Almaty-Beijing-Sanya
I am writing for those who want to go to Beijing for the first time and for those who are thinking whether to go to Hainan or not. In Beijing, we booked Lee Garden Apartment for 2 days before and 2 days after Hainan. Family type hotel. took a suite: 2 bedrooms, living room, kitchen, 2 bathrooms. The rooms have everything, including a coffee maker, washing machine, stove and ironing board, refrigerator. Breakfast is poor until 10am. All beds are double beds, no separate beds. A lot of furniture is unknown why: cabinets, shelves, armchairs, poufs, sofas, tables. Located in the city center. Near the bank, opposite the Novotel hotel, around the corner is a grocery store, to the left of the entrance is a 6-storey store with McDonald's on the 2nd floor, on the left is a pedestrian shopping street, by taxi in the direction to the right 5-7min. to yabalou, min. 10 to silk. market. For a family of 4-5 people. The room is very suitable, especially with small children. In March it is cold outside, in the rooms. Take warm clothes. Paid in Almaty, along with transfers, 2 excursions (total 126 dollars in s-travel). Viewing the Chinese Wall can be taken. Olympic facilities + area are not worth it. On excursions they are constantly forced to go to different shops (silk, pearls, tea). My advice is to be as cunning as they are: refer to something and refuse, or get in and out quickly. Don't buy anything if you want to save money. Everything there is 3-4 times more expensive than in ordinary stores. They gave us tea for 350, in the store it's 80. Milk tea 125yu, in the store 65yu. Pearl brooches supposedly made of silver 240yu, starting 80yu on the market. Etc. Silk blankets $100 approximately. In general, if you quickly get rid of the guide with his factories, there will be time to walk around the city and it will be much cheaper to buy what you like. Haggle even in large stores. To say they are overpriced is an understatement. I bought practically nothing. Their good things cost the same as ours, but they sell bad things at the price of good ones very skillfully. It's not worth going to Yabalou at all. There are wholesale boutiques for wholesalers. You can go to the silk market if you have a lot of time, strong nerves, and an urgent need for clothes. There they grab hands, invite them, they obsessively sell, a crowd of people, prices are called something like this: 500, and in the end they sell for 50. If you bargain, they shout, call names, are rude. Circus natural. We went to look on the advice of the guide, bought 2 leather jackets for $ 80 and lost a lot of time. We were in Hainan in 2006.2009 before this trip. More and more disappointing each time. We went to the Taiji clinic for treatment, so we put up with it. If you have a choice of holidays between Hainan and Thailand, choose the latter unambiguously. The weather was cold, wind, rain, overcast, the water in the pools and the sea was cold. Everything is getting more expensive, including food, treatment, taxis, excursions. Aegean Conifer suites is a family-run hotel located in Yalunwan, line 1, opposite Palm and Cactus (line 2). The sandy beach is narrow, bordering on the public, sun loungers are almost near the water, several pools, one of them would be panoramic if not planted with greenery between it and the sea. They took a suite without a view - they have corner rooms, spacious, on the 1-2 floor. On the 1st floor there is a swimming pool. Overlooking approx. $50 more per day. Looked not corner suites with sea views - they are smaller. The room had 2 bedrooms, a living room with an open kitchen, 2 bathrooms, a large balcony with a jacuzzi bath (so-so idea). The room has everything you need, washing machine, asked-gave an ironing board. Breakfast is normal Chinese, sometimes there were not enough tables. We ordered dinner from a restaurant, it was expensive and they brought small prawns instead of king prawns, instead of a chef's salad - two "Caesars" from the same leaves. In general, we think stupid tourists and rip off insolently. The hotel is cozy, reminiscent of Egyptian. We watched Horizon (the beach is better, but uncomfortable) and Mandarin (no-slab sandy beach). we went to Cactus, Palm Branch - 2nd line and that says it all. Restaurants by taxi (70th) 30min. in Dadonghai or Sanya, 5 min. in Crown Plaza. For 12 days, nothing good was found. Russian taverns - a parody, the bill is 100 dollars. at 4. Chinese bistro horror. Amazon BBQ is just unsanitary complete. The noodle restaurant is complete crap. We ate ice cream at McDonald's for 3 yuan and it was a real pleasure, we went to Amando barbecue. In general, there is nothing to catch there (normal pearls are terribly expensive, there is no food and it has become expensive, seafood is becoming less and less, fruits are not very good, Chinese guides are clever craftsmen to sell "let's go there, I don't know where, I'll show you, I don't know what", the sea is very cool , the service is Chinese everywhere, the toilets are terrible, unsanitary conditions are complete, shopping is dubious). I do not recommend traveling with small children. But if you are going for treatment, as we went, close your eyes. Briefly about the treatment: expensive, on average $1000-1500 per person. , takes about 2-3 hours a day, acupuncture (approx. $50) + foot or body massage (approx. $50) + herbal medicine (approx. $50). You can do cosmetic procedures (300-500yu). There are more patients and the service has dropped significantly. The clinic scoops up money with a shovel, does not make any discounts, serves as a conveyor. We returned with mixed impressions: it was possible to spend money on a better trip and get treated like it should. I advise you to go to Hainan if you find it very cheap and if you want to use the chance to heal. Both hotels are normal, with minor drawbacks, and both are recommended for family trips.