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China’s Tropical Island Hainan Road Trip by RV | Preparations

Rental RV at Haikou airport Hainan China
Rental RV at Haikou airport
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Finally, after several years of waiting, it is time to make the Hainan Road Trip and check out the various campsites on the island.

We planned a similar trip a few years ago, but that did not go through. It is time to check out the Hainan road trip on the beautiful island. Firstly a lot of preparations needed to be done.

  • Finding a suitable RV is the priority.
  • We are packing and preparing everything as we fly down to save time.
  • Route planning for visits to various places
  • Finding the campsites
  • This time, also a lot of medicine on top of the standard first-aid kit

Booking of the flight and some hints when ordering the tickets

We usually use CTrip, in English Trip, for our booking as it is very convenient. My wife’s rank in Ctrip membership is relatively high. Still, we noticed every time we checked the route next time; the flight price would rise, this time looking for four people round trip from Shanghai-Haikou. Ctrip changed prices every time we checked. The last price we got was 6600 total without any check-in luggage. I called the airline and learned the luggage price would be around 38CNY/kg. Therefore, my eldest daughter used her account to book the same flight from Qunar at the same cost, including each person’s check-in luggage.

As an experience, we suggest considering more than one dealer when making the booking.

Hainan Airlines

Rental of the RV

RV2GO

We started to find different options for the RV. The first one to check is RV2GO. This is one of the biggest and also, in our opinion, the most trustful rentals on the mainland. Unfortunately, their latest model, RV90, does not have the flank extension, and the price is relatively high, 1699CNY/1499/day. We were looking for this model as it is the latest one, but the availability did not meet the demand. We decided to look for other options. This RV was located in both Sanya and Haikou.

Taobao

Found a private person from TaoBao with all the requirements, including solar panels and a generator for 1499CNY/day. But we could not agree on the final price and what should be included. For example, picnic tables and chairs are not a one-time payment; they cost an additional 200/day, and our online communication did not bring any trust. Moreover, we can not make the final decision early enough and must give up. This RV was located in Haikou.

Our friend/agent

The third option we used was our contact in business, and he found an RV from a company with a reasonable price, and they could hold for us until the day before we flew. Most important for us was the bed arrangement; all of us could have separate beds. Now, later on, maybe we should not look at the price so much. This was the IVECO C550 ZK5043XLJ7A6 model. I like the IVECO engine and gearbox more; they feel more powerful. This one was equipped with a 3.0L Diesel engine and 107kW of power. Review of the car later on. This one was located in Sanya. As our flight tickets were already booked to Haikou, we got an agreement that for an additional 1000CNY, they would drive the RV to Haikou airport, and we could also leave the RV in Haikou. This one was only 1100CNY/day, + we always take liability insurance, which is 150CNY/day.
On top of that, a 20kCNY + 2000CNY deposit for fines needed to be paid. The 20kCNY deposit will be paid back after a few days upon inspection of the RV when returning it. The smaller one, a deposit for fines, is returned after about one month.

Rental RV at Haikou airport Hainan China
Rental RV at Haikou airport

Medication

We always have our first-aid kit, but we include additional medications this time.

This is our medicine kit when going for road trip in Hainan Dec 2022
This is our medicine kit when going for a road trip in Hainan in December 2022

We prepared a tremendous amount of medication for the trip due to the situation here.

Look at all the medication we prepared for the trip. Fever caught and PCR tests. Is this the way to travel in the future? It would help to have half of the hospital supply enjoy the freedom of travel. A little bit of sarcasm is good.

Are we cheap?

Sometimes, yes, as this is an expensive hobby. We packed even the picnic table and chairs with us as the cost for them to rent would be much more than the value, and we had space in the luggage.

Road-trip-Hainan-2022 | coffee grinder, mix with 20% dark and 80% light

Grinding the coffee myself and mixed 20-80% dark French toast and Yunnan coffee. I always bring the simple percolator coffee cooker with me on trips. Very simple but functional

My favourite is to have fresh coffee in the morning.

Made a new support pipe for the picnic table. The original one was lost during our road trip to Inner Mongolia, and a wooden stick was there before. Now, it is much better and more robust than the original.

Road-trip-Hainan-2022 | DIY repairing picnic table

Checking out the RV at the airport of Haikou for the Hainan road trip

A good prevention for a later argument about the damages is to take video or pictures of the whole car. Otherwise, you might easily be the target for compensation for something others have done. We always do this and keep the media for some time.

The driver drove the RV from Sanya to Haikou airport, and we met him at the parking lot.

Road trip Hainan 2022 | Receiving the RV at Haikou airport
Road trip Hainan 2022 | Receiving the RV at Haikou airport

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