The 13 Best Resorts in Sanya

A guqin sits on a low platform beside a tiered cobalt reflecting pool in the arrival court, which tells you immediately this is not another generic tropical resort. Banyan Tree Sanya is an all-villa resort on the Hainan coast where dark-fired brick courtyards meet Balinese timber pergolas and every one of the 49 villas comes with a private pool. The spa houses the brand's first hydrothermal complex in Asia.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels

The building is designed to look like a cruise ship, which either charms you or makes you wonder if you took a wrong turn at the pier. This is a full-scale beach resort on Haitang Bay, where the South China Sea sits outside every room terrace. All 405 rooms include outdoor space, the rooftop pool is covered, and the spa and kids' program mean the whole family can disappear in different directions.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels

A dragon boat ferries guests from check-in to their rooms along a kilometer-long saltwater canal threading through the property, which sets the tone for this 523-room resort on Hainan Island's south coast. The rooms lean into regional wood and stone, the views take in Wuzhizhou Island, and the dining spans Cantonese, Hainanese, and a Spanish grill, all of which gives the impression that leaving was never really part of the plan.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels

1. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels

The 17th-floor Red Sun Bar sits open to the sky above Sanya Bay, and that detail says most of what you need to know about this large beachfront resort on Hainan island's southern coast. The open-air lobby lounge, private beach with complimentary cabanas, water park, spa, and top-floor villas with their own pools make it function less like a hotel than a small seaside city. The Michelin Guide has it among its selected hotels.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels

A contemporary Chinese art collection runs through this resort like a design brief that got very ambitious, setting it apart from the surrounding luxury corridor on Hainan Island. The IHG Hualuxe brand normally caters to business travel, but this one pivots hard toward families, with a kids' club that functions closer to a small theme park. Adult amenities and private beach access complete the picture for everyone else.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels

The slanted rooflines and Li ethnic minority artwork feel like a deliberate counterpoint to what this is: a big, dog-welcoming family resort on Hainan's southern coast, selected by the Michelin Guide. Ground-floor suites open onto private gardens with pet-friendly courtyards, two-bedroom villas have their own pools, and the lagoon out back stretches over a thousand square meters toward the rocky Tianya Haijiao cliffs. The Pool Bar has a thatched canopy, which tracks.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels

The underwater restaurant inside a seawater aquarium is what separates this one from every other large resort on Haitang Bay. Rooms and suites look out over coastal forest to the sea from private balconies, with the building set back far enough to actually earn that view. The interior keeps things calm, contemporary with traditional touches, because the setting is doing most of the talking. About an hour east of Sanya city, on the National Coast.

1. 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

A large resort spread along Yalong Bay's white sand crescent, with rooms looking out over the bay, the mountains, or tropical gardens depending on how optimistic you're feeling at booking. Three restaurants cover Cantonese, Hainan, and Teochew cooking, a Japanese dining room with shogunate-era seating, and fresh local catch on an open-air deck. An oceanfront wedding chapel handles the bigger occasions.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels

Four fashion capitals organize the room categories here, Bangkok's P49 Design dividing 216 rooms across Italian Elegance, French Chic, British Fabulous, and American Classic, each with its own palette. It's an unusual premise for a beach resort on Hainan, and as the first Autograph Collection property in China it skews glossier than its neighbors. The rooftop Pod bar pours cocktails against the Dadonghai Bay coastline, which softens any temptation to overthink the concept.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels

The corridors of this 343-room Haitang Bay resort have almost no glass, which is a deliberate choice: the architects, Shanghai firm Neri&Hu, designed the buildings to breathe, letting tropical air and shifting light stand in for walls. Two clay-brick L-shaped wings wrap a central water courtyard, the layout loosely modeled on a Chinese walled city. Fabrics and rugs nod to Li textile traditions. Four restaurants and a sixth-floor cocktail bar with sea views round it out.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels

A private walkway links this 453-room beach resort directly to one of China's largest duty-free shopping complexes, which tells you something about who comes here and what they're planning to do. The water park is a genuine counterargument, with a river pool, an infinity edge, and tropical gardens covering the kind of acreage that makes a lounger feel far away. Three restaurants cover Cantonese, Sichuan, Hainan, kaiseki, and rooftop hotpot with live music.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels