Dream Plus Apart Hotel & Youth Hostel

Dream Plus is unlike any place I've ever stayed. It is somehow a resort, hotel, hostel, airbnb, guesthouse homestay, all rolled into one. Made up of 20 rooms inside a recently completed resort, they offer a range of rooms depending on what you're looking for-- a 20th floor suite with a seaview, for example, or a shared room with 3 basic cots on the ground floor, which is downstairs from the manager/host's personal quarters (I went with this option). It's a very interesting set up, allowing you to really choose the kind of experience you would like. As every option gives you access to the resort's facilities (beautiful outdoor pool, gym, billiards room, beach access, etc) even if you go with the cheap hostel option, you can still experience the resort side of things as well. The biggest surprise for me though is how willing David, the manager/host, was to go out of his way to help me plan my trip. I was traveling in Hainan just for 3 days over a holiday, and I arrived with a very loose plan to bike around Wenchang. He spent loads of time sitting down with me, looking over maps, explaining where I could go. Even after I set out on my journey, David continued to guide me via wechat, helping me to find secret beaches, etc. Perhaps I got special service because he felt bad for a clearly unprepared foreigner, but I've been an unprepared foreigner in many other situations like this and never received this level of help. In many ways, David and Dream Plus saved the trip for me, because there were some initial disappointments-- Hainan and Wenchang in particular is developing at a crazy rate, so much of my bike rides felt like I was riding through a construction site, rather than the countryside I was imagining (a boring and repetitive construction site at that, given that it is mostly made up of massive empty apartment buildings). This problem of the surrounding area is really the only reason I am holding off on giving it a full 5 stars (and maybe that's my problem, for expecting anything else from China). Luckily, with David's advice, I was able to find the local shops 10 mins down the road by bike serving amazing local food and pristine beaches devoid of people, even on a holiday weekend.