We stayed here for 3 nights in a 2-storey villa with 2 bedrooms. There is a separate building for receiving guests or hanging out, and a lovely private pool and jacuzzi. Downstairs bathroom comes with a steam room as well as outdoor shower. The only complaint is having to walk outside to go upstairs - it does rain fairly often here! Everything was done like a 5-star tropical resort, starting from the fresh coconut juice upon arrival all the way to the services offered. Although they were not fluent in English, I thought they were all very well-trained with enough English and very helpful and service-oriented. I mostly forgot that we were in China. However, it would still be hard to compare this place to other 5-star places in Thailand or Jamaica, for example - we have to acknowledge that we are in China after all.
When we were there, it was not busy, and we had most of the beach to ourselves with our own little huts, napping and reading on the beach. Although the beach was very shallow, we kept going and still didnt get to anywhere that we could swim. We came back and swam in the meandering pool instead.
One thing that stopped me from giving it 5 stars is certainly the food. The food was okay, and certainly expensive by China's standard, but the selection was limited, and the resort was nowhere close to any other restaurants. Venturing to places in town was not as easy as we thought - very much like the rest of China. Chinese food was fine. I tried some of the western dishes, like Lasagne, but it was not edible because it was not cooked through and had to send it back. We ended up eating the same food again and again and that definitely did not make the vacation more enjoyable.
The spa was beautiful and the receptionist spoke English well to explain treatment.
All in all, knowing I was in China, this hotel exceeded my expectation.
- Banyan Tree Sanya Hotel
- Banyan Tree Hotel Sanya
