Idyllic Amanoi

I booked this portion through Besvisor, who was able to leverage the Virtuoso benefits with the fourth night free special, which definitely saved us some cash. The virtuoso benefit here is an included lunch for two. Try as hard as he could, and he really worked for my meager comission, he unfortunately could not get a guaranteed upgrade at booking. I had him book the Mountain Pool Villa in hopes of an Ocean Pool Villa… shortly after he made our booking, Amanoi announced the Amanoi Ocean Pool Villa, which to my eye looked great on Instagram. Within the week of our arrival at Amanoi, I noticed that both of the AOPV’s were still bookable for our stay, so I asked Besvisor to reach out to the property and let them know that I was more than happy to move our booking to the OPV if they would just so nicely confirm an upgrade to the AOPV… try and pry as hard as he did, they just wouldn’t go for it… Still the fourth night free plus virtuoso benefits was just a great great benefit…

Nicholas the GM (not to be confused with Nicolas from Amanjena) and his staff communicated excellently, answering all our questions about the various excursions and etc…We had considered doing the excursion involving the Cham Temple and the associated dinner, but in the end, we decided to leave all the planned activities to Amansara.. However, we had quite enjoyed our Pak Bilal dinner at Amanjiwo, so decided to book dinner at Ong Bay’s house for one night.

As I might have mentioned before, there aren’t very straight forward flights from REP to CXR. There was a combination of Cambodia Air Angkor/Vietnam Airways that would have been 8 hours of total travel time, all bookable as one ticket.. I did look into a charter but the cheapest I could find was just north of 12k I think.. Maybe I was looking in the wrong place.. Anyway so I went with the Cambiian Air Angkor/Vietjet combination and was reasonably happy… I had budgeted 3.5 hours for the transit, but things went so quickly with the fast track that I caught a flight two hours previous.. VietJet was perfectly fine for the 35 mins of flight time from SGN to CXR. I had asked the fast track representatives to notify Amanoi of our earlier arrival; but I also called to alert them as well… Upon arrival at CXR there was an Amanoi representative waiting as we arrived at the baggage claim. He helped us with our bags to the awaiting Amanoi vehicle, which was some sort of luxury van coach of some sort (reminded me of a bachelor party vehicle)... Of course the ubiquitious cold towel and snacks were waiting for us… interestingly enough, while water was provided it wasn’t ice cold. There was also a ipad loaded with menus/etc. The ride was fairly comfortable for the first half, but then when we pulled off the main road, and things got a little curvy...my wife remarked that it reminded her a lot of the drive to Amanzoe… nonetheless after a total of about 75 minutes we arrived at Amanoi.. We were greeted by many staff and the assitant GM Joy, who I had met many years previously at Amanjiwo.. Unfortunately for some reason I have no recollection of the exact nature of our welcome drink or anything not sure, probably just tired from the journey.. Anyway, Joy handed us off to Andrew who escorted us to our villa via buggy.

Villa 17 is an Ocean Pool Villa that’s at the very end of the path… I think it’s probably about as far down as one can go… The path to 17 is shared by 15 and 16 as well, and honestly 16 is a bit close. It’s possible to see into both units from the path (including the bathroom/tub area) so if you’re looking for privacy I would definitely recommend against 15 and 16.. I think that 17 is unique in that the pool is before the entrance to the room, rather than on the other side of the villa. I really struggled with whether or not I liked this- on one hand the balcony got expansive ocean views and the pool also got nice views of the beach club area and water as well; however on the other hand, there was no mechanism for the do not disturb to be in seen before one sees the pool.. Thus there wasn’t any real privacy to the pool in that anyone coming up the path would see you... I raised these concerns with Joy and mentioned the method that Aamnyara has to denote do not disturb… and in true Aman fashion, Amanoi had the rope up overnight… So more about the villa itself.. The pool is extremely large; quoted as 16 m in length, which I believe is one of the largest in the category. . The short side of the rectangle is the infinity edge, which I had initially thought I would not like.. However, I really liked the pool and the views from the pool… it was nice to be able to see what was going on down at the beach club. In addition, one of the private coves is also visible from Villa 17’s pool… so keep that in mind when you’re enjoying your private cove excursion. Anyway, onto the villa itself. It’s very very comfortable and well laid out. The cursed TV is of course there and while there’s no cabinet for it to hide in, they do have a back panel cover. Of note, we did actually use the TV while we were there, which is a new development for us… it’s our first TV use at an Aman, and our first TV use at a hotel in a long time… but they had Netflix included so we finished up watching Stranger Things 2 while we were there… My wife actually said it’s her favorite Aman villa yet; just based on comfort.. I’ld have to disagree a bit, liking Amanzoe and Amanera a bit better because there’s more space delineation which is important for the early rises like myself. Anyway, usual requisite double vanities…. Andrew also showed us the shower, which he acknowledged is small (too small really for the size of the villa) but does note that it opens to the outside to get more space… and the outside is a nice long deck which gives expansive water views. One design drawback though is that I assume that the outside shower in other pool villas opens to the pool; which would be super convenient; however, in Villa 17 there is not the option to enter from the pool to the bathroom area.. All of the requisite things were present in the villa: plenty of water, tea kettle, Nespresso with plenty of pods (think that my profile must mention I’m a coffee junkie).. There was also a minibar, however, it was not complimentary which is a bummer… Local beers were like 3.50 or so, which is probably 100x the cost in a store in Vietnam but cheap enough for me to grab and enjoy in the pool. All and all I loved our villa, loved the privacy (with the do not disturb rope) and loved the pool.

In contrast to Amansara, Amanoi is huge… it abuts a national park also; further emphasizing the vastness… But seriously it’s huge… We tried to walk as much as we could and it was 0.6 mi from our villa to the beach club, .38 mi to the Central pavillion.. And ridiculously far to the tennis courts… but it’s an absolutely beautiful property.. Lots of mature growth that they left in place it seems… all of the paths were well lit and marked, in stark contrast to Amanyara.. The center of the property is the Central Pavillion. Reception, dining and afternoon tea occurred here.. There was also a bar but like most Aman bars, it went woefully under utilized. However, not as underutilized as the library… which was pretty much impossible to find.. It’s tucked underneath the main restaurant and we had to ask where it was… I’m a big fan of the Aman library and this one was just disappointing.. Nonetheless, the Central Pavillion boosts impressive views.. And serves as a great focal point from the property.. Not being an expert on Vietnamese architecture, however, the architecture of the property does seem to follow the whole generic Asian NOS (not otherwise specified) theme.. Adjacent to the Central Pavillion is the boutique, which as usual peddled incredibly overpriced goods and the Cliff Pool which seemed nice but also seemed woefully underutilized. Once more beautiful views but just out of the way for my purposes. The one time we went to check it out, someone materialized and asked us if we needed any help. Other stuff on property that we used.. Let me think- beach club is definitely a high light. Pool is nice and they kept the beach pretty clean. There are a couple on property hikes that one can do, which is nice. It’s a large property and they did a great job keeping with integrating the natural features into the design.

Spoiler alert: I’m not a huge fan or conosseuir of Vietamese food. I’ve generally found the food at Amans to run from pretty good (Indonesian Amans) to merely average (Amanyara, Amangiri). It’s never really been anywhere close to Michelin level and I’ve honestly found the best food to be the simpler food that’s just done well.. Well. Amanoi isn’t Michelin level but the quality of food here was some of the best we’ve had at an Amanoi. Breakfast each morning was at the Central Pavillion and honestly doesn’t stand out too much. Eggs solid, I had the pho one morning and while it’s probably a bit westernized; let’s face it, I’m fairly Western so it was fine enough for me. I will say that Vietnamese coffee just doesn’t suit me… Lunch was typically something light by the beach, of course accompanied by the everpresent Ginger beer that Joy brought over (which recipe she did share…) Salade Nicoise was nice, as well as a couple of the other dishes we tried.. Dinner was either in the Central Pavillion or in Villa. Some personal favorites:eggplant and pork, salt and pepper squid, mixed vegetable and spicy tofu. All really simple food that was just done quite well. Definitely felt that the flavors and ingredients felt really really fresh. Afternoon tea was good, but we found it hard to trudge back to the main pavillion after a hard day of beaching... We did have dinner in Ong Bay’s house one night. While I felt the setting wasn’t as nice as Pak Bilal’s, I really enjoyed the food. I’m not a huge fan of pumpkin, but really quite enjoyed the Pumpkin and pork rib soup.. The highlight was probably the rare beef sald- so much so that we asked for it at our next two dinners. Overall the food and service at Ong Bay’s was just top notch. We are huge ice cream lovers and found that the ice cream here was quite quite good. In summary we really enjoyed the food..

This was our relaxing vacation, after Amansara.. Our day kind of went like this…I’ld  wake up.. Watch sunrise with a cup of coffee… off to central pavillion for breakfast… hike (there are a couple on property hikes that are nice) or fitness class.. hit the private pool.. Then off to beach club for lunch/beach activities.. Paddle boarding, hanging out in the pool etc.  we also went out on the sailing catamaran once which was nice to do (they sailed us).. There are the usual water devices available free, as well as the option to pay for the water bike.. After the beach off to the spa and then dinner.. There was enough to do (or rather not do) on property that we dind’t feel the need to venture off or avail ourselves of any of the supplemental activities.

The spa complex is impressive.. There are a couple of jacuzzi/steam room areas that you can call ahead and use without any charge. We used them once before a treatment and they are a nice area just to relax. They don’t keep them hot all the time, which is why a pre-call is necesary… there’s of course the requisite fitness center which we stayed out of thankfully. The Yoga Pavillion is one of the focal points of the complex and it’s where the morning classes are held. We went to two, Tai Chi and Qi Gong, which was much to my suprise actually pretty enjoyable. I had two treatments as well as my wife and they were exactly what we needed. Very solid.. Overall, of all the Amans I’ve visited, probably the best spa area yet..

Service was mostly quite quite good. As I may or may not have mentioned before(I’ve been working on this report for probably 2 months) , Nicolas the GM was off site the entire time. Joy, who I had previously meet at Amanjiwo, was a more than adequate assistant GM. She was great and very responsive. A couple specific examples: the beforementioned privacy issue with the pavillion. She got that fixed up for us overnight, and in true Aman fashion. I also was unhappy with the temperature of the pool our first day (it was quite windy) and asked if the pool could be turned up. She told me that the pool heaters were unfortunately all the way up but that she could move us to one of the Spa houses which had a different heating system and could get warmer. In the end we declined becase the spa houses didn’t look very private plus they had pretty much no view. Thankfully the next day the wind stopped and the pool was plenty warm. She was present all over the property and just great. Now I will say that things weren’t 100% perfect because it seemed that breakfast was a dumpsterfire. Our first breakfast, we waited about 45 minutes for our food before saying something. I ended up saying something to Joy who apologized and breakfast speed was a bit better the next couple days but I would say the breakfast team but have been the B team. Empty coffee cups would be collected but no offer or query re: additional coffee. Anyway, the rest of the meals got the A team…just breakfast (like our breakfast service at Amanyara). Chef would come out at meals to talk, explain the dishes etc… They were quite accomodating re: special requests and menu items. I’m pretty sure we ordered the rare beef salad dish from Ong Bay’s dinner at least 2-3 times. Things that were only on the dinner menu they happily also made for lunch etc. Other standout service came from Andrew. Not sure his exact title other than that he’s in the front office somewhere… He made sure to always be around (does thay guy eve sleep). Everytime we went on a hike, he would walk us over to the entrance instead of just pointing it out.. We wanted a deck of cards and couldn’t find one in the library so he tracked one down for his. Dude was definitely the biggest rock star. Kim, the F and B manager, made sure our Ong Bay dinner was perfect (which is way)... She also was instrumental in our purchase of the Amanoi placemats… we had a lot of question about them, primarily the care of them and she either answered them or found the answer to them. Beach service was great; the guys were very very helpful with the paddle boards and always set our loungers up with the requisite ginger beer. Finally, housekeeping here were the ultimate ninjas. My wife felt that the housekeeping here was superior to Amansara (which was quite good).

Not much to say here other than normal Aman farewell.. Our bill was in perfect order; they took off our most expensive lunch as our Virtuoso amenity.. It was a real shock of course to leave Amanoi and re-enter the real world.

Overall a top top Aman stay… Really good food, just a perfect idllyic setting… service almost perfect except for breakfast… really relaxing and I’m just bummed it’s so far away… Ranks amongst my top Aman stays. Thanks for bearing with this trip report.. If it’s disjointed, or just hard to follow, or repetititve I apologize.. It took me a while to write this and as I get older I may have forgotten what I said/written. Thanks!