Originally Posted by
behuman
Amankila is the prototype of an Aman. Personalized and attentive service, nothing standardized American style.
They have a new chef from Sydney and especially the private dining options are outstanding - they will do everything for you.
It is a property for walkers and the ocean can seem distant sometimes. This however is very clear on their website and the walk down to the beach with the cabanas and the very long pool is always an adventure. For the lazy ones they provide buggy transfer.....
I wonder what are your "super high expectations"? If I read your profile correctly you are part of the by invitation only "Club 5C" and as we all know Relais & Chateaux is the most heteroclite marketing group where individual hoteliers provide high service levels, but no standardized nonsense as the integrated so called "luxury" chains.
Hello behuman,
I visited Amankila 2 yrs ago, so I'm not sure if the food was prepared by the chef from Sydney you mentioned, but the food at Amankila is probably the most disappointing part during our stay. We had the breakfast on the hill (nothing special to us...maybe because we were from Asia? But we were charged USD 40/person for something we can arrange less than USD 10 at home), candlelight dinner on the beach (it was very romantic and special, but the food again is very disappointing), and the dinner at the restaurant is below our expectation too. Even my grandma who never really stayed at luxury hotel thought the food was bad.
Then there's the oceanview part....I was disappointed to find that we don't have oceanview from our room. Also, we had a party of four, so we booked one garden view and one oceanview room, but our room was far away from each other, so it was really inconvenient (we booked two 1BR villas at FS, and they offered us a upgrade to a 2BR villa), I thought they could at least arrange our rooms closer to each other.
The rooms are not private enough too, I don't know if the suites have the same problems, but people can see me from outside if I'm using the bath, so it's a bit annoying to close the blinds when I'm changing or take a bath.
There were also a lot of bugs in my room! I'm very scared of bugs....though I know it's not Aman's fault, I didn't spot bugs at FS Sayan.
Service....I don't know if it's a Balinese thing or what....yes they're friendly, and they're attentive, but sometimes it's a bit too much and I just want to be left alone and enjoy some quality time. Maybe I just happened to meet some chatty staffs, but it was really bothering me a bit, and I didn't want to be rude and asked them to go away. Some staffs also made me a bit uncomfortable, maybe it's the language or cultural difference? I'm not sure.
Bottom line is, all the staffs at Amankila were very helpful and very courteous, but maybe the over-attentive and personal service is not my thing. I simply want them to get their jobs done and leave me alone. Don't come to me unless I told you to!
I mentioned I had super high expectations because Amankila was my first Amanresort, and also read lots of people saying it's the best Amanresort etc...
Though I had my issues with Amankila, I had to say their "standard procedure" was outstanding (airport transfer, check in/out, etc), absolutely flawless. Unfortunately, this place is just not for me, I guess I much preferred the Relais & Chateaux small countryside houses
I went to The Wauwinet in Nantucket after my Bali trip, and thought it was a much better island hideaway trip for me.