Amanpuri Question
 

I just grabbed one of the 50% off rates for pavilion 103 at Amanpuri for our honeymoon. We had been booked at Banyan Tree, but this seems like a much better deal. Has anyone stayed in this pavilion? I know there are a lot of comments about Amanpuri, but I have not read much about the food, any experience?


Thanks for your help

Wow, those are great rates! Of course, now I can't look at any other hotel in Phuket now that I know I can get an Aman for 50% off...

The Amans always have one or two rooms with phenomenal views that they charge a premium for. For Amanpuri, they are 103 and 105. You won't be dissapointed!

Many do not realize this, but Aman's pavillions do not have walls around them, whereas the ones at Banyan tree do. This gives you 100% privacy. Not sure if that would be important to you.

Both are gorgeous, of course. Neither suffered any damage. I especially appreciate the gesture from Aman to attract tourism back to Phuket.

To answer your other questions, I think the food at the Amandari is very good. There is also a seafood restaurant on the beach at the Chedi next store which is very good and worth the short walk over. I would definitely have room service at least one night for your own private dining experience.

I prefer the Aman to the Banyan as it is much closer to the beach and most rooms have lovely sea views. Their pool also has great sea views. To get to the beach from the Banyan is about a 5-10 minute walk depending on the location of your villa, as the property is set back quite a bit from the beach, and has a bern/dune in front. The property is flat so you don’t get beach views from most places as you do from the hillside location of the Aman. It is my understanding that most of the villas at the Banyan do not have beach views, they have lagoon views, but having not stayed in a villa, I can’t confirm this, but this appears to be the case from their website pictures. Finally, the beach at the Aman is much more secluded than the one at the Banyan. It shares the beach with the Chedi hotel, but is otherwise virtually private. There are no private beaches in Thailand, but the location of the Aman is on a rocky cove and hawkers cannot get direct access to the beach and aren’t allowed onto the Chedi or Aman property, so you will not get the endless stream of hawkers coming by offering to sell you drinks, braid your hair, etc, that you would get at the Banyan.