How long should we stay in the Guilin / Yangshuo area?
 

How long should we stay in the Guilin / Yangshuo area? If we stay for 2 nights in Yangshuo is it still worthwhile spending a couple of nights in Guilin itself?

Hmmm. Near Guilin/Yangshuo you have the Longshen rice terraces, closer to Guilin but tours from both cities. Guilin has caves, city parks, Moon Hill to climb. In Yangshuo you have caves, country villages, YuLong River bamboo raft rides, private bamboo raft rides on the Li River, shopping, photography, hiking. Bicycles and motor bikes are easy and cheap to rent, no licenses required. I would not bother the trouble of unpacking in Guilin, then repacking, and more transport. Just go to Yangshuo and enjoy your four days. You will thank yourself for deciding to spend four days there.

Whittles:

I agree that you should consider spending four days in the area...we stayed in Guilin and took day trips to Yangshuo and the Longshen terraced rice fields (with a guide and his car)..don't miss the incredible Sanjie Night/Light Show in Yangshuo!

Here are some pics of the region:

http://picasaweb.google.com/stuartto...linAndVicinity

It matters what you're looking for. I just got back from my China trip on July 27 and as we spent the first 1 1/2 weeks of our trip in big cities (Beijing, Xi'an), my husband and I wanted to get a different experience. We wanted to spend some time in the countryside.

Guilin is big (over 1 million people) so we decided to spend our 4 days in Yangshuo and it was absoutely perfect. We stayed at the Li River Retreat (about 10 minutes out of town) which is surrounded by the mountains and overlooks the river. It was absolutely gorgeous and very reasonably priced (www.yangers.com).

Yangshuo has only 25,000 people but has lots of great restaurants and shops. There's also plenty to do around the area such as bamboo rafting, biking, markets, water cave, rice terraces, etc. Unless you want to be in a big city, I'd definately recommend staying in Yangshuo instead of Guilin. I also had a great local guide in Yangshuo (Lilly - [email protected]) who was knowledgeable, spoke excellent English and was very reasonably priced in case you're interested. Have a great trip!