Amandari - Bali

100   Recommended
River View Pool Suite
August 22, 2014 by EXPERT

 Map | 6 Reviews | 67% Recommended
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Amandari
 Map | 6 Reviews | 67% Recommended

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River View Pool Suite

Liked:
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Service
Food
Amenities
Room
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Room
River View Pool Suite

We spent two evenings at Amandari in a River View Pool Suite. Amandari is designed to resemble a small Balinese village (as is FS Jimbaran Bay). The major difference is the scale of the resort; Amandari has only 30 villas. There is an expansive feeling, with beautiful, landscaped walkways leading through the resort. Separation between the villas creates a real sense of privacy. Amandari's common areas are exceptional in their beauty and serenity.

Room

There are three room categories at Amandari. Village Suites are on the "village" side of the property with views just of your villa's garden courtyard. River Suites look out towards the river and the hillside beyond. Pool suites (offered in the River View category only) have a large and very private green-tiled pool. There is marble flooring throughout the first floor of your villa. The bathroom provides two separate vanities, a step-in shower, and an outdoor sunken bath. Amandari has both single-level and bi-level villas. The bi-level villas have more living space (with the master bedroom, a power room, and desk on the second floor) and are ideal for a family. However, if you are traveling as a couple, I strongly recommend requesting a single-level villa at the time of booking. It's far more convenient to have everything on one floor. It has been noted on this forum that Amandari is an older resort and its rooms are a little dated. I would agree with this assessment. While FS Sayan has a superior room product, I loved the traditional Balinese setting of Amandari and Aman's personal and intimate service. If Amandari renovates its villas, it will be the perfect resort.

Service

Beyond the physical product, Aman offers the opportunity to really engage the culture of the surrounding area. With a three night stay, you receive the Aman Bali Experience — providing not only a nightly discount but one complimentary activity per stay. While you could use it on a spa treatment, don't! We went on a 3 hour cultural tour with our Aman driver-guide today (that extended to over 4 hours), and he showed us a side of Bali we could never have found any other way - a totally personalized tour in which we visited a Balinese home, an art studio, a master wood carver's shop, and a popular temple … early enough that we could enjoy the temple all to ourselves before the tourists got there.

The previous evening, we took advantage of the opportunity to experience a local religious festival (there is a schedule of ceremonies in your room - or just ask at the front desk). Our driver-guide dressed us in traditional sarongs and took us to a local celebration that was an incredible experience of Balinese culture - a cacophony of bright colors (reds and golds and yellows), sounds (a Hindu priest ringing a bell, a soloist chanting), smells (incense), sights (villagers bringing offerings of fruit baskets, others praying devoutly as they offered flower petals), and the experience of a community that had come together for a social and religious festival. That 20 minute visit to the temple ceremony will be an experience that will stay with me forever.

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