We really enjoyed our 5 days stay in Dragon River Retreat. It is a nice little hotel with great views on the surrounding breathtaking landscape at reasonable price. We booked Superior Room with balcony and were very satisfied with the room quality, friendly staff and service provided. It was very easy to book activities like light show and bamboo raft on the Li River from Yangdi to Xingping. Taxi to the town was available on demand all time. Only one negative remark - the quality of the bicycles which can be rented in the hotel is pretty lousy, but basically this is not a big problem because relativly good bicycles are available in Yangshou on nearly each corner. Big Thank You to the staff - we can highly recommend to book this hotel

We were there during the moonfestival, but even though the rest of the area was crowded - we were so happy that we chose this great get a way. Drinking the afternoon coffee in the garden, overlooking the Dragen River were the bamboo rafts are quietly drifting by, was pure medicine. The room was spacious and clean, with a great view of the river and the nearby Limestone mountains.

This hotel is located away from the town and close to the river offering peace and quiet. Not the grandest hotel I have stayed in but one of the most enjoyable. Our rooms were situated on the 1st floor with a balcony and good view but it was so hot and humid that we kept the doors firmly shut. The simple air conditioning unit struggled to cope with the 35c temperatures but the rooms were clean and comfortable and the service from the staff was excellent. Breakfast was cooked to order and was one of the best we had in our two and a half weeks in China. The rest of the food was also of very good qualiity and all in all it made for a very enjoyable couple of nights.

We spent a lot of time looking at all the options of staying in town or out of town. After reading many reviews, we decided on the Dragon River Retreat. Within 5 minutes of booking on-line via a 3rd party website, Jasmine had already emailed us to see if we needed transfers.
The hotel is great, and even better for Chinese standards. The service is second to none. We have now been on the road travelling for nearly 3 months and this is the first time we felt comfortable booking tours and shows etc through a hotel. Everything ran perfect. The hotel organised our Motorised Bamboo raft trip from Yandi to Xingping. We just organised the taxi back to the hotel, but they could have done that if we had of asked.
They also organised our tickets for the 5 of us - 2 Adults and 3 boys to the Impression Light Show. Yes, you may pay a small (very small) service fee, but it's not dollars or euro's and you get door-to-door pick-up and drop-off.
The rooms are great. We had 2 rooms for 3 nights. We had to change rooms after 2 nights due to availability when we booked and we moved to a non-mountain view on the 3rd floor. (Nothing to do with the hotel, just us procrastination out where to stay!!!!) Guess what? You still get a view of the amazing mountains.
Breakfast was first class. Cooked eggs (our style), bacon, toast, tea, coffee, juice etc for only 30 yuan (if I remember correctly)
They have 3 shuttles a day into town and it costs 40 yuan to catch a taxi if the time is not to your liking.
Mick the owner even organised our overnight bus tickets to Shenzhen for us a a good price (don't worry, we checked with other ticket agents) and was charged back to our hotel.
We checked out at midday on the 4th day and the driver drove us to another hotel with a pool for the day as we had a 10:30pm bus. The pool was green and we were afraid of what we might catch, so didn't use is as much as we thought we would that day. Mick then came to the 2nd hotel and waited, while I tried to explain why we weren't staying the night - that's a whole different story, and drive us to the bus station and waited 25 minutes with us to ensure we got on the bus OK. Top Guy!!!
Mick is 36, with most of his staff, including Jasmine, speaks great English, but more importantly was born and raised in Yangshuo and is well know and his reputation is very important. We don't normally write such long reviews, but we were more that happy with everything. The views, rooms, food, weather, service were perfect.
Yes, the beds are a little hard, but we are in China folks. We used 2 extra duvets to soften the beds. The kids didn't even notice!! And it doesn't have a pool, but the price = value for money.
We also ate a number of meals at Rylie's cafe in town. This is also owned by Mick.