Amankila

The three pools of Amankila spill into one another down the cliff like the rice terraces of the hills behind, and the last of them seems to tip into the Lombok Strait. Ed Tuttle designed them in 1992 for Aman's second resort on Bali, on the east coast near Manggis, a few kilometres from the fishing town of Candidasa and far from the crowds of the south.

History

Amandari, in the hills above Ubud, had opened in 1989. For the second Balinese resort Aman chose a steep site on the coast of Karangasem, the old kingdom of eastern Bali, below the slopes of Mount Agung. The name means "peaceful hill". Amankila opened in 1992, and in the same year Amanusa followed on the Bukit peninsula, making three Amans on the island; Amanusa closed in 2019, which left Amankila and Amandari.

Architecture and design

Tuttle took the water palaces of Karangasem as his model, in particular the royal bathing pools of Tirta Gangga and Ujung built by the last rajas, and the three-tier pool is the clearest reference. The suites are freestanding pavilions with thatched roofs of alang-alang grass, raised on stilts and connected by stone walkways that climb the cliff. Coconut wood, teak and Balinese stone are the materials, and the carvings follow local patterns. The open-sided restaurant and bar at the top of the site look over the pools to the strait and, on clear days, to Lombok and the volcano of Rinjani.

Rooms and suites

There are 34 suites, each with a terrace, a canopied bed, a sunken tub and views of the sea through the coconut palms. Several have private pools, and the Amankila Suite and the Indrakila Suite, at the top of the cliff, are the largest, with their own pools and the longest views. The suites nearest the water are reached by steps down the cliff and are the quietest.

Dining

The Restaurant at the top of the resort serves Indonesian and Western food with produce from the farms of Karangasem, and the Terrace below it is the place for Balinese dishes in the evening. The beach club, on the shore at the foot of the cliff, has a 47-metre lap pool among the palms and serves lunch and dinner by the sea. Picnics are set up on the hillside and at Tirta Gangga.

Wellness

The Aman Spa works from treatment rooms and from the suites, with Balinese massage and the usual Aman menu. The resort has the three-tiered main pool, the beach club pool and a gym, and runs walks into the villages and rice terraces of the hills behind, as well as snorkelling and diving trips along the coast.

Weddings and events

Amankila hosts weddings on the beach club lawn and on the cliff terrace above the pools, with Balinese ceremonies and gamelan available. The resort is small enough that larger celebrations take the whole property, and no fixed room capacities are published. Company groups use the restaurant terrace and the beach club.

Location

The resort stands on the coast between Manggis and Candidasa in Karangasem regency, east Bali. Ngurah Rai International Airport at Denpasar is about an hour and a half to two hours away by road; the resort arranges transfers and a helicopter can land at the beach club. The ferry and fast-boat port of Padang Bai, for Lombok and the Gili islands, is ten minutes away, and the water palaces of Tirta Gangga and Ujung, the mother temple of Besakih and the Bali Aga village of Tenganan are all within an hour. As a luxury resort on the east coast of Bali, Amankila sits far from the beach resorts of Seminyak and Nusa Dua, which is the point of staying here.