One request we had with our tour planner months ago was to minimize — as far as possible — the number of times we’d be changing accommodations. That was a pretty tall request given that the two provinces we’re touring are huge, and the distances between places of interest not exactly near each other. Still, our tour planner did her best, and we were able to stay in Shangri-La county for 3 nights — though the other accommodations in the first 14-day stretch would be 1–2 nights each.
We stayed at the Shangri-La Mubuo Hotel for three nights, and here are our comments!
Mubuo Hotel, like the E-Outfitting Boutique Hotel in Lijiang, makes generous use of wood in its support structures and room design, though unlike the hotel in Lijiang, they didn’t have problems with wild squirrels coming in and chewing on ceiling lofts overhead! The hotel isn’t very big: just two floors, and maybe about 20 rooms in all. Like Dali and Lijiang, Shangri-La is in relatively low tourist season now, so over the course of the three nights we stayed, the hotel felt perhaps occupied at just 10–20% capacity.
The hotel is situated at the edge of Dukezong Ancient Town; but an easy 3-minute walk will get you to the more bustling areas, and another 5 minutes to the heart of the town itself, with its hundreds of shops, artisans, restaurants and the like: the town itself has Chagee, ChaPanda, KFC, Miniso, Pizza Hut, and even what looks like an authorised reseller of Apple products with its interior decor looking exactly like what you’d find in Singapore.
We were put in two rooms, each with a super-single and a queen-sized bed, and can easily accommodate three adults. Our room also had a large bath area with a bathtub (on top of a standing shower area) and also a balcony. Not that the latter was used that much, as the weather in the evenings when we were back was cold!
The room also has a number of amenities: including humidifiers, bed warmers, and a heater unit, though all worked to varying degrees: the bed warmers worked very well, but the heater unit could not keep up with the sub-zero night temperatures.
We faced a few problems during this three-night stay too, though none of them were deal breakers. Firstly, the water pressure in the standing shower was very low, which made showering really tough. Secondly, on Day 07 morning, our hotel staff manning the property overslept and missed the 7:30AM breakfast timing that our tour guide had planned. We needed to head out at 8AM for Balagezong National Park. After we alerted our tour guide, he immediately called the hotel manager, and within 5 minutes, the chef and hotel staff hustled in to prepare breakfast. The hotel staff was very apologetic over this, so it was all good: though I think our tour guide probably had some words with him, and even gave him a morning call on Day 08 to make sure he didn’t oversleep again haha.
In all, putting aside those couple of issues above, we enjoyed our stay at the property, and liked the easy access to the ancient town. Recommended!