My hubby’s initial plan was to go to Club Med Lijiang, but I suggested that we extend our stay and explore Old Town Lijiang freely and at our own pace! My hubby and kids have been addicted to Club Med ever since our first experience at Club Med Bintan. That’s why when my hubby saw the promotional email from Club Med about Lijiang, he couldn’t wait to experience it!
So, we booked our air tickets with China Southern Airlines, which include a free layover hotel stay. I’ll share the details below!
China Southern Airlines
There is no direct flight from Singapore to Lijiang. Since we are flying with China Southern Airlines, we will be transiting in Guangzhou before continuing to Lijiang. The flight from Singapore to Guangzhou takes about 4 hours, and the flight from Guangzhou to Lijiang takes another 3 to 4 hours.
It’s a small aircraft with no TV provided, but you can use their app to access in-flight entertainment. There is also a USB charging port available for you to use, and the leg space is acceptable.
I have a habit of ordering meals after booking my air tickets. Below is what I ordered! The food was passable, but I do hope they improve the kids’ meals. In total, we took 4 flights, and on 3 of them, the kids’ meal was spaghetti.
But, I got to say their China yogurt drink is really delicious.
Tips:
- All China Southern Airlines are very strict with luggage weight. They don’t do group weight, so make sure your individual luggage weight does not exceed the requirements.
- Do not put any battery pack, including your camera battery, in the checked luggage. My friend’s helper placed her mobile battery in the checked luggage, and the luggage was opened, with the battery thrown away.
How To Redeem Free Hotel Stay
We booked our flight directly with China Southern Airlines, and since our layover is about 16 hours, we qualified for a free hotel stay in Guangzhou. Once you’ve booked your tickets with China Southern Airlines, you’ll need to visit their booking page, create an account, and have your flight details ready. Finding the booking page link wasn’t easy, and I’d say their hotel booking process isn’t very straightforward, even though there are hundreds of hotels to choose from. I thought I had completed the booking process, but the staff told me I hadn’t clicked the confirmation page. Luckily, you can book the hotel on the spot. However, I still recommend booking online in advance to speed up the process. I was fortunate that there was only one customer in front of me, so the booking process was quick.
I suggest choosing a hotel near the airport. You can use Booking.com or Baidu to check the hotel’s distance and reviews. The hotels provided are business hotels, so the maximum capacity for each room is only two pax—there are no connecting rooms or family rooms available. So, don’t expect a commercial hotel, but I would say my experience with the hotel was still good—maybe because my expectations weren’t too high in the first place. :p
Once you touch down, look for the China Southern Transfer Accommodation Counter. The location of the counter varies by airport, but for Guangzhou, it is located at GATE 50 on the 1st floor.
If you’re booking on the spot, make sure all passengers have their passports ready. They’ll provide a list of hotels for you to choose from while they handle the registration. Since I was with the kids, I just picked one that looked decent and was about 10 minutes away from the airport.
Once you’ve selected the hotel, the staff will issue stickers for every guest. These stickers help the hotel staff identify the guests when they pick you up from the airport. Yes, the free hotel stay includes free transportation to and from the hotel.
Free Hotel Stay Room Tour
We were quite lucky that my two older kids are old enough to stay in the hotel room. We also requested three rooms side by side, and the counter staff were very nice to help us with that. This, of course, depends on room availability. They were also very helpful in sorting out the rooms, as we requested some single beds and some double beds. However, due to the difference in Chinese usage, we got a little confused with the bed types. Again, the staffs came up and help us.
Once we reached our rooms, I was surprised to find that the room was very spacious, clean, and free of any smoke smell or dust. It was also well-equipped with basic necessities like toiletries, towels and mineral water. The bed was surprisingly comfortable too.
Hotel Breakfast
Yes, they do provide hotel breakfast too! Amazing, right? The hotel breakfast is simple but offers quite a variety of local foods. It’s not international cuisine, so you may want to take that into consideration. Showing some of the food below!
The hotel also comes with a mini gym. Not bad but we got no time to use.
Tips:
- I advise packing an extra bag with toiletries and a new set of clothes in a separate bag, and checking in the rest of your luggage right from the start. That way, you won’t have to collect your luggage and carry it around, which can waste quite a bit of time. As you can see, the free transport is a mini bus, so bringing all your luggage is not really advisable.
- If your flight is more than 10 hours and the timing works out, you can take the opportunity to explore Guangzhou. Just make sure you leave yourself at least 2 hours to check in for your next flight. We didn’t get to explore because we reached Guangzhou at 11pm, so it was kind of too late!
- To qualify for the free stay, make sure your layover is a minimum of 6 hours and no more than 24 hours. For more information on the requirements, be sure to check their official website!
- Remember to book next day transportation to the airport.
Checking In to Transit Flight
Our transit flight to Lijiang is at 1:45 pm, but we decided to go early, so we took the 10 am hotel transport to the airport. Since we didn’t need to check in any luggage, we just headed straight to the airport security gate.
Lucky we decided to check in early (and without our luggage) because there was a long queue at the security check and also at the check-in counters.
Because of our early check-in, we had time to let the kids play at the playground and also have lunch at Tao Tao Ju, which is one of the highly recommended places to eat in the airport. Luckily, it’s near our boarding gate, B250.
Below are some of the food we had, and I highly recommend the soya chicken and Beef hor fun.
Summary
Overall experience is not bad, even though the aircraft is a little small and the food can be better but the experience, services provided is beyond my expectations. If can, I really encourage you guys to have ample time to check in early, so you can explore Guangzhou airport. Although facilities can’t match Singapore Airport, but definately have a lot of things to shop and eat.
Will be sharing my Old Town Lijiang and Club Med Lijiang itinerary and experience in my next blog post!