Musken

I found coffees we had in HCM even better han the Amanoi one, but all delicious.

vuittonsofstyle

Very accurate report, Musken, as ever! Thank you.

They know about the problem with the TVs and are thinking of making pop-ups like they have at Amanruya.

I expect they will open another restaurant. When Amanpulo first opened it only had one restaurant and a beach club, just like Amano'i. Normally Aman wait to see how guests interact with the resort before deciding upon adding anything and I think this will happen at Amano'i.

Amano'i will get its own boats eventually - again, this is early days. They are waiting to see what guests want.

Glad you liked it, though. I agree that it combines very well with Amansara and Amantaka. Much nicer, I think, that HCM City!

Musken

Thanks for the kind words! Good to hear that they are working on the things that can be improved.
Thought you would say so about HCM but - as said - the city was much better than I expected. Not at all as nice as Amansara/taka, though. Far from it.

Londonjetsetter

Thank you for taking the time to do this Musken! Great report.

daniel46211

I can attest to this. Vietnamese ice coffee is the bomb.

Musken

Thanks. Hope you will have a great time there as well!

Musken

Added information about suitability for kids.

Pausanias

Is that a sensible thing to say?

Thanks, Musken, for your account of these two hotels. We've stayed at the Park Hyatt and were very impressed. Amano'i probably isn't for us as it's not near anywhere interesting and the beach doesn't seem worth the trip - and we don't do spas. But why does Aman persist in charging separately for meals when no one is really going to eat off resort or bring their own? They can create an all-inclusive plan in Cambodia so why not here or at Amanpulo? It would make life so much simpler for us and for them, surely.

Musken

The all inclusive plans seem to be offered where there are lots of alternative places to eat (like Amansara and Amantaka which are both very centrally located) rather than in places where one has to eat in anyway. Makes sense if you look at it from the resort's point of view...

EDIT: I see that also Amangiri has rates including full board from June, so I am wrong.

I have never tried to ask them go give me an offer for all inclusive where it is not standard, but I am sure that would be possible. For Amanoi, however, I guess it is actually cheaper not to do this as the portions are large and prices low, meaning you normally would not eat three courses for dinner for example. But that is just speculation, of course.

livefromtuscany

Thanks for the report, Musken! I never got around to writing my report on Flyertalk, but I can only agree with the good (and bad) points you raised. Service seems to have improved since we were there in January, which is good.

How was housekeeping? This was one of our biggest issues, with daily knocking when they wanted to clean, turn-down service at 5 pm while we were still at the beach and clogged shower heads...

Musken

Thanks for reading and commenting.

Housekeeping was very good. We never saw them unless we specifically asked them to come and clean before we had in villa dinners. They came when we were having breakfasts and dinner (and in between when we were out just to freshen up). Once they did the turn down too early (when we were at tennis/spa), but then they came again later when we were at dinner.

Ozchinois

Thanks for your report. I was too lazy to do one. I think the only difference with my stay was seeing Susan a few times each day. I did mention the language barriers to her but immediately felt bad as the staff were all very nice. She is understandably quite protective of them. Although it was my second Aman stay it was the first time I experienced very personal Aman service. A staff accompanied me to the airport to help with everything and they also provided a lunch box (maybe because I chatted to the chef from the UK). There were lots of other little touches. The ubiquitous resident manager Bahagiar is really good. Once the road is sealed it will be perfect, on the transfer out a huge hole caught the driver by surprise and all in the car (including the Aman staff) had a fright.

5khours

Thanks for the great TR. Glad we could catch up in HCMC and that you had a good trip to Amanoi.

Agree with you on the beach. I had rather expected that they would have done much more to improve the beaches. Specifically,

• Regular cleanup to get rid of incoming floatsam.
• Plant taller vegetation between the beach club pool and the beach
• Make it easier to get to Beach 2 since it is much nicer for lounging and for kids (I was told they had planned to purchase Zodiac like boats).
• Some sort of facilities for kayaking, snorkeling and light food and drink at Beach 3

Since the main beach is east facing it tends to be very bright and as you say could really use some umbrellas or maybe cabanas for shade especially in the morning and at mid-day. I tended to go there mid-afternoon when the lighting was nicer.

Also agree on the dining options, I switched a lot between the main restaurant and beach club. I think it would be nice to use the beach club as some kind of themed dining in the evenings.

Was the issue with the junior staff just language. I was at on my own at Amanoi so I ended up having a lot of long conversations with junior staff especially when having coffee at the cliff pool in the morning. I have to say though that I had spent enough time in VN so that it was easier for me to understand the accent and pronunciation. (On my first few trips to VN, I could hardly understand anything when Vietnamese were speaking English).

Were there many other guests at the resorts when you were there?

Thanks again for the TR.

aa213bb

You serious Clark?

I think it's more a matter of seasonality. Amanyara (T&C) had a full-board offer we took advantage of last summer, which was incredibly enjoyable and offered great value (especially when they also had a 5th night free as well)

Musken

The language barriers are really no big issue. It was only very few times when we had special requests that we experienced problems (staff did not understand what we wanted). For normal orders during meals, standard questions to staff etc. we did not experience any problems.

We got the lunch box as well going to the airport. Very thoughtful.

No holes in the road anymore, just some unfinished parts which was a bit bumpy, but the driver was very careful to make the drive as pleasant as possible.

And Bagiartha is great - totally agree! Especially since he has worked at so many different Aman, some of which we will visit in coming holidays.