scottandtracy

Hi everyone. we had a wonderful Greece trip, and I appreciate all the info provided to us prior to traveling. i have a few thoughts about our experiences. Grand Bretagne was fine -- food was good, location made walking to some areas quite easy and the breakfast with the Acropolis view was the perfect first day "hello" to Greece. we had a quick overnight in Athens -- and then drove to Amanzoe. it was a simple drive with little traffic (once we were out of the city). i was surprised at how quickly the country becomes truly rural outside of Athens. Roads are very well maintained, but the last hour is mountainous and has lots of turns (overlooking villages, the ocean, forests -- really nice). my wife is prone to car sickness so she was happy when we finally arrived in Porto Heli.

Amanzoe is the most visually appealing resort i've ever been to. room was spectacular, views amazing. do i think this is the best Aman I've been to? unfortunately no. food was good, but I was hoping for great. service was good, but not great. didn't get the whole Aman feel that we've had in past visits at other resorts. examples: almost daily after breakfast, we would return to our room and the staff would be cleaning. wife got a massage and workers accidentally came in to her room in the middle of it (very bizarre and startled my wife and the spa attendant). One ride back from the beach club resulted in an awkward moment where the driver was given the wrong info about who we were and which villa we were in (we were driven to the front door of one of the private villas instead of our villa at the main resort). late lunch one day in the Japanese restaurant resulted in my wife's food being undercooked. another awkward moment as the chefs were nowhere to be found and the server could be seen looking for them to make the entire meal over again (all her food was taken so my wife had nothing for about 15 minutes while I ate). we don't complain ... because nothing was intentional or truly problematic but I just didn't expect so many hiccups when my expectations were so elevated.

definite highlights were our boat trip on Amanzoe One (a really unique boat with a cool history) -- captain was great, Hydra and Spetses were nice (although Spetses is probably better suited for an evening visit when its more active (i.e. for dinner). Also, the room was amazing, period!

overall I loved the look of Amanzoe, the experience was nice, just not excellent. to be fair, we didn't partake in any other outside adventures offered (just the beach club, bikes, spa, and boating trip) but the resort really didn't give me a great feel for Greece. relaxing -- yes, beautiful -- incredibly so; special -- not as much as I expected.

I still have Amanjiwo as my favorite Aman stay simply because everything was perfect, the food was divine, the service was exact, and the resort operated so efficiently behind the scenes -- it was amazing. the GM made a point to visit us and proudly talk about his resort. then he focused on making our stay better with options for activities. Alas, this was not my Amanzoe experience (I really wanted it to be). it was a really beautiful resort in a beautiful place with reasonable service but that's all I can say. is this being picky, absolutely. but the issues we experienced are just as memorable to me as the wonderful look and feel of the resort. definitely still a nice stay, but I guess I just expected another Aman homerun similar to previous stays at Kila, Sara, Jiwo and Giri. maybe we just had a little bad luck for the 5 days we were there? were my expectations too high? (given the raves this hotel has received, I didn't think so prior to visiting...)

I would be interested in hearing from others to see if their experiences at Amanzoe have changed over the past few years.

anyway, the rest of our trip was really nice. Santorini was magical and perfect for 3 days. we stayed at Canaves Oia Epitome -- shiny new resort where the service was quick and personal, food was simply delicious, and the stay was quite memorable. GM made it a point to talk with us every night we were there. This was not an Aman, but just a great hotel, and I got what I expected.

scented

Unfortunate, as time is so limited and service sounds it could have been better. Zoe is very proud in pricing to put it mildly, so I think there is very little room for error, especially as it is tough to get a reservation in summer these days.

The smaller problems you described wouldn't bother me as much, the more pressing issue for me is: Did management make an effort to make you feel at home? Were they trying hard? Gracious? By the sound of it, it is as though you had standard service, but certainly nothing more and certainly not up to Aman standards.

Three factors might be interesting here: Occupancy, new GM and turnover. Reading your comparison, they failed and don't care much!

Lebron2323

offerendum

Yes, this year it changed and the rate changes at mid of October. I guess the decided they can claim the higher rate also the first half of October. 14th to 17th October is already sold out.....

Zephyrous

It's a 2:30-3 hours drive. I don't think you will find much cheaper than that.

Amex For Children Of Africa

FlyingDoctorwu

Nizar

Agree that 7 nights should be two places max.
I rarely stay anywhere less than 3 nights.

bhrubin

We will be there in mid October, so we are doing 3 nights Athens (Grand Bretagne) with 3 nights Santorini (Mystique). I can't stay too long in any beach/seaside location unless there are plenty of things to see and do, and I found 3 nights plenty for Santorini. (We originally had 5 nights but shortened the stay.) The 3 nights seems plenty to enjoy the view.

We opted for Santorini vs Amanzoe because I just didn't find enough to do (that interests me) at Zoe for the cost/benefit. Exactly why we didn't bother with Nemu.

david55

You are right about Santorini..... found this on a FB page I follow.... Santorini in August...waiting to board the buses up to the town. October should be a bit better.

BESVISOR

Did Santorini in Oct and it was perfect! Was still lively but nothing like the photo above.
I'd also vote for 3 nights in Santorini (Katikites) + 4 nights at Zoe.

offerendum

Oh, we will miss each other as I canceled Grand Bretagne to try out the FS. Personally I hink it´s a lot around Zoe (at least I think bevore I go) but that´s always a question of personal interest and mobility.

offerendum

At least you are not alone

FlyerEC

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Jet lagging in Zoe , very very glad we persisted . If we had not known Paul L & Guillermo V, it would have been difficult to sort the reservation saga though .
Aman is so corporate & impersonal these days with their “ systems “ .

Spectacular property .

christianj

Please post back with your experience at the FS. We considered it for our trip in June of this year but decided against it. The reviews I had seen at that time didn't wow me but it was likely due to them having just opened. I also thought the price they were asking was a bit ridiculous but I guess it's a FS so they can get away with it.

IMHO 3 nights is more than enough to enjoy Santorini. We did 3 nights on our first trip 5 years ago and then when we went back this year we only did 2. (As an aside the difference in the visits 5 years apart was drastic from a perspective of the crowds of tourists....I hope they do something about that as it's ruining Santorini!) For us it was a quick stop as we were doing Crete-Santorini-Mykonos using a ferry and then we flew back to Athens from Mykonos with Aegean. Overall we did 5 on Crete, 2 Santorini, 3 Mykonos and then 1 in Athens just because I return flight was out of ATH. I wish getting flights back to the US from the islands was easier but we always have to go back to Athens to fly out the next day.