Already when you turn into the driveway of the hotel you notice that it doesn't look anything (anymore?) like the attractive picture on the website. Our room was dusty, dirty and run down. The bathroom was dirty, moldy and had awful towels. The 5 Chinese TV channels bring no entertainment and there is insufficient light in the room to read. Wifi is available but it's too slow. The only possitive things about this place are the electric blankets and the absolutely friendly staff.

A very nice hotel in a typical style of the region. Very friendly services.

We used a travel agent for this portion of our trip and I had asked for a vintage architecturally interesting place. Gyalthang Dzong Hotel is definitely that. It's beautiful and must have an extraordinary talented decorator because the furnishings and fabrics are gorgeous. It's built around a center courtyard in Tibetan style and beneath a bare Tibet-like mountain. No surprise since this is the Tibetan Autonomous Region of China. Having traveled in Tibet, I can report that this area of China rivals Tibet for that feel, likely surpassing the Lhasa of today. The hotel is quite striking in that way. The beds are hard, however, and though the rooms are lovely at this elevation sleep is tough and hard beds don't help, especially for us Westerners. I'd still recommend it but it is a taxi ride away from old town. Though we did several excursions every day, had we been staying in old town we would have done more wandering around and would not have had two dinners at the hotel restaurant, which was way way overpriced. We were traveling with kids and were simply too exhausted to taxi into town for an evening meal after the day's excursions. The hotel was also nearly empty the entire time we were there. If it lowered its prices and offered free shuttles into town, I'd recommend it. But otherwise, I'd suggest folks stay in the small and more humble hotels of old town.

The hotel is a good 15 min walk from the centre of town along an unlit, muddy road. This was particularly galling as there was a festival taking place whilst we were there and it would have been great to walk straight out of the hotel into the middle of all the action.

Our bedroom was quite nicely designed with the bed on a raised platform at the window end of the room but the smell of stale cigarette smoke was all pervading.

Staff were poor on the whole. We were kept waiting for ages in reception when checking in and out. We were directed to the restaurant on our first evening (there are no signs telling you where to find the restaurant or bar) and it was closed. It was purely by chance we found that meals were being served in the bar.

Because of the festival, all roads into the town were closed one evening and we were unable to get back to the hotel. Our guide called the hotel to ask for advice and was told to keep us out until after 11pm. As we'd been out since 9am we really didn't want to do that. Luckily, our driver managed to find a way to get us within half a mile of the hotel and we walked the rest. There seemed no reason why the hotel couldn't have sent a vehicle to meet us but it either didn't occur to them or they didn't feel it was their job.

The buffet breakfast was limited and lukewarm. Evening meals served in the bar were quite nice but very expensive. One evening we ordered the set menu and after a long, long wait we were served entirely different things. To their credit ,when we complained they did reduce the cost by half.

I'd like to say some positive things about the hotel but it's not easy. It was clean, the room was OK, it was quiet and that's about it, I'm afraid.