Amansara

The Hotel

Amansara opened on 23 December 2002 as Aman's first Cambodian property — Adrian Zecha's small-resort group acquired the former Royal Hotel building (the 1962 modernist villa designed by French architect Laurent Mondet for King Norodom Sihanouk as the official guest villa for visiting heads of state) and reopened it after a deliberately conservative restoration that preserved the original Mondet-Sihanouk modernist architecture, the original mid-century furnishings, and the central courtyard plan in entirety. The villa hosted Charles de Gaulle (1966), Jacqueline Kennedy (1967, on her famous first visit to Angkor as a private citizen) and Yuri Gagarin (1962) during the Sihanouk era; Amansara has preserved the Jacqueline Kennedy Suite — the actual room she stayed in — as a bookable category. The architectural decision is the principal proposition: contemporary travellers stay in the same modernist Cambodian villa Sihanouk built for his foreign guests, with the original 1962 plans intact.

The 24 suites divide between 12 Garden Suites (in the original 1962 villa wing, with restored modernist tile-and-teak interiors) and 12 Pool Suites (in the 2008 Aman addition, each with a private 6-metre lap pool and a discreetly walled outdoor sitting area). All suites are at least 50 square metres; the named Royal Suite at 110 square metres is the milestone unit, the original Sihanouk-residence-within-the-residence with its own central salon and direct access to the original 1962 royal swimming pool. Bathrooms are travertine and teak; bath products are Aman's signature.

The Amansara programme is the unambiguous booking proposition. Rates are all-inclusive: dinner and breakfast in the open-air dining room, two daily Angkor temple excursions with the property's dedicated archaeologist-guides (a fleet of restored 1960s remorks transports guests, with private vehicles available for sunrise expeditions), in-house Khmer cultural programming including private apsara dance performances, and the property's signature spa programme. The kitchen runs a contemporary Cambodian-Khmer tasting register; the spa runs four treatment rooms with the full Aman wellness menu. The original 1962 royal swimming pool — preserved entirely — is the property's signature image.

The Road to Angkor address — three kilometres from the south gate of Angkor Thom and seven kilometres from Angkor Wat — is the closest of any Siem Reap luxury property to the temple complex. The hotel runs daily sunrise expeditions departing 4:30 AM (the operational advantage over town-centre alternatives that require 30-minute predawn drives); the property's archaeologist-guide programme — directly trained by the APSARA Authority that manages the Angkor archaeological park — is unmatched by any commercial-tour alternative. Siem Reap town centre is eight minutes by remork or car. For travellers wanting the most discreet, most expert, most architecturally significant Cambodia booking, Amansara is unambiguous.

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