The hotel is the holiday. The original one, Amanpuri, started a global trend among hotels when Singapore-based visionary founder Adrian Zecha opened it in Phuket, Thailand, in 1988. Till its invention, the more money you spent on hiring a hotel room, the more fuss you got. At Aman the philosophy is small is beautiful and less is more. Now rival hip hotels from deepest Patagonia to Sao Paulo follow in its wake.
Service is second to none.
There are often five mind-reading members of staff to every guest. Wrapping orchids round your suitcase handles on departure is the sort of nonsense guests come to expect. The Mahakua Hacienda de San Antonio in western Mexico, a converted ranch with its own private airstrip, serves honey straight from nearby beehives and milk from the resident cows, has 26 rooms built from local lava stone and incorporates seven kilometres of Mexican woven fabric in the bedding and curtains. Personal butlers, rooms with private pools, sunken baths and your own motorised private buggy to get from bed to beach are not uncommon. At Amanwana on the tropical island of Moyo, a nature reserve east of Bali, you can stay in tents with air-con and enjoy massages in the jungle.