Contents
- Quick overview: which area is for you?
- 1. Luoyi Ancient City and Cross Street
- 2. Shizi Street Night Market and the Northern Old Town
- 3. Old Town Inns and Heritage Courtyards
- 4. Longmen Station and the Municipal Government District
- 5. Downtown Luoyang and Zhouwangcheng
- Quick budget breakdown
- Practical tips for Luoyang
- FAQ
- My final recommendation
My first Luoyang room was booked for a reason that turned out to be a misunderstanding, and I have watched people repeat it ever since. The listing had Longmen in the name, the rate was low, and I assumed Longmen meant the grottoes. It doesn’t. It meant the southern new city beside the high-speed railway station, a long way from the carvings I had come for and nowhere near the old town. I spent my first morning in a taxi watching the city slide past instead of standing in front of the Buddha.
The right way to think about Luoyang is that it has three separate centres, and they sit far enough apart that you pick one and commit. The old town in the north is the Luoyi Ancient City restoration, Cross Street and the Lijingmen gate, which is where the streets look like the pictures and the food is. The modern downtown holds the shops, the peony gardens and the Zhouwangcheng quarter. Then there is the south, around Longmen Station and the municipal government district, which is where the high-speed trains and the grottoes live.
That is the whole decision. What follows is the version I would have wanted before that first booking: which districts exist, what they cost, and which rooms I would take in each.
I did the work rather than guessing. On 18 October 2026 I pulled the published guest policy and the nightly rate for the properties in this guide. The price search returned 12 Luoyang properties with a rate on screen for one night, two adults, and the guest-policy check covered the same 12 properties — and every one of them, 12 out of 12, publishes “Guests from all countries/regions are welcome at this property.”
The one thing to check before booking anywhere in China: open the hotel page, find Policies → Guests Accepted, and look for the line “Guests from all countries/regions are welcome at this property.” It takes two minutes, and the background on the rule — clarified in May 2024 — plus what to do if a front desk pushes back is in our China hotel guide for foreign guests.
Planning staying in Luoyang for 2–8 travellers? Get a free Luoyang route plan — a real day-by-day route with price ranges for your group. No obligation, no payment, reply within 24 hours.
Quick Overview: Which Area Is For You?#
| Area | Best For | The Trade-off | Typical Rate (18 Oct 2026) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Luoyi Ancient City and Cross Street | First trips, evening streets, food on foot | Crowded after dark, and the cheapest rooms are small | $13–51 |
| Shizi Street night market and the northern old town | Market evenings, budget rooms, everything old within a walk | Simple rooms and real street noise | $20–28 |
| Old town inns and heritage courtyards | Courtyard stays, design rooms, slow mornings | Chain-hotel prices for a heritage property with less space | $39–80 |
| Longmen Station and the municipal government district | The grottoes, high-speed arrivals, one-night stops | Far from the old town, and short on atmosphere | $10–62 |
| Downtown Luoyang and Zhouwangcheng | Peonies in April, modern-city convenience | Not the historic city, and not the grottoes either | $24 |
The spread in our check runs from $10 (Jiahe Hotel, down by the station) to $80, the YunHuaLi heritage homestay in the old town.
1. Luoyi Ancient City and Cross Street#
If you have two or three nights in Luoyang and you want the version of the city people photograph, sleep here. Luoyi Ancient City is the restored lane-and-canal quarter in the north of the old town, and Cross Street is the food street that runs off it. Both are pedestrian, both are free to walk, and the whole pleasure of the area arrives after dark, when the lanterns come on and the performances start in the courtyards.
The food is the other reason to stay inside this cluster. Luoyang’s signature meal is the water banquet, a long run of soup courses, and the dish at its centre is carved into a peony and served in broth. You can eat it at any budget here; the difference is mostly how many courses arrive. Lijingmen, the rebuilt gate and drum tower at the west edge of the old city, is a ten-minute walk from the middle of this district and makes a natural end to an evening.
The practical detail is that this area is in the north of the city, which means it is closer to Luoyang Railway Station, the conventional station, than to Luoyang Longmen, the high-speed one in the south. Arriving on a slow train puts you a short ride from your door. Arriving on the high-speed line means a cross-city trip of half an hour or so by car, which is fine once and irritating three times.
Hotels with the rates we pulled:
- Luoyang Sanjiu Homestay (Luoyi Ancient City Branch) — the cheapest room in the old town from our check, and the branch name puts you inside the Luoyi Ancient City cluster rather than on its edge. US$13 (about ¥90). Check prices on Trip.com
- Dongdu 13th Room (Cross Street Luoyi Ancient City Store) — a small guesthouse that names both Cross Street and the ancient city, so the walk home is the food street itself. At four times the homestay above, it is the mid-budget answer here. US$20 (about ¥140). Check prices on Trip.com
- Jiyuan Huanqin Hotel (Lijingmen Cross Street Branch, Luo Yi Ancient City) — the one property in our check whose name includes the Lijingmen gate as well as Cross Street, which is the corner I would pick if the gate and the food street are both on your evening route. US$21 (about ¥150). Check prices on Trip.com
- Qichi Shui’an Homestay (Luoyang Luoyi Ancient City Cross Street) — the most expensive room in the old-town cluster in our sample, and the one to take if you want a nicer version of the same Cross Street location. US$51 (about ¥360). Check prices on Trip.com
Four rooms, one walking district, and a range that runs from a hostel price to a boutique one. If your trip is about the old town and nothing else, there is no reason to look outside this section.
2. Shizi Street Night Market and the Northern Old Town#
The second cluster is still the old town, but a different street in it. Shizi Street is the night market strip, the place where the city eats late, and one property in our check names it directly. Anyone whose idea of a good evening is walking out of the door into skewers, noodles and noise should start here; the market is the point rather than an add-on.
The caveat with this pocket is that the rooms are built for a price. You are getting a small bed, a bathroom and a location, and you should expect to hear the street. The compensation is that everything historic is within a walk and the rates are the lowest in the old town after the homestay above.
Hotels with the rates we pulled:
- Luoyang Xingfuli Inn (Shizi Street Night Market Luoqi Ancient City Branch) — the name points at the night market itself, so this is the pick for people who want to eat late and walk home afterwards. US$20 (about ¥140). Check prices on Trip.com
- Chengzhou Guli Hotel — mid-budget and in the same old-town band as the inn, though the name gives no street, so check the map pin before you commit. US$28 (about ¥200). Check prices on Trip.com
3. Old Town Inns and Heritage Courtyards#
Two properties in our check are tagged to the old town without naming a street at all, and their names point at something else instead: heritage, craft, courtyard. That is a fair description of what you get. They sit in the same northern half of the city as everything above, still within reach of Cross Street and the market, but the room itself is the draw rather than the address.
This is the top of the Luoyang table, and the gap is wide. The heritage homestay below came in at $80, which is more than twice the next most expensive old-town room in the sample, so the question is straightforward: do you want to pay chain-hotel money for a courtyard property with craft in it, or do you want the $39 version and a bigger dinner budget? I would take the heritage room for a two-night stay in peony season and the cheaper one on a longer trip.
Honesty on one point: neither name pins a street, and both are tagged to the Old Town Center band rather than Cross Street itself, so check the map pin before booking on the strength of the name.
Hotels with the rates we pulled:
- Liangyi Xunji Hotel — the mid-priced, no-ceremony option of the pair, tagged to the same old-town band and a little under a third of the price of the room below. US$39 (about ¥280). Check prices on Trip.com
- Luoyang YunHuaLi Intangible Cultural Heritage Art Homestay — the most expensive room in our whole 18 October check, and the one to take if you want the craft-and-courtyard version of a Luoyang stay. US$80 (about ¥570). Check prices on Trip.com
4. Longmen Station and the Municipal Government District#
This is the Luoyang of the high-speed line, and it is the section that fooled me on my first visit. Luoyang Longmen station sits on the Zhengzhou–Xi’an corridor, which makes it a genuinely convenient door into the region: Zhengzhou East is about 40 minutes away, Xi’an North roughly an hour and a half, and Beijing West around four hours. Because the grottoes are south of the city and the station is south too, an early arrival here puts the carvings in your first morning instead of your second afternoon.
The grottoes themselves need a bit of planning. Entry is ¥90 and the booking is online and real-name, so you buy before you go rather than at the gate, and the site runs an evening session in season that is a different experience from the daylight walk past the cliff. Luoyang’s metro is small, so use it for downtown hops and take a bus or a DiDi for the grottoes leg.
What you give up out here is the city. There is nothing historic around the station district, and the old town is a car ride away. For one night between trains and an early grottoes start, that trade is worth making. For the rest of a trip, it isn’t.
Hotels with the rates we pulled:
- Jiahe Hotel — the cheapest room in our whole Luoyang check, in the same southern band as the station. At this rate you are buying a bed and a shower, nothing else. US$10 (about ¥70). Check prices on Trip.com
- Holiday Inn Express LUOYANG LONGMEN by IHG — the chain room in the district and the most predictable of the three, with the Longmen in the name referring to the station-side district rather than to the grottoes. US$32 (about ¥230). Check prices on Trip.com
- Courtyard by Marriott Luoyang — the top of the southern bracket, and the room I would take for an early start at the grottoes with a suitcase to leave behind. US$62 (about ¥440). Check prices on Trip.com
5. Downtown Luoyang and Zhouwangcheng#
Downtown is the modern city, and it matters to visitors for one specific reason: the peonies. Luoyang is China’s peony capital, the blooms come at the start of April, and the gardens in the centre are where the city goes to see them. Wangcheng Park is in the Zhouwangcheng part of downtown, which is also where the Eastern Zhou royal city stood, so the area holds both the flower season and a piece of the dynastic history that made this one of China’s great ancient capitals.
Our check caught a single downtown property, tagged to the Downtown Area, with a store name pointing at Zhouwangcheng. That is a thin sample and I am not going to pad it to make the district look busier than it is. Take it as the anchor rate rather than the whole downtown market — if peonies are your reason for coming, this is the zone to search in, and you will find more rooms on the booking sites than we priced.
Hotel with the rate we pulled:
- Ancient Capital Imperial View Hotel (Zhouwangcheng David World Store) — the only downtown rate in our check, and the one to take if peonies, shops and the modern city matter more to you than old-town lanes. US$24 (about ¥170). Check prices on Trip.com
Quick Budget Breakdown#
| Budget | What You Get | Example Hotels From Our Check | Nightly Rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| Budget | A bed under $30, almost all of it in the old town | Jiahe Hotel, Luoyang Sanjiu Homestay, Dongdu 13th Room, Luoyang Xingfuli Inn, Jiyuan Huanqin Hotel, Ancient Capital Imperial View Hotel, Chengzhou Guli Hotel | $10–28 |
| Value | A proper chain room down south, or a plain old-town hotel | Holiday Inn Express Luoyang Longmen, Liangyi Xunji Hotel | $32–39 |
| Mid | Cross Street location, or the top of the southern bracket | Qichi Shui’an Homestay, Courtyard by Marriott Luoyang | $51–62 |
| Splurge | The top of the Luoyang table | Luoyang YunHuaLi Intangible Cultural Heritage Art Homestay | $80 |
Every rate is from our own check on 18 October 2026 — one night, two adults, USD, converted here at roughly ¥7.1 to the dollar — and they are indicative. Luoyang prices swing hard around the April peony weeks and the October holidays, so treat the numbers above as a shape rather than a promise and confirm live prices before you book.
Practical Tips for Luoyang#
Two stations, two different cities, and you need to know which is yours. Luoyang Longmen is the high-speed station in the south, on the Zhengzhou–Xi’an line: Zhengzhou East is about 40 minutes away, Xi’an North roughly an hour and a half, Beijing West around four hours. Luoyang Railway Station is the conventional station in the north, close to the old town. If your hotel is on Cross Street, Longmen means a cross-city ride; Luoyang Railway Station means you are nearly there. Our China high-speed rail guide covers buying tickets as a foreigner and boarding with a passport.
Give the grottoes a full morning, and book the ticket the night before. Entry is ¥90, the booking is online and real-name, and the site is a long walk along the cliff rather than a museum you can skim. Go at opening if you can, take water, and expect the last stretch to be uphill. If you are pairing Luoyang with the Terracotta Warriors, our Xi’an guide covers the other end of the same rail line and the same early-start logic.
Moving around is car-first. The metro is small, so plan on DiDi or taxis for the cross-city legs — old town to station, station to grottoes — and walk inside the old town, where the streets are pedestrian anyway. Our DiDi setup guide covers the app with an international card.
Time your visit around the flowers, not the calendar. Peak peony bloom is early to mid April, the city’s busiest stretch, when the gardens charge an entry fee in the region of ¥10–50. Autumn is the other good window, with cooler air and fewer people. Summer is hot and humid, and winter is cold and dry, with the grottoes still open and much quieter.
Pay and connect the way locals do. Alipay and WeChat Pay cover taxis, grottoes tickets, market stalls and noodle shops, and both take foreign cards. Our WeChat Pay and Alipay guide covers the setup, and how to get online in China covers the SIM or eSIM you will want for maps, DiDi and translation.
If Luoyang is one stop on a longer route, sort the paperwork first. It sits between Zhengzhou and Xi’an, so most people arrive by rail, which means your visa-free eligibility depends on where you enter the country and where you fly out. The visa-free guide for 2026 settles that question by nationality, and the China travel checklist is the one to run through the week before you fly.
FAQ#
Do Luoyang hotels accept foreign guests? Yes, and we checked rather than assumed. On 18 October 2026 we pulled the published guest policy for the properties in this guide and all 12, 12 out of 12, carried the line “Guests from all countries/regions are welcome at this property.” Our price search the same day also returned 12 properties with a rate on screen. Chinese hotels have not been permitted to refuse foreign nationals for lacking foreign-related qualifications since the rule was clarified in May 2024. Check the line anyway, and see our full guide if a desk pushes back.
Which area is best for a first visit to Luoyang? Luoyi Ancient City and Cross Street, if you want the lanterns, the water banquet and dinner on foot. Longmen Station and the municipal government district, if the grottoes are the whole point and you want them in your first morning. Both are honest choices; sleeping in one and sightseeing in the other means a car ride either way.
How do I get to the Longmen Grottoes, and do I need to book? You do need to book. Entry is ¥90 and the ticket is sold online with real-name registration, so arrange it before the day. The grottoes are south of the city, reachable by bus or by DiDi, and the site also runs an evening session in season. Give it a full morning rather than an afternoon.
Should I stay near Longmen Station instead of the old town? Stay near the station if you are arriving late or leaving early on the high-speed line, or if you want to be at the grottoes before the coaches. Stay in the old town if you want the market, the food and the streets in the evening. The station district is modern and has no historic fabric, so it is a convenience base rather than a place to spend a holiday.
When is the best time to visit Luoyang? Early to mid April for the peonies, which is also when the city is busiest and the gardens charge for entry, in the region of ¥10–50. Autumn is the more comfortable alternative, with cooler weather and thinner crowds. Summer is hot and humid, and winter is cold but quiet, with the grottoes open all year.
Is Luoyang worth more than one night? Two nights is the honest minimum: one for the old town after dark and one for the grottoes. Add a third if you want the Luoyang Museum, the White Horse Temple east of the city, or a water banquet without rushing it. Our China 2-week itinerary shows where Luoyang fits on a longer route.
My Final Recommendation#
- First trip, two or three nights: the old town. Luoyang Sanjiu Homestay at $13 is the value pick, Jiyuan Huanqin Hotel at $21 puts the Lijingmen gate on your walk home, and Qichi Shui’an Homestay at $51 is the step up if you want the nicer room in the same location.
- Best rate-to-convenience ratio: Luoyang Xingfuli Inn at $20 on the Shizi Street night market, or Dongdu 13th Room at $20 on Cross Street. Two rooms, two very different evenings, the same money.
- One splurge: Luoyang YunHuaLi Intangible Cultural Heritage Art Homestay at $80, the top of the Luoyang table and a courtyard rather than a corridor.
- Grottoes first, then move on: Holiday Inn Express Luoyang Longmen at $32 or Courtyard by Marriott Luoyang at $62 near the station, with Jiahe Hotel at $10 if it is one night and a shower.
- Peonies and the modern city: Ancient Capital Imperial View Hotel at $24 downtown.
If you would rather have the rail legs handled end to end — Luoyang with Zhengzhou and Xi’an on either side, the grottoes ticket already booked and a car waiting at Longmen — that is what we quote for people directly. Our China private tour cost guide shows what that usually runs; tell us your dates and group size and we will come back with a plan.
Browse all Luoyang hotels with current prices →
Last updated: 18 October 2026. Hotel rates are from our own check on that date (one night, two adults, USD) and are indicative only — confirm live prices before booking.