faysrooms: Hainan Sanya: China's own Hawaii Waikiki

I recently spent a week down in Hainan Island's Sanya to check out some real estate and also to get away from the cold in Shanghai. After a 3 hour direct flight, I arrived at Sanya airport. The cheapest way to get into town is to take the city bus on the arrival level on the 2nd floor. For $4-5RMB, you can get to Sanya Blvd, which runs along the Sanya Bay beach. For $30RMB, you can also take the airport bus or taxi to get to the Sanya Bay area.

Sanya is roughly divided into 3 sections: Sanya Bay 三亚湾, Dadonghai 大东海, and Yalong Bay 亚龙湾. Sanya Bay is the most popular beach with local Chinese vacationers; the beach itself is a narrow band that runs several miles long, but the sand and water qualities are so so due to heavy traffic. There's a newer section of the Sanya Bay near the airport called Haipo 海坡, where a lot of new apartment and villa complexes are being built along the beach front. Dadonghai (Big East Ocean) is a smaller crescent shaped beach, mostly taken over by the Russian vacationers; the sand and water is nicer than those of Sanya Bay, esp. if you go toward the Xiaodonghai (Small East Ocean). Yalong Bay is packed with upscale international 5 star hotels like Hilton, Sheraton, Marriot, Ritz Carlton, as well as some Chinese branded 5 star hotels. Sanya and Yalong Bay became better known after the Miss World Pagent finals were held there, but the golfers have been going there for the nice weather and courses.

For accommodation, I had researched several "family hotels" that are located in the beach front apartment complexes; these are pretty much clusters of apartments managed by professional property management companies on behalf of owners who don't live in Sanya. Being a budding short-term apartment rental manager myself, I'm obviously eager to check these counterparts out ;-) Me and my friend decided to stay at multiple places in the different areas around Sanya to get a feel for the real estate quality.

The first place we stayed at was a "super deluxe ocean view room" at 海豹家庭旅馆 (the Seal Hotel) in the Future Life complex (碧海蓝天). The room was nicely decorated w/ 2 single beds and a bathroom. The balcony has a great ocean view from the 19th floor. It turned out that the room belonged to another hotel in the same building called Yomovo 游牧虎, which has a nice English site. The room was $200RMB/night, a great value considering the ocean view we got. They waived the $10RMB/night charge for internet connection (no wifi) after we protested that their competitors' were free of charge. Most complex residents are local Chinese, and I suspect many of them are also staying at one of the many family hotels in the complex. There's a big swimming pool (well, most complexes in Sanya have it), tennis courts (remember to bring your own racket), and a very well-stocked supermarket. Several bus lines also stop in front of the complex and take you to pretty much all the scenic spots along the beach, as far out as Yalong Bay.

Next, we moved to the Haipo area's BT Inn, which is located in a well-developed complex called Sunny Oceanfront (阳光海岸). This family hotel was a disappointment, as the room they gave us was not at all what's shown on their website. The furnitures are sparten and worn, and there was no interior deco to speak of (the bathrooms had exposed piping). At this hostel quality level, they charged us $260/night! What a rip-off. The beach out front is not too much nicer than Sanya Bay's -- even narrower and lack maintanance. We did stop by the Kempinski Hotel another 10 min by bus toward the west end, and the hotel seemed very nice with a big, private beach out front. The Holiday Inn that's a few doors down from Sunny Oceanfront was so-so, and doesn't have any stand-out facilities.

After one unhappy night at BT Inn, we fled to Dadonghai. We tried out the Bluesky Youth Hostel for $120RMB/night, recommended by Lonely Planet. The famed Peter guy wasn't in and the building was a bit old. We decided that we needed more view and comfort than what a hostel can offer, so we moved again after one night. We had our eyes set on Nanfeng, a first-line oceanview family hotel right in the center of Dadonghai, but they were solidly booked until end of March!! Wow, that's some good biz they're doing there. We settled for another family hotel, Yi Jia 怡佳, in the same apt building but on a lower floor. The view from the room was great and so was the price: $200RMB/night. Yi Jia is not as well-run as Nanfeng upstairs, that's why they still had open rooms when Nanfeng was full.

Overall, it's a great deal to stay at the family hotels when you come to Sanya, esp. if you want to stay for extended period of time. The monthly rent on these apts are pretty low: you can get a decent ocean front place for less than $3000RMB/month, which won't last you 3 nights at those 5-star places. I do have to admit though, that the hotels and beaches at Yalong Bay were super nice and definitely the choice for those with the dough.

See my part 2 write-up about Sanya's food.