callmedtop

We just returned from a 5 night stay at Amanpulo in a Beach Casita after a couple of nights in Singapore at the Fullerton Bay Hotel (it was great finally meeting you, @FlyerEC!). Long story short, this is one of the few, if only resorts that I would actively seek to revisit despite the number of other places on my bucket list. It was just that good.

Instead of a TR, here is a very long list of random thoughts:

• The island is as beautiful as I had anticipated. The beach is fantastic. The water is pristine. I can go on and on. Walking over to the sandbar at the end of the island was a lot of fun, as was swimming with turtles, rays, and other sealife.
• The sun is stronger than anywhere I've ever been, including the Maldives. I burned quite easily. It was also hotter than I was expecting. No breeze in May made for some very hot, stale air that made it tough to be outside during peak daylight hours. Note for May travelers - it downpoured one morning from 9am-12pm, but otherwise had no rain other than overnight (though this can obviously change with a typhoon). It was sunny everyday, though with a lot of clouds (see pictures).
• I wish the casitas had a better place to relax outside. A sala would be great - the back porch is essentially useless until sunset because it's just too hot without shade. A table for dining would be even better. Who wants to order room service to eat it inside?
• I was bitten quite a bit by what I presume were sandflies, despite spraying myself with the provided bug repellent. Not horrible but worth noting.
• The food is fantastic. The best food we've had at any Aman. I wasn't expecting this at all but found the variety and quality to be really great. We enjoyed all three dining venues for dinner and had the picnic grove twice for lunch. Nama in particular was superb. We had not a single bad dish for all five nights. We can't stand overly salted and oily food which is often found as an excuse for flavor and this was not the case here at all.
• Dishes that stood out include the Filipino breakfast bowl, muesli, pancakes, pomelo salad, pizza from the Picnic Grove, the cheesecake at Nama, coconut sorbet (!!) and ube ice cream, pad thai, Filipino BBQ chicken, gado gado salad, the flank steak, caccio e pepe pasta, and the tuna tartare. Note how long that list is. We ended up liking the Beach Club the most for breakfast, while dinner was great everywhere (depending on cuisine desire). The only dish we had that was a real miss over all 5 nights was the truffle + beef carpaccio, which somehow managed to lack any flavor whatsoever.
• Service was Aman-level. Great management presence. Most of the management team are new but they all seem to 'get it'. I found the GM to be very helpful and caring. The new F&B manager also left a great impression. F&B service was especially good as a whole. Housekeeping was good, though we did run into them 2-3 times during the stay.
• The golf carts are convenient and fun, but the roads are dusty, so whenever you drive far, you end up feeling like you're covered in dirt. On that note, the island is way bigger than I had imagined. Staying in a casita that isn't near the Clubhouse/Beach Club would get very annoying quickly.
• Despite reports to the contrary, this was the most crowded Aman we've ever been to besides Amangiri. They were only running at 50% occupancy but it felt higher. I mean this as a compliment. We were never the only table at a restaurant, which I found to be refreshing. The Beach Club was especially busy. This never hurt service but rather gave the place a sense of liveliness. I loved it. Of course, our beach was extremely private, and when driving/exploring around the island you felt like the whole place was yours. It was a great balance and I hope that there is a similar feel during our next visit.
• Barry, the Experiences Manager, was awesome, and really went out of his way to make sure we were having a great time.
• There was a snafu where I had requested casita 21 months in advance, which was confirmed, but I got casita 12 on arrival. They offered to move us after one night but we didn't want to re-pack. The service recovery offered was generous and I was happy with it. Also, casita 12 was plenty private for our needs and I don't know how much better 21 would have really been.
• The Kawayan Bar was a ton of fun and really unique. It sounded cheesey but we loved it,and it was well worth the price (which is a steal, by the way).
• The private beach dinner was the best private dining experience we've had at Aman (Satay on the Hills at Amankila is a close #2 ). We didn't do the BBQ as we are just 2 people and we eat very light, so we ordered off the private dining menu instead. This didn't impede our enjoyment at all, but if we were a bigger group would have loved to do the lechon. The setup was beautiful, the guitar serenade was extremely romantic, and we had such a good time. Again, this sounded cheesey but was executed so, so well.
• Swimming with turtles right off of the Beach Club was a highlight of our trip that we won't forget.
• We played tennis a couple of times. They include one free hour-long session with a hitting partner which was a nice little coaching session for the both of us. The courts get HOT during the day but are available for night use as well.
• The aircon (@bhrubin) is strong as hell. We had it set to 23 degrees but it felt like 20 and we never tried to get it to go lower as we tend to run warm. Even with it 90+ degrees outside our room remained an icebox.
• We did a couples massage at the spa and enjoyed it. Wasn't a mindblowing treatment but nothing bad to say either. We did love reserving the steam room/cold plunge pool room for an hour prior to our massage. This was not advertised as a feature but they agreed to block it off when we asked.
• We did the Island Escape half-board package which probably went wasted on us as we didn't always order 2x app/entree/dessert, but was nice to not think about money. Everything was included with the exception of a couple of live seafood dishes and the ribeye steak. The inclusions seemed very reasonable to me. Having the minibar included was also very nice. While the package says that Nama is not included, in practice they offered us $70 per person to use towards our Nama bill.
• We did look at the 1-bedroom Villa which would have been wasted on us as we like to be in the common areas of the hotel and not cooped up in our room. The outdoor common spaces of the villa are gorgeous and with a couple of kids might be perfect, but otherwise I think is a waste. Personal preference. We also looked at the hilltop casita with private pool which we liked quite a bit, and would consider for our next stay. Note that the sun directly hits the pool and outdoor lounging area, so at least in May it would likely be uncomfortable to sit outside for long periods of time since there is no shade.

The majority of our complaints have to do with functional outdoor lounging/dining areas which seem like such an easy fix (e.g. putting a small table outside, having a small covered area for shade) that I wonder why it hasn't been done. Perhaps the weather isn't normally as hot as it was during our stay, but between 12 and 4pm our outdoor area was useless and even laying on the beach was tough, as the umbrella would not cover both chairs. This may be a 'me problem' but it is worth flagging. When we return we will likely go in a different season to get a breeze and lower temperatures.

I wanted to like Amankila more (as its half the price...), but this is a superior resort in nearly every single way. This place really feels like paradise and I had such a good time. I can't recommend it enough and already want to return. I don't think I've ever actually considered returning to the same place twice, given that we are young and our bucket lists are long, but we're really considering a return trip here next year - that is the biggest compliment I can give.

I'm attaching a few pictures from our stay. Apologies for not including more food pictures, but we were too busy enjoying!