Hainan Island China Beaches

The Best Beaches in Hainan China, Hainan Island Beach Guide, which beach to stay on Hainan Island

Hainan Beaches

Hainan Island is China’s beach destination with more than 20 nice beaches around the coastal areas. The most popular beaches are located in Sanya in the southern part of Hainan Island.

For tourists visiting Hainan Island, I guess everyone wants to know which beach to stay on Hainan Island.  There are beaches in Haikou, Wenchang, Qionghai and Sanya, the most well-known based on Hainan Island are located in Sanya: Yalong Bay, Dadonghai, Sanya Bay and Haitang Bay. So for a relaxing beach holiday, tourists should visit Sanya for the best beaches on Hainan Island.

For your easy reference, we have made a short summary on the best beaches on Hainan Island. This summary is made by Caddie Lu, the owner of Hainan Travel Guide who has been living in Sanya since 1993 based on her own experiences and reviews of her past guests.

Yalong Bay Beach Sanya, the Best & Hainan’s Popular Beach in Sanya

Grand Metro Park Resort Yalong Bay Beach

Yalong Bay is so far the best beach in Sanya Hainan Island. The beach is located just about a 30 minutes’ drive from Sanya Phoenix Airport, 20 minutes driving to downtown Sanya. There are over 10 beach resorts including world-class international chains and Chinese domestic ones with direct beach accesses.

With the first resort Gloria Sanya Resort (Now MGM Grand Sanya) opened in 1996, Yalong Bay Beach has seen the great changes in Sanya’s tourism development. After more than 20 years, Yalong Bay now is the best beach in Sanya Hainan Island with a clean sandy beach, crystal water, and a tropical garden. As it is far from downtown, tourists may find very few local people there.  So, the beach is away from the big crowd in town, with almost no local life making it a perfect relaxing beach for tourists looking for quiet holidays.

There are shopping malls, supermarkets, local restaurants and bars at Yalong Bay Beach, prices there are about 20-50% higher than that in Downtown Sanya.

Dadonghai Beach Sanya with easy access to local life

Dadonghai Beach

Dadonghai Beach is about 20 minutes’ drive from Sanya Airport and walking distance to downtown Sanya. There are over 50 hotels at various standards, hostels, and serviced apartments.

Local dining and shopping are not a problem for guests staying at Dadonghai Beach as local restaurants, bars, shops, and supermarkets are just steps away from most hotels.

There are about 10 resorts on Dadonghai Beach with direct beach access including Resort Intime Dadonghai Beach, Marriott Dadonghai Beach, Mandarin Oriental Sanya.  Dadonghai Beach also enjoys each bus access to major tourist attractions. It is easy to visit downtown Sanya by local bus at only CNY2/person or CNY10/way by local taxi.

Sanya Bay: Longest beach in Sanya with walking distance to Downtown Sanya, 10 minutes drive from Sanya Airport

Sanya Bay Beach Hainan

Sanya Bay is the longest beach in Sanya, lasting about 22KM from Downtown Sanya till the end of the earth Tianyahaijiao. Averagely around a 10 minutes’ drive from Sanya Airport and to downtown Sanya, Sanya Bay is very popular among local people. Haiyue Square (海月广场)is the center of Sanya’s local life especially for migrant birds (retired people coming to Sanya for winter holiday from Mainland China). If you visit Haiyue Square before 9 am or after 6 pm, you will find Haiyue Square is full of activities such as dancing, singing, acrobatics, and so on. Sanya Bay has a very long-running path which makes it the most popular place to go for running in the early morning for late evening. Cycling along Sanya Bay is another fun.

Sanya Bay is not so popular as Yalong Bay, the Resorts on Sanya Bay offer better rates, so it is a very good money value choice.

During Sanya’s Wintertime like December & January, you will feel warmer staying at Sanya Bay than on Yalong Bay or Haitang Bay as it is quite windy sometimes at Yalong Bay & Haitang Bay with cold air from northern China. While Sanya Bay faces southwest, so not much cold wind which makes it much warmer even at the same temperature.

Sanya Bay lasts for 22KM, so the locations of the hotels are very different, some are right in downtown Sanya like Four Points by Sheraton, some are very far from downtown Sanya like Club Med which is located at the end of Sanya.

One thing to remind: Unlike most of the resorts in Yalong Bay, you have to come across a road to the beach. But don’t worry about the road, it is not a very busy one, so far, no complaints by guests who stayed there with small kids.

Haitang Bay Sanya: The new development and the destination beach of Sanya

Haitang Bay is the biggest and the most important project in Sanya tourism development. There are more than 10 world-class hotel chains in operation, China’s Liberation Army General Hospital 301 Hainan Branch, China’s Biggest Duty-Free Shops & Sanya Olympic Park. There are still empty lands, so many projects are coming soon.  Haitang Bay is a super new & empty beach, with 18.7 kilometers of gorgeous beach, about 40 minutes driving from Sanya Airport and 30 minutes driving to Downtown Sanya.

Haitang Bay

Riyue Bay Wanning Hainan: Riyuewan in Chinese, best empty beach for surfing on Hainan Island

Riyue Bay Surfing

Clear Water Bay Hainan: super new wild beach about 30 minutes driving from downtown Sanya.

Shimei Bay Hainan: Super New Empty Beach with Le Meridien Resort Shimei Bay, 1.5 hours from Sanya

Hainan Island Beaches, The Best Beaches in Hainan China, Hainan Island Beach Guide, which beach to stay on Hainan Island