Sanya Blue Sky International Youth Hostel, Sanya

Stayed for 3 days & 2 nights. Rooms are okay for the price you pay. Would be a great lil' place if only it's been kept and tidied up. To keep it simple, below are my experiences during my stay: - Other than the owner Peter, the rest of the staff are practically unfriendly and perpetually stuck to being online without even giving you a proper eye contact and smile when talking to you, unless you are a gwai lo. Being a fellow Chinese myself (abeit being a Banana; yellow outside, white inside), I find being discriminated upon by a person of the same race very disappointing and perplexing. Was hanging out in the lobby checking my mail on my phone using the free WiFi access provided one morning and managed to eaves drop on a couple of conversations between the on duty receptionist and some fellow guest. First guest being a young Englishman wanting the receptionist to call on his behalf to book a trip to the Nantian Hotspring from an outside agent whose rates are cheaper than what the hostel is providing. The receptionist made the call willingly. Second guest, a Swedish lady with some queries about her trips and wanting the same receptionist to make a call on her behalf to another hotel in another state she previously stayed in China requesting for a refund/payment refusal due to her ignorance in Mandarin. Again, the same receptionist obliged and made the call. Third guest, a young Frenchman wanted a refund for his next 2 days of stay and his belongings to be kept by the hostel for the 2 days because he changed his travel plans. The receptionist obliged again and paid him on the spot. When it came to our turn, my friend requested if she could borrow the phone to make a call to a local taxi driver to have him drive us to Nanshan Cultural Park. She turned down our request flatly and said that the phone is only for the use of the hotel and directed us to the public phone in the fruit stall down the lane, outside the hotel. Goes to show if you're of Overseas Chinese descent with halting command of Mandarin, be prepared for some stare down, nil eye contact and some serious attitude. - Badly needs some sprucing up of broken fixtures, fresh coat of paint, proper amenities and serious need of some tidying up. The young stay-in staff are perpetually glued to their computer. The bookshelves, computer area, common washrooms are in a mess. Seems that they are only hired to make sure someone is visible at all times and nothing more. The night receptionist, seriously lacks product knowledge when he told us that the WuzhiShan is near to the Nantian Hotsprings, Thankfully Peter was around and clarified our queries and recommended our travel itinerary/plans for our trip for the day. Again I would reiterate that Peter was a great help but the same could not be said about everyone else in the hostel. - The rooms are adequate and cosy but let down by some little cosmetic damages. A little spruce up would make it truly a better place. - Great location, near to the beach middle of everywhere. If you're travelling in a group of 4, you can practically take the taxi everywhere cheaply. Even a trip to the Nanshan park on a taxi cost only RMB25/p one way. Beats being sardine packed in the public busses for RMB10 for an hour and elbowed by the conductors. - Go to Dolphin Pub across the main street to catch some live sports telecast. Great atmosphere, cheap beer, friendly staff and free WiFi access. Watched and celebrated Liverpool thrashing ManUre!! - Taxi ride to Bar Street is only RMB10 and a great place to enjoy Sanya's nightlife. If you're up to it, it's only a straight stroll down the main road. Hop into Muse for the great music and DJ's. - Noodle shop in the alley leading to the hotel is serves great noodles and steamed dumplings!!! A good clean and friendly place. Don't forget to get a cup of warm soybean milk from the stall across the shop to wash it down :) Hope this review would help both fellow travelers and also the hostel.

Dirty, food is not good at all unlike mentioned in lonely plane, overated.

i enjoyed my stay in this hostel (2 nights) because of the nice staff and the ambiance of serenity of the place. However, like some other comments mention it, the prices are too high for the drinks, the food, or to rent a bike. Don't forget to bring with everything you need !

Since I arrived from North America to live and work in China four+ years ago, I've been visiting and staying at the Sanya Blue Sky resort (as well as others in China) annually. As has been mentioned here Peter and the staff whom work there are very accommodating and supportive of their guests. This hostel is a safe and affordable (aprox.$12-25 usd per night) option to many of the much higher priced, impersonal, resort hotels in the neighborhood -precious few of whom employ English speaking staff. The negative comments about tours and in-house costs for water and refreshments are unfounded and need to be interpreted for what they are: griping by unseasoned travelers whom expect everything for nothing; anyone who's traveled knows that every guest house and m/hotel sells commodities at above retail price. This is hardly grounds for condemning the entire establishment. As for the tours --the hostel simply makes arrangements for guests with agencies -given the language and cultural differences not to mention the arrogant attitude of some travelers there's bound to be misunderstandings sometimes. I've personally taken tours through Blue Sky 3 or 4 times (including diving) without any issues. This last spring (2008) the entire 40 year+ old hostel was renovated which means it's undergone a serious face lift. The comments about cleanliness which appear here are no longer relevant. I'm confident that those whom choose Sanya Blue Sky Hostel with the understanding that they are staying at a small, friendly, family run guest house not a 5 star resort will not be disappointed and eagerly return in the future.... ~Sean Tm

The staff will miss no opportunity to take your money from you. Their "discount" tours are very expensive and ill-planned. We went on a SCUBA and snorkelling trip, and they said we wouldn't go on the snorkelling, and refused to give us any type of discount. I had to argue with Peter, the douchebag owner, for two hours while he dropped lines like: "The snorkelling was just a free extra" and "did you write up a contract?" In the end we were only able to get 30RMB back. When we finally got around to diving, we were shocked to find out that the fee does not include fins!!! They wanted a 600RMB deposit. What backpacker carries that much on him?! The "SCUBA diving" is actually just floating while some dude pushes you under at the sparatic appearance of one fish.

I stayed here for 2 weeks, first in a single room and then I transfered to a dorm room to save money. The new supersoft ikea beds assure a good night's sleep. The dorm room was cleaner then usual for dorms but the single room could have been cleaner; as per other cooments dont look under the bed! The staff really made this hostel for me, both Peter and the reception girls are extremely friendly and helpful, and for me anyway, always provided good accurate travel advice. The rooms may appear overpriced compared with mainland China, but I found the whole of Sanya more expensive, including food etc The food is overpriced but there is a good chinese style resturant 2 doors up on the same side of the road as the hostel which serves excellent food at cheap prices, and with an English menu!

I disliked the quality of service. The staff was very friendly but gave me incorrect information multiple times and made me change rooms in the middle of my stay due to misinformation; then, they charged me more for a room of inferior quality. The manager refused to compensate or admit any responsability for his staff's mistakes and I ended up getting the bad end of the deal every time. Bad management. The food was also terrible and a little expensive.

The staff at Blue Sky is highly praised in reviews, and to that I concur. The owner, Peter, and the reception girls all provide very good service in very good English. The chef is also ok, but I didn´t quite like the big dead fly coming out of the jam bottle when having toast. The atmosphere is also very nice for young or young-at-heart backpackers. I guess it is very easy to find friends for the lone traveller at Blue Sky. However, I cut my stay at Blue Sky short because the rooms are not up to par. The furniture is obviously from a torn-down-80s hotel, and the bed is hard as stone. The rooms and the bedlinen are shabby. On the plus-side, the room has AC. The hostel provides beer, breakfast, internet etc etc to prices rather cheap from a Western point of view. However, the same things can be bought at half-price just a minute up the road. In conclusion, I think the Blue Sky is a very good choice if you are out for expat-backpacker- beer- drinking and making friends with foreign travellers. If you are looking for a good room, chose something better for the same price or something similar to half the price. I wouldn´t stay there again, but that is because I am old and well-paid. :-) For a backpacker in China, I would recommend at least a couple of nights there. Families and friends of comfy hotel rooms, stay away!