The Ritz-Carlton Sanya, Yalong Bay

The spa at The Ritz-Carlton Sanya Yalong Bay 5* left a very positive impression on me. The atmosphere is tranquil and elegant, and the facilities are clean, comfortable and well designed.

The staff were extremely friendly and courteous throughout my visit. They were tactful, respectful and attentive to details, which made me feel truly cared for. It was easy to communicate in English, so I could clearly explain my preferences and ask questions without any difficulty.

The spa offers a wide range of programs, including different types of massages, body treatments and relaxation rituals, so it is simple to choose something that fits your needs. I was very satisfied with the quality of the services: the therapists were professional, and after the treatment I felt deeply relaxed, refreshed and full of energy.

Excellent resort location with a spectacular view from most rooms, but my favourite is the poolside with a Jacuzzi; it's like a Chiang Mai feeling and very enjoyable.

Last but not least, the team member did very well, like Alison's flexibility to change the best room to me, Jay from the Club lounge remembered my name to greet me every morning, and provided my favourite drinks when I dropped by.

Thank you for providing excellent service during my stay, it's worth coming back again. By the way, don't miss the reserve poolside room.

Edwin

We spent a wonderful week at Ritz Carlton Yalong Bay.
Special thanks to Tatyana, who helped us a lot as from the beginning to feel comfortable, arrange things and find the best day trips. Her kindness and support was extremely helpful!
Our room had a beautiful view of the sea, was extremely nice, spacious, comfortable & stylish. Breakfast was delicious and as of great variety. We usually chose from the plenty of tasty Chinese food.
For dinner we liked the Chinese restaurant the most. The Cantonese duck was the most tasty.
Pool area is huge and beautiful. Beach in front of the hotel is only for sun beds but not for swimming. However, a 100 m away there is a designated area for swimming.
We made several day trips to tropical forest areas (Yalong Forest Park, Yanoda Rainforest Park), Nanshan Temple Complex, Sanya City with the First (night) Market, Wuzhizhou Island, etc.. All were adventures and very interesting.

You need to prepare yourself with a good translator app as to find English speaker people is challenging. Downloading Alipay is also recommended, everyone uses it for payment.
On the other hand if you are well prepared and like adventure, you will enjoy exploring this beautiful island.

Another stop of our 3 weeks tour of china
On Hainan island , sanya is,a resort beach
First we got contacted before arrival , by a member of hospitality team , Allison ,
She arranged for us a great upgrade with Seaview and terrace
This hotel is magnificent and the staff is extremely attentive
After a,day ( we stayed 5 days )
mostly all greeted us by name
My companion went daily to yoga or taichi
Or special health club assistant
Food is great , room service impeccable
And Allison is a whatsapp away , if needed
Also you get free WiFi and on this island you can connect to whatsapp and gmail

Superb hotel in a lovely tropical location. All staff were as warm as the weather. We loved having cocktails by the pool during our 4 night stay there. Sofia restaurant was really delicious as well.

As a Marriott Ambassador member for nearly 10 years, I am extremely disappointed with my stay at The Ritz-Carlton Sanya.

I have stayed here several times over the years and previously found the property acceptable, but sadly, not anymore. Frankly, I am surprised Marriott continues to allow the Ritz-Carlton brand on this property, especially if it is indeed Marriott-managed.

Property & Condition

The hotel feels tired and neglected. It is obvious the owners are not reinvesting, and the property is simply being milked. The beach, once enjoyable for swimming, is now badly eroded with rocks and stones. What was once great for body surfing is now unsafe.

Service & Staff

Since arrival, I have not met a single staff member who speaks English. Every interaction has been through translation apps. While this may work at a mid-tier property, for a Ritz-Carlton it is completely unacceptable. Hospitality should be about warmth and connection—here it feels robotic and distant.

Check-in was another low point: I arrived late at night, the receptionist had her head on the desk, popped up when I approached, and said simply “passport.” No greeting, no welcome, no acknowledgment of my Ambassador status, and certainly no warmth. I was handed my key and pointed toward the elevator. No welcome amenity in the room either, which is standard at this level.

Club Lounge & Dining

I booked the Club Level expecting Ritz-Carlton standards. Instead, I found the food and beverage offerings mediocre, with limited selections. Drinks are kept in a tiny, dorm-style refrigerator with a broken door—everything is warm. This is embarrassing for a property of this brand.

At breakfast, scrambled eggs required multiple attempts via translation apps before staff finally understood. A simple bilingual menu in English and Mandarin would solve this instantly. On another morning, when I asked for more orange juice, the server picked up my half-full glass to “see what it was,” then placed it back on the table. This is not luxury service.

Value

I am spending over 11,000 RMB for three nights, and the experience is nowhere near worth it. The property is overpriced, under serviced, and simply not representative of the Ritz-Carlton or Marriott standards.

Final Observation

I am not trying to critique for the sake of being critical—I am observing, and I hope someone in Marriott leadership cares. On property, unfortunately, it feels like nobody does.

For foreigners seeking a luxury Ritz-Carlton experience, this is not the place. It is overpriced, poorly serviced, unimpressive, and fails to live up to the brand.

Beautiful hotel, the staff were super friendly and attentive and the food was fabulous. Got to talk to the head chef Stuart, attention is o detail seems to be a speciality at the hotel, we will definitely be back in the near future. The gardens were a real feature on the restaurant terrace with a welcome breeze

Had a great time at the Ritz Carlton, the room was spacious with an amazing view. Staff was friendly, food was delicious. Had a complimentary photo and video shoot on the beach, 思思~ was very talented and almost all photos came out beautifully. Highly recommended!

“I had a fantastic stay! The room was spotless, the staff were incredibly friendly.
The views from the room were lovely and peaceful. 🍃 🏖
The hotel area is gorgeous 😍😍
Overall, I highly recommend this hotel for your next travel adventure!”

we had a delightful dinner at sofia restaurant. Italian food was so so so delicious . we friends enjoying a lots. Perfect service , very attentive and friendly staff. Ambience is beautiful. The way they setup their tables .The outside view from the sofia is just wow 😍……

This is an excellent hotel with magnificent landscaping in traditional Chinese style, three pools (Infinity and two larger ones along the hotel buildings), its own access to the sea, delicious restaurants and very attentive service.

The hotel has an extensive breakfast menu - a large buffet, mostly with Chinese food; four restaurants (Chinese, Italian, seafood and BBQ).

Often there are celebrations - weddings and the like, but this does not interfere with the accommodation and complements the atmosphere of staying at the Ritz-Carlton with a sense of celebration.

I would like to thank the hotel team and staff who made our stay very comfortable and friendly. First of all, I would like to thank the team of office staff - Tatiana and Dave, who helped us to overcome the language barrier and helped with all our requests in good Russian and English.

I would also like to thank the Lady helping us with the organization of breakfasts - Violet, her attentiveness and good English also helped us to understand the unusual for Europeans cuisine.

Of course, and other teams work very responsibly - one of the few vacations where I have no significant remarks to the place of accommodation even among 5*.

Thank you!

Hard to find somebody who speaks English. Beach is all rocks have to go other hotels to swim. Dinning is limited.

The service was fantastic, starting from the beach boys/girls and to the cleaning staff - everyone has been extremely helpful, attentive to our needs and diligent about our water safety. It would have helped if the staff could speak better English, but we were able to communicate just fine without it using Google Translate.

The territory is very well taken care of and full of greenery. The rooms were always clean and comfortable. The two pools were beautiful and very peaceful - it felt like there was barely anyone there, so we were able to have a very calm time by the pool.

Most importantly, we were blown away by one of the hotel staff members - Tatyana! She provided us with a wonderful welcome and was extremely responsive to all our queries. She has also shown exemplary professionalism and empathy all throughout our stay. All in all, she was incredibly friendly, extroverted and helpful - we will miss her very dearly!

Hotel is lovely- and certainly appears to be on the best swimming beach in Sanya.Lagoon rooms have cozy patios and allow you to swim out in the lagoon (long and winding and beautifully landscaped pool) directly from your room.

Breakfast quality was not up to par- huge quantities of so so food. Plenty of filling carbs but long wait for made to order omelets and very crowded and loud.

Sofia- the on-site Italian restaurant- provided delicious food - tasty , creamy burrsta salad, tender perfectly cooked steak, excellent fresh seared foie gras and superb service.

Best part of our stay was Annie- a personal butler assigned to us who was extremely professional, efficient and kind. She was very responsive not only to our questions but went above and beyond to address our concerns (ie breakfast issues, for which food manager reached out to not only understand the problems but to make it up to us with a quiet delicious breakfast on our final morning). Annie consistently messaged to ensure our stay was up to expectations and as a result we thoroughly enjoyed our visit.

If you love the beach and ocean swimming, and if you can have Annie as your liaison, would highly recommend the Ritz Carlton. Seems to be particularly good for young children as well!

This is our 14th time to stay at the Ritz-Carlton in Sanya. When we first got here our kids were 4 and 6 years of age. Now they are 18 and 20 so we have very fond memories of this hotel. Some of the staff still remember us which make us feel like we are family. Our stay at the Club level has been amazing, the service is exceptional and the quality of the food at the hotel and in particular at the Club level is of the highest quality. The quality of the rooms/room service/amenities/pools etc are of the highest standard.
I have been to many hotels and I think the Ritz-Carlton Sanya is still the best.
I would like to thank Patrick Weder, General Manager, the Chef’s in particular, and all the staff at the Club level for making our stay so enjoyable.

This was our first experience in Sanya - billed as the Chinese Hawaii. Having travelled extensively in China, we were nervous about how good the service would be. We need not have worried.
We booked an Ocean view club room, which was spacious and impeccably clean. On the seventh floor we had a good view of the gardens and the bay with the toing and froing of ships out to sea and water sports nearer to shore. Plenty of complimentary water bottles so no fear of dehydration.
There are two main pools, and we used both. The larger one circles the hotel and you can take a mini canoe and paddle around! The infinity pool at the beach is more traditional and relaxing.
There are four restaurants and all are of a good quality and the service, whilst English may be limited, is keen and if you use a translation app, all is smooth. At reception there are two staff who speak fluent English who can help with any queries.
Restaurant reviews have been provided separately, but the Italian chef looks after you well in 'Sofia' is excellent, the buffet breakfast has a vast selection, 'Sand' provides a relaxed outdoor experience, and the Chinese restaurant 'Pearl' has a fabulous 'mapu tofu'.
The beach at Yalong Bay is several miles long, and there are Western hotels all along it, so if you were here for longer, there are several other restaurants you can try.
One of the top ten golf courses in China, Yalong Bay GC is only 15 minutes walk from the hotel so this is a dream for golfers!

the Hotel is very large and lacks a feeling of Luxury or intimacy;
Stuff and undertrained, English is hardly spoken, and consumption is outrageously expansive;
overall it is an OK hotel but would need a deep renovation and review of conditions and services;
i would not recommend this hotel

Very long check in time, overall understaffed hotel during holiday season

The Ritz carlton is a. huge beachfront resort comprising of several buildings connected by undercover outdoor walkways. The rooms are luxurious and oversized with walk in wardrobe, separate toilet, shower and bathroom.and sofa. The rooms have a mulit function master control panel with electronic curtains. There are many charging stations, control panels, even an inbuilt TV within the mirror in the bathroom( some rooms). Each room has a very comfortable bed, complimentary fruit, generous bottles of water, slippers, TWG tea bags and expresso coffee machine
The gardens are beautiful with many water features. There are several pools , an infinity pool and the larger beach resort pool. Both pools are warm. Sitting at night by the pool listening to the live music is truly relaxing. Breakfast has a huge variety of Western and Asian foods- choices are plentiful!!
We got a gift bag on check out too!!
The only downside would be that staff have limited or no English including reception area. A pity. Otherwise, overseas tourist would truly enjoy staying here.

Very nice hotel