Stone Forest + Yiliang Roast Duck + Kunming City Private Tour

Stone forest is a must when in Kunming. The tour agent had quick response and very attentive. Our guide Gil took great care of us leading us the a beautiful spots where are less crowded. We had a great time at stone forest, good lunch with famous roasted duck and lots of fun seeing seagulls at Dianchi lake

Thanks for the fun day. I Iearned so much from Mr Zhang , so much information on the history of the area , etc. and so many details of the stone forest you could only get from a local tour guide. I noticed other tourists leaning in to hear what he was saying . [Rather crowded]. I didn’t have an appetite for the Yiliang roast duck. I chose the Green Lake and ZhuanXin Market to fill out the day. Green lake was full of huge blooming lotus plants in mid August. I’m a gardener by trade, so… ZhuanXin Market is massive and neat. Got to mingle with diverse cultures and sample their products. Very impressive. Miss Gou was a great driver. All Chinese are amazing on the road… as well as in everything.

It was a short flight from Singapore to Kunming. We stayed at Crowne Plaza City Centre, a centrally located hotel and near many attractions. Service was excellent in this hotel. Breakfast offered a wide variety including daily specials of Yunnan cuisine. We were offered late check out as our flight was in the evening. We were very contented with the service. A must visit is the Stone Forest. Having a guide to this place is helpful and makes easy for trekking. Other attractions can be done on your own. Food is good and prices are very affordable. You can get a great meal for 2 at S$25. We tried many Yunnan specialties from Crossing the Bridge noodles, mushroom hotpot, roasted duck, stewed chicken, etc. We love the experience. We may attempt to go back again and explore other nearby cities.

As part of our honeymoon to Yunnan we booked a trip to the Shilin stone forest. Our driver was at our hotel early and ended up taking us to Shilin in the morning, an outside restaurant in the afternoon, followed by Kunming museum. I was most impressed with the Stone Forest, and hadn't really seen anything like that in the past. We hadn't booked a tour so we explored parts of the site on our own, and at other times joined in with some other English speaking and Chinese speaking groups just to learn little extras about the area. Our driver found us a good restaurant with an assortment of dishes for our vegetarian diets (and also saved us some money by us not buying meals in the Stone Forest tourist area). And we originally had planned to go to Green Lake in the afternoon, but because we ended up seeing it the previous evening, we changed our plans to the museum. The museum was okay, but nothing to write home about. Lastly, our driver took us to an interesting market area with many shops where we ended up finding some things we needed, and also finding a good place to eat. Greg actually arranged a WeChat group chat that allowed my wife and I to get information and other restaurant recommendations from his team there, even on the days we didnt have a tour with them. Big thanks to Greg and Aether Tours for helping to make our honeymoon an even more memorable experience。🙏

We booked the tour via Trip.com for a driver to bring us to Stone Forest + another attraction of choice. We opted for Dounan Flower Market as recommended from a friend. A really great experience as our driver Mr Lai is very friendly and on time. He even brought us to see the jacarandas at XiaoChangZhong Road before setting off to the stone forest, and the bougainvilleas near Yiliang (en route between stone forest and Kunming/Dounan flower market) as we didn’t spend too much time at the stone forest. We got to enjoy roasted duck at XueCheng restaurant in Yiliang as recommended by our driver. You’d have to buy your own admission tickets for stone forest. Around 130 RMB for adult, cheaper for seniors (above 60yo). They also have add on for the tram for 25 RMB to be driven within the compound as it’s huge. There is a tram from the outer part into the main stone forest area where you can walk around a bit. Then there’s an inner tram which will just bring you on a loop around the inner area. Good option for those who can’t walk too much or are lazy. Spent about 1.5-2h there though I know a lot of people will usually spend 3h there. Dounan flower market is seriously huge - it’s a wholesale market where they sell flowers at such affordable prices. It’s apparently the biggest flower market in South Asia. I couldn’t believe the prices of beautiful bouquets and fresh flowers. It’s so expensive back in my home country. They sell other flower related products too so it’s not just fresh flowers if you’re looking for souvenirs and gifts to buy back. Highly recommend if you like flowers! There are many stalls outside the flower market area too selling food and drinks as well so you don’t have to worry about feeling hungry in the late afternoon if you want to grab a snack. Spent about 1.5-2h there as well. The car was comfortable for 2 of us and bottled water was provided too. The booking experience was very smooth. The tour company staff contacted me via WhatsApp then switched over to WeChat so it’s convenient to discuss the exact itinerary and communicate with our driver prior and on the day itself. Kudos to our driver Mr Lai as well! We could communicate in mandarin with him so it makes the trip better. It might be challenging for those who don’t speak or understand mandarin but I believe that there are translation apps around to help! Overall a fantastic experience and I’m glad I opted for it as it makes things much easier traveling to Stone Forest and attractions outside of Kunming city. Great option for people traveling with older folks as having a private driver will mean less walking. Would recommend this tour! An awesome first experience in Yunnan and Kunming for me!

The tour was amazing and our guide Bamboo was also very knowledgeable and extremely patient. Greg also gave lots of recommendations as this was our first time in Kunming. Highly recommend this tour especially if you are traveling with the elderly.