Located in the heart of Siem Reap, Cambodia, AMANSARA presents a distinct balance between traditional Cambodian references and a contemporary architectural language. The property holds a clear, composed presence, shaped through proportion, material, and light.

The interior follows this approach with precision. Each room is defined by generous ceiling heights, controlled natural light, and a restrained selection of materials. Traditional elements are integrated without becoming decorative, allowing the space to remain calm and coherent. The result is an atmosphere that feels considered and stable, rather than staged.

Service at AMANSARA is structured around attention and continuity. The team maintains a consistent awareness of each guest’s preferences, shaping the stay through small, precise adjustments rather than visible intervention. Recommendations, arrangements, and daily details are handled with clarity, allowing the experience to unfold without friction.

A similar sense of control defines the overall atmosphere of the property. Despite its central location, the hotel maintains a quiet, contained rhythm. The proximity to the Angkor temples introduces a strong cultural context, while the hotel itself remains deliberately removed from the surrounding intensity. Movement slows, and spaces retain their clarity throughout the day.

The culinary program reflects this same level of focus. Cambodian cuisine is approached with respect for origin and ingredient, with dishes built around seasonal, locally sourced products. Preparation remains direct, allowing flavors to stay defined and balanced across the menu.

For guests interested in cultural context, the nearby Angkor National Museum offers a structured introduction to Cambodia’s history. Its proximity allows for a natural extension of the stay, connecting the architectural experience of the hotel with a broader historical framework. The surrounding region extends this further. Early morning views over the Angkor temples, visits to Tonle Sap Lake and its floating villages, or time spent within the hotel’s spa introduce different rhythms throughout the day. Wellness offerings, including yoga and meditation, are integrated into the overall experience without disrupting its pace.

experience AMANSARA www.aman.com
all images (c) AMANSARA // Videos (c) lemilestudios

AMYTH, Mykonos

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Finca Serena, Mallorca

Munich carries a particular balance between movement and composure, where the density of the city follows a measured rhythm. Karlsplatz gathers this energy in a concentrated form, with a constant flow of people, traffic and shifting light. Koenigshof, part of Marriott’s Luxury Collection, rises directly above this point, holding a calm, self-contained presence that filters the intensity of the square into a more controlled atmosphere.

The building, completed in 2024 and designed by Nieto Sobejano, sits directly at Karlsplatz, facing the Karlstor and the constant movement of the square. From the outside, it holds a compact, almost sculptural presence, defined by a deep vertical cut that draws the eye inward. Entering the hotel, this gesture becomes spatial. A tall atrium opens through the center of the building, carrying light across the interior and establishing a sense of height that stays present as you move through the floors. Late in the evening, back in the room, as the city begins to quiet down, the presence of an artwork becomes part of the atmosphere. In the terrace suite, a Picasso hangs within the room, close enough to remain in view without demanding attention, returning each time you look up, each time you move through the space.

On the ninth floor, GRETA OTO opens toward the city with a wide, uninterrupted view across Munich. Lunch and dinner follow a clear rhythm, shaped by a menu that moves through ceviche, seafood and lighter dishes with precision. The terrace draws you outward as the day progresses, where the light softens and the city shifts in tone. Sitting at the table during breakfast, the sculptural figures on the nearby courthouse align at eye level with the restaurant. They remain fixed in place, facing inward, close enough to feel part of the scene.  

The shift continues into the private spa, where once booked, the space is entirely yours for that period of time. The pool holds a steady warmth, the sauna opens toward the city, and beyond the glass Munich continues at a distance. Toward the late afternoon, the light begins to change, and from within the water the city shifts its color, the transition moving gradually until the first tones of sunset settle across the skyline.

And as the light settles, the Picasso in the suite remains, fixed on the wall, part of the room you return to in the evening. It stays there as you move through the space, as the last light fades from the windows and the city outside becomes quieter. At night, it remains within view, something you share the room with, and in the morning it is there again, unchanged, part of the space you wake up in.

experience Koenigshof, a Luxury Collection Hotel, Munich www.marriott.com
images (c) Koenigshof Munich

.places

ISLAND SERENITY IN CAMBODIA’S GULF OF THAILAND

Six Senses Krabey Island, Cambodia

On a small private island off Cambodia’s southern coast, Six Senses Krabey Island moves at the pace of heat, water and dense tropical growth.

The landscape remains close throughout the stay and villas sit within the jungle with ocean views opening between trees, creating a sense of retreat shaped by privacy, vegetation and distance. The architecture works with this setting through natural materials, open structures and quiet transitions between interior and exterior space. Nothing feels overly staged, paths lead through foliage, terraces face the sea, rooms hold the light in a soft, filtered way, and the island’s scale allows the experience to remain intimate from morning into evening.

Wellness forms the clearest centre of the resort. At its core is the work of resident wellness practitioner Dr. Boorani, whose consultations and screenings create a more precise entry into the resort’s spa programme. Treatments follow the same logic, combining traditional healing techniques, bodywork and natural ingredients in a way that feels grounded in care and physical attention. The signature massages give the experience its strongest sense of focus, placing the body back into a slower relationship with time.

This attention to the body continues beyond the spa, at the Alchemy Bar, the “Be an Alchemist” class introduces herbs through touch, scent and preparation, with guests blending teas or body scrubs while learning about the healing properties of plants. It is a small gesture within the larger stay, yet it gives the island’s wellness language a more tactile dimension. Ingredients become part of the experience before they appear as treatment or tea.

At Aha Restaurant, Khmer cuisine is presented through recipes rooted in Cambodian domestic cooking and shaped by the work of native Cambodian Sous Chef Puthea. The dishes draw from produce sourced from the resort’s own gardens, nearby farms and fishing communities, bringing the surrounding region into the evening meal through herbs, rice, fish, spice and heat. The experience feels strongest when it stays close to these materials and allows Cambodian flavour to remain clear.

The cooking class extends this approach into practice as guests prepare traditional Khmer dishes with a local chef, learning through repetition, cutting, stirring, tasting and the small corrections that define a kitchen. It is one of the more direct ways to understand the resort’s relationship to place, because the experience moves through ingredients. Curries, stir-fries and regional techniques become part of the day’s structure, followed by lunch made from the dishes prepared together. Across the island, the architecture supports a similar feeling of immersion. The main buildings, restaurant, bar and spa are arranged with open-air spaces that allow breeze, sound and vegetation to enter. The villas draw from Cambodian design references while maintaining the comfort expected from a contemporary island resort. Jungle, sea and architecture stay in constant visual contact, giving the stay its particular atmosphere: private, warm, enclosed by nature, yet visually open to the horizon.

By evening, the island becomes quieter as the day moves back toward the villa, through paths darkened by foliage and the sound of the water below. The ocean view returns as a fixed point, while the jungle surrounds the rooms with its own presence. Six Senses Krabey Island works best in these slower moments, when the experience settles into its essential elements: spa, food, landscape, sleep, heat, water and the feeling of being held at a distance from the mainland. It is this distance that gives the resort its appeal. The stay is shaped through wellness without becoming clinical, through luxury without excessive performance, and through Cambodian references that become most persuasive when experienced through food, material, plants and the island’s natural rhythm.

experience Six Senses Krabey Island www.sixsenses.com
follow @sixsenseskrabeyisland

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(c) SIX SENSES Krabey Island & lemilestudios

Amanwella sits above a curved bay on Sri Lanka’s southern coast, where the shoreline opens between palms, boulders, fishing boats and the steady movement of the Indian Ocean.

The resort consists of 30 suites, each designed with a sense of space, privacy and direct contact with the surrounding landscape. King-size beds sit beneath high wooden ceilings, while floor-to-ceiling glass doors allow the interior to open toward the terrace, plunge pool and coconut grove beyond. Light enters from several sides, filtered through timber screens and moving foliage, giving the rooms a quiet rhythm throughout the day.

Inside, the design is controlled and pared back. Dark kithul wood, taupe surfaces, stone, clay and clean architectural lines create an atmosphere shaped through material and proportion. The absence of television gives the room its own discipline, allowing the beachfront, trees, peacocks, wind and ocean sound to define the stay. The bathroom expands this feeling of openness with a freestanding tub, tropical shower and direct access to the plunge pool, turning the suite into a private circuit of sleeping, bathing, swimming and resting.

Amanwella’s architecture carries the influence of Sri Lankan modernism through its horizontal lines, open pavilions and careful relationship to the site. Designed by Kerry Hill, the resort reflects a language often associated with the legacy of Geoffrey Bawa: buildings held low within the landscape, shaded spaces, framed views, quiet transitions between inside and outside, and a strong awareness of climate, material and place. The exterior tones sit close to the colour of the sand, while the geometry of the suites and public spaces gives the resort a precise, almost monumental calm.

The main restaurant is positioned above the 47-metre infinity pool, with views stretching across the bay and the palms below. Its pavilion-like structure keeps the horizon visible from the dining room and bar, where glass catches the tropical light during the day and the sunset gathers across the ocean in the evening. The menu brings together Mediterranean, Asian and Sri Lankan elements, with dishes such as egg hoppers and curries anchoring the experience in local flavour.

The resort’s pace is shaped by the coast. Mornings begin with black tea, warm air and the slow appearance of light across the water. Days move between the terrace, pool, beach, Ayurveda treatments, private dining and the quiet shade of the suite. The beach remains central to the experience, an 800-metre stretch of sand bordered by palm trees, fishermen, rocks and open sea.

Amanwella also functions as a base for Sri Lanka beyond Tangalle, with Buddhist temples, tea country, scenic rail routes, wildlife safaris and heritage landscapes forming part of the island’s broader cultural and geographic texture. Yet the resort’s strongest quality remains its ability to hold attention in one place. Its details are small and deliberate: tropical fruit, frangipani flowers, freshly baked coconut cookies, printed publications, guest gifts and the steady presence of the landscape itself. Amanwella is at its most compelling in the moments when architecture, climate and coast align without excess. The suites open to air and water, the public spaces frame the bay, the materials remain close to the land, and the day unfolds through heat, shade, salt, tea, food, stillness and the sound of the Indian Ocean.

experience AMANWELLA www.aman.com
follow AMANWELLA @amanwellaresort

all images (c) AMANWELLA