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.