Amandari vs Aman Kyoto

Amandari opened in 1989 as the second Aman ever built, and it still runs on that idea: a cluster of thatched-roof villas built to look like a Balinese village, stacked into a ravine above the Ayung River outside Ubud. What you're paying for isn't the newest pool or the biggest spa menu. It's a staff who learn your breakfast order by day one and then just handle things: one guest said Whatsapping the front desk for a barber or a TV fix got an instant reply, no waiting on hold, no repeating yourself. Housekeeping resets your villa while you're at the pool for an hour, down to a fresh towel and a bookmark on whatever you left open.

The building is honest about its age, and that cuts both ways. Several recent guests loved the traditional bones and called it timeless rather than dated. One 2024 review reported a dead cockroach and a toilet that splashes back on flush, alongside praise for the food and the infinity pool view: both things can be true in a 36-year-old property. The single restaurant covers breakfast, lunch and dinner, and a few longer-stay guests got tired of one menu, though the kitchen's Sop Buntut and wagyu get called out by name. Villa plunge pools aren't heated either, so they're a warm-day dip, not a night swim. The service is the reason to book, and it's specific: a five-year-old got a complimentary tennis partner and an afternoon dance class she refused to miss, and a private rice-field guide built the walk around her nap schedule.

This suits people who want an intimate, walkable property where you can reach breakfast or the spa in two minutes, not a resort you need a buggy to cross. If you want a bigger room, a river view, and more on-site variety, Mandapa next door gets recommended for exactly that, though its service consistently rates behind Amandari's. Book Amandari for the staff who anticipate what you need before you ask, and the sense that Ubud in 1989 is still standing.

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.