The hotel is located just on the opposite side of the river with respect to the city center, on top of a hill, and it has a great view in the river and the mountains surrounding it. Indeed it is in a very relaxing environment and with the boat, which continuously crossed the river back and forth, we reached the city center in 10 minutes. Rooms are big, clean and welcoming. Although I have to say that beds are really hard, but we get used quickly. The owner speaks a good English and he is very open to support and give suggestions on tours and ways to move around. In addition the hotel has bikes for rent. Food is pretty good and they even prepared it for us outside of the usual meal times.

Very attentive service, enthusiastic to help us get good deals on transport and activities. Good, clean rooms newly outfitted with cedar fixtures. Our shower backed up a little bit; asked the owners son to fix and he did but it started backing up again. Internet in rooms was okay for web surfing but a little to slow for netflix or skype. The restaurant offers lovely tabled with mountain views. Decent Chinese stir fries, burgers also surprisingly good. Bacon and egg breakfast is tasty if a little expensive compared to Yangshuo proper. Yes, it's out of the main city. Ideal if you have a mountain bike, otherwise you'll be paying 30 kuai to cabbies totally uninterested in haggling. Negative reviews probably reflect their status before 2013-4 renovations. Now it's one of the better hostel stays I've had anywhere.

Stayed here for 4 nights.. amazing view, stunning room, best view from the toilet I have ever had. The staff friendly although don't know what the don't not disturb sign means. When its cleaning time, they mean to clean. Food great and easy access in town the city and West Road if thats your thing. Would stay again with others if I ever visit Yangshou again....

The staff here cannot do enough for you. The rooms are spacious and clean with a mixture of modern and authentic decor. Apart from a few intruding giant moths, the bathroom too is really clean with a powerful dual shower. (Hot water takes forever though.) Lovely to have a Balcony, albeit small. Excellent value for money at just $32 a night. Perhaps they recently upgraded their cable and wifi as we had read bad reviews and had low expectations before arriving, but the internet works perfectly in the rooms - it's actually quite fast and there are three English movie channels, one English news channel and another showing US reality TV shows and documentaries - which makes a positive difference when you're out in the countryside for a week with little to do in the evenings. The food here is amazing! We ate dinner on the terrace and it was honestly the most delicious we've had since arriving in China nearly a month ago. It's excellent value too. We shared three vegetarian options which cost 15yuan each and a large bowl of plain rice for 4yuan. Every dish was so full of flavour, and cooked to perfection. My mouth waters just thinking about it and I want to try more from their massive menu. They offer western dishes too which we haven't tried. They're a bit above our budget at 48yuan for a large pizza. The drinks are expensive too, which is a shame. 15yuan for a local beer, which is just 4yuan at the shop. And what a view! Just incredible. Breathtaking. Especially at dusk. An uninterrupted panorama of the karst mountains, and you can just see west street the other side of the river. Riverside Retreat has lots of outdoor areas to sit, relax and explore. I wouldn't brave the pool as it doesn't appear to have a filter and looks a bit green and slimy! But we never expected the pool to be useable. I think mosquito season must be over too, as we haven't seen any. But I did see the biggest bee I've ever seen in my life. That thing must've been 4 inches long! This is a great place to come if you want to get outside the town and chill. It's in a pretty, local village set back up a hill from the river, surrounded by greenery, flowers and thickly forested karst pillars. It would take at least 45 mins to get to west street on foot, either over the bridge or via a 2yuan per person passenger ferry. We grabbed a tuk-tuk from west street for 30yuan. It took about 8 minutes. It's perfect for us as we already spent seven nights staying on west street first, and are glad to be outside a bit now, soaking up what must be one of the most beautiful sceneries in the world.

Room Tip: Worth it to get a balcony.