Pre-Arrival/Booking I've had my eye on Amanera for a while since they've opened... after my visit to Amanzoe last fall; when it came time to plan our next trip I really wanted to stay close and beachy... I contacted the GM of Amanjena, Nicolas who put me in touch with a reservations manager at Amanera. He did mention that they were in transition between GMs and would try to put me in touch with the new GM when he started, which must have (understandably) slipped his mind because it was several months later when Xavier Moulin finally started. Nonetheless, the reservation manager that I dealt with, Flora was excellent. She sent over a list of rates and inclusions for a package (Romance at Amanera) that I was interested in. Furthermore, she offerred a one level upgrade at booking if I booked a Hill Casita to aPool Casita. In addition, I was also able to book via the Citi Prestige Conceirge as well to capture additional savings. The package I ended up booking included
aily Breakfast Welcome bottle of wine and petal turndown One romantic bath during stayMerengue/Bachata Couple's Dance Session once per stay60-minute Couple Massage with Palo Santo Blessing once per stayOne Amanera Candlelit dinner once per stayRomantic sunset cocktails at hole 17 once per stayFurthermore the rate also included roundtrip transfers/VIP immigration at Puerta Plata airport. Note that the terms called for a 3 night deposit with a 3% cancellation fee; with the balance charged 14 days prior to arrival; however I was not charged a deposit (and the entire balace was indeed charged 14 days prior to arrival). I did ask if I could pay to upgrade the 60 minute massage in the package to a 90 minute, which they did complimentary which was nice.About one month prior to arrival, Flora contacted me and informed me that the golf course was deemed unplayable and had to close for emergency repairs. I inquired about any possible alternatives, which apparently the nearest appropriate course is in Punta Cana, which wasn't feasible. I was definitenly disappointed because my wife had considered perhaps taking a lesson that that was no longer an option. I didn't press too much but did get the feeling that they would have been willing to waive the cancellation fee if I had chose to go elsewhere... given that our primary goal was R&R we kept our reservation.One week prior to arrival I was contacted and offered the following transportation options (by a different agent). Transportation to and from Puerto Plata and Samaná Airport is $250 +18% each wayTransportation to and from Santiago International Airport is $350 +18% each wayTransportation to and from Santo Domingo Airport is $450 +18% each way ·Transportation to and from Punta Cana International Airport is $650 +18% each wayAs well as the following helicopter option:I expressed my confusion to the agent because I had thought that our package included transfers from POP... she replied back immediately saying yes it did and apologized. Furthermore Flora emailed me the next day apologizing that she had been out of the office and for the confusion. Arrival/Checkin We arrived via Jet Blue from JFK and were met at the gate by an airport agent with our names who whisked us to immigration. Afterwhich we were offered the choice to wait in the lounge while they gathered our luggage or wait at the belt. Waiting at the belt, our luggage arrived and our VIP escort completely bypassed the customs line where everyone was getting their bags scanned. He escorted us straight to the waiting Amanera Mercedez GL, driven by Emmanuel (who would come to drive us a number of times during our stay). We were offerred cold towels and welcome water for our 1 hr 20 minute transfer to Amanera. Furthermore they had two different snacks (nuts and dried fruit), an iPad loaded with resort info, and a mobile hotspot. It was a very well equipped transfer and quite comfortable indeed (we may or may not have soozed part of the way). On arrival our luggage was transferred directly to our villa while we were given a welcome drink (Amanera Sunrise) and a tour of the property.It was delicious and refreshing. Some combination of pineapple juice, grenadine, and some sort of carbonated beverage (sprite maybe?) My wife proclaimed it her favorite Aman welcome drink and would go on to order it later on in our stay. During our arrival process we met Mark (whose last name I don't know and whose postion I did not get) but he had come over from Amanyara to help with the transition and Ray (F and B manager) who also came over from Amanyara. We did not meet the GM; nor did we ever see him. It was very reminiscent of Amanyara/Amangiri where the GMs weren't out and about... must be a North American Aman thing... Nonetheless, we had a quick tour of the property and were brought to our villa for the remainder of our checkin (which merely involved signing two pieces of paper and having our passports scanned). Waiting for us in our villa was a bottle of Champagne, some plantain chips and two welcome letters, one of which would prove to be our only interaction with the GM... Room Loved the villa. Probably almost my favorite Aman room. They had upgraded us again one more level to a Bay View Pool Casita, which was great. So Hill Casita booked but room type ended up being a Bay View Pool. In terms of amentities though almost all the casitas are the same, save the presence of a pool and the view. But, back to the casita. One feature I was super glad to see was the ability to actually close the living room off from the bedroom. Therotically, if I so desired, I could bring my kids here (but I wouldnt want to inflict that on anyone or myself). It really was a true suite. Very comfortable room, great view. Pool was great. Great size, much wider than the one of Amanzoe. One minor drawback was that their wasn't a ton of privacy in the outdoor space. They put up a bit of a bamboo screen, but it was only partial... Hopefully as the vegetation matures that'll improve but some of the casitas/pools were very exposed. I think actually our Bay View Pool casita was the most private, but it still had some exposure.. Bathroom was very functional; would have loved to have seen a Toto toilet like at Amanzoe though. I actualy thought Amanzoe's his and her toilets was a bit over the top so I'm glad Dolphin toned it down a bit here... Loved the included mini bar that seemed to be constantly refreshed. Three snacks were offerred; the cheese sticks were amazing... Dining The food ended up being better than I expected. Breakfast was tasty each morning with our favorite items being the avocado toast and the ham and cheese sandwich. Simple stuff but tasty. We had breakfast each morning in the room (well on our patio), which was a delight.. one morning our eggs weren't as warm as I would have liked but for the most part eerything was great... I'm a huge mango fan and each morning enjoyed a plate of it. Do note that they charge a tray charge for room service, even though breakfast is included...We typically ate lunch every day at the Beach Club, except for one day where we ate at the other end of Playa Grande. The Beach Club lunches were our favorites... with a special love for the ceviche (thanks Besvisor for the rec) and the prawn tempura tacoes. Special shout out to the salads here.. very solid. very fresh. Loved the use of avocodoes.. ACtually loved all the avocado action we got here.. amazing...Dinners were a mixed bag. Honestly, nothing stood out as exception. Executive chef is Italian and the Italian dishes were solid. Also liked octopus we got one night. The empanadas were good, but those are pretty hard to screw up. We ate at the beach club one night (it was only open one night we were there) and they had an Asian theme. That was quite disappointing unfortuantely.. Should have known better to eat Asian in the Dominican...I will say that while we didn't have a ton of dessert, the carmelized bananna ice cream was incredible.. Did I mention incredible... I also got a cake on my birthday that was solid but did I mention the caremelized bananna ice cream was incredible? Activities Favorite activity: Sitting on the beachSecond favorite activity: sitting by the pool (either own or resort)That's what you do here. That and long walks on the beach. There's a little public beach area at the entire opposite end.. takes about 15-20 minutes to walk there.. we ate there one day and it was pretty good.. definitely cheaper than Amanera and I felt that we were getting the you are staying at Amanera rip off menu pricing....We also went on a stand up paddle boarding trip that was a complete bust... we had booked the excursion prior to arriving.. the day before we spent some time at the beach and inquired about paddle boarding; when was the best time (apparently morning) and the beach boy apparently took that as meaning we wanted to paddle board on the beach the next day. So somehow our trip got canceled, which was awkward when I called to inquire about dry bags 15 minutes before our trip time.. they managed to get things organized and we departed on our trip 30 minutes later than planned... it was an ok trip; little rough to start as you start in the ocean.. once you get into the laguna it's a lot easier. However, it was billed as a 2.5 hour roundtrip excursion and we were roundtrip in about 1 hr 15 minutes. I complained to Mark, who waived the charge completely which I felt like was appropriate...We had the dance lesson with Teiolo which was um very difficult for me; though not my wife... it was basically an hour of me looking confused and shuffling my feet around aimlessly.. I guess if you're into that sort of thing... Spa/fitness The Spa is located about 7-8 minutes away and they take you by car. I think when the golf course is open it'll be possible to walk or take a golf cart there.. there might have been something lost in translation but I think that they definitely said something like don't walk on the golf course; they used chemicals to burn the grass off....But I digress.. Spa treatments were excellent.. excellent.. I got two massages (same therapist) and loved it (and I typcially get massages about once a month from the same therapist who knows my body). My wife got a massage and also did a rituatl (scrub, wrap and massage) and also felt that the treatmetns were top notch.. definitely far superior to the ones we got at Amanyara...Before I arrived, I was under the impression that the facilities were temporary and that they would be builidng a formal spa (and that still might be the case).. nonetheless I love the casa; it had a great Dominican feel and the rooms were quite comfortable.. no steam/sauna/watsu pool thoug....They definitely tried to recognize my birthday! The Fitness room had my personal favorite machines, Life Fitness.. however I didn't use any of them once I'm happy to say! Service Ahh here's what everyone's been waiting for... for the most part it was well intentioned and good.. I liked how most of the employees were Dominican (versus at Amanyara there were a lot of SE Asian imports)... As I said before we never say the GM... and I'll get it out of the way- we were asked for our casita number... 3 times.. I nearly died... but in the end these two non-Aman issues really didn't affect our stay... I've just gotten to a point where need to get over that sort of stuff and enjoy the stay. Definite highlights were Mark- great face for the resort; though he's heading back to Amanyara soon so I don't know who's going to take his place... and Emmanual (driver)- definitely a young guy but very eager. I do think that English may be a bit of a barrier with some interactions (and Mark did ackowledge that)... we had solid service by the pool and by the beach.. someone alway was there with water and service.. when we would go for a walk, someone would greet us with cold towels and water as well.. Restaurant service was solid; our favorite water learned our water preference pretty quickly.. housekeeping was for the most part invisible; however, I think we threw them off by not leaving at convenient times... but they kept the casita very very clean... we got our little gifts each night (which are our faorite) and also got romantic turn down/bubble bath on two nights... I already mentioned the whole paddle boarding issue and I was happy with the way they resolved things.. all and all it was good, very warm but I wouldn't say it was super polished... for the most part I would say it ranked above Amanyara, Amangiri and Amanjena but below the SE Asian Amans and probably equal to Amanzoe.. (though front office at Amanjena was awesome)It was my birthday during my stay and I think they hotel did a good job of ackowleding it..I will say we did encounter a drone, which was flown from Amanera property.. complained to someone and they shut it down quickly... turns out they were scouting for a famous singers next video... Checkout/Departure They offered to come to the casita to finalize the check out but I prefered to do it in the office. The folio was correct which was nice. Our bags were tagged and we were offered a little to go box of treats. We left the resort at 11 AM for a 120 PM flight which was more then enough time with VIP departure service as well. As customary, we were seen off by a good number of the team... Overall Great stay. Very relaxing.. probably my favorite North American Aman. Would definitely return.. I'll leave you with some more pictures of the resort...