Amanwella

Very nice very clean beautiful beach good food

Reception: The entry was marked with a ceremonial greeting/local prayer from the staff who were courteous enough to show us through the grounds for amenity placement etc. Check in was seamless along with a tour of the place. Lahiru our butler in charge drove us to our villa along with contact information. Stay The entire time we were there (4 nights), it felt as though we were the only two people on the compound. Moments on the premise there was ever a kind face greeting or passing by. The Beach club area was such a treat with life guards ever keeping a keen eye all across the area to ensure full coverage in the event of a forceful current/wave. The Spa also had to get a visit from us as we neared the end of our trip. Both masseuse were on point and had us rejuvenated for the remainder f our stay. Meals The Meals were, to say the least outstanding at every juncture. The turnaround time is about half an hour which for a place of close to 40 villas - was really fast. The service was impeccable - both the set ups as well as the ambience set up. The server in charge of our villa Kasun was ever attentive and went an extra mile to see to it that my wife and I received top caliber treatment along with bursts of surprises to spruce up the romance. Hospitality Room service as well as turn down service was impeccable. The team went an extra mile to ensure we had all the amenities we needed - guest appreciation, sorting our laundry half way through our short stay, turn down service (which I felt was too good that they almost force it on you since they want all guests to leave with a touch of it). Exit The checkout process was easy - allowing for an extension into the late afternoon to accommodate our airport trip and flight times. We had the ceremonial Aman au revoir where the General Manager Sonam and his Assistant GM Prem were present. Outstanding stay all around. Special thanks to the first and foremost, Kasun for making the impossible happen and above all, the Assistant Manager, Mr Prem Chundawat who was ever so available, went out of his away to ensure we were well catered for as well as taking on some near and far requests last minute. We cannot wait to incorporate the Aman brand and experience to our travels in the near future.

We have just completed the Fort and Beach journey, spending 3 nights in the Premium Ocean Pool Suite. While we appreciated the lovely ocean view, the villa’s design felt dated and the room shows signs of age. We arrived on Chinese New Year’s Eve and we enjoyed very much the special dinner, complete with a cultural show and fireworks. Aside from the Tuk Tuk tour, which we felt was a waste of time, we found the elephant safari at the Udawalawe National Park, the Mulgirigala Rock Temple tour, and the Lagoon Floating Lounge to be quite interesting. Our cooking class with the delightful lady chef was so much fun, as we learned a great deal about Sri Lankan curries. Although there is no dedicated spa, treatments are offered in a converted villa room. While we were not fond of this arrangement, the massage was expertly done. However, more training is definitely required for some staff members. Our butler did not meet our expectations, prompting us to request a replacement. He forgot to provide our room key at check in, which was a poor start. During our excursion, he fell asleep soon after we began our journey. The driver attempted to wake him, but he continued to doze off. While we appreciated the driver pointing out sights along the way, we felt he should have kept his focus on the road. When we arrived at our destination, it was raining. The local guides were waiting for us, and we were asked to leave our car and join the guides to start the safari. We asked for an umbrella and were surprised to find out our butler did not bring one. We could not believe he is a butler of Aman. We also encountered issues at the front office. With our flight departing after midnight, we paid for an additional half day to keep our room until the evening. Since our butler did not confirm any details of our stay, we checked in with the front desk. They informed us our checkout time was noon, which is their regular checkout time, and no one seemed to aware of our prior arrangements. Thankfully, the GM stepped in to resolve the situation, which we appreciated, but it left us with a negative impression of the resort already. Additionally there were mistakes on our bill, which is unacceptable for any reputable hotel, especially an Aman, where guests are not required to sign for anything. Overall, Amanwella fell short of the Aman standard, resulting in an underwhelming experience.

After staying at Amangalla, which was absolutely fantastic, we came to Amanwella. We were a little apprehensive after having had such a great time at the first hotel. But Amanwella was great, too! The architecture by famous Australian, Kerry Hill, is stunning and smack dab in the middle of a dreamy tropical beach! The infinity pool cantilevers over the serene and gorgeous view, with beautiful sunsets a-plenty. We enjoyed spending time in the attractive library, read and saw books on local history, to Nixon. The whole place was immaculate. We really enjoyed our safari to Yala National Park. Rujitha and an our driver Chummly accompanied us and they were awesome! Thank you guys! We had a blast! We saw monkeys, elephants and even a leopard! We got very lucky. We enjoyed the food and the people who served us in the two restaurants and the people at the front desk and even the tuk tuk drivers. We happily did yoga everyday! We also went up to the rock temple. Definitely got our steps in for the month, but it was worth it. Our room was large, comfortable, and beautiful with a great view of the ocean. We can’t say enough about the place. It’s relaxing and beautiful and the people who work there are both well trained but also kind. If you go, don’t forget to eat the ice cream! Honestly the best we’ve ever had. We also took a great cooking class with the Executive Sous Chef, who was patient, friendly and knowledgeable. So fun and interesting. We enjoyed the musicians, too! We had fun meeting a few of the other guests, and ended up having very interesting conversations with people from the other side of the world. But it’s also a place you could go and if you wanted to , you could just spend time quietly by yourself. Highly recommend Amanwella. We will treasure our memories forever.

This was my 6th Aman experience and not the best one. The positive’s: I arrived in the evening so didn’t get a sense of how stunning the beach was. One of the best I have seen in Sri Lanka was a combination of golden sands, blue water and palm trees. Grounds are nice, villas are posh GM Carl, checks on you daily. There was a strong start to the Aman hospitality at check-in. They do not have TVs and their response was, we will happy to instal one. The food was really good in both the beach club and the main restaurant. The reality: Activities are hit or miss due to weather, I appreciate the effort to make sure everything is great, but you need to make the decision to go forward with an experience more than 2 hours before you go. City tour was off brand and the transfers were both bad. The negatives: Going to the hotel the driver was speeding in the rain, coming back another driver had no clue where he was going. We messaged our butler and he basically said he wasn’t working for another 3 hours (not what you want to hear). We stopped at the other Aman to grab a drink and use the facilities. We ran into another manager from Amanwella. He said he came to check on us which was really nice, but he didn’t talk to the driver or see us off to make sure the 2nd half of the drive went smoothly. Which it didn’t.