Everything was perfect. The ability to travel between lodges is seamless. They track your desires from lodge to lodge so you don't feel like you are spending nights in different hotels but rather one large one across the country. A totally synchronized experience.

We were very fortunate to be able to have our wedding at the Amankora Paro. The entire staff participated in all aspects of our Buddhist wedding ceremony including making arrangements for beautiful his/hers Bhutanese wedding outfits, reserving a Rinpoche
( a reincarnated Buddhist lama) to perform the ceremony, arranging for a private blessing at the beautiful 7th century temple, Kyichu Lhakhang, and a local dance troupe to entertain us. Ian Bell, the Assistant Manager of the hotel, personally photographed the entire event and couldn't have been more accomodating.

Pema, our guide for the entire week, spoke excellent English and was extremely knowledgable about the culture, history and religion of the country. We became good friends in a short time.

I spent 10 nights at Amankora last October, and have concluded that it was the best hotel experience of my life so far, slightly besting the Villa Feltrinelli, Dar Ahlam, the Rosewood Mayakoba, and the Dolder Grand. I went to all 5 Amankora lodges, and agree with the other posters that to see all 5, you must have the stomach for very, very long drives. I'll post reviews of the other 4 lodges in their respective TripAdvisor categories.
What we found most amazing was simply that Aman could pull off such world class service, spa treatments, and (often) delicious food in such difficult-to-traverse environs. The rooms in the 5 lodges don't vary much from lodge to lodge--there are two room types in total: one type at 3 of the lodges, the other type at 2. But the exteriors, and the common spaces, are each very individualized to the locale.
Basically, you are not driving very far at all, as the crow flies, but because Bhutan is a series of north-to-south valleys, each divided by very tall mountain ranges, you spend hours switchbacking up one side of the range, and down the other, in order to get from one lodge to the next. What's more, to get to the lodge furthest east, Bumthang, you must traverse two valleys, because Aman hasn't yet built a lodge on the property they've apparently acquired in Trongsa, the valley separating Bumthang valley from the Gangtey lodge.
So some quick reactions to the journey, the lodges, and activities at them:

DRUK AIR: Yes, if you can get a seat on the left side of the plane (left as you face forward), and the weather cooperates, you can see the peak of Everest, and a string of other "highest peaks in the world," en route from Delhi-Kathmandu-Paro. They don't assign seats in advance, so far as I can tell, so when you check in at Delhi, get there early to request a seat on the left side of the plane--people are clearly aware of this, so those seats go fast. And it's definitely worth paying the few hundred extra dollars for business class seats on Druk Air.

PARO: After all that travel, I think you really want Paro to be your first stop, since it's just a 30-minute drive from the airport. That 30 minutes will give you a taste of what the roads are like in Bhutan, and can help you gear up for what's ahead. And the setting's very majestic--mountain peaks all around, with one of the great peaks of the Himalaya, Jomolhari, visible on clear days. And with Tiger's Nest just a short drive away, this is clearly the must-visit lodge in the Amankora chain.


Re: the festivals. I'm an operagoer, so I think I have a reasonably long attention span, but I found the festivals to be excruciatingly dull; 10 minutes was plenty to get the idea. Everyone sits on the ground, outdoors, and it's hot and very, very dull--with dancers making very repetitive movements for very, very long stretches of time. Our guide took us up into the rafters of one of the temples, from which we looked down upon a private dance conducted by the monks, and it was truly a once-in-a-lifetime and thrilling experience . . . for about ten minutes. But the dances goes on for 2-3 hours, so we simply left when we tired of it--as everyone does. But I wouldn't let the festivals be the top driver of when you travel to Bhutan. It's nice to see for a few minutes, but a little went a long way. Outside the temple precinct, there more of a festive atmosphere, with lots of gambling going on, which we were welcomed to join, and thoroughly enjoyed. The people, everywhere, were wonderful.

I can't recommend Amankora highly enough. Uneven food, but much better than it seems possible to pull off--and the fact that they have five different menus (separate menus for each lodge) for each of breakfast, lunch, and dinner, in a country where most other foodstuff is cheese and chillies, is astounding. (Aman kills a yak each week for yak meat; there are one or two yak items on the menu, but otherwise they fly in steak and seafood and many other items from Bangkok each week.) Moreover, each lodge has a different welcome drink, all wonderful, tailored to the local environment--a sort of lemon and pomegranate tea in the warm and lush Punakha, versus a ginger drink to fight altitude sickness in Gangtey, etc. Different gifts left on your bed each night, dealing with a local aspect of Bhutanese culture. Different attire for the staff at each lodge, characterizing that area. An amazing, amazing place. And I would NEVER want to go to Bhutan without Aman--the food, the driving, the accommodations would all be very, very difficult, I'm afraid, otherwise.

Having stayed at Taj Tashi, where the service and food was amazing, it was disappointing to visit the Amankora, the food was very average and , although the room was nice there was no view, it is simply a hotel set in a forest. There were also issues with our reservations from beginning to end which greatly spoiled our holiday as it was handled very badly by the management team. I would definitely not recommend the Amankora, the Taj group has a fantastic reputation for service and did not fail .