Hotel and rooms were clean - every day room service
Hotel's pool is quite small, but it was OK for me as I was there just twice. Most of the time I spend on a hotel's beach – beautiful sea and beach, free sun umbrellas and beads but you need to get up earlier to secure a place for you
Service is available everywhere - hotel, beach, restaurants, pool. Prices are OK
Location of the hotel is best in Sanya (if you prefer not only hotel services) - right on the Dadonghai beach, several local restaurants around, shopping center (200m), grocery store (100m), massage (50m), fruit market (100m)
Free wifi internet

Cons
Don't expect English speaking hotel staff, they know Chinese and Russian

We stayed at the Pearl River Garden Hotel in July 2009 for 6 nights. We stayed on the 7th floor, which had fantastic views over Dadonghai Bay. The hotel was generally disappointing, but for the low price we paid, it was probably value for money.

We were on a non-smoking floor, which is unusual for China, but did have a laugh when I noticed there were 2 ashtrays in the room! There were a couple of smokers on the floor, but it wasn’t too annoying as they were nowhere near us. The room was a little dated, but a not too bad. There was a nice balcony – good for drying clothes, which is what everyone seemed to do. The bathroom was quite spacious. There was very little storage space at all for our clothes (I lived out of my suitcase the whole time - very irritating), and the bed was as hard as a rock. Even sitting on it while watching TV was painful, and I woke up every night with a sore back or hips. I did have a laugh at some of the items for purchase in the room – condoms in both the bedroom and bathroom – thought we were staying in a brothel for a minute!! There is only one English speaking show on TV – BBC World – so we were glad we bought a portable DVD player which we plugged into the TV (which was an older style one).

The humidity of Sanya is incredibly high, and as a result, all of the rooms and the hotel have a very musty smell. The pool was quite small, but was big enough to cool down in, and there was always a lounge available when we went down there in the mornings, even if it was a little bit of a distance away from the pool. Pool towels were in your room, which you had to take down to the pool every day, which was a bit annoying. It did get really busy later in the day when it was a bit cooler, but we always went down there in the morning after breakfast and left by 1pm as it was too hot.

Breakfast was an interesting experience. You had to get your own crockery, cutlery, as well as tea and coffee, which is something I haven’t experienced before in a hotel - buffet food and buffet tableware. Getting a table could be a challenge at times. I would describe it as a bit of a scrum as it was just so busy, with people scrambling for food like they hadn’t eaten before! The bakery items were always nice, but would be in short supply if you went close to the end of breakfast time of 10am.

The hotel is close to shops and many restaurants, which is a bonus. There were a variety of places to eat and drink in close proximity. Hardly anyone spoke English, only Chinese and Russian (the area is a very popular holiday destination for the Russians; you feel like you are in Moscow sometimes). This wasn’t a problem as we were able to communicate a bit by pointing at pictures and trying a bit of Chinese, and a few menus had something written in English. There was a lovely Thai restaurant in front of the Resort Intime that we went to a couple of times.

The hotel staff were OK. The front desk staff spoke a little English and we didn’t have any problems with them. The staff during breakfast were surly and very unfriendly. The housekeeping staff usually had a smile and were always happy to hand out extra tea bags and towels.

The biggest turn off with regards to the hotel was the noise. It was never ending. The bars along the foreshore in front of the hotel started pounding out the music from 7am and it didn’t stop until around 2am. The hotel is in front of the busiest part of the beach so there was always people-noise during the day, but the music was incredibly annoying because it went on and on. The hotel is also next to the bus depot, with buses dropping off people at the beach or the scuba school all day and night. Bus drivers really like tooting their horns when they arrive at the depot and when they leave. The noise from the amusement fair in the park next to the bus depot was also incredibly loud, but that closed at around 11pm.

The big plus of the hotel was that it was incredibly cheap. The views were great from the 7th floor (you paid extra to stay on the top 2 floors, worth the money) and the hotel was near a variety of restaurants and shops.

We cut our stay at the Pearl River and moved to the Mandarin Oriental resort about 3-4kms away, which was totally stunning and we glad that we finished off the last 3 days of our holiday there as it was so relaxing and quiet.

Our experience at this hotel is highly disappointing. We arrived quite late (due to a plane delay) to the doorman sleeping on the luggage carrier. He opened his eyes a wink and went back to sleep! Most of the lights were off and we did not feel very welcome but I thought that was just because it was so late. However, each day when going the pool in the afternoon we also found the lights to be off in the resturant area. The hotel had an old smell too it but did seem clean. Our sheets however were spotted and not changed each day even though we do not leave the "do not change sheets" sign on the bed as directed. The day before we left our MP3 player and cell phone was stolen out of the bags in our room. When we reported the problem to the desk the only response we received was "we asked the manager, he has not received them". The manager never even came out to speak with us. It was only when we were being charged for the insurance fee later in the day upon towel return to receive our deposit back that any attention at all was paid to the problem. We questioned what the insurance was for since our items were stolen and the manager atleast came to ask a couple of questions. Just our phone number was taken incase they turned up. The grounds of the hotel are not bad and it has quite a nice view however we would not stay here again!

I stayed with my husband at the Pearl River Garden Hotel seven nights during the Christmas 2007. I definitely can recommend the hotel since it is in a very good location and the rooms are clean and nice. The beach is just in front of the hotel and there are sunbeds and sunshades reserved for the hotel guests. But be quick – the Russian tourists “reserve” the sunbeds with their towels early in the morning. If you prefer quieter scene (the beach is quite lively), the pool area is okay too.

We stayed in the highest floor almost in the middle of the hotel – so the views were great! So do pay some extra for the Deluxe Sea View Room (floors 7-8), which according to my understanding have been newly decorated in 2006. And take the breakfast, which is a mixture of Western and Chinese food (at least I always consider that a good breakfast is a big plus).

Not all of the hotel personnel speak English, but there is always at least one person at the reception, who can understand Western letters/writing and speak English.

We booked our hotel room through eLong (a Chinese travel agency, [--]). We also booked our flights from Shanghai to Sanya through eLong. They have English speaking personnel and the service is good. Also, the prices they offered seemed lower compared to the other agencies.

In general, Sanya is a good place to spend your holiday, if you just want to relax and take it easy on the beach. Definitely different “beach culture” than in Europe – the Chinese holidaymakers enjoy the beach life at maximum. They bury each other in the sand and swim all day through. And one thing to add, when they crowd the near restaurants they generally wear Hawaiian outfits (shirts and shorts with the same pattern). Loved it all – Sanya and the people!

But when coming to Sanya, be prepared to that very few people speak English. Generally, there is one person per restaurant who can speak English (and not very well normally). So it is good, if you take an English-Chinese dictionary with you – then you can just point the relevant word in Chinese letters and you will be understood! We used the Mandarin Phrasebook by Lonely Planet, which was handy considering its size and its uselfull vocabulary.