Amangiri, Canyon Point, Utah

In short… A bucket-list hotel for design-centric travelers since it opened in 2009 in the middle of the most breathtaking landscape.

The surroundings… While the hotel is in Southern Utah, it sits right near the border of Arizona. The closest airport is 25 minutes away in Page, Arizona (it’s easy to fly there from Las Vegas on Contour Air—a 45 minute flight) and nearest standouts to visit are Antelope Canyon, Lake Powell, and Horseshoe Bend. The Grand Canyon and Monument Valley are both about two-and-a-half hours away.  

The background… The developers were actually looking to build in the open desert in Arizona, quite close to where they ended up. But while scouting, they saw this massive rock they felt would be fantastic to build a pool around, and so began a 10-year lobbying effort that ultimately required a land trade, an act of Congress, and a presidential sign-off, because the desert they wanted was on federal land. It’s the kind of story where there were so many stars aligning to make this project happen—truly a miracle hotel. Their tented camp, Camp Sarika, opened in 2020.

The vibe… There’s a feeling of reverence here—surrounded by mesas that are 150 million years old, it makes you feel, dare I say, small? It puts everything into perspective. There’s no music at the pool, and it seemed that all the guests were on the same page, talking at a lower level than they would if they were in, say, St. Tropez. This definitely isn’t a place people come to party (unless they’re doing a buyout!). At the same time, the staff is so warm, so it doesn’t feel like you’re in church.

The design… Thoughtfully integrated so perfectly into the landscape, the design is minimalistic, brutalist, doesn’t call attention to itself—it’s there to frame the nature surrounding it. Three architectural studios collaborated on it (all were based in Arizona at the time): Rick Joy, Wendell Burnette, and Marwan Al-Sayed—and they won many awards for the work.

We loved that there was no art on the walls, with the exception of three earth paintings done by German artist Ulrike Arnold, which she created on site, pulverizing natural rocks and minerals and making pigments from the surrounding desert terrain.

The rooms… Minimalist, austere, leaning Japanese in the styling. They’re very comfortable and lovely, but they aren’t designed to be the star—they frame the star, which is everything outside. They’re also low tech, which we love—everything manual and uncomplicated, from light switches to curtains. In part because there are very few rooms—34 main suites and 10 tents—and high demand, the price point to stay here is very high, beginning around $3,800 in the low season of November, January, and February (personally I’d prefer to be here then, when it’s not hot and easier to hike throughout the day). But I have to say it’s a once-in-a-lifetime place worth making the effort to get to, and saving up for it.

The food & drink… You can eat at the Amangiri or at their Camp Sarika, which is just a 5-minute drive away (they have shuttles). Camp Sarika has a tasting menu, but not a lengthy small-bite annoying kind. The night we went there we had BBQ and a watermelon salad I won’t forget. We ate all our other meals at Amangiri (it’s all-inclusive—you don’t want to be driving around trying to find options) and standouts were the pork chop, the elk loin, and the grilled barramundi fish. Breakfast: we are big huevos rancheros fans (we always order it if it’s on the menu) so we were skeptical, but were blown away. Chorizo, avocado, eggs, tortillas—tidy layers of deliciousness, not dumbed down on the spice—they were perfect. We had them two days in a row, although we split one on the second day.

Because Utah has complicated liquor laws, it isn’t a place where you’ll be wowed by an epic wine list—everything they have access to is purchased by the state and then resold to them. But even so, while there’s the expected Whispering Angel, they also had some wines from Friuli, a Greek assyrtiko, and a red from Sardinia (all at a third of the price of the Kistler Chardonnay from Sonoma). Another funny thing about Utah is there can be no alcohol in eyesight of anyone under 18 (it’s called the “Zion Curtain”), so there’s no bar or alcohol in the mini bar. And drinking hours are 10am-10pm. If you want to have a nightcap after that, pack your own! The bartenders are excellent—they make a great margarita, Negroni, and martini—they just have to do it in the back room (but apparently the hotel did get a new license, so they will soon be able to open a bar!). 

Also, the drink sizes are on the small side—the max alcohol drink size in Utah  is 1.5 oz—so if you’re a drinker, I suggest ordering your second when your first arrives. On a non-alcohol note, they make the most delicious sage lemonade that isn’t too sweet, and perfect for the heat.

Is it family-friendly? Because we were there over the summer, there were many families, albeit none with really little kids, and all of them were well behaved. Most of them would leave for the day and you’d only see them at the pool in the late afternoon—as I’m sure they were out for adventures on Lake Powell all day. One day there was a naturalist who came with a bunch of small native animals and was sharing them with one of the young guests.

Any details to note? Aman has very sweet turndown gifts—I particularly liked the dreamcatcher, which I’ll put on my moodboard in the office. They also have these coolers that they bring to guests at the pool to keep their water or whatever they like inside–and I like that the servers will write notes to guests on them—in our case, a birthday note in Chinese, Uyghur, and English, as Zach, the fantastic pool attendant, is Uyghur.

Be sure to… We were there in the height of summer so we didn’t want to do anything active after 9am because it was too hot, so we passed on the very cool organized hikes they offer. Instead, we took one of the hotel’s courtesy BMWs and drove 20 minutes into Page and had a great shopping adventure at the Pow Wow Trading Post (read more about it in my Travel Diary here).

Extra tip goes to… When do you ever remember the staff and talk to them so much? The staff here is so stellar that I have to shout them out: Zach the best pool attendant who should/will one day run this property! Paul, another pool attendant who was the cheeriest guy who came to our table to say goodbye at dinner. Nicky and Ethan the bartenders who made us great martinis and we had great chats with. Ferdinand the Austrian who you just know will be a GM one day at some very iconic hotel. Clearly the best young people in hospitality are coming here–hoteliers should come here to scout them out!