Overall, the two score the same.
Aman Kyoto leads on rooms & design (+0.5) and dining (+0.5); Bulgari Hotel Roma on location (+4), wellness (+1) and service (+0.5).
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Kyoto, Japan · Aman
Kerry Hill’s ryokan-style rooms with sliding doors and Hinoki baths draw near-universal praise.
An Aman hotel with 25 rooms set in wooded, garden-filled grounds at the edge of Kyoto, centered on an outdoor onsen.
Read the full verdictRome, Italy · Bulgari Hotels
Right by the Augustus Mausoleum and a short walk to the Spanish Steps and Trevi Fountain.
A 110-room contemporary hotel near the Spanish Steps, facing the Mausoleum of Augustus, with a multi-floor spa and rooftop bar.
Read the full verdictOut of 20. The bars start at 10, so half a point still shows.
Overall Level
Overall: Aman Kyoto 16.5 out of 20, Bulgari Hotel Roma 16.5 out of 20.Service +0.5 Why
Service: Aman Kyoto 16.5 out of 20, Bulgari Hotel Roma 17 out of 20.Aman Kyoto: Staff remember names fast even at 26 rooms, though a few guests paying $3,500 a night still had to remind a server about a drink order.
Bulgari Hotel Roma: Staff like Martina the butler and Elena at Il Caffè get thanked by name, but a noise complaint about room 434 above the rooftop bar went unresolved past 3am.
Rooms & Design +0.5 Why
Rooms & Design: Aman Kyoto 18.5 out of 20, Bulgari Hotel Roma 18 out of 20.Aman Kyoto: Kerry Hill’s ryokan-style rooms with sliding doors and Hinoki baths draw near-universal praise, though a few call the slatted wood too plain for the price.
Bulgari Hotel Roma: Guests keep pointing to the Murano chandeliers, the Venus statue in the entrance hall and the light-filled breakfast room as proof the building earns its reputation, though the bathroom-to-entryway layout eats into some rooms.
Location +4 Why
Location: Aman Kyoto 13.5 out of 20, Bulgari Hotel Roma 17.5 out of 20.Aman Kyoto: The forest setting north of the city divides people: some love the 13-18 minute pull from the crowds, others say it fails as a base for exploring Kyoto.
Bulgari Hotel Roma: Right by the Augustus Mausoleum and a short walk to the Spanish Steps and Trevi Fountain, though one visitor called the walk-up location inconvenient.
Dining +0.5 Why
Dining: Aman Kyoto 17 out of 20, Bulgari Hotel Roma 16.5 out of 20.Aman Kyoto: Taka-An’s tasting menu built around one ingredient (snow crab, done six ways) stands out, though the main dining room and breakfast portions feel small to some.
Bulgari Hotel Roma: Niko Romito’s breakfast draws real praise for presentation and the panettone, though a 40-minute wait for a child’s porridge and a botched raw burger order both turn up in the reports.
Wellness +1 Why
Wellness: Aman Kyoto 16 out of 20, Bulgari Hotel Roma 17 out of 20.Aman Kyoto: The private onsen and outdoor hot spring are the centerpiece, but there is no pool and no gym, and private onsen sessions cost extra.
Bulgari Hotel Roma: The spa spans four floors and guests single out therapists like Amir and Denise by name, though one stay saw the pool shut three of four nights then reopened ice-cold.
Strengths of Aman Kyoto
Strengths of Bulgari Hotel Roma
Trade-offs of Aman Kyoto
Trade-offs of Bulgari Hotel Roma
Only at Aman Kyoto
Only at Bulgari Hotel Roma
Aman Kyoto is a 26-room retreat carved into 3.2 hectares of cypress and cedar forest at the foot of Hidari Daimonji, and what you're paying for (rates run roughly 360,000 to 650,000+ yen a night depending on season) is the forest, not the city. The Kerry Hill-designed rooms run 646 square feet with private Hinoki baths, sliding doors that unfold into extra space, and tatami floors that guests keep calling the best-finished wood and tatami they've seen outside a private Japanese home. The onsen, indoor and outdoor, is the reason more than one guest calls this the real onsen hotel in the Aman portfolio, and Taka-An's set menu (six ways with one seasonal ingredient, snow crab when it's in season) gets guests going back a second night.
Two things get priced in honestly. There's no pool and no gym, which a hotel at this rate would normally include as a given, and the wellness sits entirely on the traditional onsen experience instead. And the location is a genuine split: it's 13 to 18 minutes by house car from central Kyoto, which some guests find is exactly the point (a real pull from the crowds around Kinkaku-ji) and others find makes it a poor base if you actually want to spend your days out seeing the city. A few guests also flag that the main dining room is small and breakfast feels modest set against the nightly rate, and one flat-out said the delivery felt closer to a much cheaper property at these prices.
Book it if you want a few days of quiet at the start or end of a Japan trip, ideally paired with something central like the Ritz-Carlton or Park Hyatt for the days you actually want to be in Kyoto proper. If mobility is a concern, know the paths through the grounds are uneven rock, not flat. For the forest, the baths, and Taka-An, nothing else in the city gets close.
A returning guest called this place a home away from home; another said the team treated her like a friend rather than a customer. That's the pattern across the spa, the car service, breakfast and the front desk, and it's the real reason to pick Bulgari Roma over most other five-stars in the city, alongside a location that puts the Spanish Steps and Trevi Fountain in easy walking range and a rooftop that regulars single out as one of the few in Rome that doesn't feel like a tour-bus stop, looking straight onto the Augustus Mausoleum.
It isn't flawless, and the flaws cluster in predictable places. A guest in room 434 got hours of rooftop-bar noise into the early morning in June 2026, with no room change offered even though the front desk already knew that room had a history of it. The bathrooms are a real weak point: shower floors that flood from misaligned doors, and no lift up to the roof bar, so you're taking the stairs. The pool has been shut or too cold to swim on more than one visit, once sitting at 67°F for three of four nights. Breakfast draws some of the most enthusiastic writing of any Rome hotel, but it's à la carte only, and one family waited forty minutes for a child's porridge while the rest of the table finished eating.
Book it for the people and the address, not for flawless plumbing, and ask for a room away from the rooftop bar if you're a light sleeper. Travelers wanting old-Rome garden grandeur instead tend to mention Hotel de Russie, though people who've done both usually come back here. For the staff, the terrace and that view onto the ruins, it's worth the rate.
We’re Sofie and Nicolas, and we’ve stayed in hotels like these ourselves. Tell us what the trip is and we’ll tell you which one we’d book, and why. We’re not really a booking service, but a few times a year we plan one properly for someone; if that’s what you’re after, say so.
It's just the two of us, so we take on a handful of trips at a time. If we're full, we'll say so. We reply within a working day. The hotel pays us, not you: your rate is the same as booking direct, and the perks come on top.
Aman Kyoto: Kerry Hill’s ryokan-style rooms with sliding doors and Hinoki baths draw near-universal praise. Bulgari Hotel Roma: Right by the Augustus Mausoleum and a short walk to the Spanish Steps and Trevi Fountain.
Aman Kyoto is ahead on the rooms. Bulgari Hotel Roma is ahead on where it puts you. Aman Kyoto adds Countryside, Heritage and Japanese Design; Bulgari Hotel Roma adds Urban, Design and Romantic. Both are tagged Wellness, Architecture and Culinary.
Bulgari Hotel Roma leads on this. Aman Kyoto: The forest setting north of the city divides people: some love the 13-18 minute pull from the crowds, others say it fails as a base for exploring Kyoto. Bulgari Hotel Roma: Right by the Augustus Mausoleum and a short walk to the Spanish Steps and Trevi Fountain, though one visitor called the walk-up location inconvenient.
Bulgari Hotel Roma leads on this. Aman Kyoto: The private onsen and outdoor hot spring are the centerpiece, but there is no pool and no gym, and private onsen sessions cost extra. Bulgari Hotel Roma: The spa spans four floors and guests single out therapists like Amir and Denise by name, though one stay saw the pool shut three of four nights then reopened ice-cold.
Aman Kyoto is in Kyoto, Japan; Bulgari Hotel Roma is in Rome, Italy.
Bulgari Hotel Roma, with Three Michelin Keys in the Michelin Guide’s 2026 hotel selection; Aman Kyoto holds Two Keys. The Keys come from the guide’s own anonymous inspections and are separate from the Fat Score.
Fat Voyage scores every hotel out of 20 across five dimensions — service, rooms & design, location, dining and wellness — read from the trip reports in the most active luxury travel communities, critics’ reviews and verified guest reviews, with the long, detailed and recent ones counting most. Nothing is paid for, and no hotel can buy a place.
