Originally Posted by
susiesan
Thanks for the hotel tips mosburger, but they are all well above my budget. None appear to be in the center of the city. I'll be in Suzhou as a tourist, so resort type facilities are not important to me. I don't care about swimming pools and spas, but a good location for sightseeing.
One hotel that looks like it could work is Garden Hotel.
http://en.gardenhotelsz.com/about.html
Any feedback on this one? gets good reviews on TA and Agoda. Looks to be in the center of the city.
I left out the city blocks of downtown Suzhou as they are prone to heavy traffic jams and access to the train station might not be that practical because of that handicap.
However, if that does not matter in the end after all, then choosing a hotel at downtown is of course a good way to get a feeling of old Suzhou.
One of my Chinese friends gets a nice corporate rate at the Gusu hotel in downtown so I tend not to stay at other hotels there and therefore only have limited information. However, cheaper rates with perfectly acceptable conditions would be available at Chinese business hotel chains like Motel 168, Jinjiang Inn and Hanting Express.