Guilin Hotel Reviews
The hotel is located in the town centre which you do not notice when you are in the hotel or at the swimming pool. Close to the main shopping street and where you can rent bicycles. We went to Li River, Moon hill, and made a boat trip. You can hire a guide or make your own tour. Just turn right and left whenever you want, it is hard to get lost because you will always stay between two mountain ridges. Bring a map for global orientation.
Check out Uncle Sam''s shop on West Street to arrange tours of the surrounding area. No hassle approach to exploring the area. We went hot airballooning and hired kayaks and went paddling downstream from Yangshuo and had the river to ourselves.
Yangshuo is great, albeit pretty touristy on West Street. Brilliant for a long weekend of shopping, scenery, river trips, eating and drinking. It''s a good hour and a half from Guilin airport and worth organising a taxi transfer to your hotel if you don''t mind paying about $30 each way. As a western tourist, don''t accept the first price in the West Street shops as they are just trying to see whether you''ll pay over the odds. Start at about 70% below and see how you go. If you''re after both scenery and a lively place to be based then stay in Yangshuo rather than Guilin town. Excellent breakfasts at Mei You on West Street. Hire a bike (+ guide if you want to be shown the highlights, although you end up paying a bit more) and definitely go on a bamboo raft. We had a guide called Wendy who was excellent, although there are a plenty of guides to choose from. The river tour from Xing Ping to Yangdi town was very scenic, but if you sign up for the sunrise tour then don''t set your expectations too high. For our trip, it poured with rain and so there was no spectacular sunrise. Not sure it was worth getting up at 4.30am for unless you know how to guarantee the sun - the clouds and mist around the mountains were still pretty cool though - very Lord of the Rings. If it''s your first trip to China as it was ours, then try not to be put off by the locals spitting in the street - maybe they''ve just got phlegm problems! Also, if you''re a non-smoker then you''ll be in the minority.
Walking round the lakes, from the hotel is an excellent 40- 60 min exercise. The city''s shopping area was too touristic. The trip on Li river was a great experience! Don''t waste your time in Guilin to long. Stay over in Yangshuo, don''t rush back to Guilin.
I''d say forget Guilin completely. The reasons for coming to this area are all in Yangshuo. As visibility was lousy when we were there, we opted out of the overpriced river cruise and went by bus from Guilin to Yangshuo. Stayed at the wonderful Paradise hotel (very cheaply) and hired bikes to get out and see the gorgeous countryside. Buses go cheaply to different local villages - and enable you to see more of the centuries-old way of life. Wonderful.
Guilin is a tourist city, with higher prices than normal for China, but it is worth the trip for the Li Jiang boat tour. Seven Star Park is also worth a visit if you have extra time on your hands. It is walkable city with 1.3 million residents.
A free bus service operates to many of the major tourist sites in Guilin, including Reed Flute Cave which is somewhat out of town. The taxi fare from the airport into Guilin seems to be fixed at Y100 (drivers will not use their meters), but upon returning to the airport, drivers do use their meters and the cost is about Y75, raised to about Y85 or Y90 if the passengers have luggage. When travelling by taxi in China, passengers pay any extra road tolls, either at the time or added on to the fare at the end of the trip.
The hotel is located on Yangshuo''s main street, Xi Jie, just a few minutes walk from the bus station, The minibus from Guilin Railway Station to Yangshuo is great value at just Y10 per person. Yangshuo has many great Western-friendly restaurants, many of which have free internet access, and recommended ones include Jimmy''s and Minnie Mao''s.
I would definitely recommend a day trip to Longshen and the Dragon''s Backbone rice fields. I took a local bus from the Guilin bus station to Longshen (90 minutes), where I then took a small van (60 minutes) to Pin An - where you can begin a spectacular hike through the rice fields.
I was going to take a cruise on the Li River, but some locals suggested instead that I take a local bus to the town of Yang Di (1 hour away) and walk to Xing Ping. The walk took 4.5 hours and it was spectacular. I passed trough small villages, farms, and amazing scenery. I saw the boats going by, filled with lots of camera-snapping tourists, and I was grateful that I was walking instead of traveling by boat -- I got a real flavor of the local life.
Skip the expensive cruise on the Li River, take the bus to Yangshou, stay for a few days and take a shorter river cruise from there. Bike rides are great for seeing the area - use a guide.
It is worth knowing that the number 58 bus provides free transport to many of Guilin''s sights. The nearest stop for the 58 when staying at the Universal Hotel is at Seven Star Hills, just across the Li River Bridge from the hotel. This bus makes an excellent connection to Reed Flute Cave, which is a wonderful place to experience but situated on the outskirts of the city.
To get to Yangshuo from Guilin, I would recommend the minibuses that start from the front of Guilin Railway Station. This minibuses leave every 10 or 15 minutes and cost just 20 yuan perperson, plus Y2.50 per item of luggage. While in Yangshuo, a great experience is hiring a bicycle (10 yuan for the day from right in front of the hotel) and cycling out to Moon Hill, which provides spectacular views of the limsetone scenery, both while riding and especially after a climb to the top of Moon Hill.
Yangshuo is a wonderful place to explore on your own. After a packaged tour for the rest of our China trip, we enjoyed renting mountain bikes (for $1.20/day!) and exploring the surrounding countryside on our own. Biking through the Yulong He valley and then floating down the river in a bamboo raft was delightful. We recommend eating at Cafe Under the Moon on Xi Jie (West St.) because the food is very good and you can sit on the second floor balcony and overlook the bustling street scene below.
Guilin is not that spectacular. However, the town of Yangshao to the South is really awesome. Took the river cruise down and the bus back and it was really nice. Next time I would take the cruise down and hire a private car once I got to Yangshao, because the tour group wasted hours of my time visiting these silly rock and gems shops! I went on the tour to view and photograph the awesome scenery and could care less about some silly tourist shops!!
Restaurants at the hotel are very expensive. The Rosemary Cafe is close by and serves Western and Chinese at much lower prices. When you come out of the hotel, turn left. Turn left at the next real street (not the alley way). It''s in the second block, on the left.
The Li river cruise is overpriced. Found it quite boring. Entrance tickets to most sights are expensive compared to other parts of China. Beware of tour guides who will "recommend" restaurants which charged expensively. The trip to Longji to view the rice terrace is great.
Don''t plan on spending more than one or 2 nights in Guilin. Move on out to Yangshuo. Much nicer area.
Guilin seems to have a little bit of a bad name with most guide books and a lot of travellers I spoke to who all say it''s too much of a tourist trap. I must say that I found it quite pleasant, with the attention from touts and souvenir tack sellers being no more intense than anywhere else in China. I did the Li river cruise organised for US$65 from the Sheraton. I enjoyed it immensely inspite of the hard sell of the aforementioned souvenir tack on the boat. I also visited the Seven Star Park which I''d also recommend as a good chance to climb peaks similar to that which are on show during the cruise. The cave you can vist here is really fantastic. Even the added neon lighting and silly photo souvenir booths can''t destroy its beauty.
Guilin is a great destination for the first time traveller into China. I found the best way to get around was on a push bike, I saw most of the city attractions this way and it was a great way to mingle with the locals. Also I would reccommend you do not do the tours from this hotel, too expensive and I found the guides not really interested in you at all, they are only interested that you buy from the traders they take you too, but if you are on a limited time this might be the way to go.