Amanera is a luxury brand resort affiliate of the Ama Brand. Amanera is located in Dominican Republic on the North East shore of the Island. It takes 90 minutes to get to this resort from the Puerto Plata Airport. The resort only has 30-40 total private casitas with only one of those being a 2 bedroom and the remaining are one bedroom. Many of them have private pools. The private pool casitas are full size pools with views of the ocean. Each casita is very spacious with an oversized bathroom (including both a garden tub and shower, 2 sinks and vanity space between the two), closet space, living/common area, desk, small kitchenette with a mini fridge stocked with Coca Cola, beer, sparkling water, milk, chocolate bars, and 2 mini bottles of wine that incur an added fee, Nespresso machine with included Nespresso pods, and welcome fruit basket. In addition, the large floor to ceiling windows surrounding the casita have automatic room darkening shades that open/close by the touch of a button. There is one TV in the bedroom space that is built into a piece of furniture that raises and lowers completely into the furniture giving a full pool/ocean view from the bed. The outdoor space is extremely spacious with multiple seating areas both covered and uncovered. There were so many spaces we didn't even use them all. The pool had a sun shelf and lighted up at night. The resort had one restaurant and the menu did not change so if you're going for the food, you may want to pick somewhere else. The beach was walkable and very very large. The ocean was clean and gorgeous. The beach club area needed some improvements and was very worn down. We didn't return after one visit. The casita itself provided everything you need to enjoy a very private relaxing vacation.
The adjacent golf course, Play Grande Golf and Ocean Club, is a private club owned by Discovery Land Company. During off season/non-event days, non-members can inquire about playing this stunning course for a fee. If you're a golfer, it's worth it.
Amanera gets a 4 star rating overall from our experience. If the beach club were updated, beach restaurant were open with changing menu daily, main restaurant offered better food options to match their price tag, and they didn't charge all the added fees for things like (room service charge & overpriced cocktails) then I would give this place 5 stars. The poor food quality was a deal breaker for us and our rating. We paid $20k for one week at this resort and expected this price to reflect in the quality of food, however it did not. The accommodations themselves were worthy of 5 stars. The resort reviews seemed to discourage children however we were the only couple there that week without children. We would certainly bring our children if we went again, but not young children.