cheese pie and lamb sag both typical to the region. A bit heavy, but very good with a hearty motenegran red wine.

So in terms of dining all venues were pretty good, but we particularly liked villa Milocher and Queens Chair for dinner, and villa Milocher and the beach cafe under the shade of the tall trees for lunch.

For activities we did as I mentioned earlier Perast and Kotor on our transfer from Dubrovnik. We enjoyed and would definately suggest a visit.
Yesterday we did an all day boat excursion in a sailing yacht they outsource. They use a French made dafour which is very comfortable for 2 at 43', and the crew was very professional an attentive. It is quite warm right now so we could not sail the whole time but got in about an hour in the morning, and another hour later in the afternoon. In between we motored up and down the coast and stopped in some lovely bays for swimming, and a wonderful gourmet picnic lunch prepared by chef at Aman. It was a great leisurely way to see the coast especially in the hot weather ( hit 36-38 yesterday).

Service has been very good with a few minor issues, but staff still learning and so friendly and nice and trying very hard to please! Minor things were no reservation for us at queens chair the night we went although we know was made and car had been waiting to drive us. No problem when got there as was not full that night. We had room service breakfast dishes still sitting on our terrace when we came back to our room at 5 one evening, but when called came immediately and cleared and could not have been more apologetic. So overall considering the challenges of the property and time opened, we are very happy with the service around the entire property!

We have used the beaches quite a bit. Only queens beach and villa milocer beach as the one close to the island just seems too crowded for our taste. Service at both has been very good. One little thing was the prime minister of the country has a vacation home near the and uses queens beach. When he was there our first day it was quite hard to get loungers as he has to keep the set ups on either side of his family setups free for security reasons so it limits ones ability to get even the limited loungers on this beach. So if you want to go to queens beach you need to get there on busy days by 10 or 10:30.

Overall again, a great stay continues. Will write a conclusion after we leave!

We have continued to enjoy our stay at Sveti Stefan. We have tried each restaurant now so I feel I can comment on those, as well as the facilities.

We had a special dinner organized at Villa Milichor one night and they did a terrific job. They did the roast chicken stuffed with truffles that had to be ordered 24 hours in advance and it was superb. They also did some custom dishes for us which was really nice. Their executive chef is quite experienced with this being his second stint at Aman having worked in between at Oberon in India. Considering the no. Of restaurants he oversees, it is a hard job, but he does it well.

We had dinner at the Olive Garden last night. Very informal, but if you want to try the local cuisine this is the place to do it, we had the spinach and cheese pie and lamb sag both typical to the region. A bit heavy, but very good with a hearty motenegran red wine.

So in terms of dining all venues were pretty good, but we particularly liked villa Milocher and Queens Chair for dinner, and villa Milocher and the beach cafe under the shade of the tall trees for lunch.

For activities we did as I mentioned earlier Perast and Kotor on our transfer from Dubrovnik. We enjoyed and would definately suggest a visit.
Yesterday we did an all day boat excursion in a sailing yacht they outsource. They use a French made dafour which is very comfortable for 2 at 43', and the crew was very professional an attentive. It is quite warm right now so we could not sail the whole time but got in about an hour in the morning, and another hour later in the afternoon. In between we motored up and down the coast and stopped in some lovely bays for swimming, and a wonderful gourmet picnic lunch prepared by chef at Aman. It was a great leisurely way to see the coast especially in the hot weather ( hit 36-38 yesterday).

Service has been very good with a few minor issues, but staff still learning and so friendly and nice and trying very hard to please! Minor things were no reservation for us at queens chair the night we went although we know was made and car had been waiting to drive us. No problem when got there as was not full that night. We had room service breakfast dishes still sitting on our terrace when we came back to our room at 5 one evening, but when called came immediately and cleared and could not have been more apologetic. So overall considering the challenges of the property and time opened, we are very happy with the service around the entire property!

We have used the beaches quite a bit. Only queens beach and villa milocer beach as the one close to the island just seems too crowded for our taste. Service at both has been very good. One little thing was the prime minister of the country has a vacation home near the and uses queens beach. When he was there our first day it was quite hard to get loungers as he has to keep the set ups on either side of his family setups free for security reasons so it limits ones ability to get even the limited loungers on this beach. So if you want to go to queens beach you need to get there on busy days by 10 or 10:30.

Overall again, a great stay continues. Will write a conclusion after we leave!

Thanks for the update and have a wonderful rest of stay. Try to have a massage in the spa suites. They are very nice and the therapists are ex Amanpuri.

And if you enjoy deep tissue massages, I can recommend Ria. She was there last year as well and has been to Amanpulo in winter where we met again. Say hello!

Overall, we had a wonderful stay at Aman SS. I would highly recommend although I pulled caution that hiking the steps on the island in the summer to go o the beach and later for dinner is not or the "faint of heart". The great news is it meant between swimming in the sea and lots of walking no need for the gym!
We particularly loved eating at Villa Milocher. With advance notice the chef would cook anything where they could ource ingredients! We did seared fois grois ( hoping not to offend anyone but just banned July 1st in calif so was a nice treat) and Vitelli tonato one day for lunch. Also excellent grilled fish and any salad combination ypu could think of!

Now arrived at Amanruya and looking forward to a great week here!

Overall, we had a wonderful stay at Aman SS. I would highly recommend although I pulled caution that hiking the steps on the island in the summer to go o the beach and later for dinner is not or the "faint of heart". The great news is it meant between swimming in the sea and lots of walking no need for the gym!
We particularly loved eating at Villa Milocher. With advance notice the chef would cook anything where they could ource ingredients! We did seared fois grois ( hoping not to offend anyone but just banned July 1st in calif so was a nice treat) and Vitelli tonato one day for lunch. Also excellent grilled fish and any salad combination ypu could think of!

Now arrived at Amanruya and looking forward to a great week here!

Thanks for the report .. Hoping to do similar next year.
How's the connection to Amanruya & what airlines or options are best?
Reverse order? Perhaps with Amanzoe too? @:-)

Amankila for us next weekend :-: - hope it's less hot than where you are!

Connection from Aman sveti Stefan to Amanruya not bad! There is a nonstop flight from Podgorica (1 hour drive) to Istanbul 4 days a week currently. Then it is easy to connect to bodrum. We had been to Istanbul many times so did not stopover, and therefore got in really late ( after midnight). Would make sense to add a couple of days in Istanbul if you have time as it is a wonderful city! We wanted to maximize time at Amanruya, but I think for most it would be ideal to stop for a couple days on the way!

Amankila should be great this time of year. We have been in July in past and not nearly as hot as here! Although who knows with the weather changing everywhere! Have a great time.