Family-friendly Hotels in Sanya

As always Sunshine Resort in Sanya is like a home always from home...but with better cooking :) From the warm welcome from Vanessa at the front desk...to all the cleaners, wait staff and pool staff..you are treated as a valued visitor. It is great to see the extra loung chairs at the pool and on the property above the beach and chairs and umbrellas on the beach...well done. A big benefit is the newly developed bosrdwalk that goes the entire lenght of the beach with plenty of food and drink. Also....although I do not have kids here..they always have entertainment on the holidays for the young ones. I will always return the the special...”Sunshine” in Sanya

Great hotel choice and great value for money. Service oriented team, they hold what they promise. Great view. Clean rooms and great garden area. Lovely pool area. Nice frog concert to fall asleep with at night. Great for a romantic stay, enjoy alone, as couple or family. The concierge speaks very well English and is very helpful. 5* to him. Great breakfast - Chinese and international food. Near by are many restaurants with tasty food and a few shops too and just 10 min walk away from the beach. I would always be happy to return. Fun fact - I did actually return. 🤣🤩🤣.

Fifth time choosing this hotel while traveling to Sanya, used to come with friends, and now for business trips. The hotel has changed a lot over the years, and it was kinda going very low quality in terms of amenities and services few months ago. But they have made recent improvements, like the wooden deck that finally had been renovated and look nice and clean now. I was disappointed at first at my arrival since the staff was not welcoming at all, not even smiling or helping with luggages, but then Johnson took over and has been amazingly helpful! His English was great, and he upgraded my room for one with the nicest view over the pool and bay, which was really appreciated. Amber at the reception has also been a great host, great English and attitude, she helped me with my late check out. These two really made my stay better. Overall this hotel is always a good and quiet choice. Sadly they removed their western food options for the restaurant and room service, so not ideal for foreigners. But breakfast is good and got all the options. I’ll definitely come back, since to me it’s still one of the most beautiful hotel in the area, but hoping for some more improvements to take it back to the level it used to be.

This has been my third trip to Sanya and I must say this hotel left a lot to be desired. My personal goal for choosing this hotel was A. Trip.com is still using great photos of the place that sold that island retreat to me and B. to have the resort vibe where I would not have to leave the comforts unless it was for a good reason. However on arrival and inspection my husband and I quickly realized we would be seeing a lot more of Yalong Bay than we had planned with almost every meal being eaten at other hotels with much less of an “off season “ vibe. The location is great and accessible to the beach but the hotel boasts pools(more than 1 being important) however on inspection only the kiddie pool and half of the main pool were allowed to be used. The pool in front of the McDonalds was semi drained and cornered off despite staff members cleaning in it as if it were being used. The main pool divided up into 4 areas was also not in full use with the entire right side being forbidden. Many of the other pool like areas that originally had been marked as swimming areas also had signs up saying it was a “landscaping pool - do not enter”. Another unsettling part is the incessant douyin content creators who set up camp at the stairs of the only usable pool to film the general area and talk all day in shifts with no real consequence or idea of privacy. As for dining the “western style dining” was definitely not catering to westerners unless you count rubbery eggs and dry bacon with a side of rotisserie corn sausage as a “full English” the dining hall itself is in two areas indoor (with broken upholstery and exceptionally dirty flooring) and outside with chairs that resemble public swimming pool seating in the 80s with a dose of tetanus on the legs. The evening dining is also something to be avoided if you have no way of understanding Chinese or do not wish to get food poisoning since meat is kept outside in dishes for you to choose your own BBQ options while no regard for cross contamination or food allergies are applied. The hotel rooms themselves were the redeeming feature of this hotel with daily cleaning and good views of the mountain and ocean depending on your choice of room when booking. It is also worth noting there is no room service but there are very convenient meituan drop boxes located outside the hotel lobby. Cleaning staff were super friendly and other hotel staff seemed to be divided into “older” and “younger” the younger of the bunch being much more helpful and more recognizable as people working in the hospitality industry. Other amenities such as the spa (was not occupied and not on offer) and the gym was well equipped however some machines were of the older more unreliable variety and with no working air conditioning you could potentially be working out in a sauna. On arrival you are offered a complementary coupon for one afternoon tea set, the pictures used for advertising this special offer are unfortunately false advertising. With an odd assortment of savory and sweet cookies and snacks it was anything other than something I would purchase myself. Our first impression was that the hotel was in an “off season” but on closer examination of hotels in the surrounding area we found other hotels to have daily scheduled activities, full use of amenities and to be run by actual hospitality staff and not by untrained locals like the LAN Sanya - ocean view resort. Unfortunately this hotel would get a 10/10 would not recommend to foreigners and would not book again from me.

We arrived and we were greeted with Ceasear who speaks good English. Cleaners come daily and clean and refresh room. Breakfast has a variety of Western and Chinese food. The ball pit is great just for a space for our toodler to get rid of energy in between swimming, eating and sleeping. The sandpit is also fantastic, with trees giving it shade. Full of fun toys for the the children too. The swimming pool is a great temperature! Pools towels are easy to get. Life guards are friendly!!! Swimming rings available. Bubble machine. Supermarket is a close 7mins max walk. Beach is right there but you have to walk 5mins either left or right to cross the road. The noodle bar is awesome and yummy! Also a great convenience store on the 1st floor. Easy to order food in.

Staying at the Howard Johnson Resort was a lot of fun. The overall service was friendly and helpful but needed a foreign translator on staff. The location was perfect for traveling and staying close to the airport and beach. Several close stores. Several amenities were closed. Only one pool was open and the only western restaurant was closed. I would consider staying again in the future if more was open.

We stayed in 4 different hotels during this vacation and Pullman Yalong was by far the most disappointing one, although to be honest part of it comes from expectations. Pullman Yalong is a decent 3-4 star hotel, whose main problem is that expectations associated with the brand make it seem to be something it is not. Chinese breakfast is actually quite decent and has a wide range including MaLaTang, if you are craving Western food though it probably isn't worth the price. They have a big sign near the lobby recommending that you should not bring delivery food to your room, due to health and safety reasons, but feel free to ignore that. We ordered both room service and outside delivery on several occasions and deliveries were definitely a better option. Plus there is a food court and a supermarket not far from the hotel. The pool is quite big and its lower section is well shaded as well which a plus. However it was a major disappointment that the slide was closed(long term) as well as the cool cave you might see on the hotel's photos. On top of that there are some downright ridiculous designs ideas including a horrible pool access and sharp edge stairs inside the pool. The beach in Yalong is all public, but the access to it is limited by occasional path between some of the front row resorts. What this means in practice is that you will have a bit of a walk having to go around Marriot in Pullman's case. The room was OK, even had a bath and a walk-in wardrobe. The high point was the balcony above the pool. Signs of disrepair are visible around the hotel, but to be honest this seems to be the Yalong/Sanya standard at least for the 4 star hotels we stayed in. Jacky, I hope I got the name right, who worked in the lobby/shuttle car was great though. Not because he spoke good English(which he did), but because he had a problem solving attitude and wasn't afraid to approach guests to offer help.

So many more positives that I would definitely stay here again - but there are a couple things that could be improved. Here are the good bits: Location: super close to Yalong bay and easy to get Didi to other places Service: rooms cleaned everyday, 24 hour reception, 24 hour resort transport, awesome breakfast, free shuttle bus to beach Cleanliness: all good! Amenities: warm swimming pool with loungers, all the usual things you would expect in the room. Here’s the stuff to improve: Half of the main swimming pool was closed the whole duration - this was not mentioned when booked. The swimming pool is open until 11:00pm which means if you’re in building one, you will hear kids screaming until 11:00pm. The beach bus is super old and broken - the ac doesn’t work and half the time I felt like we were going to break down! Also, there is no service between 11:30 and 14:00. Some areas of the resort/villas are still under construction.

The resort is huge and there  are electric cars to drive you within. Nice pool for kids and adults. Rooms are very big with comfortable beds. The disadvantage was the beach, which is about 300m, but still not easy to get there if you have a baby or/and older person bc of so many stairs, plus they have very limited beach beds for all of the guests. As well, there was a bad service twice when we ordered food to the pool and to the room, but it could be a language barrier issue. Anyway, I can’t overlook the fact that they allow us to check out 2 hours later, so our baby could have a quality nap before leaving. Staff is very polite and breakfast is rich.

We arrived at 11 am and could enter our rooms straight away. The reception staff was very helpful and we communicated well with the held of a translation app. The location is excellent, right across the beach. Despite being located on the main beach road, it was quiet at night. Perfect. Nice pool, too. We did not have any food a the hotel ,so I can't rate that. There is a supermarket just around the corner and a street with lots of lovely restaurants nearby.