Let’s continue talking about the hotel’s public facilities~~~~
Basically, at a resort hotel, you spend most of your time inside the property, so public facilities are very important~~~
The entire public area of the hotel is huge; it’s basically like a small scenic spot~~
Indoors, there is a swimming pool, spa, conference rooms, gym, Chinese restaurant, Western restaurant, and lobby lounge.
On the hill behind the hotel, there are several small landscapes and spots for light hiking. By the lake, there is a lakeside bathing beach.
Outdoors, there is a swimming pool, two outdoor bars, a hilltop tea house, fish ponds, tennis courts, a dock,
Da Niutou (Big Bull Head), a water park, a chicken farm, flower gardens, and a mill…
There’s also a farmhouse-style restaurant outside; if you don’t feel like eating in the hotel, you can give that a try.

The gym is relatively small. You have to ask the staff at the spa reception entrance for bottled water, and there are very few strength training machines~~
But since there are rarely many people, it’s still okay for a quick workout~~~~

The hotel’s swimming pools are really impressive, including the outdoor one, the indoor one, and the lakeside bathing beach.

The very important outdoor swimming pool is basically just for viewing during this season~~~ There’s an ice cream cart nearby~~~~

Because the water level at Qiandao Lake is quite low right now, the bathing beach has almost no water left, exposing many rocks….
Also, the weather is rather cool, making it unsuitable for open-air swimming. This place must be very lively in summer,
but at this time… it’s only good for taking a stroll~~~~

There are two outdoor bars in total: one with an observation deck called Peninsula Lake Bar, and the other is Beach Bar next to the bathing beach.
Since we were given two complimentary welcome drink vouchers redeemable for soft drinks at the Lobby Lounge or cocktails at Peninsula Lake Bar,
we decisively chose Peninsula Lake Bar. The view from the lake bar is great during the day, but it isn’t open then;
at night, you can’t see anything, so all you can do is drink~~~~

Now let’s talk about the restaurants. Both restaurants have nice ambiance and service; the only issue was flies.
Due to low occupancy on weekdays, the Western restaurant didn’t offer a buffet, only à la carte. The pre-meal bread, salad, and burger were all very satisfying~~

As for the Chinese restaurant, the fish soup was very fresh, though the portion of free-range chicken was a bit small, and the cabbage was delicious~~~

The breakfast selection was fairly rich, and the bread was excellent, but surprisingly, the roasted chicken wings turned out to be braised wings?
There were no tea eggs, and the yogurt wasn’t homemade~~ Everything else was acceptable..

To sum up..
Both the hardware and software of the hotel are quite good, except that the concierge department seemed somewhat undertrained.
The scenery is stunning when the weather is nice, but quite depressing when it’s not. The hotel gets very crowded in summer,
but becomes much quieter during the off-season. Of course, its appeal drops significantly during the off-season, and weekday rates are much lower than weekend rates.

Additionally, traveling directly from Shanghai is very inconvenient. Although there are direct buses, sitting for over five hours is truly agonizing.
So, if you’re driving yourself or planning a future visit, it’s best to spend some time in Hangzhou first before heading here—it makes the trip much more comfortable.
Staying here for one night is quite enjoyable, but staying longer without a car to explore around might get a bit boring.

Photos in this post taken with SONY NEX-5R + 16-50 f3.5-5.6, post-processed in Lightroom.

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Hotel, InterContinental, Qiandaohu