Navigate Houhai as a Family

Getting There - Drive by car about an hour from Dadonghai, park outside the village in paid parking, then walk or ask your hotel to pick you up at the entrance. Attractions - beach, swim, SUP, surf - a beautiful bay offering easy and safe swimming Hotels - Hana to Alice Food & Restaurants - Street food! Burgers, tacos, seafood, so much variety This is our 3rd visit to Houhai and we finally got it right. Although this review will highlight some issues about visiting this area, as a family, we fundamentally love it and world recommend a visit for 2-3 nights. Definitely get a hotel away from the central beach 'party zone'. Although music can still be heard, it's not as prevalent. We went for dinner earlier in the evening. The streets were less crowded. The win about Houhai is there's something for everyone's tastes, Western and Chinese. My son ate tacos from 2 separate places! Daytime, the beach does not offer shade. Rather stay in a beach front hotel with a patio you can leave your stuff on. Be careful of some rubbish (especially broken glass) on the beach. Every morning the cleaners come and pick up as much as they can but we still found glass and debris every day. Hire surf boards and SUP and enjoy! We hired an SUP from our hotel for 150rmb for 2 hours and just played in the water! At night time Houhai comes alive. It's known as a party town but even for families we still went out and walked the huge beach as the tide was out and looked at the lights and fun being had. If you are noise sensitive, maybe this isn't the place but do know Houhai has a strict music off time, so it doesn't go on all night. So Houhai is a little rough around the edges but it's vibe is unique. If you are looking for somewhere you can just 'let go' for a bit and relax in old school beach fun then I would definitely recommend coming here.#beachlife