Amangani

With its unique wilderness location, Amangani offers guests an amazing ski experience, adventure and relaxation. Perched on the edge of a butte, it has panoramic views of the snow-capped peaks around Grand Teton National Park, while the alpine Teton Village, where Amangani's private Ski Lounge is located, is a 20-minute complimentary transfer from the resort.

Amangani, means ‘peaceful home’, and is located close to Jackson Hole mountain resort. At nearly 7,000 feet above sea level this discreet and luxurious hideaway offers highly personalized service in the most majestic of settings. The building, which features Pacific redwood and sandstone walls, and floor-to-ceiling picture windows, has been designed so as to maximize at every opportunity the tremendous natural backdrop, while interiors are inspired by the minimalist yet softly welcoming decor that Aman-junkies have come to love, with detailing such as the rawhide chairs that nod at the colourful history and culture of Wyoming’s frontier region.

From Amangani’s entrance, stairs sweep down to the Lounge with its soaring redwood ceiling, two-storey high windows and wood-burning fireplaces and sofas. Adjoining this is the library with its excellent collection of coffee table books on the area’s flora and fauna, Native American culture, Western art and the area’s two great national parks, Yellowstone and Grand Teton.

All of Amangani’s forty rooms are suites, and have floor-to-ceiling windows, wooden floors, and cast-iron fireplaces. Wonderfully spacious and serene, each contains a bedroom, living room and slate-trimmed bathroom with a deep soaking tub. The living area consists of a king-size platform bed and a fireplace, and furnishings include a redwood-frame day bed for lounging, a dining table, chairs and a pine-stump table. Sliding glass doors lead to a deck, with mountain and valley views.

The Grill, a 65-seat dining room, is open for breakfast, lunch and dinner, and has a lovely wood-burning fireplace, specially commissioned artworks and window views to the mountains and is a great place to enjoy regionally sourced foods such as bison ribs, while the Zinc Bar, with its rugged sandstone columns and wrought-iron bar stools is an intimate spot to enjoy a beer or a huckleberry martini. From breakfast you can choose from an a la carte menu offering pretty much everything from a Classic English breakfast to a whole stack of pancakes with a side of bacon!

The spa and fitness center offers a number of treatment rooms, exercise studios, steam rooms and personalized yoga programs, while outdoors is a magnificent swimming pool and whirlpool with incredible mountain views. The pool is heated year-round to 27 degrees, allowing you to swim when there is six feet of snow in midwinter. The spa is a perfect place to visit after a long day's skiing and they have a huge amount of treatments for you to partake in. One of our favorites is the mother and daughter package.

This is the perfect hotel for those content to not ski every day, but enjoy other activities. Alluring as it may be to simply stay and enjoy Amangani’s inimitable style and facilities, the surrounding wilderness simply must be experienced. Take a snowcoach into Yellowstone to see geysers, steaming psychedelically-colored pools and magnificent waterfalls, look for wolves, go back-country snowmobiling, or ride across crisp snow on a sled pulled by a team of huskies.

A wonderful experience we recommend when staying at the Amangani is taking a night-time sleigh ride, and being able to see the fantastic 360 degree views from the top of the butte. This can be a very romantic affair for couples or really fun for families. After this, we recommend taking dinner at The Granary which is a nearby luxury restaurant.