Musken

Thanks a lot for your report. Brings back lots of good memories.

Kagehitokiri

fantastic photos & details in your 2nd amanreport!

full board became year round on june 15 2014

not positive but think these are year round?

pricesquire

Maybe I'm coffee-spoiled, but the Folger's Krueig (while to many a tiny detail) is a jaw-dropping mistake to me. It's head-scratching-inducing, mind-boggling insanity. Are they serious??? Wow.

aa213bb

Agree about the Folgers ... but then, many times we bring a grinder and our own beans with us.

FlyingDoctorwu

Yes it'll be the next great adventure! And scary.. but just finished planning another trip for next March that hopefully we will be able to go on!

Thanks! Loved it!

One of my biggest gripes was the lack of Asian food of some sort. It would be so easy for them to have larger Thai or Indonesian menu with appropriate choices for Vegetarian. Just curious; did you contact them ahead of time about food preferences? They did seem to have some ability to go off menu with advance warning. I definitely wouldn't write off all Amans on account of your issues with food at Amangiri. I think that Amangiri does struggle with their product sourcing on account of their locations. I would encourage you to maybe consider the SE Asia Amans that I'm sure will do a better job at meatless cuisine.

I wish we had had better weather but the two nice days everything was stunning. The Keurig is indeed an odd choice. With how cheap Nespresso machines, I can't help but think that they would be a better choice. A lot of waffling would be a mild understatement but thank you for your help. I always appreciated it and love to be able to lend some when I can. And thank you very much for the cupcakes! The mystery has been solved about the frosting choice!

It's a place that's definitely worth the trouble to get to. I will say that on most days they had Tully's Keurig capsules; which I find quite nice enough. The coffee sourced in the restaurant was from a local roster that was quite good.

Thanks for the congrats.. it's going to be crazy at the FDW household here soon... Private school here is crazy; it's like 3 Aman trips a year per kid... thankfully we are happy with our local public school (at least for the little ones) so we can continue to get a little traveling in (I think)

Love the WN non stop options.. and it's great that US airlines stink so much that WN can be a lower cost carrier profile but not suck. We are very fortunate that the Grandparents are able to take care of the kids.

The service in Indonesia was so good and magical. Very cohesive and I know it sounds cliche but was warm and made you feel part of a family. I just don't think it's possibly to achieve that level of service here in the USA.

Thanks for the congratulations. I'm not from Baltimore so I had to look up what all these mascots mean.

Thanks! it's all stream of conscious. If you could download my brain that would be almost it... loved your most recent trip report.. I'm hoping one day to return to India with the wife and take her on the Aman journey there. .

I find the Amans that I have tried to be incredibly expensive but for the memories that they produce to be well worth it.

Not entirely sure. If you go to book a room on the website (I picked random dates in April) and look at the rate rules it says this:
In addition, on the exclusives page there is a note about Easter brunch with a cost of $45 per person (maybe this is an additional cost per person over lunch... $45 is pretty cheap for an Easer brunch, especially at an Aman)

Yeah. I never used it, instead opting of the Tully's ones. But they were there. You could always call for room service to bring you something drinkable though. The roaster they used is quite good..

That's the way to travel! I would love to have seen a Jura in the room... that would be my ideal.

Thanks everyone for reading and commenting!

FDW

pricesquire

Love this.

offerendum

I will do! Next vacation will be Thailand I think. But not sure about Amanpuri. Only Villas or top level Pavillion seems acceptable and I dobt it´s worth the 2500 - 3000 per night.

chicagocat

Another spring break report: We just returned from a five night stay at Amangiri. We had fantastic weather and stayed in a desert view pool suite with our twin eight year olds. The package with food was very nice but the $200 nightly charge per child was excessive in my opinion... $2500 for less than a week of pancakes, grilled cheese and hamburgers for two kids? We weren't told of the massage for stays of greater than four nights and didn't get any amenities besides the turndown gifts. Next time I will book with Virtuoso! The location is awesome, but the staff is young and the food is... typical of a Four Seasons/Ritz/St Regis menu. The wine list is good but the 300%++ mark-up is obscene. We wouldn't return because we didn't find the value in the level of service for the $13k+ stay. However, the resort location is fantastic, unique, serene and comfortable. We loved the on-site hikes and enjoyed the local canyons and scenery. We did a day trip to the Grand Canyon and enjoyed the convenience of having a rental car delivered to the hotel ($100 surcharge). We got pretty lucky flying into Page on Great West Airlines, connecting through Denver from Chicago. Flights were on-time and quite scenic...
The lack of bathroom privacy and the obligatory lobby trek to get from desert suites to the pool and spa seem to be practical design flaws. For the 700+ acres of the resort, it seems odd to have shared walls with other units... One can easily overhear the sounds from adjoining rooms and maintenance activity when lounging in the outdoor spaces or simply walking around the property. Overall, it was great. Would I recommend for a family? No, as there are too many options for traveling more privately, economically, comfortably and luxuriously with children. It seemed that there were more services and amenities for pets than for children at Amangiri.

FlyingDoctorwu

Wow! $200 charge per kid per day. Was it mandatory? Seems almost better to see if you can order a la carte. Honestly it seems a bit punitive as to discourage one from bringing kids. We didn't find that there was too much noise in between units but granted we didn't use the outdoor space too much. The pool suites there didn't seem to be ideally situated. It would seem that they would have been better situated to take advantage of the view. They were okay with 2 kids in the suite? I agree that the desert wing seems poor placed. I was really happy with the Mesa wing. Amangiri seemed to be better suited towards couples; and I agree a poor value at 13k for a family. Glad to hear that the flights went well; I was too nervous to go that route.

Just curious how did you book? I know via the booking engine it offered both the option of a standard rate and the package rate. For these high value bookings I find that a travel agent is very very useful.

Trisara looks awesome but everyone seems to say that amanpuri has a better beach. I think this year during low season they have been offerring 4th night free via fhr.

Fdw

offerendum

Yes, but I will go high season

chicagocat

I booked directly with the hotel... We have AmEx FHR but I didn't see the value in booking with them because of the winter promotion. I agree that the resort is best suited to adults and pets. For the children's surcharge, I was expecting more child-specific activities and amenities (the robes and slippers were sized for toddlers...)

Kagehitokiri

at one point they charged $100 per additional bed. that was before rates went full board. so $100 bed $100 full board. full board for 3rd adult may be more.

amangiri does not require 2 rooms for 2 children like some properties. FS hualalai for example does not allow 2 children in any room or 1BR suite, even largest 2,600ft2.

Musken did "via ferrate climbing, horseback riding" pretty sure both with her son
Ericka "did many activities as a family" and DownUnderFlyer also stayed with child

FlyerEC

FDW , thanks for TR ' transporting ' me & possibly us all to Giri . It ' s as if I experienced what you did , what a treat !
What was the temperature like when you were there , 50s / 60s ?
Shocking about the in room coffee though , surely not a locale idiosyncrasy ??
Seems like more off menu meals needed too

The villas will have own chef / housekeeping team anyway if stays are in one , just like at Puri / Pulo , etc .
Did you get to see any ?

Congrats on FBW3

Kagehitokiri

aman villas in USA are not staffed
1 villa at giri so far - $8,000 4BR
http://themesaamangiri.com/
"option of hiring a House Manager"
"option of reserving the services of Amangiri chefs"

chelsea2

What a great TR - thanks for sharing. I have long wanted to visit Amangiri, but every time I have considered it, I get put off by the logistics of getting there. Glad to read that the drive via LV was not too bad. Your photos and descriptions were very transporting and the pool looks magical as well as the canyon hike. One interesting point, you noted that the activity list contained a mispriced (or subsequently marked up activity) - I am headed to Amankora in a couple of weeks and had a similar experience. When I went to book one of the activities on the list the price had doubled. Not a big deal in the scheme of things, but it seems that if when the provide the list to a guest in advance of a visit - they should honor the prices of what is quoted.