Best Design Hotels in Xiamen?
7 Design & Architecture Stays on a Breezy Island City — a Gulangyu Colonial Mansion, Harbour Design with Island Views, the Atour Design Brand

We open the design list with what's almost the landmark of design hotels in Xiamen — Hotel Indigo Xiamen Harbour scores 9.4/10 from around 9,184 real guest reviews, the biggest review base in the city. It's an IHG design hotel (the Hotel Indigo brand is known for weaving each district's story into its design) on the harbour at Lujiang Road, Siming District, facing Gulangyu Island full-on. What works for design travellers is design that tells Xiamen's waterfront story, sea-view rooms looking out at Gulangyu Island and the ferries, and the QUAY rooftop bar with island views that many call the highlight, plus a location that's a 2–5 minute walk to Zhongshan Road and the old qilou shophouses. The honest caveats: the building is fairly old and there are only two small lifts, so there's a wait when it's busy; city-view rooms are cheaper but don't get the island view (specify a sea-view room when you book); and the harbour gets crowded midday — but measured on the design and the island view, this is the one that fits best.

If you measure design by how genuine and well-rooted the provenance is, this is number one on the list — Lin's Mansion 林氏府 scores 9.7/10 from around 866 real guest reviews, the highest on our Xiamen list. It's a heritage boutique in a colonial-baroque mansion built in 1895 on car-free Gulangyu Island (鼓浪屿), a UNESCO World Heritage site. What truly works for design travellers is that it's a genuine historic mansion, not a new building made to look old — the former home of the Lin family (Lin Erjia, who built Shuzhuang Garden on the island), fully restored in 2025 into 5 villas with 37 rooms, with arched verandas, stone columns, stained glass, brass lamps and a secret garden of century-old camphor trees, plus the magic of staying over and having the whole island at night and dawn once the last day-tripper ferry has gone. The honest caveats: the island is car-free, so you carry bags over stone lanes (the hotel offers luggage transfer from the pier), it's the priciest on the list, and as a genuinely old building some rooms in the antique villas aren't as soundproofed as a new build — but that's the price of sleeping inside history.

The contemporary-design pick with the best value on the list — Atour X Hotel Xiamen SM Plaza scores 9.6/10 on Trip.com from around 3,001 real guest reviews. It's a four-star hotel in the Atour X (亚朵X) line, the upscale design-tech tier of the Atour group, a brand locals love for design-comfort. What works for design travellers is 173 new, modern design rooms with tech touches like delivery robots in the building, and a contemporary fit-out with a well-judged palette, plus Atour's signature soft beds, on the Wuyuan Bay / SM City side that's a ~500m walk to metro Lines 2/3, easy into town and near the airport. The honest caveats: it's on the Wuyuan Bay side, a newer business-and-mall district, not next to the old town / sea like Gulangyu or Zhongshan Road (the old town needs a metro / transfer), the view is a city view rather than the sea, and there's no dedicated review page on our site yet — this is compiled from real guest reviews on Trip.com, not a stay by our team.

The luxury-contemporary design pick that plays with height and the sea view like nothing else in the city — Conrad Xiamen scores 9.4/10 from around 6,675 real guest reviews. It's a luxury Conrad by Hilton hotel on floors 37–54 of the twin-tower 世茂海峡大厦, the tallest building on Xiamen Island. What works for design travellers is a curated, contemporary fit-out that's luxe without feeling heavy, spacious ~45 sqm rooms, every room high with sea views, and a sky infinity pool that looks across the strait to Gulangyu Island — the image that's become the hotel's signature, plus the advantage of being linked to Shimao EMALL mall in the same building and a walk to Xiamen University and Nanputuo Temple. The honest caveats: it's a high-rise luxury design hotel, not an old heritage building like Gulangyu (for old-colonial design, look elsewhere), it's one of the priciest starts on the list, the pool has been closed for refurbishment at times (check first if you're coming for it), and street-side rooms get some traffic noise — ask for a high sea-facing room.

The design-comfort pick with the highest score on the list and the best value — Atour Hotel Wuyuan Bay Xiamen Airport scores 9.7/10 from around 3,156 real guest reviews. It's a four-star hotel in the Atour (亚朵) chain that locals rate among the top design-comfort brands. What works for design travellers is the brand's design centrepiece — the signature little lobby library / reading corner — plus clean, well-judged rooms and Atour's signature soft Atour Planet beds that reviewers mention a lot, in the Wuyuan Bay area that's a ~500m walk to metro Lines 2/3 and just ~3km from the airport, so you get into town by metro without fighting traffic. The honest caveats: the design is minimal-comfort rather than the flash of a luxury design hotel (for bold design, look elsewhere), it's on the Wuyuan Bay side, a newer district, not next to the old town / Gulangyu sea (the old town needs a metro transfer) — but measured on design-comfort per dollar, this is the value pick of the list.

The good-value design-chain pick that also comes with a beach-and-university location — Atour Hotel Zengcuo'an scores 9.6/10 from around 864 real guest reviews. It's a four-star Atour (亚朵) chain hotel that opened in 2025 on the southern coastal road (环岛南路). What works for design travellers is brand-new, well-judged design rooms with a clean palette and Atour Planet beds with comfy memory-foam pillows, at a price well below a luxury design hotel, plus a location by Zengcuo'an beach village (曾厝垵), a ~10-minute walk to the beach and the seaside food lanes and cafés that fit the lifestyle angle, near Xiamen University and Nanputuo Temple, making it a good southern-side base. The honest caveats: it just opened so the review base is still small (~864), the design is the chain-comfort kind rather than the flash of a luxury design hotel, and this zone isn't on the metro doorstep — you call a DiDi / take a bus into town — but for new design-chain plus the beach, this one fits.

We close the list with a small-scale design pick on Gulangyu Island for travellers who want a private feel — Xiamen Gulangyu Heitan Hotel scores 9.3 on Booking from around 110 real guest reviews. It's a design B&B in a restored heritage building on the car-free island. What works for design travellers is a fit-out that blends eastern and western touches in an old building, 18 rooms with a deliberate palette, plus a garden and a sitting terrace that feel more like a design home than a big hotel, and because it's on a car-free island you get the quiet island at night and dawn once the day-trippers leave. The honest caveats: it's a small-scale B&B / design guesthouse (18 rooms), so the facilities aren't as full as a big hotel, the review base is still small, you carry bags over the island's stone lanes, and there's no dedicated review page on our site yet — this is compiled from real guest reviews, not a stay by our team. It fits if you want private design on the island at a lighter budget than Lin's Mansion.