Recently returned from eight days at Amanpulo with Mrs. NYFlyer1 and our kids. I've been a frequent reader and beneficiary of the Aman-related trip reports in this forum, but have (embarrassingly) never posted a trip report myself. This will hopefully be the first of many. Or at least a few. We were at Amanpulo during peak holiday ("festive") season -- xmas and New Year's; the resort was 100% sold every night. But even though every room was occupied, the island felt blissfully uncrowded: we were even able to score pool salas (shaded pavilions by the pool with beds) mid-day! In our experience, that is impossible at most 5-star non-Aman beach hotels during peak season, where you either have to wake up at 5 a.m. to strategically put magazines/books on prime beach/pool chairs to reserve them, or pay a staff member to do so. The level of privacy we experienced at Amanpulo, particularly in the beach casitas (we split half hilltop and half beach -- terrace is more useable on the hilltop and there is a good view of the sea, but otherwise the beach casita is definitely the way to go as others have said) contributed to our overall impression of it being possibly the best beach resort we've ever visited. IMHO, Amanpulo beats several of the other Aman beach resorts hands-down, including puri, kila and wella. Those hotels are wonderful too, but lack the combination of privacy, confectionary-sugar-like sand, and crystal-clear water that pulo has. Other contenders for best beach (at least that we have experienced) are in the Maldives.

Service

The service at Amanpulo was excellent. All staff members seemed to know our names within an hour of our arrival; this was especially impressive given the hotel's full occupancy. Everyone was very responsive to requests, including those of our children. The tennis instructors were great, and our son played two hours each day with one of the designated hitters, for very low cost. The kids also loved to collect shells on the beach, and we all enjoyed snorkeling straight out in front of our casita, with a large variety of coral and fish on display.

Dining

The only significant area of improvement that we could identify at Amanpulo involves the food. Admittedly we are food-snobby New Yorkers whose social life at home consists primarily (entirely?) of going out to eat, but we were disappointed with the food at Amanpulo. We had eaten some truly excellent food at other Amans (particularly puri, jiwo, bagh, galla and nusa), but the culinary options at Amanpulo were a mixed bag.

First the good: F&B Director Rajeev Paul was incredibly nice and responsive to our requests; he was basically willing to make whatever we asked for. The problem arose in the execution of those meals, where the chefs/kitchen staff demonstrated little understanding of how to make the food taste as good as it should. Spices and salt (and therefore flavor) were generally missing from most of the many dishes we tried. Surprisingly, even though the resort is Asian, most of the disappointing dishes were Asian, because they were consistently under-seasoned. We love Asian food, have been to Asia 15-20 times and generally plan our trips around food. That said, there were a number of very good dishes at Amanpulo, including (in no particular order): pizza at the picnic grove (most flavorful food on the island -- try our daughter's creation the Veronicarabiatta: tomato sauce, chili flakes, garlic and pecorino); good burgers; consistently crispy french fries; ice creams/sorbets; rice pudding (desserts generally were strong); spring rolls with pork; beef on skewers at the Vietnamese restaurant; churros for breakfast (awesome); grilled chorizo; vanilla yogurt with tropical fruit.

Renovations

We had a good chat with Topo at dinner one night, and he shared with us interesting details about Amanpulo's renovation plans. The resort will be renovating all of the casitas starting approximately now (mid-January). They will begin with casita 29, which will serve as a model for the other casitas; that casita is often out of rotation anyway because of villa construction next door. After 29 is complete and approved as a model, they will renovate the casitas starting with the low numbers and work up (i.e., 1, 2, 3, etc.). They anticipate that it will be a 1-2 year project. The renovation will include a complete re-do of the bathrooms, plus not as extensive renovation of the bedrooms. The focus apparently will be on making the casitas feel somewhat more contemporary (without losing the Amanpulo charm), and on improving aging infrastructure including lighting and electrical access. The casitas will retain the same footprint. Unrelated to the renovation but also under the "development" umbrella, apparently six land parcels on the southwest side of the island (near casita 29) were bought by two brothers, who are building only two villas on the land.

Overall

A few improvement suggestions to round out this report: the beach casitas should have outside showers; the tea in the casitas should be better than the pedestrian Twinings brand (according to my tea-drinking wife); and the boutique could use a more discerning eye -- the products were ok, but for the most part not as interesting as in many other Aman boutiques (including Jiwo, Puri, Bagh, Nusa). Anyway, bottom line is that we really loved Amanpulo, and look forward to returning soon, hopefully to renovated casitas and more flavorful food.