Sanya: The Coolest Newest Tropical Island Paradise On The Planet

Sanya has three main beach areas to consider hanging out, plus 2 other awesome small islands just offshore and easily accessible by local ferry and local fishing village boats...quite reminiscent of the east Thailand coast from Bangkok running down past Pattaya to Koh Samed and Koh Chang.

Sitting at the very southernmost point of Hainan Island, Sanya sits at the same latitude as Rangoon in Myanmar (Burma) and is equidistant between Ho Chi Min City to the north and Saigon to the south in Vietnam, which is only 200km west of the island. Starting 30 km west at Nan Shan Temple and heading east, you first find the Haipo beach area and the gorgeous Kempinski Resort, on its own private 300m beach. In fact, you'll find Mario Cavolo on the TV in every guest room at the Kempinski as he hosted their Kempinski Resorts Sanya video. Continuing west for 10km you hit Sanya city and Sanya bay, with the Holiday Inn and other local hotels, not a great beach for beautiful sand and water, but with this residential beach strip facing west, enjoy breathtaking sunset views for over 20 kilometers. Its easy to understand why locals flock to the beach every late afterysnoon, just like the famous stories of Key West sunsets, with local music, dancers and entertainers.

Next stop is Sanya city, a small local city with dirt cheap flea markets selling and endles local fish markets where $5 buys you a pound of huge shrimp or a 2 kilo fresh grouper which they will filet for you on the spot. We hit the Times Coast river area with seven 30 story towers of luxury condos surrounded by two converging rivers creating a soon to be luxury boat marina at the mouth of the ocean, up and over the next hill we go to the Lu Hui Tou area with brand new world class golf course, luxury condos and villas, and the new Banyan Tree Resort with villas starting at $USD $300 per nite.

Finally for those beach bungalow and cheap hotel lovers, with a sprinkle of luxury, we head around the next bend to Sanya's main local beach called Da Dong Hai (that's mandarin for Big East Beach) Here we find 3-4 star hotels on the most awesome crescent shaped 3k beachfront with perfect soft golden sands and perfect clear tropical waters. Da Dong Hai beach faces due south and so the wave action varies from surfer perfect to quiet calm depending on the season and weather patterns. In Tyme Resort is an excellent Taiwanese managed 5 star resort staring at less than $90 USD per nite and there are plenty of clean, friendly local guest hotels only a block off the beach with rooms in the $20 USD range; not to mention Da Dong Hai is a funky little neighborhood of clothing and souvenir shops where bargaining is welcome and plenty of local restaurants with honorable mention to the oustanding home made Italian food available at Marco Polo restaurant.

25 kilometers up the coast we hit Ya Long Bay, the luxury zone of Sanya with 5 star world class beachfront properties including Crowne Plaza, Sheraton, Marriot, Hilton and most recently, the Ritz Carlton arrives to raise the luxury bar another notch.

By the way rich luxury lovers, note that at the far east end of Da Dong Hai Beach, Mandarin Oriental is schedule to open its ultra luxury villa resort in early 2009 on its own 1.5km private beachfront with spectacular views.

Not done yet as we continuing head up the east coast another 50km to Shi Mei Bay and find the newly opened Le Meridien Resort soon to be accompanied by many more resort and apartment complexes along this now quiet and deserted 50km stretch of sandy beach...