Most wave pool trips in the world look exactly the same. You fly in, surf the pool, get the clips, eat a burger, and fly home. That's the whole trip. What's happening in Hainan is different — and it's why we call this the most unique surf and golf trip in the world.
Hainan is China's tropical island province, and it stacks things no other surf destination on earth can match: the world's only tropical island wave pool sitting minutes from real ocean surf, world-class golf courses ranked among the best in China and formerly among the world's top one hundred, luxury resorts steps from the water, award-winning restaurants, and the biggest duty-free mall in the world. That combination exists in exactly one place.
One island, two kinds of perfect waves
The centerpiece is the PerfectSwell® surf pool at Riyue Bay Surf Resort in Wanning, on Hainan's east coast. With around twenty wave settings — barrels, air sections, performance walls, mellow beginner rollers — the pool serves perfect, repeatable waves matched to every surfer in your group. No crowds, no waiting for sets, no luck required.
But unlike almost every other wave pool on the planet, this one isn't parked in a desert or an industrial estate. It's on a tropical island with a real coastline. When the swell turns on, you can paddle out at Riyue Bay's ocean break minutes from the pool and trade machine-made perfection for the real thing — pool laps in the morning, ocean lineup at sunset.
Golf as world-class as the waves
Here's the part that makes this trip one of one: the golf side is just as epic. Hainan is home to the best golf courses in China, and layouts that have ranked among the world's top one hundred.
The Dunes at Shenzhou Peninsula is widely rated the best links course in China — fescue-lined fairways running along a South China Sea headland, the closest thing Asia has to true links golf, played in board-shorts weather.
Then there's Blackstone at Mission Hills Haikou — a former world top-100 course carved through ancient black lava fields, and the stage where Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy went head to head. Two courses, two completely different landscapes, both a short hop from the waves. See the full surf & golf experience for course details.
What a day here actually looks like
Picture the rhythm. You wake up steps from the pool, grab a coffee, and paddle into your first session while the light is still soft — the machine dialed to whatever your group wants that morning, whether that's a barrel setting on repeat or a forgiving wall for the beginners in your crew. Every wave is yours; nobody hassles you for a set.
By early afternoon you've swapped the wetsuit for golf shoes. Fifteen minutes down the coast, you're standing on a links tee with the South China Sea on one side and fescue on the other. Eighteen holes later, if the ocean is doing its thing, there's still time to paddle out at Riyue Bay before dark.
Then dinner: fresh seafood, tropical fruit, Hainan's island cooking done at a level that surprises everyone who assumed a surf trip meant burgers. Perfect waves, world-class golf, ocean surf, award-winning food — all in one day, without ever getting on a plane or driving more than a few minutes.
The tropical China most people don't know exists
Most people have no idea this side of China exists. Between sessions, Hainan delivers a tropical island experience that has nothing to do with the pool: award-winning restaurants and Wanning's local cuisine, the Xinglong coffee plantations, more than two thousand years of island culture, and empty palm-lined beaches down the coast.
And then there's the shopping. Hainan is a duty-free island, home to the biggest duty-free mall in the world — tax-free luxury brands at prices that make a rest-day detour worth it. Add five-star resorts steps from the wave pool and you have a trip that works just as well for non-surfing partners and families as it does for the crew chasing clips.
Getting here is the easy part
Hainan runs its own visa-free entry policy: passport holders from the U.S., Australia, New Zealand, the UK, Canada and many other countries get 30 days visa-free. No embassy queues, no paperwork.
There are direct flights from Sydney and Melbourne to Haikou (HAK), plus direct routes from Hong Kong, Singapore, Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur and Seoul into Haikou or Sanya (SYX). From the airport, a private transfer takes you straight to Riyue Bay. Full details in our getting here guide.
Why this trip is one of one
Every trip we run is private and built around your group — surf ability, handicaps, trip length, who's coming. Browse our packages, see the Surf China Journal for full itineraries, or request a quote and we'll send you all the details.
