After that pretty negative introduction, you may be surprised that we returned in a couple weeks for our second anniversary. So obviously we had a great time during our first trip, we just didn't spend much time in Patong, and you shouldn't either. One easy way to avoid that is to stay at one of the many far flung hotels. We stayed at the Amanpuri, the grande dame of Phuket hotels. It's reasonably close to Patong geographically, but a world apart in other ways. And the ride from Patong to the hotel is about a half hour, on very windy hilly streets in the back of a pickup truck, Phuket's version of a taxi. That will naturally curb any desire you might have to overindulge, or you'll regret it at some point on your ride home.

Amanpuri was I believe the first Aman, which is far and away our favorite hotel chain, as you'll find out over time. It's also the first of the superluxe hotels in Phuket, although it now has some competition for that market from Banyan Tree and Trisara. In my opinion Amanpuri still winds hands down, but since we've stayed at all the others, I'll save my knocks against them for future entries. Amanpuri is about 20 villas, all scattered among the jungle overlooking the ocean. There's a communal pool and restaurant, but in general the point of an Aman is to stay away from other people, so you rarely bump into anyone. That's why it's the favored destination for celebrities, and why you'll usually be sharing the hotel with at least one famous person, but you'll also never see them.

The Aman villa is definitely spacious and impeccably decorated, but it's very understated bordering on plain. They don't compete on glitz, but on providing as much privacy as you want, and fantastic service. As a chain, they've perfected the art of service. Lots of high end hotels have armies of staff who mill about with silly jobs like bath concierge. But here staff is largely invisible until you might want something and then it appears. They're also very relaxed and friendly, not stiff and formal or too subservient, just nice, the way you want it to be on a beach holiday.