We stayed two nights at Z Garden in Dali. Random notes and comments!
Z Garden is a small boutique hotel located just outside Dali Ancient Town’s south gate. It’s a walkable 10 minutes from the hotel to that south gate and the ancient town from that point. One thing though: the hotel sits at an alley off a side road off the main road. The small alley isn’t passable to most vehicular traffic, so you’re more likely going to be dropped off at the side road first [and even this road is pretty narrow, but the local drivers are all very skillful]. One you alight there, inform the hotel and someone will come pick you up for the short 1 minute walk into the hotel itself.
We stayed in a two bedroom deluxe suite located on the second floor that was 90 sqm in area, and comprised two separate bedrooms – one equipped with a king-sized bed and the other a queen-sized, a living area, a balcony, and bathroom with a separate toilet. In short, plenty of space for everyone. The room had a heater in the living area, but it wasn’t sufficient to warm up the entire suite, so you’d want to wear some thermal wear at night.
Breakfast is provided, and timing starts at around 6:30AM or so. As we were the only guests staying during this period, the breakfast was relatively simple fare, but sizable in portions. There is also a water cooler in the dining room that you can use to top up water.
We were received at check-in by by a young gentleman who managed conversational English, and took care to also speak Mandarin slowly and clearly when he realized that our Mandarin-speaking ability was nowhere near the locals. He was very helpful on WeChat by arranging for a driver pick-up for us at Dali Station for the 30 minute drive from the train station to the hotel, and also recommended a list of eating places we could try out that was just 2 minutes walk from the hotel.
Internet was pretty OK and signals were good throughout the suite: though we didn’t finally make use of it as we’re so reliant on Google services, YouTube, and Facebook LOL.
This is a recommended stay if you have kids and want to keep everyone in a suite.
Hi CY, how did you manage to have access to Google services, YouTube, and Facebook?
Is a roaming plan by our local telco sufficient?
Thank you.
Hey there! I only tried our local telco roaming plans sporadically and they worked fine from the limited use. For the vast majority of our Internet use though, I purchased eSIM/SIM cards from Shopee, and they all worked fine for Google services etc.