We didn't stay but just enjoyed the most glamorous perch ever to watch the sunset, chat with the charming staff and dine on an exquisite Thai feast - not to be missed by any stretch if you are on the island. Its a surreal experience - kudos for the staff who were so gracious!

Amanyara is a stunning resort with excellent, friendly and professional service and it is an oasis if you are looking for a remote destination that is extremely private and offers little in the way of organized activities. Every staff member with whom I interacted was genuinely friendly, attentive, willing and polite. The resort has a contemporary design leaning more Asian than Caribbean (which I found to be quite refreshing compared to other spots I’ve visited that tend to overdo the “island” theme). Both restaurants are excellent but offer somewhat limited menus given that they are the only choice if you want to eat at the property, which is really your only choice unless you want to drive 25 minutes each way to town. Every dish I tried was impeccably prepared and of excellent quality, with many of the fish offerings as standouts. The restaurant prices, however, border on unconscionable. Sea Bass filet - $50; Tomato, Basil & Mozzarella Pizza - $28; 9 oz strip loin steak - $75 (yes, I didn’t mistype, it was really $75). My restaurant high point, however, was the special “Luwak” coffee that was offered at $35 per cup. Yes, per cup. Why might you ask is it so expensive? Apparently its scarcity derives from the fact that the beans are eaten by small animals and then excreted in their feces before they are harvested (meaning picked up out of a pile of dung) by people and packaged for sale. No, I didn’t try it; in my view, any drink that costs $35 per serving had better have alcohol in it. We were too cheap to pay for an ocean view room, which was probably a mistake, so we had a room with a view of what could charitably be called a retention pond. It was literally a manmade aquatic structure with the rubber membrane holding it all together fully visible from our front windows and a slightly unnatural color which no doubt derives from whatever chemicals must be necessary to treat a shallow manmade pool of water lest it become infested with who knows what. For a resort where almost every aspect of the design is impeccable, this was not its finest feature. Don’t get me wrong; despite the lack of ocean view, it was still the most expensive hotel room I’ve ever inhabited, by about double. The room and bathroom, which is really a little house, were very nicely appointed, and an ample selection of very nice soaps and shampoos were provided. However, some maintenance was needed (cracked and stained stone surfaces, window shutters that didn’t work perfectly, hard to see corners that were a bit dirty, etc). Some complementary drinks and snacks were provided in the room, which was very nice (you do feel better paying almost $2,000 a night if you get a free beer), as was wireless internet access and cable TV. Also provided at no additional cost (only after you ask for it as I learned the hard way) is a mosquito net to cover your bed. That made perfect sense - spend a lot of money building a shallow manmade pond in front of the room in a hot, humid climate where disease carrying mosquitoes lay in wait for dumb tourists like me. Don’t bother with something as pedestrian as a screen door or windows that close, just let the guests slip into a 40 square foot cocoon of netting before bed so they can look longingly at the handsome room for which they’ve mortgaged the house, but can’t actually touch it or use it for fear of being eaten alive and catching some “fever” or another from the hovering insects. This is a long winded way of saying: just pony up the extra money and get the ocean view room which presumably isn’t in the middle of a forest next to a manmade shallow lake. I took this trip with my family (wife and two young kids) and I have to say, for a resort that is not known or advertized as kid friendly, it was extremely accommodating. There is a kids menu available at every meal (at comparatively reasonable prices), there is a very cool nature center with a “naturalist” on staff and all the kids (there were many others there) played freely and nicely at the pool and on the beach. All in all, if price is not an issue and you are looking for seclusion, quiet, beauty and peace, Amanyara is a great choice.

We just returned from a long weekend at Amanyara, which ended up being one of our easiest and most relaxing winter escape weekends yet. Previous reviews do a very good job of describing the rooms, which are supremely comfortable and luxurious in a classic Aman way, so I will not talk about them.

I want to focus on a couple more specific aspects. First and foremost the service over our entire stay was truly flawless. Everyone was extremely friendly, helpful, and timely. A call to the guest service desk always resulted in a prompt response and everything was taken care of with a smile. I do not think we heard the words "no" or "not possible" the entire time. One thing that is important for us when we go on vacation is not to feel pinned down to a schedule or to have to plan too far ahead. Our regular lives are so busy and highly scheduled that vacation should be the opposite. Aman does this so well, it is almost hard to go anywhere else. As at all Amans we have been to you can show up anytime you want for meals without reservation (as a hotel guest) and pick any seat in the house that you want. We found the food at Amanyara to be very good. It may not be Jean-George or Le Bernardin, but I also would not expect that or want that on an island vacation. The Thai options on the menu are excellent and have a good amount of spice (be warned if you do not like spice).

In a very small world Aman sort of way when my husband's massage therapist arrived at our ocean pavilion he recognized my husband from giving him a massage at Amankora in Thimpu this past November! I can only imagine what the transition from living in Bhutan your whole life to being in the TCI would be like. What a nice reunion of sorts! As with my comments about the restaurant, we were able to book spa appointments with little notice and never heard the word no. This is even with the resort at full capacity.

I know some reviewers have complained about the distance between certain rooms and the main area, needing to call a golf cart to come pick them up. I suppose some people might have issues with the spread out nature of things, but the reality is that none of the rooms are truly that far from the main area. In addition the hotel has a fleet of beach cruiser bikes for guests to use throughout their stay. We rode our bikes everywhere and actually found this to be one of the most fun aspects of being there. It was great to cruise around the paths of the resort.

With respect to the mosquito situation one has to realize, and it's hard to appreciate it before you arrive there, that the hotel is truly carved out of a national park in such a way that the rooms and paths are cut through a low dense subtropical forest of sorts. With all that vegetation there are bound to be bugs. That being said, these are not big bad bugs, and they are easily dealt with. Unlike the mosquitoes in places like Alaska that seem undaunted by hard core repellent, these are easily kept at bay by the natural citrus repellent that is provided in each room. If you apply it you will not be bitten. The only time I was bitten was when I did not put it on and sat outside right at dusk (the worst time for mosquitoes).

With respect to cost all I will say is there is no doubt it is an expensive stay and the food is very expensive. Plan, especially if you drink wine, to easily spend 50% of your room rate in addition for dining each day. That being said I never felt ripped off and certainly never nickled and dimed, both of which I am highly sensitive to at hotels. The reality is they grow NOTHING on the island so everything has to be flown in. In addition, to provide guests with the kind of experience in service, privacy and solitude that they expect Amanyara must have unbelievable food costs for very few guests. That has to be recovered somewhere. If you are not expecting it though it would be a rude awakening. At least they show the cost. At many Amans where there is not access for outside dinner guests, there are no prices on the menus.

In the end it was very hard to leave and we are planning for when we will return. Three nights was not quite enough. I think 4 or 5 nights would be ideal, and longer if you planned to leave the resort. I would not hesitate to recommend it. Amanyara is a much easier way to get the true Aman experience without flying 24 hours to SE Asia and a much better representation of what Aman does than Amangiri in Utah where service continues to be lacking despite the stunning setting and architecture. The service at Amanyara was reminiscent of Sally and her amazing team at Amansara in Cambodia, which is saying a lot!