The Best Place you could stay – Li River Retreat
My husband and I stayed here mid-December 2008 for a 4 days to just get away. It was $55 per night , which we really felt was a great price for any hotel — and especially this place with such amazing views.
I had originally planned for us to stay at Yangshuo Mountain Retreat because the photos there looked so great, but because of all the negative reviews of the staff there on Tripadvisor.com, I looked around some more and found this place — the Li River Retreat.
The photos on the Retreats own website really do not do this place justice. It is an amazingly beautiful retreat — exactly what you think a retreat should be like. It is quiet, very clean and modern and best of all are the incredible, unbelievable views from the rooms and the whole retreat site. All of the photos I am uploading are from our room or other common areas of the retreat.
The food was great and priced moderately. I think you can even check out the menu on the Retreat’s website. The American breakfast is so normal, the Chinese style breakfast is good too. Some things come out funny, like a chocolate malt which is really more like lightly flavored chocolate milk, or the “orange juice” that is more like Tang with a little pulp in it; but we had a lot of the food, chinese and western (dumplings, pizza, etc.), and loved it all. I highly recommend the Chicken burger — wow that was so good.
The staff at Li River Retreat are so, so helpful and friendly. The front desk acts as a concierge service and will get you anything you need — tickets to a show, booking a taxi, bicycle rental, maps and directions plus honest recommendations on things to do in the area. It made it so easy.
The one thing I wish I would have planned for better, was to have someone meet us when our boat arrived (we arrived in Yangshuo on a 4-hour river cruise from Guilin — highly recommended and about $50/person which includes a buffet). I envisioned stepping off the boat and just hailing a taxi to take us to the retreat — but this was so far from possible. There were dozens and dozens, I might even say over a hundred salespeople yelling at and approaching us loudly to buy stuff and if I wanted a bike or a guide. Oh my gosh it was so overwhelming. Luckily, I was able to borrow a cell phone from a random person and call the retreat, they sent someone to the place we were, and we got a ride up to the retreat. It worked out, but I recommend knowing beforehand how you will get to the retreat itself. There really are not taxis to just hail in Yangshuo.
When we were nearing our port in Yangshuo, I saw a gorgeous hotel on the mountainside, and wished it had it’s website listed so I could look it up. It turned out that it was our place! The Li River Retreat! Wow, this place is so great — highly recommended — the views from the rooms and around the retreat are breathtaking and everything you wanted to see when you went to see karsts. Enjoy your trip.
P.S. There is a lot of shopping, hustle and bustle in Yangshuo, and we did that, but I was really there for the serenity at the retreat — i know other review talk a lot about what to do in Yangshuo. I do highly recommend the show in Yangshuo that was created by the same guy who did the Beijing Olympics. It is out of this world.
