Musken

AMANRUYA, BODRUM

After our stay at Aman Sveti Stefan last year during their first months of opening, it took some convincing of my husband before he agreed to visit another new Aman this year. However, we agreed that the good things would probably make up for the teething problems as in Sveti Stefan, so decided to give it a try. We were prepared for a stay in a similar “stage” of the hotel, which is why I am extremely happy to report that Amanruya is FAR ahead of where Sveti Stefan was last year. I think it is amazing what Gabriel, the GM, and his wonderful team has achieved in such a very short period of time. Some small issues, yes, but really an Aman experience.

Arrival
We were met by our driver at the airport in Bodrum and found later that the same driver would be with us during all our 10 nights stay for excursions etc. which was great. His English was good, he offered wonderful service and was also able to add local knowledge and information as he was from the area. It took around 30 minutes to drive to the resort. Upon arrival, we were met fresh towels and cold drinks and the GM came to welcome us and give us a little tour of the resort which looked absolutely stunning. During our tour, we met our friend Boris from Sveti Stefan (in charge of F&B) and later on Yeshi (ex Amankora who handeled the front office and who had answered all my pre arrival requests in such a wonderful way) who took us to our cottage.

Cottage
We were really happy with the cottage. Ours was number 32 which I highly recommend. It is one of the highest cottages, close to the main pool and common areas, very quiet (never heard any night club noise from other hotels) and private, with a large rectangular pool in a large garden. View over the roof of the cottages in front (could only see the roofs when standing at the edge of the garden area), through some pine trees (great for shade in the heat of the summer) across the sea and the bay. The inside is just as wonderful as pictures and videos has shown before, so I will not say much more than what is already said about that. We loved the fact that the bathroom area had a slightly higher temperature than the sleeping area since the air condition is in the sleeping area, since I do not like freezing cold bathrooms. It was still more than cold enough for our son to sleep in: We put his extra bed along a wall next to the bathtub. They brought the bed every night for turn down and removed it in the morning meaning the beautiful bathroom interior was not “disturbed” in any way. No other hotel has ever done this unless we have asked. Great service.

Other items we loved about the room:
- Really large private pools. Trisara size, I would say. And deeper. Great.
- Large and very good umbrellas at private (and main) pool. More than enough shad for two loungers a whole day and very stable also when wind
- Absolutely wonderful peaches, apricots and cherries (especially) at this time of year. A big bowl every day in the room
- Very comfortable bed. I requested and got a mattress topper which made the bed very soft and very good. Very good pillows as well
- Espresso machine (again Nespresso) in room. A bit strange that we had to pay for the fresh milk for the coffee, though. This is normally complimentary, as the coffee
- Plenty of hanging wardrobe space. Could have wanted some more drawers, but we really brought a lot for three persons and 10 days.
- Cookies in the room. Different ones every time we finished them

The main pool
LARGE pool. No problem at all that the water is not heated at this time of year. I did not at all find that this pool is too close to the restaurants to be fully enjoyed. We liked it a lot, but preferred

The beach club
Took 5 minutes by buggy to get there from our villa. Buggy service quick most of the time, but not always. They are planning to build further jetties and private beach club areas with loungers and tables, but until this is done, it can sometimes be full at the beach club, meaning loungers in the shade are all taken. We used to get there early, so never a problem for us, but I did see some people having to accept a place in the sun since the good places under the trees were taken. Very good service down here, both beach boys and the people in the restaurant were great. Comfortable sun beds, extremely wonderful lounging area (my favorite spot), an endless supply of fresh towels and cold water on ice. Limited, but very good menu in the beach club restaurant. Mezze (new ones all the time) and salad of the day or cold soups as starters and then grilled fish, meat or cheese as a main course + ice cream and sorbet afterwards. Great roses or white wines on a warm day. Some boats (sailing boat, pedal boat that one could use). Clear, warm water. Wonderful views of the sea. Lots of large boats with envious people coming by – noone from outside allowed to visit the beach club (saw some prominent people in a laaaarge yacht sending their team in a little boat to try to get them in, but they were refused, also after trying to name drop).

Restaurant, food and in room dining
Except from the beach club (and they are planning to build a fish restaurant as well on the way down to the beach at some stage), all restaurant areas are around or above the main pool. Lots of different areas to eat with different view and feel. Inside area used during day as it was air conditioned and also for families (mainly) wanting to eat early (some bees attracted to the food before sunset). We used to wait for sunset and get an outside table instead. Wonderful. Turkish, international and Thai food served at night. Out of the menu requests were no problem: We had pizzas one day (pizza only on the kids menu, but they managed very well to serve us our favorites), special Thai dishes not on the menu another day, and one day we even had a Bhutanese (!!!) meal cooked by Yeshi from the front office and the chef that had worked together at Amankora. Wonderful, great fun and very spicy (which we loved). Other people had Maroccan food as well, we heard, as some of the Amanjena team is currently working there.

In room dining delivery time was the quickest we have ever had. Some small mistakes happened, but they were quickly corrected they remembered preferences from breakfast from breakfast, for example, to make sure that it was done right the next time. We had all our breakfasts in room. Good muesli with fresh fruit and youghurt for myself, fresh bakery basket with lots of favorites or eggs, indonesian or Turkish breakfast. Everything we had was good.

One night we had the special kebab BBQ in our garden. A special old style BBQ and a team of two (one of them being normally a butler at Amanjena who we hope to see again when we go there in October) grilled the three types of meat and served it to us after wonderful mezze and followed by a fantastic dessert. Wine, view, candles burning in the warm air and the tasty food. Recommended. We did not try the Ottoman feast since we had ottoman food in Istanbul several times.

Excursions
We visited a pottery, the Etrim village where carpets are made and had half a day out with the boat + went in to see Bodrum and eat out one night.

Excursions are really Aman style with great service and activities that makes you feel that you experience something which a “normal tourist” would not, that makes you better understand history, culture and daily life in the region.
At the pottery, we got to visit the master’s working place which was located next to where his mother lived. We were shown her home as well, and she cooked the wonderful farm breakfast for us which was enjoyed traditional style sitting on carpets on the floor. And of course we got to see the master working and also try making things ourselves.
In Etrim village, a wonderful man from the village, spoke excellent English and showed us new and old houses from inside and outside, the local village mosque and told us lots of things about Islam, village life and carpet making. We met his whole family, got to see demonstrations of the carpet making and were served a farm style lunch in between all the carpets, again sitting on the floor. And all of this without any pressure to buy (but it you like, their prices were really very reasonable compared to in the cities).
The boat trip was a wonderful day as well. Nice wind and swimming, reading our mind service and delicious fresh food paired with a wine recommended by Boris again. We left all our wine choices to him, actually, and were never disappointed.
Bodrum was better than villages in more developed tourist areas. Not a must see, but nice for a change if you are there for a longer time like we were.
We did not go to see any of the historical ruins simply because it was very very hot when we were there and our son is still a bit to young to appreciate such excursions. Next time!

Spa
I was aware that there is still no real spa at Amanruya, so I was prepared for that. Knowing this, the two spa suites were very nice and the massages that I had were really good as well. Got a cold drink before the massage and a tea plus fruit afterwards, to be enjoyed inside or at the terrasse outside. I was happy, but of course a real haman and a wider range of treatments on offer would be even better.

Gym
Same goes for gym. I knew it was small and suitable for cardio only, but that was more than enough for me, especially since they had mats and pilates balls that I used on my own after cardio. Husband and son played tennis every day in the heat. Need buggy to go to tennis court as it is a bit away from the rest. Drinks, rackets and balls available. No phone there to call for a pick up buggy, so remember to agree on time for this when you arrive. Did not try the complimentary yoga in the week-end.

Children
It was school holidays, so we were not the only family there, always two or three other families on top of us. Even if the resort is quiet and more for couples than families, it is a nice place for kids as well. Our son went out with sailing teacher one day, loved the excursions and of course the pools and the beach club. Selection of DVDs for kids in the library a bit limited, but TV had German children’s channel to look at for him when the heat of when a break from the heat of the day was needed. Kids menu available.

Service general
Really excellent and Aman like. Main problem is that some of the junior employees are not good enough in speaking English and –worse – do not like to admit that they have not understood the question or request. We solved this after some miscommunication very easily by making sure that we talked to senior mgmt or staff that we knew when we wanted something done and it worked well. Can, however, be frustrating some times, but all the good memories make up for it!

Overall
A wonderful place. Go!!!