Reverse Tourism with Kids During National Day - Weihai and Penglai Fairy Island, Shandong

This National Day, our family chose to drive to Shandong for a trip, and it was definitely the right choice! Not only were there fewer people, but the costs were reasonable, and the kids had a great time.
🚗 Self-driving route:
Day 1 Beijing — Zhaoyuan City, Yantai, Shandong (6 hours), stayed overnight in Zhaoyuan
Day 2 Zhaoyuan — Weihai City (4 hours), stayed in downtown Weihai that night
Day 3 Weihai — Brewis (1.5 hours), the whole way is by the sea, you can stop anytime, fewer people and more sea, no need to squeeze with crowds when beachcombing
Day 4 A full day in Weihai city, visiting Hanlefong, Torch 8th Street, etc.
Day 5 Weihai — Penglai District, Yantai (3 hours), stayed overnight in the Penglai Fairy Island Scenic Area. The guesthouse is right at the scenic area entrance, very convenient for sightseeing, but there isn’t much food in Penglai
Day 6 Penglai, Yantai — Longkou City (2 hours) — Beijing (7 hours). Since there’s no good food in Penglai, we chose to go to Longkou City for a meal that day, then headed straight home after eating.
Because it rained lightly and continuously in Yantai, Weihai, and Qingdao during the holiday, locals said there were very few tourists this year, and hotel bookings only reached 70%. We’re very glad we still chose to visit Shandong. The light rain didn’t affect our trip, and because there were fewer people, we had a great time. This year, we didn’t experience any crowding.
Also, there were so many seagulls by the sea during the National Day holiday. We got to feed the gulls, and when going out to sea, the seagulls closely followed the boat. The kids had a blast feeding the gulls 😂
If the weather is like this next year, I think I will definitely come again.

Post by MatthewMitchell#67 | Oct 25, 2025