We just returned last night from our first beach vacation in China. We went to the Hainan Province with is a large island and the southernmost tip of China (close to Vietnam). We visited the resort city of Sanya situated on the southern tip of Hainan. We stayed 5 nights and had two adjoining rooms at the Marriott Sanya.
We had an awesome time. It was the best family vacation ever.
Because we were in China, we could bring one of our Ayis, Ivy, on the trip to help us out. It was good for us because we could get some alone time and even go out at night, and it was good for her, as she had never been to the ocean. If we wanted to go to Vietnam or Thailand like most of the expats, we wouldn't be able to take Ivy because she would not be given a visa.
Its about a 3.5 hour direct flight from Beijing to Sanya. We were greeted at the airport in Sanya by the hotel minivan to take us to the hotel. They had water, fruit and the cool scented towels...it was 28 degrees (sorry
i'm metric now, you do the conversion). Here is the view from our hotel room.
The hotel had great pools, some restaurants, a nice beach, a kids club staffed with lots of ayis...all very nice. We basically spent the last 6 days on a pattern of beach, pool, eat, kids club, pool, eat, sleep...or something like that. The kids had an awesome time. Here as some pics...
We highly recommend this place, but not sure if we will come back. Given the length of our stay in asia is unknown, I think we would probably go to vietnam, thailand or bali before we came back to sanya. It was a perfect vacation, but part of our mission here is adventure, so no need to do the same thing twice.
A couple of observations:
1) there were alot of russians here...the menu was in english and russian - not chinese.
2) the service was very good and the people were very nice
3) the food and drinks are insanely expensive, but you can find some local stores to buy beer and soda
4) there was a chinese restaurant at the hotel and we ate there one night. I was ordering in chinese and the waitress just looked at me...said I'm japanese and I can't speak mandarin. I have to imagine she has a really difficult job working in a chinese restaurant in china, looking asian and not being able to speak...its like some cruel joke. her english was just fine
5) surprisingly amy and i found the best burger in china (at least that we've found and trust me I've looked hard), and we had it everyday for lunch by the pool
Amy and I ended the last night with a customary date night...we walked along the beach (not hand-in-hand as I'm sure amy wanted, but the customary me 5 feet in front of amy - sometimes I don't get it, i know) to the ritz carlton and had a really nice italian dinner with some chianti. A great cap to a wonderful trip. We arrived last night to a cold and windy beijing, but we are tanned, rested, recharged and ready to make it through winter now.
