Banyan Tree Ringha

We spent 2 nights in this hotel and it has been a fantastic experience! The Tibetan house is really cosy, comfortable and quiet, with many places to relax, have a drink or read a book. from the balcony, you can see a valley and a river, where come many dzos, horses, sheeps and pigs. You can easily find a driver, thanks to the hotel staff to go to Shangri La old town or the monastery. At night, we enjoyed a lot the Tibetan special dishes, some of them made with Yack meat. When we stayed there, the main fire place in our living room was on maintenance for a 2 weeks period and we would have love been to enjoy it. Next time! We recommend to spend 3/4 nights minimum in order to enjoy both Shangri La and this wonderful place.

This is a very nice hotel, located outside town in a former Tibetan village that was rehabilitated as a hotel. First off, it's very far from town, which in itself is not bad, but be aware in case you want to go out a lot, that's gonna be a massive inconvenience. We split our stay in 2 with first a hotel in the old town then this one, to avoid this kind of inconvenience. I also want to mention that all the staff is genuinely friendly and helpful. They also speak English quite well. The villa is massive, but even with the heaters on it can get quite chilly at night. We also found that the villa is very dark, even during the day with bright sun outside. This is because of the design of the traditional Tibetan house, but that's quite an inconvenient. The quality of the bath gels/shampoos is also a bit low for a hotel of this kind. The spa is very nice, with skilled therapists. However there was a small misunderstanding, as they had a promotion running this month but forgot to tell us when we booked for the following day, and after seeing the promotion panel at the front office they actually considered giving it to us. It was a bit weird that they didn't offer it straight away (that's 200 RMB per person). But for us the worst point is the tours they offer to guests. First off, they all look very expensive, but that could be OK in a luxury hotel with impeccable service. However, you don't get much time to for the money you pay. We did a horseback culture trek tour, which rings at 928 RMB per person (we got 825 by booking through Banyan Tree Lijiang, for some reason), and for that price you do about 1h on horseback, not even by yourself but with someone holding the horse, walk up the temple that is next to the hotel, and have lunch inside a Tibetan house (which is not really traditional). That's a very steep price! When we gave our feedback, the manager (Ama) said she could do nothing about the price, but offered us a bottle of (local) red wine. For some reason they also have much different price for the car transfer between Banyan Tree Ringha and Lijiang, charging 400 RMB more (1400 RMB) than what Banyan Tree Lijiang is charging to drop you off in Ringha (1000 RMB). Because we booked through Banyan Tree Lijiang, William (the tour manager of Banyan Tree Lijiang) managed to get us the cost of 1000 RMB instead of 1400 RMB. Ama seemed really pissed that she had to give us this rate, and later on when we discussed with William down in Lijiang, he admitted that the 2 hotels were managed as 2 different companies, and that's why the prices were different. From a customer perspective it's very disturbing and confusing.

Me and my wife booked the hotel for 3 nights. However, my wife felt unwell because of the high latitude and we decided to leave after staying one night in the hotel. The staffs were very helpful and they allowed us to cancel the 2 remaining nights without charging us anything. The hotel itself is very unique and the meal provided are very traditional. We must come back again to explore the Ringha area. Thanks very much again to the hotel staffs for their assistance.

The Banyan Tree Ringha is an amazing place to stay at. Me and my girlfriend both stayed at the Tibetan Farmhouse, which is both massive and well decorated. The farmhouse comes with a private garden. Staff is more than just nice, they go out of their way to make your stay a truly memorable experience.

We thoroughly enjoyed our stay here. The villa was large, luxurious and wonderfully atmospheric. We truly felt we had been transported to Tibet. Views across the valley were delightful and the quality of food good.