279josephl
September 18, 2024
At first arrival, you experience a truly grand staircase and entrance to the lobby. It’s a showstopper. We arrived late and the resort GM greeted us. The resort is located in picturesque national park that we only saw upon departure. We agree this our favorite hotel globally. It is spectacular. Aman differentiates itself with its service. Amanoi staff had an exceptional dedication to our time together. Joy, the GM, is exceptionally charismatic and glamorous. Housekeeping, restaurant servers and room service delivery team were great. We requested a number of exceptions for us during the stay (early pool opening, off-menu food requests) and they worked to make them happen. Though every staff member we interacted with was helpful and pleasant, I’d like to give special mention to Sunny, Putu, Tony and Keva all of whom are world-class hospitality professionals. We stayed in Room 11, an “Amanoi Ocean Pool Villa.” It had a spectacular vista of the bay. Amazing, unforgettable view. There is a private 40’ infinity pool which was really terrific. We loved the privacy. Strongly recommend. Unlike other pavilion and villa types, it had its own private library, well stocked with books, which we used and loved. Shower and bathroom in general were terrific. We wished the wall coverings were grander like they are at Amandari and that they had Japanese style bidet toilets. A/C was bone chilling. We loved the grand view onto the bay where we could see Vietnamese fishing boats during the day at distance. At night, the bright lights of squid boats would light up the sea like stars. The only services that we had were three massages. My husband was in love with his hand massages by the talented Oanh, to the point where he had one and then went back for another. They come with the highest of recommendation. The private hydrotherapy suites, which cost about $35 an hour to use, are also lovely enough to make up for the odd lack of complimentary sauna and steam room. At this hotel you get around by buggy. You call and they come and get you. We like being as close as we were to the main lobby. It works fine, though we occasionally had to wait a few minutes. The food was all around OK — not bad, but probably the weakest element of the resort. We did like the variety of foods available. My husband has more exotic tastes and I have more (to me) traditional western tastes. We were able to both order and enjoy our respective meals. The culinary highlight was a private BBQ dinner that took place in the five-bedroom Residence 18; the staff there did a fabulous job decorating the area and creating a custom menu for us. This dinner was included with the package we booked, but we would’ve been happy if we’d paid for it too. We did not like the Beach Club. It was small, the sand was rough, and the water was a bit dirty from the nearby fishing village. I would not want to stay here if I did not have our own pool and private outdoor area. We do not like interact