Holiday Inn Express Xiamen Airport Zone — Hotel in Xiamen

I chose this hotel for an extended transit of two days between flights, on a route from Europe to Japan. I wanted a place to rest and also to explore as far is possible within a very short period (one full day). As a place to rest, my room was excellent... not too near the airport and away from the noise of busy downtown roads. It was a short taxi trip froim the ariport, and the whole island of Xiamen is accessible by taxi for a reasonable price, with properly metered taxis. I visited the Xiamen Botanical Gardens 12 km away and was surprised to find myself alone on paths deep in forest with few other walkers. When leaving the Gardens, at the main West Gate, I found myself in a crowd of people waiting for taxis orded by phone apps. Being only a transit visitor, I had no phone link without wifi, nor any local taxi app, so could only try to hail taxis on the sidewalk. This failed, so I followed the flow of people down into the downtown Xiamen city area, and eventually found the "Monsterbros" craft beer bar and restaurant. After two orders of great beer, I summoned up courage to ask the bar tender to find a taxi for me. I wrote my request in clearly printed English. This he scanned with his phone, translated into Chinese, then ordered the taxi for me, and after a short wait, led me out to a nearby road corner to receive the taxi and see me safely into the taxi. Thanks to the hotel business card I was given before I left, the bar tender and taxi driver could easily understand my destination. Near the hotel itself, I also found adequte local restaurants and convenience stores, and a great seaside boulevard with a walking and running track and views across a shining sea to...

Our initial impression was quite poor as the person who checked us in did not recognize my membership, was not friendly, and was difficult overall. We stayed at the Intercontinental Xiamen for a few days beforehand, and only moved to this hotel for one night as we had an early flight the next day. I soon regretted that decision. Haha...

After that, things got better. Although they did not recognize my membership (Diamond), we were upgraded to a larger room, which was nice. There is more space for clothes than most Holiday Inn Express hotels I have stayed at. The room was clean and modern with a decent-sized bathroom

The gym was large, but had very little equipment, which was a shame. The breakfast had more selection of foods than most Holiday Inn Express hotels I have stayed at, which was nice.

Although it looks very close to the airport, it still took about 15 minutes by DiDi to get there. It seemed that they had drive around the airport to get there (GPS navigation agreed). Maybe due to one-way roads, I guess.

It took about 15 minutes to get to a large shopping area called SM Lifestyle Mall that was huge with tons of restaurants. It was also close to Taiwan Night Market Street, but we did not have a chance to...

Our initial impression was quite poor as the person who checked us in did not recognize my membership, was not friendly, and was difficult overall. We stayed at the Intercontinental Xiamen for a few days beforehand, and only moved to this hotel for one night as we had an early flight the next day. I soon regretted that decision. Haha...

After that, things got better. Although they did not recognize my membership (Diamond), we were upgraded to a larger room, which was nice. There is more space for clothes than most Holiday Inn Express hotels I have stayed at. The room was clean and modern with a decent-sized bathroom

The gym was large, but had very little equipment, which was a shame. The breakfast had more selection of foods than most Holiday Inn Express hotels I have stayed at, which was nice.

Although it looks very close to the airport, it still took about 15 minutes by DiDi to get there. It seemed that they had drive around the airport to get there (GPS navigation agreed). Maybe due to one-way roads, I guess.

It took about 15 minutes to get to a large shopping area called SM Lifestyle Mall that was huge with tons of restaurants. It was also close to Taiwan Night Market Street, but we did not have a chance to...