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

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 couple of years ago, but that plan did not go thru. Now it is time to check out the beautiful island of Hainan. 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 are usually using CTrip, in English Trip for our booking as it is very convenient. My wife’s rank is relatively high in Ctrip membership. 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.

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 table and chairs are not a one-time payment, they cost an additional 200/day, and our communication through the web did not bring any trust. Moreover, we can not make the final decision early enough, and we have to give up. This RV was located in Haikou.

Our friend/agent

The third option we used was our contact in business, and he found 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; it feels much 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 deposit of 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, which is a deposit for fines, is returned after about one month.

Medication

We always have our first-aid kit with us, but this time included some additional medications.

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 to 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.

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

My favorite is to have fresh coffee in the morning.

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

Checking out the RV at the airport of Haikou

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