Holiday Inn Express Shantou Chenghai
A Chenghai hot tub for travellers working the toy district
About this hotel
Chenghai is Shantou's toy-manufacturing district, and this hotel's hot tub reads as a practical wind-down amenity rather than a resort centrepiece built to impress. A day of factory visits or supplier meetings ends with the fitness centre and hot tub combination, which does more for tired legs than a swimming pool would in a hotel built around business stays rather than leisure ones passing through for a few days. The restaurant's Chinese menu and Asian breakfast cover meals without requiring a trip into central Shantou, useful given the roughly 41-kilometre distance to the airport and the time that adds to any day already spent on supplier visits. Family rooms with parquet floors and a work desk suit both business travellers extending a stay by a night or two and small families passing through Chenghai on their way elsewhere in the Chaoshan region.
- Hot tub
- Fitness centre
- Family rooms
- On-site restaurant
Our take
This suits business travellers with Chenghai factory or supplier appointments who want a hot tub to soak in after a long day rather than a full swimming pool, since that's the only pool-type amenity on offer here. It does not suit anyone chasing an outdoor pool or seafront views, both entirely absent from this location. Families in transit through Chenghai will find the family rooms genuinely practical for a short stay.
- ✓Combine the hot tub with the fitness centre after a day of factory visits, they sit next to each other.
- ✓Order the Asian breakfast rather than skipping it, it's included and saves time on early meeting days.
- ✓Budget close to an hour for the airport transfer given the 41-kilometre distance from Jieyang Chaoshan.
Why we love it
- Hot tub next to the fitness centre
- Family rooms with parquet floors
- Chinese restaurant and Asian breakfast on site
- Practical base for Chenghai toy-district business
Why guests love itThe hot tub here is less a holiday feature than a recovery tool after a full day walking Chenghai's toy showrooms, and it works well for exactly that. There's no swimming pool to speak of, so anyone expecting a proper swim should look elsewhere in Shantou, but the fitness centre next door rounds out the wind-down routine. The Asian breakfast is a genuinely useful start before an early supplier meeting.