Amanfayun vs Amanzoe

What you're paying for at Amanfayun isn't the room. It's a reconstructed Longjing tea village strung along a stream beside Lingyin Temple, with monk-led chants at Yongfu at dawn and a footpath gate that lets you beat the tour buses. That's the whole case for the property. Travellers separated by years describe the same thing: the stream-lined pool against centuries-old stone, the tea gardens, the sense of arriving somewhere old rather than merely nice. One guest's grandparents got personal attention getting around the grounds; another's toddler had every staff member charmed within a day. The food backs it up too: the vegetarian restaurant and Steam House draw near-unanimous praise, and Hangzhou House, the Michelin-starred restaurant on property but run separately from Aman, has fans calling it among the best hotel meals in China.

The rooms are the catch, and it isn't minor: the "cottages" get called too dark by admirers and critics alike, from a 2024 review through one from this June, so this isn't one unlucky villa. Hangzhou House also splits opinion hard: one couple paid around SGD 350 for two and found the mushroom dish bland and the service checked-out, while others rank the same meal among the best in China. Service overall skews warm, but there's a real minority describing poor English and a dismissive front desk, including one traveller turned away rudely when asking how to reach a nearby restaurant with a frail parent in tow. Worth flagging too: the public footpath lets non-guests wander the grounds, which cuts against the exclusivity a rate like this implies, and the traffic-controlled West Lake area makes arrival logistics genuinely complicated.

Book it for the temple access and the atmosphere, not for a flawless five-star room. On the setting, the food, and the sense of stepping into old Hangzhou, nothing else nearby comes close.

Amanzoe is the rare Aman where guests who've done four, five, even eleven of these properties still call it their favorite. The pavilions and villas run enormous, most well over 2,000 square feet, with private plunge pools, his-and-hers bathrooms, and terraces that look straight down the Argolic Gulf. The architecture holds up against any Aman on any continent, according to people who'd know: hilltop, white-washed, built around light and stone in a way that keeps drawing the comparison. One guest checked out mid-trip, moved on to the next stop on their Greek itinerary, then rehired a helicopter within 36 hours to come back and finish the nights they'd walked away from.

The catch is the food, and it shows up too often to wave off. The Japanese restaurant in particular gets called mediocre or repetitive by guests staying more than three or four nights, and the breakfast is the one meal almost everyone still praises. The beach club is also a real commitment, not a stroll down to the water: 10 to 15 minutes by buggy or boat, worth it once you're there but something you have to plan your day around, not something you wander into. Service is excellent almost everywhere, but not flawless everywhere: one spa visit turned unhelpful over a switched treatment and an unexplained coffee charge, and one guest's villa flooded through the windows on opening night of the season and got towels instead of a room change.

Three or four nights is the sweet spot several guests land on; eight is what people warn against unless you're happy doing near-nothing but the resort itself. Families with young kids should know this isn't built like a beach resort — you're on a hill, and reaching sand takes real effort. Book it for the villas, the staff, and the view, and eat your best meals at the beach club.