Things to do in Haikou
And where to stay, the best time to visit, what a day costs, and the traps to skip.
Best time to visit Haikou
• a note or something on ✦ an occasion worth the trip
The season: dry and mild, bay cycling and golf at their best, with January and February cool snaps and Chinese New Year price peaks.
Shoulder season with the festival calendar at its peak, including the Coconut Festival and Sanyuesan, as humidity builds.
Hot with the rains beginning and prices dropping. Sightsee early and take long laoba cha middays.
Peak heat, humidity and typhoon risk. Outdoor sights are morning only and a typhoon can cancel a day or two.
Golden Week crowds and prices in the first week, then one of the year's best windows in late October as Hele crab season opens.
What's on
- Hainan International Coconut Festival Third day of the third lunar month, usually late March or April
Coconut culture events island wide, with Haikou's Coconut Street festivities the capital's share.
- Sanyuesan Third day of the third lunar month, usually late March or April
The great festival of Hainan's Li and Miao peoples, marked island wide and centred in the central mountains.
- Hainan Island Carnival Recently mid July to mid August; check dates
The island wide tourism festival with 50 plus events. Earlier editions ran in late November, so confirm current dates.
- Dragon Water Festival Around the Dragon Boat Festival, usually June
Hainan's local variant, when everyone heads to the sea or a river to bathe in dragon water for the year's health.
- National Day Golden Week 1 to 7 October
Haikou at its fullest and priciest. The old town and night markets are tremendous, and the hotels are not cheap.
- Chinese New Year Late January to February, Spring Festival
Peak winter escape crowds and hotel prices in Haikou, festive in the old town and expensive at the resorts.
Best things to do in Haikou
Qilou Old Street
Haikou's arcade shophouse old town, built by returned overseas Chinese, best walked in the morning and again lit up at night.
Cloudscape of Haikou
MAD's white concrete library on the bay, a carved cave of reading rooms whose openings frame the sunset over the strait.
Hainan Museum
The free provincial museum that explains the whole island, from volcanoes and Li and Miao cultures to the Qilou builders.
Temple of the Five Lords
A red temple garden honouring five exiled officials who founded Hainan's literate culture, best visited with the story read first.
Tomb of Hai Rui
The quiet, formal tomb garden of Hai Rui, the Ming official who became China's symbol of the incorruptible mandarin.
Evergreen Park
Haikou's front lawn on the bay, where the city flies kites, dances and walks at sunset between Guomao and Century Bridge.
Baishamen Park
The locals' beach park on Haidian Island, a wide pale sand shore for swimming, digging and watching Haikou at leisure.
Movie Town Haikou
A full scale film set town of 1940s streets near Mission Hills, the non golfer's half of a resort day, best after dark.
Where to stay in Haikou
Old Town / Qilou
first timers and eaters
Walk to Zhongshan Road, breakfast noodles and Dad Tea halls without a taxi, with the snack streets as your neighbourhood.
Guomao / Haikou Bay
all round best base
The CBD waterfront with the deepest hotel bench, Evergreen Park at the door and easy rides to Qilou, the bay sights and the airport.
West Coast / Holiday Beach
resort bolt-on
Spacious resort hotels with pools and hot springs on Holiday Beach, undercutting city luxury prices, 25 to 30 minutes from the sights.
Mission Hills
golfers
A self contained resort town of ten courses, springs and Movie Town, 20 minutes south near the airport, with stay and play pricing.
Think twice about
- West Coast / Holiday Beach
As a sole sightseeing base it strands you 25 to 30 minutes from every city sight with little to walk to. Fine as a resort stay only.
- Jiangdong New Area
A new Free Trade Port business district of towers and construction with little for a leisure visitor to walk out to in the evening yet.
- Meilan Airport area
Competent airport hotels for a late arrival or early departure only, with nothing around them and the city half an hour away.
Best restaurants in Haikou
Tin Lung Heen
Haikou's splurge table, Cantonese fine dining at the Ritz Carlton applying tasting menu polish to Hainanese ingredients.
Heng Xing Fa
The laoba cha hall that explains Haikou, all day tea and dim sum rounds in a huge, noisy, gloriously local room.
Ju Fu An Traditional Laobacha
The Guomao side Dad Tea institution, counters and steamers from early morning in a traditional Haikou tea hall.
Fuyuan Wenchang Chicken Restaurant
The old town's Wenchang chicken address, gently poached bird with ginger calamansi dip and rice cooked in the broth.
Grandpa's Coconut Chicken
The polished coconut chicken hot pot, a Wenchang chicken simmered at the table in pure fresh coconut water.
Banqiao Seafood Square
Buy live seafood at the market stalls and have the dai pai dong kitchens cook it your way for a processing fee.
Hainan University South Gate Night Market
Haikou's best night market, student priced stalls for Qingbuliang, zaopo cu noodles, grilled oysters and tropical fruit.
Qilou Snack Street
The whole Hainan canon under one arcade roof by Qilou, the easy first night graze of noodles, Qingbuliang and chicken rice.
Outdoor things to do in Haikou
Mission Hills Haikou - Blackstone Course
Asia scale tournament golf over black lava, 7,808 yards through lychee trees and wetlands, the crown course of ten at Mission Hills.
Mission Hills Haikou - Lava Fields Course
Blackstone's lava sibling, similarly dramatic and a notch less severe, the round repeat golf groups enjoy most per yuan.
Haikou Volcanic Cluster Global Geopark
Climb a dormant crater rim for the Haikou panorama, then descend into its cool, forested floor and walk a lava tunnel.
Dongzhai Port Mangrove Reserve
China's largest mangrove forest, a sea forest of boardwalks and boat channels that peaks with winter migratory birds.
Haikou Bay
Cycle the flat palm lined bay promenade from Evergreen Park past the Cloudscape and Sky Mountain toward the West Coast.
Holiday Beach
Haikou's main developed beach, a 6 km West Coast strip for late afternoon swimming and low tide beachcombing by the pier.
Hainan Tropical Wildlife Park and Botanical Garden
Haikou's family day out, a safari bus and walk through tropical park pairing big animals with rainforest botanical gardens.
Mission Hills Volcanic Mineral Springs
A vast volcanic mineral springs complex at Mission Hills, dozens of themed hot pools for an evening soak after golf or the crater.
Best hotels in Haikou
The Ritz-Carlton, Haikou
Haikou's flagship luxury hotel, a clubhouse style stay overlooking the Blackstone course with pool villas and a serious spa.
InterContinental Haikou Seaview
The city luxury pick, a seafront tower by Century Bridge where every room angles at the strait and the sunset.
The Langham, Haikou
The insider's Guomao address, a polished Langham 350 metres from Evergreen Park with Cantonese dining and a spa.
Hilton Haikou
The practical Guomao workhorse inside Hainan's tallest building, with high floor rooms and a bay panorama as standard.
Sheraton Haikou Hotel
The West Coast's best value resort, beachfront on Holiday Beach with tropical grounds, pools and eight hot spring pools.
Mission Hills Resort Haikou
The resort's own big hotel, huge golf view rooms with the springs and water park on the doorstep at half the Ritz price.
Hampton by Hilton Haikou Guomao
Haikou's reliable cheap tier in the CBD, a Hilton select service hotel walking distance from Evergreen Park and the bay.
Totoro Spirit Hotel (Haikou Qilou Old Street Jiefangxi Branch)
A small themed budget hotel steps from Qilou, loved by solo travellers for kind staff, quiet rooms and tiny prices.
Is Haikou expensive? What a day costs
| Budget | CN¥350 a person |
|---|---|
| Classic | CN¥850 a person |
| Splurge | CN¥2,800 a person |
A day of food, drink, sights and getting around, before the room
What to book ahead
- Cloudscape of Haikou: a few days ahead
- Hainan Museum: a few days ahead
- Mission Hills Haikou - Blackstone Course: weeks ahead
- Mission Hills Haikou - Lava Fields Course: a few days ahead
- The Ritz-Carlton, Haikou: weeks ahead
- Tin Lung Heen: a few days ahead
- The Cloudscape library is free but reservation only in timed slots, and weekend slots go days ahead. It closes on Mondays.
- Hainan Museum is free but needs a reservation through its official WeChat route. Bring your passport.
- Book Blackstone tee times days to weeks ahead in the October to March season, ideally in a stay and play package.
- Reserve Tin Lung Heen and top Guomao hotels ahead around Chinese New Year and Golden Week.
Is Haikou safe?
- Haikou has no neighbourhood a visitor needs to fear. Standard care with belongings in crowded markets covers almost everything.
- Typhoons from summer to autumn can close flights, ferries and outdoor sights for a day or two. Check forecasts in season.
- Schedule the crater and bike rides for the morning. Midday heat and humidity punish exertion for much of the year.
- Take mosquito repellent seriously at the volcano park and the mangrove reserve.
Haikou travel tips: tourist traps to skip
- Do not come to Haikou for the beach. The bay is strait water off a working port city, pleasant locally but no tropical postcard.
- Decline the friendly tea invitation near the wildlife park entrance, a repeated reviewer warning ending in an inflated bill.
- At seafood squares, confirm the per jin price, the cooking fee and the total before anything is weighed or cooked.
- Bargain on renovated Qilou souvenir streets, and do not let Movie Town substitute for the real Qilou Old Street.
Getting around Haikou: public transport and more
- Haikou has no metro. Use DiDi, set up Alipay and WeChat Pay before arrival, and navigate with Amap rather than Google Maps.
- At Meilan Airport, DiDi pickups happen at the designated DiDi parking area, not at the terminal kerb.
- High speed trains link Haikou to Sanya in about 1 to 1.5 hours and to Wenchang in about 20 minutes.
- Rent a car only for the volcano, Mission Hills and Dongzhai triangle. City days are easier on foot and by DiDi.
Who Haikou suits
| Solo travellers | Good |
|---|---|
| Groups of friends | Great |
| Couples | Good |
| Bachelor parties | Good |
| Families | Great |
| Bachelorette parties | OK |
Make Haikou your trip
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