Best Hotels with an Infinity Pool in Xiamen
Xiamen has exactly one hotel that pairs its outdoor pool with a true infinity edge, and it happens to sit on the best stretch of coastline for the effect: the InterContinental Xiamen by IHG, where the pool deck runs level with the horizon over the Taiwan Strait. Travellers who want the postcard shot without hunting through generic sea-view listings should start and stop here. The property sits two minutes from Xiamen International Conference Centre and about twenty minutes from Xiamen Gaoqi International Airport, which makes it a workable base for a short coastal stay rather than a detour.
Xiamen presents itself as a subtropical port city that outgrew its fishing-village footprint without losing the coastline that made it one. The stretch running past the InterContinental toward Xiangshan Yacht Club and the Zengcuo'an waterfront is where that identity is easiest to see, glass towers and conference centres backing directly onto open water and working harbours. It is a business-and-beach city in roughly equal parts, which is exactly the mix an infinity pool over the strait is built to sell.
Infinity pool · Xiamen in numbers
Where to stay
One Pool, One Reason to Book
An infinity pool only earns the name when the edge genuinely disappears into what is behind it, and the InterContinental's 180-degree sea view does that from most of the pool deck, not just one corner. Xiamen's east coast gets the open water and the light for it; inland hotels rarely chase the effect because their pools face car parks or courtyards instead. That scarcity is the honest headline here: one hotel, one very good execution, rather than a shortlist to compare.
The InterContinental Xiamen by IHG built its outdoor infinity pool along the same stretch of coastline as its guestrooms and executive club, so the sea view is not reserved for a handful of upper floors, it runs through most of the property. Most rooms, the bar and the pool deck share the same 180-degree outlook toward the Taiwan Strait, which is unusual even among Xiamen's other five-star coastal hotels, most of which keep their best views to a top-floor lounge and leave the pool facing inland or toward a courtyard instead.
Location does real work here too. The hotel sits two minutes' walk from Xiamen International Conference Centre and nine minutes from the Exhibition Centre, so business travellers get the infinity pool as recovery time between sessions rather than a weekend-only amenity. Leisure travellers get the reverse benefit: a ten-minute walk reaches the beach and Xiangshan Yacht Club, and Zengcuo'an's cafe district is roughly fifteen minutes by car, close enough for an evening out without giving up the coastal address for something more central. Few coastal hotels in Xiamen balance that business-and-leisure split as evenly as the InterContinental manages to.
An infinity edge photographs well but it also changes how the pool behaves through the day. Because the InterContinental's deck runs open to the strait rather than being boxed in by buildings, it catches sea breeze that keeps the water and the deck cooler through Xiamen's humid summer afternoons than an equivalent pool set back from the coast. That is a practical argument as much as an aesthetic one: fewer hours where the deck is too hot to use barefoot, which matters more than the view once you are actually poolside at 2pm in July.
Being the only infinity pool in the city cuts both ways. It means there is no shortlist to compare, no second option if the InterContinental is fully booked on the dates that matter, and no fallback for travellers who specifically want that horizon-line effect rather than any outdoor pool with a sea view. Xiamen Gaoqi International Airport sits about twenty minutes away, so booking ahead rather than deciding on arrival is the more realistic plan for anyone building a trip around this one pool rather than the city's outdoor and heated options generally.
A traveler's takeI booked a sea-view room at the InterContinental mostly for the conference centre next door, and only found the infinity pool by walking past it on the way to breakfast. The 180-degree view over the strait held through a hazy morning that would have looked flat from anywhere else. I still made the fifteen-minute drive out to Zengcuo'an for dinner, the pool does not replace an evening in the old fishing village, it just makes the mornings better.
Local tips
- 1Book the InterContinental directly on the coastal-view room category, the infinity pool effect is strongest from the sea-facing side of the property, not the courtyard rooms.
- 2Swim in the late afternoon when the sea breeze off the strait keeps the deck cooler, midday in summer gets uncomfortably hot on the tiles.
- 3Combine a stay here with the ten-minute walk to Xiangshan Yacht Club if you want a second sea view without leaving the neighbourhood.
- 4Do not expect a second infinity pool option elsewhere in Xiamen, this is currently the only one, so book ahead rather than shopping around on arrival.
- 5Use the twenty-minute run to Gaoqi International Airport to plan a short stay, this works better as a coastal add-on than a full week base.
- 6Head to Zengcuo'an by taxi in the evening, it is about fifteen minutes away and gives you the cafe-and-beach scene the hotel itself does not try to replicate.