The Sanya area comprises three distinct sections: Sanya city, Dadonghai and the Luhuitou Peninsula. Sanya city occupies a three-kilometre-long peninsula bounded west by the Beibu Gulf and east by the Sanya River. Aligned north-south, Jiefang Lu is the main road through town, forking at its southern end to run briefly southwest to the cargo wharves as Jiangang Lu, and east to form busy Gangmen Lu . Changing its name several times, this extends 4km out to Dadonghai , a kilometre-long spread of hotels, restaurants and shops backing on to Dadonghai beach, beyond which are the start of routes to Haikou and Tongshi. Accessible either by boat from Sanya or by road from Dadonghai, the Luhuitou Peninsula is a huge granite headland rising immediately south of the city, separated from the cargo wharves by the harbour.

Phoenix airport is about 15km to the north, and, as there is no airport bus, you'll need to catch a taxi into the city (¥40). Sanya's main long-distance bus station is at the northern end of Jiefang Lu, while luxury buses from Haikou and minibuses from Tongshi and Lingshui pull up farther south, at various points between here and the Jiefang Lu-Gangmen Lu intersection. All first pass through Dadonghai, so if you're planning to stay there, ask to be set down en route. Getting around , there's the usual overload of taxi cabs and some motorcycle-and-sidecar assemblies as well as public buses - #2 and #4 run regularly from 6am until well after dark between the long-distance bus station and Dadonghai. You can also rent cars and bicycles.