Secret Courtyard Resort Hotel — Hotel in Guilin

We have rated this one one for its price & rustic experience.||Located on what appears an island with other similar hotels , several restaurants/ eateries & a few small shops.||The owners are extremely friendly & helpful to try and make your stay enjoyable.||The main town is a 10 minute taxi ride about 20 to 25 RMB.||The rooms are located over a couple of buildings ours was on the second floor overlooking the country side.||Rooms are compact consisting queen bed, two side tables, narrow desk with stool & narrow low bench, cloths rack, no place for lge suit cases so we placed ours on the floor in front of the doors to balcony.||Limited toiletries , aircon & tv, only chinese channels, no mini fridge. Bathroom shower, toilet & vanity.||We we able to use their fridge downstairs for our drinks, they also have a ice machine.|Mandarins & bottle water supplied to your room, minimal room service.||Breakfast a 50 walk to their other accommodation, consists of Juice , tea & coffee.|A choice of chinese or western, both have yoghurt, fruit consisting small mango cheeks , sliced orange & a few cherry tomato's, a fried egg cooked both sides that morning & slightly warmed when wanted. The chinese breakfast included noodles, the western breakfast two slices of freshly cooked toast, plus marmalade.||On arrival the owner gives you a couple of restaurants to dine at even though they have there own, we tried the main one, not nice, ribs overcooked & dry, so we decided to try their restaurant even though over the 3 nights no one else ate there, i can understand why, give it a miss. ||They also provide electric scooters for...

We came to Guilin by train and we had a free pick-up from train station to the hotel. Xiaoming greeted us with fresh fruits and tea, we came an hour or so earlier but that was no problem. The room was spacious and beautiful with sitting area for drinking tea by the all glass wall/windows. Xiaoming is very helpful and kind person, he lets you have an e-scooter for free to go to the city, Reed flute cave or wherever you want. The Reed flute cave is 20 minutes walk from the hotel and the hotel is like a small village of accomodarion villas outside of the Guilin but close by car or e-scooter. The breakfast is very tasty with chinese and western style cuisine. They offer tours around Guilin like Li river cruise, Longji rice terraces tour or Yangshuo river rafting among others. We took two tours for each day and our guide/driver was Qin who is actually a great guy. He showed us around and was very patient with us especially when we went hiking on a Longji rice terraces. Guilin and surroundig area are the most beautiful we have seen in China so far. I will look forward to return to this place and experience again the hospitality of Xiaoming and hang around with our...

This was the most comfortable bed we slept in in China (possibly ever!). The room was massive, the air conditioning worked well, the area around the hotel is beautiful and it's walking distance to a few natural attractions.

The TV also has some free English movies you can watch (see photo for tips).

We did the trip to the rice paddies which was an experience in itself. I've been to rice paddies before in Vietnam and Bali but never one so totally designed for tourists. It's truly bizarre! You do get to see some great views but it is quite an expensive trip (we spent nearly 6 hours in the car for about 2-3 actually there).

Lastly we have to mention Amy. It rained the whole time we were there and when we actually came to check out the river had flooded on to the roads around the area and no vehicles could get through. We had to wade through the water (some places up to our knees) and walk a mile to the nearest road where cars could get through. Amy took us the whole way and called us a taxi. I don't know what we would have done without her!

P.s. apparently they had never seen the flooding this bad before so...