The Banyan Tree Lijiang and Ringha hotels are unbelievably comfortable and clean.

My husband and I were very truly impressed by the professionalism and yet understanding attitude of the staff

All of these BT values were magnified when my husband was down with altitude sickness in Shangri-la and all the staff from BT Ringha extended their helping hands without hesitation. They were fast, efficient and accommodating. We were impressed to see that despite the fact that it was 3 in the morning, all of them were still wide awake, polite and smiling!

We were transported down to BT Lijiang in the wee hours in the morning by BT car, accompanied by a lady officer and were pleasantly surprised to hear repeated assurance from the driver and her. In BT Lijiang, we were again very happy to know that our room was upgraded and check-in process was quick. Most importantly, we were pleasantly taken aback when BT waived off room and airport transfer surcharges despite that the fact that we were the ones who changed our plans. What more can we ask for?

I must also mention that the little surprises that BT gave us to celebrate our wedding anniversary were very sweet! Little gifts everyday was something that we looked forward to when we return to our hotel. We felt very much pampered.

The other thing is I have never had such a good massage in my spa experiences and the therapist, atmosphere and cleanliness standard in BT Spa was superb!

1 thing though: The garden villa is bigger and nicer than the pool villa.

This is likely the best hotel at which my wife and I have stayed over the past 50 years. It is quite incredible with the beautifully appointed individual villas in private gardens surrounded by a wall and blessed with a 24 hour personal hot tub. The bar and restaurants are lovely, the service was incredibly good - we were pampered. Internet use was free.
Lijiang itself and the countryside is great but it really enhanced our visit to be able to stay at such a place. What a classy operation this Singaporean-owned enterprise delivers. I am delighted to hear that they will be adding several new locations to their chain.

We spent 3 nights in the Pool Villa, unit 227, during the last week of October 2007. Everything was great except for the pool! The hotel advertised that they keep the temperature of the pool at 28 Celsius but I could not stay in the pool for more than a minute before my teeth started to clatter, like a Gatling gun, from the cold.

Beautiful room with a magnificent unobstructed view of Jade Dragon Mountain. The bathtub was huge but filled up quickly and the hot water was limitless.

Service was good in general but the check out procedure was a big pain. Took over 45 minutes to check out because the hotel did not have the proper booking information from their Bangkok office where I had made the reservation. They were charging me for stuff which was included in my package and had to showed the check out staff proof of the email confirmation and information before I could settle the bills. Do bring your booking information for proof with you and be aware that they will bill you in RMB even thought you were quoted your rate in USD.

The Chinese restaurant was very good but the food of the Western restaurant were definitely not up to standard.

Overall I would stay here again without hesitation but would opt for a Garden Villa room instead because the pool was not usable.

My husband and I booked 3 Banyan Tree Lijiang villas for 3 days 2 nights to round of our trip to Yunnan with our elderly but feisty parents.

We are not disappointed. Banyan Lijiang met all our expectations. (We have previously been to 2 other Banyan Tree resorts before as well as their sister Angsana resorts). We booked the Deluxe Garden Villa package. Our parents were more than pleasantly surprised with the 'intimate moments' package which saw rose petals beautifully strewn all over our room and beds as well as a bottle of red cabernet sauvignon for our enjoyment.

The villas were beautiful and clean. Our parents had fun in their heated jacuzzi. Just some cobwebs at the roof area of the external outdoor entrance of my parents' villa which were a little scary at times as the spider was quite big.

Unfortunately, while we were there, it rained every single day. But we enjoyed ourselves in spite of that.

We also like it that there is a beautiful little antique village called Shuhe just 15 minutes walk from the resort. It is a pretty, albeit a little muddy because of the rain, walk there and is a great alternative to the over-commercialized Dayan old town in Lijiang.

The service was impeccable on all counts, from our drivers to the room service staff. But I would like encourage Banyan Tree to keep constant upgrading of their staff so that the standard will not drop.

We loved the spa too as the therapists were gentle and friendly.

The food at Ming Yue was a little disappointing as the chef didnt know how to do a proper Thai green curry that was on the menu. Both my mom and I discarded the entire bowl of green curry and ordered ribs to share instead. Perhaps we can suggest that the menu should reflect more dishes that the chefs can do well.

We had dinner at Baiyun. It is a beuatiful restaurant and the Chinese food is more than decent.

We will definitely go back to Banyan Tree Lijiang again and make a trip to Banyan Tree Ringha as well. Hoepfully, all the kinks in the Ringha resort like rats and smell will be sorted out by then.

Our parents enjoyed themselves tremendously, which was our goal and all we asked for.