Overall, the two are within a point of each other.
Aman Villas at Nusa Dua leads on service (+3.5) and dining (+1); Amangiri on rooms & design (+3.5) and location (+2.5). Level on wellness.
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Nusa Dua, Indonesia · Aman
Butlers get named and praised constantly, including one guest’s 24-hour dedicated butler who customized every meal.
A private villa resort in Nusa Dua, Bali, with pool villas, in-villa dining and a beach area near the airport.
Read the full verdictCanyon Point, USA · Aman
The 900-acre private estate, slot canyons, and total seclusion from the outside world are repeatedly called unmatched in the US.
Amangiri is an Aman desert resort on a private estate of canyons and rock formations in Canyon Point, Utah.
Read the full verdictOut of 20. The bars start at 10, so half a point still shows.
Overall +0.5
Overall: Aman Villas at Nusa Dua 16 out of 20, Amangiri 15.5 out of 20.Service +3.5 Why
Service: Aman Villas at Nusa Dua 17 out of 20, Amangiri 13.5 out of 20.Aman Villas at Nusa Dua: Butlers get named and praised constantly, including one guest’s 24-hour dedicated butler who customized every meal.
Amangiri: Reports split sharply: some describe intuitive, anticipatory staff, others cite unanswered phones, rushed massages, and a 40-minute wait for luggage at checkout.
Rooms & Design +3.5 Why
Rooms & Design: Aman Villas at Nusa Dua 14.5 out of 20, Amangiri 18 out of 20.Aman Villas at Nusa Dua: Villas are well kept and serene, but one recent stay found the room bare and generic, more anonymous hotel than Aman.
Location +2.5 Why
Location: Aman Villas at Nusa Dua 16.5 out of 20, Amangiri 19 out of 20.Aman Villas at Nusa Dua: The Nusa Dua setting delivers the quiet, private grounds people come for, though it lacks the drama of Bali’s coastal or cliffside Amans.
Amangiri: The 900-acre private estate, slot canyons, and total seclusion from the outside world are repeatedly called unmatched in the US.
Dining +1 Why
Dining: Aman Villas at Nusa Dua 14 out of 20, Amangiri 13 out of 20.Aman Villas at Nusa Dua: The in-house chef and sambal get individual praise, but multiple guests comparing it to other Amans call the food just okay.
Amangiri: Reviews split between lobster thermidor and beef wellington done well and stale burger buns, undercooked pizza, and two-hour dinners with 30-minute drink waits.
Wellness Level Why
Wellness: Aman Villas at Nusa Dua 16 out of 20, Amangiri 16 out of 20.Aman Villas at Nusa Dua: The spa and pool draw genuine enthusiasm, with one guest calling the pool incredible.
Amangiri: The spa, sound bath, and via ferrata climbing draw real enthusiasm, though one guest described a rushed, aggressive massage.
Strengths of Aman Villas at Nusa Dua
Strengths of Amangiri
Trade-offs of Aman Villas at Nusa Dua
Trade-offs of Amangiri
Only at Aman Villas at Nusa Dua
Only at Amangiri
The case for this Aman is simple: a walled villa near the golf courses and beach clubs of Nusa Dua, a short drive from the airport, with a 24-hour butler and a chef cooking to order in your own kitchen. One family's butler, Dandy, made a three-day stay easy, cooking to their taste and staying attentive throughout without being asked twice. The sambal comes up more than once as a genuine highlight, and the pool-and-villa combination reads as properly private, not just quiet, which is the whole point of booking this Aman over its two Bali siblings. A Virtuoso advisor who books Bali regularly places it exactly here: the tucked-away, no-one-bothers-you option of the three, good for people who want seclusion near the beach clubs rather than a cultural immersion.
Where it's weaker is food and character. One family who'd stayed at other Amans found the villa bare and generic, with no local decor, and got caught out when their kids' room connected only across the open-air pool deck rather than through the villa, worth checking at booking if you're travelling with young children. On food, the record is mixed: the in-villa cooking pleases plenty of guests, but one experienced Bali villa-hopper ranks it behind Amandari's wine list and kitchen, and another puts it behind Alila Uluwatu and Capella on both the food and the butler service.
Book this one for the privacy and the location, not for the design or the dining. Couples and families wanting to disappear behind a wall for a few days near Nusa Dua's beach clubs and golf get exactly what's promised; anyone chasing the theatrical Balinese architecture Aman is known for elsewhere should look at Amandari instead. For a private villa with a butler running the day, this still does the job.
Amangiri sells one thing nobody else in the US does: total seclusion inside a 900-acre private canyon estate, with architecture that disappears into the rock rather than sitting on top of it. The Desert Pool Suites carve a private pool and sky deck straight into the mesa, and at night the stargazing from the fire pit is the kind of thing people still talk about years later. When the staff is on, the service is quietly anticipatory rather than smothering, and the via ferrata and Navajo-guided slot canyon tours are genuinely the best reason to book more than one night.
The trouble is what you're paying for that has moved a long way from what you get. Guests who went in 2016 at $1,000 a night and go back now at $4,500 to $7,000 describe the same rooms, the same menu, sometimes worse mattresses. Dinner at Camp Sarika can run two hours for four courses with a 30-minute wait just for drinks, and more than one guest has had a 40-minute wait for luggage at checkout or a pool attendant stretched so thin that service simply stopped. The food is the most consistent complaint: stale burger buns, undercooked pizza, a coffee program multiple reviewers call undrinkable. None of that should scare you off a trip you've wanted for years, but it changes how many nights make sense.
Three nights, not one, is the number repeat guests land on, since the activities are the real draw and a single night barely covers one hike and dinner. Book it for the canyon, the via ferrata, and a room unlike anything else in Utah or Arizona, and go in expecting the service and kitchen to be the weakest part of the trip rather than the strongest.
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 Villas at Nusa Dua: Butlers get named and praised constantly, including one guest’s 24-hour dedicated butler who customized every meal. Amangiri: The 900-acre private estate, slot canyons, and total seclusion from the outside world are repeatedly called unmatched in the US.
Aman Villas at Nusa Dua is ahead on how you’re looked after. Amangiri is ahead on the rooms. Aman Villas at Nusa Dua adds Beach, Tropical and Family; Amangiri adds Desert, Adventure, Architecture and Design. Both are tagged Romantic and Wellness.
Aman Villas at Nusa Dua leads on this. Aman Villas at Nusa Dua: Butlers get named and praised constantly, including one guest’s 24-hour dedicated butler who customized every meal. Amangiri: Reports split sharply: some describe intuitive, anticipatory staff, others cite unanswered phones, rushed massages, and a 40-minute wait for luggage at checkout.
Amangiri leads on this. Aman Villas at Nusa Dua: The Nusa Dua setting delivers the quiet, private grounds people come for, though it lacks the drama of Bali’s coastal or cliffside Amans. Amangiri: The 900-acre private estate, slot canyons, and total seclusion from the outside world are repeatedly called unmatched in the US.
Aman Villas at Nusa Dua is in Nusa Dua, Indonesia; Amangiri is in Canyon Point, USA.
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.
