Sanya city is the obvious half-day trip — 25 minutes west by taxi or bus. The seafood market at Sanya Number One Market, the Luhuitou Park headland with its statue of the deer that supposedly turned into a woman, and the duty-free CDF Mall together make a long afternoon.
Wuzhizhou Island sits off the coast east of Yalong Bay — a small forest reserve with snorkelling, glass-bottom boats, and a few diving operators. The boat from Houhai costs about RMB 130 round trip; allow most of a day.
Nanshan Cultural Tourism Zone is the giant Buddhist theme park on the southern tip of Hainan, dominated by a 108-metre statue of the goddess Guanyin standing offshore on three lotus platforms. Hugely popular with domestic visitors; an acquired taste for foreign ones, but the statue itself is genuinely impressive at scale.