The Best Places to Stay and Do in Sanya Shi

1. Forbes Travel Guide Forbes Four Star

The 52-story sail-shaped tower is hard to miss from anywhere on Haitang Bay, and inside, the aquatic theme goes well past decor: the Neptune and Poseidon suites put your bedroom below the waterline, glass wall facing a live aquarium. It's a sprawling resort in the Atlantis mold, 130 acres of waterslides, marine encounters, pools, and 21 restaurants. Gordon Ramsay's Bread Street Kitchen handles the British contingent. Forbes Four Star.

1. Forbes Travel Guide Forbes Four Star
2. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels

Thirty acres of beachfront palms on Hainan Island, closer to Vietnam than to Shanghai, where the Mandarin Oriental traded its usual city-tower format for a sprawling low-rise resort along Coral Bay. Rooms come with balconies, villas sit right on the beach, and the spa village is large enough to get genuinely lost in, which seems to be the point. Bill Bensley designed it, and the warm wood and open-air architecture feel right for a place that holds a Forbes Four Star.

1. Forbes Travel Guide Forbes Four Star
2. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels

A 400-foot pool stretching toward the South China Sea is the orientation point here, and it sets the tone for everything else at this large luxury beach resort on Hainan Island's southern tip. Rooms are spacious and contemporary, most facing the water, while freestanding villas add private pools and butler service for anyone going full Bond villain. Eight restaurants, five pools, and a Michelin Key round out a property that somehow stays calm despite its scale.

1. Forbes Travel Guide Forbes Recommended
2. Michelin Guide 1 Key

Floor-to-ceiling bay views, marble that catches every angle of the South China Sea light, and a butler's service window in every room set the tone at this beachfront St. Regis resort on Hainan's southern tip. The property cloisters you completely, with private pools, beach massages, yacht services, and four restaurants covering everything from Cantonese to fresh seafood. The Drawing Room does a nightly champagne-sabering ritual, in case you needed permission to stay another night.

1. Forbes Travel Guide Forbes Recommended
2. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels

A crescent beach curves below the building on Luhuitou peninsula, and the sea-facing rooms look straight out over it from their private terraces. This is a full-scale beach resort, so expect the lagoon pool, the spa, and a dining lineup that somehow runs from Hainanese to Bavarian without anyone blinking. Rooms are generous, and the terrace is less an amenity than a reason to book a sea-view room in the first place.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels