Yalong Bay Mangrove Tree Resort

“Family Vacation”

Spent four nights during the May Day Holiday with my wife's family. I booked a Luxury Ocean View Junior Suite King Bed room through Trip.com as I couldn't do it on their own website in English. I don't know if its because I booked it through Trip.com or what, but we had no issues with our room at a… more

Spent four nights during the May Day Holiday with my wife's family. I booked a Luxury Ocean View Junior Suite King Bed room through Trip.com as I couldn't do it on their own website in English. I don't know if its because I booked it through Trip.com or what, but we had no issues with our room at all. My in-laws, though, had to change rooms at least once. Walking into the resort was nice, wide open area as you walk through the main doors and turn right to the front desk. Check-in experience was ok. I mean it took a little while to finish the process, and for some reason they couldn't process my US credit card so I had to pay via Alipay. Staff was friendly, so no complaints there. Room was a little worn yet big enough, though a little small when it comes to my experience with Junior Suites. But I think they exchanged a little bit of the living room for a larger bathroom. Had a gorgeous view of the bay from our 6th floor balcony, and the children's pool was below us on the first floor. Plenty of amenities in the room and you can certainly call room service for items not in the room but available as shown on the room information card. Our refrigerator wasn't working properly so I called the room service, and they changed it within 15 minutes. Breakfast buffet was a nice mixture of Chinese and Western food...definitely no complaints. Lots of fruits that are quickly restocked once its picked clean, plenty of juices to offer too. Just get there before 9am as I have noticed a line forming after then. We ate at the Chinese and Thai restaurants and I loved the food there. In-laws didn't really like the Thai food, which is fine. Price was what you would expect at a vacation resort hotel. Now this resort is definitely family friendly. They have the pool that I mentioned, that has a slide for kids between 4-10 yrs old. A river that runs from one side of the pool, goes in front of rooms on the 1st floor and ends on the other side of the pool. A shallow wading area for our little ankle biters, though any little ones under 1m should use a ring or flotation device in the wading pool. Also has a little park next to this pool that is strictly enforced. I mean there is a sign that says basically no adults can use the swings. Our first day there an adult was just sitting on the swing when a staff asked her to get off, pointing at the sign with the restriction. Did it politely, so that person wasn't offended or anything. Every day there is a clown that puts on two 30 minutes show in the morning...9 and 10 am. Our little one just loved the clown and finally had enough courage to interact with him/her by our last day there. Even now when we returned home she would ask the whereabouts of the clown. So sweet. Beach was really nice, though I wouldn't say the sand is white sand. Light tan for sure, but now white sand. I've seen white sand in Bora Bora so I can say for certain the sand at Yalong Bay is not white sand. Waves were not rough like it was in Haitang Bay, perfect for little kids. Only thing you need to be careful is at the waterline for the first 10-15m the sand contains a lot of shells, rocks and coral. Once you go out further its pure sand...and not too deep in the fenced off area. There is a shopping center within 10 minutes walk from the hotel with restaurants and supermarket. Its actually funny because after 4pm until maybe midnight, its actually faster to walk there than take a taxi or didiche to get there because of traffic. Its a single lane road each way. Overall, I loved our time at the Mangrove Tree Resort at Yalong Bay. It seemed reasonable at roughly $300 per night for the Junior Suite with two breakfast included daily. Its worth giving a shot, specially if you have little ones that are traveling with you.

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