BESVISOR

Late March should be okay if you can push it back couple weeks.

Londonjetsetter

No would need to be at the beginning of the month

FlyingDoctorwu

We were there end of February/beginning of March and had great weather....

FDW

BESVISOR

Might still be worth the risk in early March and can always make any adjustment closer to date, if you have the flexibility.

I prefer Amanoi over Pulo...apples and oranges but I really enjoyed Amanoi over Pulo is many ways. Not to say I didn't love the beauty of Amanpulo but there's just a lot to enjoy at Amanoi Even if the weather turns out to be slightly problematic, I'd still enjoy it.

callmedtop

Do tell more! What else did you enjoy more about Amanoi over Amanpulo?

BESVISOR

Can't tell if you're joking as I think you may have been to Noi and Pulo?

In case you're serious....Pulo's water and beach is amazing and snorkeling every day was a treat. Also loved walking on the beach to breakfast each morning from our Beach Casitas. However, I think Amanoi's villas are vastly superior to Amanpulo's Casitas. We also really enjoyed the food at Amanoi (miss the ginger beer that's brought out soon as you are seated at the beach club pool). Much more variety and the beach club menu was great. The beach club at Amanoi was also designed really well. Dining, lounge chairs, pool and the beach are all together. Love that! Hated the location of the pool at Amanpulo. Amanoi's cliff pool is stunning and feels unique. Afternoon tea at Amanoi is fabulous (esp. the Vietnamese coffee!) and their bar is a great place to hang out after dinner. Noi team is warm and tries really hard. Not always perfect but you can tell they try really hard. Joy and Nicolas are always walking around to speak with guests. Again, 100% personal taste and apples and oranges comparing the two as Amanoi isn't a beach resort (in my opinion...beach is a bonus) but I do love Amanoi and look forward to visiting it again soon.

Hope to try out the Amanoi Ocean Villas, next time. They were built yet during our visit. New two bedroom residences are live as well.

In fairness, we loved our time at Amanpulo as well. Had the best mangoes there but of course an advantage of being in the Philippines

callmedtop

Ha, no, was very serious! We’re going to Amanpulo next month, but we were at Amanoi back in July 2016. We loved Amanoi quite a bit for a lot of the reasons you listed. This dampens my excitement for Amanpulo a bit, especially given that we are staying for 5 nights which may be a bit boring.

Still, appreciate the commentary!

Aventine

The English will be a lot better at Pulo. We felt like we really had to struggle to get our desires across at Noi. Joy was away and not everything can through Nicolas (he's understandably busy).

ajca

I was just reflecting on Amanoi and the nature of the project if you go back to its origins (and it also makes you think how much Aman has changed).

I still marvel at the ex ante seemingly mad ambitiousness of the project and how it has been ultimately successful.

Picture the Aman board / investment committee presentation in 2011 or 2012:

1. No one has ever built a true luxury resort in Vietnam. Since opening up in the 1990s, the country's tourism sector has been mostly low-end and backpackers
2. The resort is going to be in a truly remote location 1.5 hrs drive from a (at the time) relatively obscure small airport with only a small number of international flights and no direct flights from major Asian hubs
3. There are no obvious attractions or sights or events to bring people to the area - or for people to have even heard of this area
4. We are that confident enough guests will manage to find their way here and pay $1000 / night at a high enough occupancy to make the project economic
5. The resort will be built right in the middle of a National Park. Somehow we are going to get the government to approve this. The government is opaque at best and run by former communists
6. Part of the deal with the government is that we will have to build the resort without moving any rocks (practically the whole terrain is rocks) or generally disturbing the environment
7. Jean-Michael Gathy has designed this as a masterpiece so of course it's going to cost $xxxxxxxxxxxxx to build
8. That includes some enormous cost of transporting in all the materials to build this masterpiece from who knows where to the middle of nowhere
9. There's limited roads, electricity, internet, we are going to have build all the infrastructure from scratch
10. The local English speaking population is limited and many of them have never so much as seen a Western hotel, but in any case we want to focus on our hiring on the Cham minority ethnic group and train them in both English and Amanservice out of respect to the fact that this is historically their land

For me, this is the magic of Aman: to have the vision, the courage and the wherewithal to pursue such a project that few (if any) others would even contemplate - and most importantly to end up following through and delivering and creating what I think is one of the world's best destination resorts.

The city properties like Aman Tokyo are of course impressive but there are plenty of developers who could have hired a world-class architect and with enough money they would build an amazing city hotel. To take on something like the Amanoi project and make it work is what set Aman apart for me (past tense, I suppose, although we shall see).

<end rant!>

BESVISOR

No, please don't be any less excited about Pulo! Pulo is great in its own way and the island itself is just unreal. You can't beat that water.
We did 5 nights there and didn't find it boring at all (again, a subjective matter), but we were looking to relax...was sad to leave

Have a great time!!

nmuva98

I did Pulo 3 1/2 years ago as my first Aman, and it was spectacular. As others have said, the Casitas aren't mindblowing on their own, but the water, sand, and island is beyond words. I did 7 nights there and didn't want to leave. If you are physically active you will not get bored. We did the complimentary yoga/pilates every morning, then breakfast, then snorkelling before noon, then drinking/eating plus more snorkelling all afternoon...you will not get bored! That was when Tapa 7 his wife were there, however.

Then this coming Monday I am off to (finally) experience Noi. Doing a full week there, as well. Like others, I hesitate to compare/contrast the two as they are indeed chalk & cheese, but Noi has been on my hit list for 3 years now...expectations are high but my pre-arrival interactions with Virtuoso (chinmoylad) & Nicolas have been great. Haven't spoken to Joy but she was included on all my emails with Nicolas. My only concern is that I'll be there 15 Apr - 22 Apr. First half will be low occupancy, but latter half will be quite high occupancy given the Easter holidays. Not sure if the service will slip in the 2nd half...

FlyerEC

Aventine

Joy took some wonderful shots of the moon.

m0hamed

Just booked Noi direct as Stay 4, Pay 3 offers trumps Virtuoso.

I never, ever prepay hotel rates as personal preference, but the property is asking for full prepayment 15 days prior to arrival. Worth pushing back?

FlyingDoctorwu