Top class peaceful hotel with fine food. - Amanpuri

I Checked in to Amanpuri with my girlfriend, asked her to marry me, and got married, all during my stay at this amazing hotel. The staff was friendly, always quick to greet you with a smile, and way beyond competent. On less than three days notice they arranged our entire wedding, a traditional Thai Buddhist ceremony, and did a BEYOND fabulous job of it. From the wedding, to the photographer, to the dinner, to the room decorations for our wedding night. All arranged by the hotel and ALL top notch. We stayed in room 103, and I highly recommend spending the extra money for room 103 or 105 as the ocean view is breathtaking. I cannot say enough about how much we love Amanpuri and how much we are looking forward to staying at other Aman resorts in the future.

It's an Aman hotel so the service was a 20/10, ambiance was 20/10 and food was 20/10! These people get it right time after time. Service was attentive but discreet, the spa was a haven and the food out of this world fantastic!

My husband and I travelled to the Aman hotels before we had children, but promised ourselves we would return when they were old enough. Now they are 9, 11 and 13 and we all had the most wonderful stay. We were met at Phuket airport with a very comfortable limo and travelled swiftly to Amanpuri - fresh water and towels were most welcome. On our arrival we were taken up to our interconnecting garden pavilions where we changed and unpacked before having dinner in the Thai restaurant. A bottle of champagne waiting for us was very welcome.

The level of service at the restaurants was excellent, we preferred the Thai restaurant, eating at the Italian only once (we live in London where there are many excellent Italian restaurants) and once at the Japanese restaurant. We also went to the beach barbeque, which was a once in a lifetime experience - candles covered the steps leading down to the beach and the wide range of food was all divine. The children enjoyed the experience thoroughly. The staff on the beach were very thoughtful, pouring water onto the sand to cool it down and moving parasols as the sun rotated.

The beach food was very good, interesting and light; in fact every meal was a real pleasure as we knew that whatever we choose we would relish. Our rooms were very spacious and comfortable. They are simple but wonderfully designed.

We had to ensure that we sprayed with mosquito repellent every morning and evening but the restaurant manager noticed on our first breakfast that we had bites and bought us some bite relief cream instantly.

My son learned to scuba dive during our stay and his instructor was very careful, he is now the proud owner of a Junior PADI card. I accompanied him on 2 dives and my husband on 4. On their last dive they saw moray eels, amongst other fish.

I would recommend this hotel to anyone who would like to have the sense of being on their own on holiday but who does not want to be apart from other people. There are villas available, we visited one which was mindblowingly amazing, but I don't think you would use the hotel if you had such a fabulous villa - better to save your money and just have rooms which enable you to drift from location to location.

The ladies who made Thai pancakes each afternoon were very kind and I'm such a softy I cried when we said goodbye to them - they were so gentle and sweet natured. Our daughters were taught how to carve vegetables and how to make flower garlands by these kind women.

I attended yoga classes each morning and these were a pleasant way to start the day. I didn't use the gym, but my husband did. He found it vital to be on a treadmill which was not in the sun, even though the air conditioning was running. He played tennis with the children several evenings.

We had cocktails each evening in the bar and enjoyed trying the different concoctions. Our children worked their way through the non-alcoholic choices.

Although the hotel is expensive for Thailand, it was much cheaper than the hotel we stayed in last summer in Bermuda and the service and food were far better.

We would definitely return, but may visit Amanpulo in the Philippines first. We have our Amanjunkie t-shirts.