Lonely Planet Review

We'll be straight up here: the Civil Aviation Hotel is attractive because its rooms are dirt cheap and it's located in the very heart of Haikou, making it wonderfully convenient. Inside, the hotel service is pretty efficient even though when we stayed, only one woman spoke English.

As the name suggests, it's owned by the Civil Aviation department and for travellers this is no bad thing. The airport shuttle bus starts and finishes from here, there is a China Southern Airlines office on the ground floor that sells seats on all airlines and, in the same office, a desk that books train berths. The rooms are your standard three-star Chinese hotel rooms that have faded down to two over the years, which means there aren't too many frills but everything works. Still, they're comfortable enough and those at the front have good views onto the city's main street and the huge shopping mall opposite. All up, a solid upper-budget option in a great location.