It is a golf resort, and it will say so at the gate. The 观澜湖 Guānlánhú complex south of 海口市 Hǎikǒu Shì is a large, landscaped piece of the 羊山 Yángshān lava plain turned into a resort, and what it sells is an ordinary, competent, expensive version of a resort anywhere in the world: championship golf, a spa built on volcanic hot springs, several restaurants, a shopping mall, and a hotel designed around a lobby you can see across. The landscape it stands on is unusual, because the ground here is old lava flow and the courses have been cut through black rock and planted with palms and lychee; but the experience of staying is the standard one, and that is either the point or the objection depending on what you came for.
The reason the resort is here rather than on the coast is the rock. The 火山岩矿温泉 huǒshānyán kuàng wēntáng, the volcanic mineral hot springs, are the local resource: water that has passed through the basalt and comes up warm, and the spa is arranged as a series of outdoor pools at different temperatures, with the usual range of jets and herbal infusions. Around the pools the resort has built the rest of the apparatus, including the 冯小刚电影公社 Féng Xiǎogāng Diànyǐng Gōngshè, Feng Xiaogang Movie Town, which shares the site and is reached by a shuttle, and a large outlet-style shopping centre. The result is not a village or a neighbourhood but a compound, walled and self-sufficient, and staying here means staying inside it.
What the Rooms Are Like
The hotel is a big modern block and the rooms are big modern rooms: large beds, marble bathrooms, balconies with views over the golf courses or the gardens, and the full set of facilities. The best rooms face the courses and the rock outcrops; the cheapest face a car park or an internal courtyard and can be surprisingly dark. It is a conference hotel as much as a holiday one, and the difference shows at weekends, when the lobby fills with meeting groups and the restaurants need booking.
Practicalities
Price. Doubles run from around ¥600 in the low season to ¥1,500 or more on a peak golf or holiday weekend. Green fees, the spa and the shopping are charged separately and are the reason the room rate is not the whole cost of a stay here. Packages that bundle a round of golf or a spa session are common and usually better value than paying separately.
Address. The resort is at 观澜湖 Guānlánhú, in 龙华区 Lónghuá Qū, roughly twenty kilometres south of the city centre on the volcanic plain, on the road toward 火山口 Huǒshānkǒu. It is a single compound with one entrance and a shuttle inside it.
Rooms. Ask for a course-facing balcony if you intend to use it, and ask how far the room is from the lobby, because the complex is large and a distant room means a long walk or a shuttle ride every time you leave it. If you are using the spa, ask for a room on the spa side. Golfers should ask which course the room rate gives access to and whether a tee time is included, since the courses differ by a lot in both price and character.
Getting there. By road from central 海口市 Hǎikǒu Shì takes thirty to forty minutes, and from 海口美兰国际机场 Hǎikǒu Měilán Guójì Jīchǎng around an hour. There is a shuttle between the resort and the city and a separate one to 冯小刚电影公社 Féng Xiǎogāng Diànyǐng Gōngshè, and taxis are readily available at the gate. The nearest rail access is 海口东站 Hǎikǒu Dōng Zhàn, about half an hour away.
flowcloud would say that the resort is the one place in Haikou where the lava underground is sold as a service, and that the pools are the honest part of it, since the water was warm before anyone built a hotel over it.
Where to stay: in the main hotel rather than an outlying block, on a course-facing balcony, close enough to the lobby and the spa that you are not spending your stay on a shuttle. Ask what the rate includes before you book, since the room is the smallest line in a stay here, and ask which hot spring pools are open in the season you are coming, because maintenance closes some of them outside the peak months.