We arrived at the Crowne Hainan having driven miles away from civilisation. The entrance was nice as you drive in and the staff are reasonably helpful, though their level of English comprehension was very limited.

The interior of the resort looks like it came from the 1980's while the exterior of the main building appears unmaintained for the past 20 years, with yellow stains all over. The two large apartment blocks aside the hotel appeared to be derelict and in decay. The rooms themselves were reasonably large and clean and gave no problems. Unfortunately there were events in the main courtyard which were incredibly noisy.

The problems began when checking the prices for any services. Apart from the gym which was free, if you wanted to do play tennis, go to the spa, etc., the prices were astronomical given the 2 Star environment that the hotel clearly portrayed. In the main lobby, there is a upmarket-style store that sells 'Aqounsenton' branded clothing/handbags/shoes at full London Aquascutum prices.

In summary, since we arrived in the early evening we stayed overnight and the next morning checked into the Sheraton Haikou for the rest of the trip. The prices for services were similar, but the environment and location was many classes above the Crowne, and thus well worth the additional price.

Good points: Large rooms, well specified gym, decent beach, helpful staff.

Bad points: Many miles from anything, ugly everywhere except for the beach, extras are expensive, derelict surrounding buildings, poor lighting, generally poor management.

I have been working in Hainan from Sep 2006 - June 2008, and treated myself and my GF to two weekends away here.

Price wise, I would suggest NOT booking this hotel from your own country. One of my weekend trips here was during a Chinese National Holiday, yet we still only paid 666RMB, for an upgraded sea view room, two free spa treatments, two buffet breakfasts, and a BBQ all you can eat and drink. (cost is for one night - two people)

I also cant believe the spa is the biggest in China, let alone the world as claimed. The indoor spa itself only has a few pools, and none with coconut milk and so on as you may find in other resorts in Hainan.

The hotel itself is nice enough, and the food was good. A close inspection of the hotel and you will notice peeling paints etc.

Also, each time I have been here...the KTV rooms, bar, and swim up bar was closed, and the pool looks like it should be cleaned a little more often.

Its location is fairly remote...if you come here for a week, there really isnt anything to walk to from here...no shops, no other entertainment...but they do run a courtesy bus to Haikou.

For me, a resident for some time on the Island...its a nice place to visit for a night or two...but any discerning travellers fro EU or USA would be very upset to have paid a lot of money and travelled here I think...there just isnt enough to do, and its very average compared to the beauty of the Med for example.

And the spa massage treatments are wildly over-priced I think...A decent foot massage for an hour in Haikou would be around 30RMB...its 300 at the hotel!

If you live/work in Hainan...yeah go there...but dont travel 6000 miles to this place for your once in a lifetime holiday...

We stayed at the Crown Spa Resort, Haikou in July 2007. We exchanged our timeshare accommodation and went to the tropical island of Hainan having stayed in Beijing for 3 days. The flight from Beijing to Haikou took about 3.5 hours and was with China Southern Airlines.

We had booked our internal flights withthe internet company CTRIP which I can recommend highly. The tickets were delivered by courier to our hotel in Beijing and paid for by cash.

On arrival at haikou Airport we took a taxi to the hotel which took about 20 minutes at a cost of about £5.00p.

The Hotel itself is situated about 15 minutes from Haikou City Centre and is in an area currently being developed by various holiday firms.I would suggest having the details of the hotel printed in chinese to show the taxi driver as very very little english is spoken.

Upon arrival at the Crown Spa our first impressions were "Wow". We were met personally by the manager who escorted us to our room which was a two bedroom unit with sea views.

Our room was stunning. Each bedroom had an ensuite, we had a living area two televisions with various english channels. My son was also happy as we had a PC with internet access also in the living area.

The hotel has a massive pool which has been described as having green water. We didnt find this to be the case, it was clean. I believe the green colour actually comes from the reflection of the tiles. The resort is situated on a very quiet beach which again is very clean. I would warn people however that the sea doesnt look very inviting and their is an obvious jelly fish problem. Stick to the pool!

The Crown Spa has 4 restaurants. A chinese which serves some very authentic and interesting dishes. A noodle bar where fresh noodles are prepared before your eyes, a general restaurant where breakfast is served and a BBQ restaurant where every Saturday night they have a Brazilian style BBQ where you offered numerous items of food to eat. This is extremely cheap and very good.

The hotel obviously prides itself on its Spa. It hold the Guiness world record for the largest indoor spa. We tried the fish treatment. This consists of immersing yourself in a very warm spa and then being nibbled by 1000's of tiny fish. The fish basically exfoliate your skin. Try it, it was hilarious and a wonderful experience!

If you need anything at the hotel or from downtown, seek out Raymond, the guest services manager. He will sort any problems out for you and arrange trips etc etc.

A free shuttle service is also provided by the resort which takes guests into the city of Haikou.

We tended to get the shuttle in most evening and then grab a taxi to food street where all the restaurants are found. Again Raymond wrote the street name for us in Chinese which helped when getting a taxi.

The City is a vibrant place and very very busy. Any car journey is an experience and not for the faint hearted.

The restaurants are very very good and extremely cheap. Much much cheaper than Beijing. On average we ate out as a family of three every night, with a drink or two each for less than £5.00 between us.

One thing to get used to is the way the locals would stop and stare at you and take photographs etc etc. Dont be offended by this, Haikou is not visited by many westerners. The main holiday spot of the island is some 200 miles south.

Overall I would highly recommend this Hotel and area and would not hesitate to visit again one day.

This was a nice, relaxing place that had the kindest staff. I loved my room, I loved the beach, and all of the amenities were great.

They have the strangest thing in their spa: a pool where fish nibble at your skin for some sort of exfoliating effect. I didn't try that one! :)

Anyway, I would definitely recommend this place.

We've just returned from a really good 13 night stay here.

Our initial impression was rather mixed as there are limitations to the English-speaking skills of some of the staff, however the hotel is very keen to attract more international visitors and has just started in-house English lessons for all staff.

Despite the language barrier the staff here are fantastic, there are always lots of them around & they are always very keen to help. The bedrooms are adequate but the housekeeping was outstanding - immaculately clean rooms, fresh flowers on your pillow every night & towels changed twice a day if necessary.

There is a good choice of restaurants & the food was always excellent & very reasonable priced. We loved watching noodles made from scratch in the open-kitchen noodle bar. There's also a more formal Chinese restaurant, an outdoor barbeque & a Western restaurant and we had great food from all of them.

We struggled with the lack of air conditioning in the lobby but I suspect this is only a problem during the very humid summer - I'd advise travelling in spring or autumn.

The pool area is good - a nice big infinity pool with loads of space around it. The beach is nice, although as one of the previous reveiws mentions the water isn't clear. It was great to walk down a really quiet beach & spot all the tiny crabs scurrying around.

The truly outstanding part of this resort is the spa. We had 6 treatments each! These take place in lovely villas & the quality of the treatments & the villas rival the top hotels. The really individual part of the spa is the fish therapy pool. Basically in the hot & cold pool area one of the pools is full of tiny fish. The idea is to lie in the water & the fish come and nibble away all your dry skin & impurities - they love hands & feet which make this officially the most ticklish experience of your life! A very strange but really enjoyable experience.

The hotel runs a shuttle bus service about 6 times a day into Haikou itself. This is a rapidly developing city and has a mixture of new modern tower blocks and older run down buildings. It was an interesting place to visit with plenty of good shops to browse and lots of restaurants - including all the typical western junk food chains!

We also went on a day-tour of the local villages which was really interesting & I'd definitely recommend it as a way to get a great insight into the local culture & history. The hotel can arrange this for you. You'll have to pay extra for an English-speaking guide but you need to do that to understand the sights.

Overall we really enjoyed our stay here & would recommend it for anyone with an adventurous spirit.

As a teacher on Hainan I used to go to CP for R and R from the interior. The facilities are great but the big plus of this hotel is teh friendliness and professionalism of the staff..... I would heartily recommend this place to anyone...The beach is great too, and while the water is not clear as in Sanya and the south coast, it is great to swim in.