The Best Hotels in Xiamen

Ninety percent of rooms face Kulangsu, the UNESCO-listed island, close enough across the water that its colonial rooftops are visible from the upper floors. This harbourfront hotel wears the neighbourhood's trading history openly, from a found-metal sculpture anchoring the lobby to a corridor lined with Xiamen's tea and porcelain past. The rooftop restaurant puts Gulangyu on the terrace and Fujian cooking on the plate. Zhongshan Road is minutes on foot.

A restored Republican-era red-brick villa on Bishan Road, uphill from the ferry pier, this boutique hotel wears Gulangyu's Minnan heritage without apology. Rooms have deep green walls, arched windows, and dark timber floors, with sea views from the upper floors toward Sunlight Rock. Gongfu tea ceremonies in the courtyard and folk craft workshops fill the slower hours. Breakfast skews firmly local, which sets the tone for the whole stay.

Xiamen has long carried the nickname "garden of the sea," and the Andaz here leans into that with a noticeably unhurried mood that its Shanghai and Shenzhen siblings don't quite share. The Hyatt luxury boutique brand is consistent about dressing its hotels in local character, so the rooms and suites quietly borrow from southern Fujianese tradition without going full heritage museum. Minnan and Chaoshan cooking sit alongside modern Italian under the same roof.

Ten rooms in a converted colonial villa on Gulangyu, the car-free island off Xiamen where piano music drifts from open windows as a matter of local custom. Humble Hall is a small hotel with dark timber, bare floors, pedestal sinks, and a shaggy brick courtyard, kept deliberately spare. No traffic reaches the island, so the quiet is structural rather than aspirational. The Michelin Guide has selected it among its hotels.

Twin towers shaped like crashing waves anchor the mainland side of the Haicang Bridge, looking out over the harbor from a massive mixed-use complex. This is a large-scale luxury hotel where the scale is part of the point: the lobby lounge alone has room for afternoon tea under ceilings that seem to belong in an airport terminal. Rooms are contemporary and comfortable, if a little reserved. Multiple restaurants and bars round out the picture.

A hot tub beside a resident DJ is a bold hotel philosophy, but the W Xiamen leans into the tension. The property fills its rooms with Art Deco marble bathrooms, local artworks, and the brand's signature purples and pinks, all meant to channel Xiamen's reputation as the "garden by the sea." The spa's intricate screened walls and mosaic tiles give it a look that stops you mid-robe.

A colossal whale sculpture commissioned from Taipei artist Lin Dingyi swims across the lobby ceiling, which sets the tone for this 289-room hotel in Xiamen's emerging financial district. Ocean-view rooms face Kinmen across the strait, wave-patterned carpets underfoot and sailboats visible at dawn below. The outdoor infinity pool sits level with that same horizon. Two restaurants on the lower floors, including Commune's open show kitchen, round things out nicely.