AmanZoe (Greece)

Old May 6, 2015, 10:13 am
  #166  
 
Join Date: Jan 2015
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Originally Posted by GK1998
We are going to Amanzoe this summer. We like the fact that usually at Aman gratuity is automatically added to the bill, not so at Amanzoe. Does this impact service quality ? Do I need to walk around with cash ? Any recent experiences ?

Thanks

We're going at the end of May for the 4th time in less than 2 years and have never had to tip anyone once. In terms of service, I've found Amanzoe to be consistently brilliant. I'd still rank Amanpulo and Aman-i-khas above it, but for a resort with around 38 rooms and over 300 staff, you'll be well looked after.

For the service charge, there really is no pressure at all to add anything at the end and they handle it in a very polite way, whereby it's simply referenced in a letter in your room about how to leave a service charge, if you want. When you pay the final bill, no one will ask you if you want to add anything, it's down to you. I always have as I've felt the service has been quality. Do remember that most hotels add the wonderful "12.5% service charge" and hide it amongst the rates, but Amanzoe makes it optional. I would guess they do this as it must rank as the most expensive Aman resort, if you were looking at the basic room. If they suddenly started advertising it closer to 2,000/n in peak inc. tax and service charge, it may put too many people off.
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Old May 6, 2015, 11:21 am
  #167  
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MacMyDay, thanks for details/thoughts re tipping

Originally Posted by MacMyDay
Amanpulo and Aman-i-khas above it

38 rooms
re 38 rooms - zoe is building villas like pulo (and pulo is building more villas)

edit - zoe photos http://www.archiplus.biz/96755/80092...sort-in-greece

Last edited by Kagehitokiri; May 8, 2015 at 10:18 am
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Old May 7, 2015, 11:32 pm
  #168  
 
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Who is now GM at Zoe? I would love to go for a couple of days in this resort even if, I have some doubts about the architecture which looks slightly sterile... I'm surprised it has been designed by Ed Tuttle cause I don't recognize his style that much... However, I think the interior design is truly beautiful and all the feedbacks about this resort are absolutely wonderful so have to give a try...
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Old May 8, 2015, 7:35 am
  #169  
 
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Originally Posted by RodHK
Who is now GM at Zoe? I would love to go for a couple of days in this resort even if, I have some doubts about the architecture which looks slightly sterile... I'm surprised it has been designed by Ed Tuttle cause I don't recognize his style that much... However, I think the interior design is truly beautiful and all the feedbacks about this resort are absolutely wonderful so have to give a try...
It was Marc Denton, yet I was told he left earlier this year and now Sven Van den Broeck from Amanyara is there.

In terms of the hard product, to me it is without a doubt the best Aman resort (I cannot comment on all of them, but have been to 13). The rooms are incredible and the overall architecture of the resort is superb. I really couldn't give it enough praise. I took my father there last year for his 60th and he almost cried when he saw his room. As mentioned a few posts back, it's our 4th visit in 2 years and I'm still amazed by it every time that we visit, as they truly spared no expense. Does this mean it's the best Aman resort? No, but it certainly is one of my favourite resorts in the world.
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Old May 29, 2015, 4:29 pm
  #170  
 
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Short trip report: Amanzoe

Amanzoe

Map| 7 Reviews | 86% Recommended

Amanzoe

Kranidi Argolida, Greece GR 21300

Short trip report: Amanzoe (0 Photo)

Amanzoe

Note: This is my first trip report, so apologies in advance that it's rubbish. I figured I'd give it a go anyway.

This was our 4th stay in Amanzoe in less than 2 years, which might give you an idea of what we think of the resort. With each visit, we only ever do 3-4 days at a time, as whilst there are certainly activities to do, we prefer to use the resort to relax and enjoy the resort itself, rather than going off site.

Getting there

Like many Aman's, it's not an easy place to get to. We always take the first flight from LHR T5 to ATH at 6:45am. This is the first time we've flown with BA since they "upgraded" all their Club Europe seats to the exact same as Economy. Suffice to say, it is a terrible upgrade that brings no value at all. I'd recommend flying with someone else, but haven't enough experience to say who and if it would actually be any better.

Once you’ve landed, you should be through the airport in no time. We only ever take carry-on, so once the plane was at the gate and the door opened, we were out of the airport within just under 10 minutes; not once have we ever had a queue at passport control.
Your 3 choices of getting to Amanzoe once you’ve arrived in Athens are: helicopter, Aman collecting you, or renting a car. We’ve done all 3 between the visits and tend to go with helicopter on the way there, and have Aman take us back via car. That way you can appreciate the beautiful views across the Peloponnese. Travel via helicopter will take you around 40 minutes, whereas a car will take around 2.5 hours.

Rooms

Amanzoe had 4 room types back during our first stay in 2013: sea view, deluxe sea view, valley view and deluxe valley view. The differences between deluxe and standard were simply that some of the villas had a 6ft long pool whereas others are 12ft long. After “client feedback” this has now changed to a simple standard or deluxe room type, with the same rules applying around the pool size. It certainly doesn’t require any detective skills to understand why this changed, as even though we booked a sea view, you could barely see it at all.

We have only ever stayed in either pavilions (there are no rooms here) 26, 27 or 28, as we want easy access to the rest of the resort. With 38 pavilions available, I don’t imagine you can pick a bad one, especially as the rooms are identical, yet the layout can change slightly between them. Personally I would not pay extra for the bigger pool, notably because I always want it warmed up and even with a 6ft pool they cannot go above 30 Celsius, which I still find too cold to want to just relax within. You’re also not going to run out of pools at Amanzoe to use, with there being a large selection to choose between.

The rooms are simply stunning, with no expense spared and privacy at the forefront of the design. Each contains a large outdoor area, with dining area, pool and lounge chairs. Inside you have a his and hers bathroom, large double shower, with a glass roof to let sunlight in, and a bath next to a double window that over looks the patio. I cannot do justice in describing how good they look, so let a few pictures do the job for me.



View from pool



Outside area

Amenities



Main pool

This is where Amanzoe really excels. Let me just summarise what is on offer here, without going into all the specifics:

  • Main pool

  • Kids pool

  • Pool restaurant

  • Main restaurant

  • Bar

  • Outdoor area for drinks and watching the sunset

  • Library

  • Beach club restaurant

  • 3 pools by the beach club

  • Free use of water sports at the beach club, such as kayaks and sailing

  • Largest spa at any Aman




Waiting room at the spa



Outside view of bar



Inside view of bar



Kids pool



Yoga studio



Beach club pool

Basically, there is a lot of water on offer around here. It is definitely worth knowing that the Beach Club is around 6km from the actual resort though, so don’t feel you’re just going to go on a quick stroll after breakfast to get there. Aman, of course, offers free shuttle services down there as and when you want. The beach is not privately owned, so you can randomly get people passing through. In the last 12 months, the Beach Club has added cabanas which you can rent for the day, so you can stay at the beach without the need to go back to the main resort. As expected, they are of a very high quality and offer a smaller, less private version to the main room. I’d only suggest that it’s quite strange they have their own pools, yet due to having no front, you are easily visible to anyone who so chose to go stand nearby. Whilst we were there, they were building a new spa and gym for the Beach Club, so it truly will be possible to spend the entire day there and receive the entire Aman experience. It’s great to see that a 3 year old hotel is investing so much into improving itself.



The spa offers a variety of treatments, with Watsu being one of their signature offerings, with 2 heated indoor pool areas built just for this. I would still only rank it as our 3rd favourite Aman spa though, as they don’t offer a sauna, hot tub or heated pool, like the Water Pavillion at Amangiri, or a private area like the suites at Amanoi. The spa manager, Stavros, is unbelievably helpful though and has several times given us a room just to use the steam room, run a bath or use the Watsu pool. As you might be able to tell, we like being warm.



Spa entrance



Watsu pool

Food
Without a doubt my favourite Aman for food; this time though they really excelled. As seems to happen so many times in my life, the moment I truly love something on a menu, I can be sure it won’t be there in a few months time. Alas, this is where I found myself this time. In asking for my favourite food, all of it was off the menu. This resulted in 2 chefs coming out to speak to me, and them sourcing all of the food I wanted and making it all for me, exactly as it was before. They’ve now added Asian food onto the menu, but I didn’t ever try it.

There does appear to be some strange decision making taking place regarding what restaurant you should use and when, and this is not only changing every time we visit, but they also change it with the seasons too. For example, the breakfast buffet didn’t exist this time, and we were told it would told it would only be available in peak season.



Oreo dessert

Drink

Neither of us drink alcohol, so I can only tell you the milkshakes are great!

Service

This is ultimately what makes Aman stand out. Whilst the service on the previous 3 times was almost flawless, I’ve never been whilst the resort is full, like it was this time. It will feel like I’m finding small issues here, but they never existed before and Amanjunkies would definitely pick up on them. Some include:

  • Having to ask twice for what I want in the mini-bar, only for it not to happen. Having stayed 3 times, I’d have thought they’d know already what I wanted.

  • Our room was just not cleaned one morning after breakfast and on the second day they had only just started once we got back from breakfast. I’ve never even seen the cleaning staff before on previous visits. It seems they perfectly synchronise between knowing you’re having breakfast and getting into your room immediately. Breakfast is not a quick affair (which I’m perfectly happy with, as we’re in no rush) and can easily take 90 minutes, so I’m not sure if they were under staffed.

  • Very slow service at dinner.

  • Needing to ask several times for water, as they had forgot. We also have a preference of ice and lemon with our water, but had to ask this every single time, on previous visits they always remembered this after only asking 1 person once.


As I said, these are all very minor, but I hold Amanzoe in such high regard, I couldn’t feel disappointed in it, so did mention it to the new GM who took it very seriously and apologised.

Worth knowing

  • There is a selection of free movies to choose from on the TV, with some being just released. If you go outside of July/August, be prepared that the weather may not be perfect, so these value-added services are nice touches.
    There is no service charge added by default, so it’s optional if you want to add one. You will never be asked if you want to offer one, it will be down to you to bring it up at the point you pay the bill.

  • The mini bar is free and they’ll stack it with almost anything you want. When we took my father for his birthday last year, they imported the beer he wanted and he had a seemingly unlimited, free supply of it for the entire time we were there.

  • There’s no extra charge for room service, which is a nice touch

  • I’m 6ft 2, so the bath in the pavilion is too small for me to use, which seems a massive shame as they have so much space. I also thought it was a shame not to include jets on it, as they do in the spa baths.




Sunset view



Sunset view

Conclusion

I would not hesitate in recommending Amanzoe to anyone. Even though it had its faults this time, we will be going back for our 5th visit either later this year outside peak, or next year.
Due to schools on half-term around Europe, there were a lot of families there with young children, whereas mostly we’re used to seeing couples there. As a young(ish) couple ourselves, we’re used to aiming for places where it’s almost inclusively adults, but we weren’t disturbed at all by any of the other guests with children.
We will definitely return, but I think I’ll avoid going during a school break, as the service should improve with them not so busy.



View of main buildings



Reception area

Short trip report: Amanzoe

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Last edited by MacMyDay; May 30, 2015 at 12:09 am Reason: Formatting issues fixed
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Old May 29, 2015, 4:34 pm
  #171  
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Aman...the only company that elicits feelings of "I hate you" and "I can't wait to sleep with you" at the same time..
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Old May 29, 2015, 7:59 pm
  #172  
 
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Fabulous report thank you so much. Now this has moved even further up my list.
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Old May 29, 2015, 11:45 pm
  #173  
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AmanZoe is Open (Greece)

Thank you so much for your great report. We will go this summer and I am now looking even more forward.
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Old May 30, 2015, 1:11 am
  #174  
 
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Awesome TR- we're going in July and I can't wait...!
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Old May 30, 2015, 3:46 am
  #175  
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Looks amazing.. I didn't realize the beach club was 6 KM away... for some reason I had it in my mind that it was closer... would love to try it but it seems so hard to get to (extra travel from Athens) from the USA.. would probably try Amanruya before given the ability to fly into Bodrum (plus for us it would be IAD-IST-BJV)....

Though the reason most Amans are so difficult to get to is part of what makes them special....

FDW
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Old May 30, 2015, 6:35 am
  #176  
 
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Thanks for the positive feedback. I was going to make it longer, yet it seemed like I was going off on one already. I don't think I did the place justice by just saying the service wasn't great, as it truly was, just not as good as it normally is.

Originally Posted by FlyingDoctorwu
Looks amazing.. I didn't realize the beach club was 6 KM away... for some reason I had it in my mind that it was closer... would love to try it but it seems so hard to get to (extra travel from Athens) from the USA.. would probably try Amanruya before given the ability to fly into Bodrum (plus for us it would be IAD-IST-BJV)....
We're actually in Amanruya right now. I'll write up a trip report on that as well, but in a nutshell: stay at Amanzoe instead. This isn't an insult to Amanruya, but I feel Amanzoe is a much better property. The only advantage that Amanruya has so far isn't even related to the resort. Fom IST->BJV, the plane was swapped and we ended up with their long-haul business class. For a flight where you're barely 40 minutes in the air, it was truly impressive and some great food. Now if only all European flights were like that.
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Old May 30, 2015, 9:00 am
  #177  
 
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Beautiful pictures and thanks so much for your report!
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Old Jun 2, 2015, 7:16 am
  #178  
 
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Thank you for the report but it is too modern for the conception I have from Aman resorts. I'm not a fan or the architecture of Amanzoe which is too cold for my point of view... Maybe I'll give a try but this is not my priority. Amanruya is, for my taste, more pretty but I'm afraid Bodrum is over touristy and can affect the quality of a stay...
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Old Jun 2, 2015, 7:24 am
  #179  
 
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Originally Posted by RodHK
Thank you for the report but it is too modern for the conception I have from Aman resorts. I'm not a fan or the architecture of Amanzoe which is too cold for my point of view... Maybe I'll give a try but this is not my priority. Amanruya is, for my taste, more pretty but I'm afraid Bodrum is over touristy and can affect the quality of a stay...
If Amanzo'e is too modern then so is the Parthenon. Equally, Amanruya is in a very remote rural location, not at all near the centre of Bodrum.
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Old Jun 2, 2015, 8:48 am
  #180  
 
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Originally Posted by RodHK
Thank you for the report but it is too modern for the conception I have from Aman resorts. I'm not a fan or the architecture of Amanzoe which is too cold for my point of view... Maybe I'll give a try but this is not my priority. Amanruya is, for my taste, more pretty but I'm afraid Bodrum is over touristy and can affect the quality of a stay...
Anyone else have difficulty taking this person's posts seriously sometimes?
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