Originally Posted by
quitecontrary
Great report and photos. I love Bali away from the hordes - it's remarkably untouched in various parts of the island once you get away from the main roads - of course if you want to see the main temples like Besakih you will have endure other people but i found most of the vistors there were Balinese observing their religious rites.
I haven't been to Yogja for many years - time to back soon I think. Did you also go to Prambanan?
IT was quite quite nice to see Bali away from the hordes.. even our afternoon in Ubud city seemed too crowded. We didn't make it to Prambanan.. it re-opened the day we left It hunk...
Originally Posted by
offerendum
Visit the 3 Amans on one of my next vacation
It was an incredible experience... but well worth it...
Originally Posted by
Londonjetsetter
Thank you for the great report. I want to go back very soon now. Is Bali for 5 nights over Easter from London a crazy idea?? (probably!)
5 days total trip? or 5 days in Bali? I would maybe consider that... but yeah it also depends on what sort of seat you were in.. our outbound was FRA-BKK-DPS... which wasn't terrible... coming back it was JOG-KUL-BKK-FRA-IAD... which was in F... but still a long haulll...
Originally Posted by
Goodmorning2U
Fantastic report! And, thank you for sharing your photos, just beautiful.
Thank you! I appreciate the kind words...
Originally Posted by
aBroadAbroad
What she said! Lovely.
Interesting that you remember the stairs at Amanjiwo. I do recall there being some, especially going up to the main building from our room, but it doesn't stand out as having been excessive, even though I was recovering from an ACL injury.
My memory of Amankila, on the other hand, is that it's sort of set into the side of the seacliffs, and it seems as if everything is up a steep path or a set of stairs! Totally worth it though!
Thank you... Amankila and Amanjiwo had a fair number of steps down from the main lobby... Amankila though also had a fair number of steps all over... We weren't that far up but it seemed that the stairs went on and on... I think you can have a car take you to some of the villas higher up....
Originally Posted by
cruisr
Nice report. For me personally I do not see anything that would justify the price that the AMAN properties charge. I have cruised on the worlds best rated luxury cruises and they included everything for a less per diem then the Aman properties.
I am going to Bali in June and looking forward to it even though I won't be at the AMAN properties.
I haven't had the opportunity to cruise on some of the world's best cruise lines, but I have tried Seabourn, Seadream, and Regent... And I'll be the first to admit that I love cruising... I would say the proactive warm service on Seadream is almost Amanesque but not quite. Aman seems to elevate things to the next level; a certain magic that I had seen else where.... I've never had an experience like this in my life.. our per diem cost was about $650 per person per day for everything we did... not terrible; I've spent almost that much on a Seabourn cruise... but it's definitely not for everyone... if you like the overly formal service, then this will not be the place for you... (it'll be interesting how they do in Tokyo...) when it comes down to my next big vacation... well let's just say I've been on amanresorts.com a lot...... but I know that there are a lot of wonderful properties in Bali and you will definitely have a great time...
I think that the hardest thing to explain to people is why it's worth spending all this money to stay at Aman... I really didn't get it before I did it... but I read all these trip reports and part of the whole process was a bit of a leap of faith.... and, I was expecting to be disappointed... but the trip met and exceeded all my lofty expectations.... There's a certain jeune ne sais quoi about Aman... but je sais maintenant....
FDW