Mengyuan RESOR 360° View Hotel: Starry Pool & Hot Spring, Shili Gallery Yulong River

First of all, we really liked the hotel. You can see that a lot of money has gone into the rooms: huge floor-to-ceiling windows, the floors, the bathrooms (a MonBlari bath, and in the family room even two baths), the fittings, the pool — everything is to a very high standard. The room design is excellent too. You can tell straight away that the owner is a designer. A minimalist style, plenty of open space, black, white and grey predominating, but with soft lighting that gives it a touch of chic. The service is excellent too, very warm: they helped with the luggage and the parking, upgraded us to a family room, recommended places to eat, offered afternoon tea and gave us souvenirs — everything was wonderful and very attentive. And the views! Both from the room with the panoramic view we had on the first day and from the room looking onto the bamboo forest on the hill behind, the views are stunning. It's a shame we couldn't visit the 6th-floor bar with a child. The hotel is a fair way from restaurants and shops, but Shili Hualang (the Ten-Mile Gallery) is easy to reach by taxi. Lastly, a few small suggestions: 1. In the family room it would be good to put a rug next to the bed. The floor is stone and quite hard, and the bed is high. If a child rolls off, that could be dangerous. Every time I saw the child tossing around in bed I felt a little uneasy. 2. The bathrooms are open-plan, so you can only get dressed inside the shower cubicle — you can't step out into the toilet area to do it. That's genuinely not very convenient (especially when you come with family; for couples it's probably not a problem, but with children you can't get changed in the toilet area). There may be some solution to this. If not, even a coat hook in the shower cubicle would help a little. These aren't complaints, just suggestions. Overall, everything really is very good.

Dream Garden Inn is simply wonderful in every respect 🥰. The room windows have a direct view of the mountains and the river, and the lobby is as refined as an art gallery, with panoramic windows you can admire a waterfall through. The pool under the starry sky looks magical at night, and on the rooftop terrace you can watch the sunset in peace 🍷. The hotel is surrounded by bamboo forest, it's quiet and peaceful here, and afternoon tea is very pleasant. The gym and the kids' area are fully equipped, so the hotel works both for couples and for a family holiday. The stay here is very comfortable and relaxing — the best choice for a holiday in Yangshuo.

We couldn't book a room with a big bed, but when we arrived the manager upgraded our room class! Reception staff and the manager were excellent! The next day there was no room, but after some discussion the manager helped us choose from several options, was very patient, and the service was excellent! Everything was first-rate, this hotel really pays close attention to its guests! The location and the view are also very good!

Shili Gallery hotel is a genuine gem, deserving of five stars! The cleanliness is impeccable and the facilities are comprehensive and complete. The butlers, Xiao Zhang and Xiao Ye, provide attentive service throughout the stay, and the choice for afternoon tea is huge. At night the star-lit pool sparkles, and after a relaxing soak in the hot spring you feel completely rested. Surrounded by mountains and water, the resort offers flawless comfort.

The hotel is good, the location is also very good (there's a scooter rental nearby), the staff are friendly and always ready to help. On check-in we were given a fruit basket and a mini cake. The view from the window is gorgeous. However, there were a couple of things that meant we didn't enjoy our stay at this hotel. The photos don't match reality — there's construction going on around the hotel, everything is covered in sand and stones, which of course you don't see in the pictures. Breakfast is meagre: literally a couple of dishes, a couple of kinds of porridge, coffee. No tea, juice or water. The lounge area on the top floor consists of an open zone — a terrace — and a closed, restaurant-style zone. When we came out onto the terrace all the sofas were wet, so unfortunately we couldn't sit there. But what disappointed us most was that every time we woke up we found bed bug bites on our legs. Nobody bit us during the day, but there were new bites every morning. And the icing on the cake came at checkout: we ordered a taxi through DiDi, with the fare to the station showing around 66 yuan in the app; when the taxi arrived, the hostess girl grabbed our suitcases and led us to our taxi, she and the driver talked about something, and the driver said he wouldn't take us for 66 yuan as shown in the app — we'd have to pay 120 yuan. We refused the ride, took our suitcases back, walked further away, ordered a taxi again and were able to leave properly for the 66 yuan as it should have been.

The photos are completely at odds with reality. There were even small insects in the room, and there wasn't a single table suitable for eating at, only a tiny round side table.