Hainan

Hainan is China's only tropical holiday destination. From a travel perspective, I'm not particularly interested in Hainan as I've been to many much better beach destinations. However, I decided to visit Hainan to have a family reunion due to the warm weather there in winter.

Jan 18, 2024
Haikou

My flight arrived at Haikou Airport in the mid-afternoon. After meeting my family at the hotel, we decided to check out Qilou Old Street. There is a 'main' street with century-old buildings, but there are also alleys in the area and many restaurants and vendors selling local foods. Overall, I liked the atmosphere.

Qilou Old Street

Jan 19, 2024
Yalong Bay

There are two routes from Haikou to Sanya by high-speed trains - the west route (about 3 hours) and the east route (about 1.5 hours). We took the west route from Haikou to Sanya and the east route back.

There are several beaches in Sanya - the major ones are Sanya Bay and Yalong Bay. Sanya Bay is very long but rather boring. Yalong Bay is said to be the best beach in China, and we decided to go there. The beach itself is not bad, though facilities at the beach are very limited.

We spent the rest of the day at Luhuitou Park where you can overlook Sanya Bay from a hill. We used the Chinese rideshare app Didi to get around mostly (they accept foreign credit cards as payment, but it must be linked to the account beforehand). However, due to the volume of tourists, when we got back, it took some time to get a car (even if we picked the expensive ones).

View of the man-made Phoenix Island from Luhuitou Park

Jan 20, 2024
West Island

West Island is a small island off Sanya Bay - a short ferry ride away. It's an inhabited island. Although also touristy, it's a better place to spend a couple of hours compared to mainland Sanya. I particularly enjoyed having lunch with my family while soaking in the gorgeous ocean view at a local food restaurant.

Fishing Village on West Island

Overview

The biggest advantage of Hainan is no doubt the weather in winter - compared to other places in China. Haikou is a lovely city with some interesting historical buildings to admire. The beach destination of Sanya can be relaxing, if you don't mind the crowds but there is a lack of characteristics - for that, you may want to go directly to a Southeast Asian beach destination.