I travelled alone, in October 2019. I chose the BARRY BOUTIQUE 5* hotel because it was in the centre of the Dadonghai district. It’s a tall hotel of 36 floors: the 1st floor is a lobby where the hotel guides sit, and there are also 3 lifts there. Floors 2–4 are given over to shops, but I never went there. On the 5th floor there is a dining room serving buffet meals depending on the board you’ve chosen (better to take breakfast only). The 6th floor is reception; next to reception there is also a pool and a gym with nothing in it. Reception staff speak only Chinese, but some things can be understood with gestures. Floors 7–35 are guest rooms. The 36th floor is a panoramic restaurant (paid); I didn’t go there. I got room 3007 on the 30th floor — a spacious room with a balcony. The room has everything you need: 2 beach towels, 6 towels in the bathroom plus one bath mat, shower gel, shampoo, conditioner, a comb, a nail file, cotton buds, a shower cap, bathrobes, beach flip-flops (used), a TV with Chinese and English channels, internet, a safe and plenty of other less important things. The view of the city from the room is absolutely stunning. The rooms were cleaned daily, clean, everything was changed — no complaints at all; in fact I have no complaints about the hotel whatsoever, everything was excellent, no questions asked. I didn’t go to the hotel’s beach umbrellas; I lay down near the cafés, no problems arose, nobody said anything. Wi-Fi worked throughout the hotel without any problems.
You’ll have to fiddle with the air conditioning until you figure out how it works (the remote is in Chinese and it’s not a standard one like ours…)
Many people complained that you have to wait a very long time for the lift. I had a problem with the lift once, at reception, when I was travelling with suitcases: the lift came, but there was no room in it for me with a big suitcase and a backpack. Otherwise I didn’t wait long for the lift — up to 5 minutes, even at rush hour.
The hotel has no grounds.
The breakfasts are really not bad at all: there’s bacon, fried eggs, boiled eggs, noodles, rice, milk porridges, 2–3 kinds of soup plus one that’s cooked in front of you from the ingredients you point out, odd-looking frankfurters, bacon, nuggets, sausage, cabbage, lettuce, cucumber, tomato, something like salads dressed with sauces, potatoes with meat, buns, various breads, jams, oil, sauces, 4–5 kinds of fruit, tea, coffee and drinks. I think that’s quite enough to eat your fill, and you can take something different every day so you don’t get bored of the same thing.
Dinners: this hotel offers 1 dinner free of charge (most likely you’ve already paid for it when buying a tour to this hotel). Unfortunately, the dinner is very sad. Free but worthless beer, cold French fries, small boiled prawns, a fish that looks like sprats but tastes nothing like them — our sprats are much tastier. Shells with almost nothing inside. Skewers of something unidentifiable that tasted like unsalted pork cracklings. And the tastiest thing at dinner turned out to be noodles that tasted like Mivina instant noodles with chicken.
Actually, that’s why I recommend taking breakfast only.
The hotel’s location is very good, within walking distance of everything in Dadonghai. The beach is a 3-minute stroll away, the “Pineapple” 10–15 minutes, “Summer-Winter” 3–5 minutes, and in every direction on the street there are loads of cafés and restaurants — we’ll talk about them a bit later.
Right next to the hotel, one door to the right of it if you’re facing the hotel, is the entrance to an underground market; there’s a tea tasting there, and you can buy whatever you like on the spot.
You can also catch a taxi nearby and go wherever you need; don’t forget to find some photos or take a screenshot of the place you need so you can show the taxi driver.
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