Grand Park Kunming

A great place to stay!

My husband and I stayed here for four nights in December 2005. We loved it! Undoubtedly the best aspect is the location. We had a view of Green Lake outside our window. (The lake reminded us of Hanoi.) It's only a short walk from the hotel to Soho-like shopping/eating districts in Wen Hua Xiang. Good restaurants nearby include the Japanese place right across the street, "Heavenly Manna" in Wen Hua Xiang, and other places recommended by others on this website. Plus, there's a Wal-Mart within a 10-minute walk. We wouldn't normally mention such a thing, but it turned out to be the only source of quality beer -- Grolsch, Guinness, Sam Adams -- plus they even had a selection of Chu-Hi's from Japan! Also note-worthy is a CD / DVD store we found nearby (possibly on West-Bound Around-the-city route). (Directions: walk to the end of Wen Hua Xiang and then make a left, walk about two blocks.) They stock all sorts of "alternative" music and movies. For a mere $1 US per disk, we picked up albums by Bauhaus, Chemical Brothers, Miles Davis, and Radiohead.

PS. If you're researching hotels, you'll surely read about the Green Lake Hotel in the same neighborhood. It's said to be very chic. Anyway, we checked it out, and we thought it was sterile, plastic, faux-fancy, all pretense/no character. I was especially put off by the huge scale of the place. Point is, Harbour Plaza is better!

Unique Quality: The staff were extremely helpful (and spoke excellent English). In-room broadband access was speedy and reliable. We used the Business Center to print and fax documents, no problem. The travel agency in the Business Center provided us with tickets to Lijiang at a cheaper rate than any we found on-line. The gym was adequate: only one of the two treadmills was functioning and they had no free weights, just a multi-exercise Universal-type machine. We received an English-language newspaper every day. Housekeeping was excellent. The room was a bit dated, but spacious. We received a good rate (650 RMB) by reserving through the hotel's website.

We have only two complaints. First, we paid $6 US for a single cup of (instant!) coffee in the hotel's top-floor Panorama lounge. Ridiculous! Especially since it sucked. Secondly, the hotel has a FREE shuttle service to and from the airport. That's not something they alerted us to, advising us instead to pay $20 US to have a car pick us up at the airport. Oh, one other minor complaint: there's no bottle-opener in the room. We had to jimmy the caps off using a gap in the window. :-)

• Opinion of Price: more expensive than average

Grand Park Kunming Photo: Go here for good beer and chu-hi!

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