The Amarta

I don't leave reviews often, but I felt Amarta needed a more recent English review. This B&B is wonderful. The hostess, Naoko-san, is incredible. She wants your stay to be as comfortable as possible. She also arranged our car rental and restaurant reservations for us (she might have been willing to do our tours, too, but I had already managed that through TripAdvisor recommendations). The restaurants were fantastic - local places that are fully booked each night. The chefs knew enough English to be able to tell us what we were eating. She even drove us to the restaurant so we could have drinks with dinner (and we caught a taxi back, which costs about $10). I do still recommend renting a car - the B&B is about 10-15 minutes from downtown, and a few minutes drive to the closest beach. It's easy to catch a cab from downtown, but you'd have to call to get one to come out to the B&B. That's not too difficult, but having the car made it so we could explore the island a bit on our own, and easy to get to the beach, too. We stayed in the Seaside Room. It's a good size room (especially for Japan) with a large bathroom. It has a large bed and a small sitting area, with two chairs & little table. Included with the room is a complimentary mini-bar stocked with water, soda, beer, and awamori (a local liquor) and tea & coffee, too. You also have access to a free, very well stocked bar. Breakfast is Japanese-style, meaning soup, salads, and sandwiches, served between 7:30-9:30am (pick your time). They were very good - I especially like the unique egg crepe. Fresh flowers were left in our room every day. We were also provided with a tote bag of beach towels and a tarp if we wanted to go to the beach. There is a free washing machine too, though the "dryer" seems to be the spin cycle. It's not a problem - you can hang your clothes in the convenient drying rack in your bathroom and they will dry overnight. The pool is perfect for cooling off or swimming (short) laps. There are several sets of lounge chairs in the sun and in the shade. Our patio had a table and two chairs along with a day bed. It is open to the pool, which is shared with the other room. The Garden room probably provides more privacy, but since you're only sharing the pool area with the people from the other room, you don't feel like you're out in public. You also don't have a view of the water from your room - you really need to be on the upper deck of the pool area to see it. The B&B is a little distance from the water, but there's nothing man-made between it and the sea. You feel like you're "away from it all." Earlier reviews indicated there was a cafe/restaurant at The Amarta, but there wasn't one while we were there. I was glad, because I didn't want the noise/extra people. Overall, it's a fantastic place to unwind and enjoy MIyako Island. I'll definitely stay here again if we return!