When in Taiwan, Stay Like a King without Paying a King’s Ransom

Grand Hotel Taipei

Hotel stays in Taiwan represent an excellent value, especially compared to hotels in the USA. I would highly recommend all these hotels I stayed at during my 2 weeks around Taiwan.  I also stayed at three exceptional homestays which is a wonderful way to get closer to the locals.

My hotel selection goals were that the hotel should be new or newly remodeled. If not new, then it should have a reputation for being very clean. It needs to be located near the train station where I was arriving since I was going around Taiwan on public transportation. And lastly, it should have a unique aspect whether it’s location or being a boutique hotel. My price target was US$150 with taxes.

An added benefit of hotels in Taiwan is the breakfast, which usually is included or can be added at the time of booking for very little additional cost. We are not talking the lame Hampton Inn type of breakfast, but wonderful Chinese and Japanese offerings along with items that will please the western palate; made to order eggs, fresh fruit, pastries, and fresh coffee from fancy latte cappuccino machines. In other words, a cornucopia of good things to eat and drink.

Breakfast offerings at 1969 Blue Sky Hotel, Taichung

How do you want that coffee?

I found the best prices and ease of booking on the agoda.com booking web site. The search function on the website is easy to use and all the room size options are presented with all the costs clearly spelled out. The pay-in-advance option was not that much cheaper than the free cancelation options, so I only chose the free cancelation option in case my plans changed. The cancelation policy depended on the hotel property. Most were free cancelation one day in advance, but some required any cancelation to be one week before the stay so as not to get charged. Also, Agoda did not charge my card until the end of the free cancelation period. In a couple cases, I paid the hotel directly.  This is all spelled out in the booking voucher. To finish my decision process, I looked at the user reviews on Google Maps, Trip Advisor, and Agoda.

The Taiwan hotels I stayed at had these welcomed perks: I always had at least two FREE bottles of water every day. WIFI is FREE and always a good speed. Every room had a mini-fridge (some were stocked with FREE items). The staff are so pleasant and helpful. No crazy taxes and fees that you see added to US hotel stays. Oh, did I mention the great breakfasts!

A FREE mini-bar at Taipei Fullerton - North

Below are listed, from highest price to lowest, those hotels I stayed at. All included breakfast unless noted.

Above US$300

Silks Place in Taroko Gorge. Yeah, I splurged on this one, but how could I pass-up staying at a great location within Taroko Gorge National Park. Wonderful hotel with rooftop pool and many activities.

Rooftop pool at Silks Place. Bring a swim cap. Even required for men.

Some of the breakfast pastry offerings at Silks Place

US$200-250

Gaya Hotel in Taitung. This is a new hotel in the center of Taitung. Boutique type with a rooftop pool. Of all the hotels I stayed at, the breakfast at this one could have used some improvement. Since train station if far from the hotel, they have a free shuttle.

Order in the Gaya Hotel, Taitung

The Grand Hotel in Taipei.  An icon in Taipei. Not very convenient to get to (better now with MRT nearby), but if you want to start your trip being immersed in Chinese culture, stay here. The hotel has two breakfast locations, a large one on the main floor and the Muslim one on the 10^th floor. If you don’t need bacon for your breakfast, go to the 10^th floor and you will be rewarded with a view. The Grand Hotel also has an annex called the Chin-Lin annex.  If you want a room in the main building don’t choose the annex.

Interior of the Grand Hotel, Taipei

US$150-200

Union House in Lugang. When I stayed in October 2017 this hotel had just opened. Excellent luxury facilities and close to the things you want to see in old Lugang. I wish the outside architecture could have blended in better with the old town buildings. No train station in Lugang (which is why it stayed old and not developed) so I took the Taiwan Tourist Shuttle bus from Taichung HSR station.

Union House, modern luxury in Old Lugang

Shangri-La Far Eastern Plaza Hotel in Tainan. A luxury hotel by the train station with a rooftop pool for just over US$150 all-inclusive. Wow! The room I was in was a little dated, but the huge breakfast spread made up for it. Go to breakfast when they open to get a table by the food. A bus stop in front of the hotel takes you to Anping area.

The food area is so huge that you need a map!

Taro stew with coconut cream, divine!

An "egg" roll actually rolled with egg!

Colorful salad area.

This will not happen when you are done with breakfast at the Shangri-la Far Eastern Plaza Hotel!

Taipei Fullerton Hotel – Maison North in Taipei. There are a couple Fullerton hotels in Taipei. This one is near Songshan airport with the MRT nearby. There are lots of good hotels in Taipei. It all depends on

which area you want to stay. I have to say this hotel had the coolest toilet (how do I flush this thing?).

Large soaking tub at Taipei Fullerton - North

US$100-150

Inhouse Boutique in Taipei (Ximending). If you want a great hotel in the heart of the exciting Ximending district, this is it. A little funky but not over the top. Western type food in the main floor restaurant.

In the heart of exciting Ximending!

Brother Hotel in Taipei. I love the Brother Hotel because of its location. Centrally located next to the Nanjing-Fuxing MRT station with two lines that can go in all four directions in Taipei City. The hotel is very clean and offers a good value.

All hotels have a hot pot, but some are starting to have Nespresso machines.

Cool desk lamp, Brother Hotel, Taipei

US$75-100

Maison De Chine Hotel in Chiayi City. Need a nice place to stay before taking the Alishan Railway in the morning? This fits the bill nicely. They have a free shuttle that will pick you up and drop you off at the train station.

Nondescript on the outside, but very nice in the small city of Chiayi.

Rido Hotel in Taipei (Daan District). This hotel caught my eye because you can get rooms overlooking Daan Park and the décor looks old China. With the mirrored ceiling and a condom on the bedstand, I wondered what kind of hotel this was. However, it was clean and comfortable. I did not try breakfast since I had to catch an early flight.

Dark elegant in the Rido Hotel, Taipei

1969 Blue Sky Hotel in Taichung. This probably represents the best value among all my hotel stays this trip. It is a wonderfully designed new boutique hotel a short walk from the train station with so many cool design features. Check out that front door. For US$80 including everything, I think I got a steal.  This hotel gives me a reason to come to Taichung again.

An old power station? No, the cyber cool 1969 Blue Sky Hotel in Taichung.

Key sensor

Let's repurpose an old boiler.

Be assured I have not received any compensation from recommending these hotels.

I’ll report on the three wonderful homestays I stayed at in another post.

Blog: AllAboardTaiwan.com

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A Luxury Resort Hotel within Taroko Gorge National Park, Taiwan

Silks Place, Tianxiang, Taroko Gorge National Park, Taiwan

Taroko Gorge is an amazing natural wonder and why would you not want to stay there, at least for a night? At the junction of two rivers in Tianxiang, 18 km from the Taroko Gorge National Park entrance is the Silks Place resort hotel, a historically significant hotel built supposedly at the insistence of Chiang Kai-sheks son, Chiang Ching-kuo.

There are many options to get there, car, taxi, the hotel’s shuttle from Hualien, Taiwan Tourist shuttle bus, or what I did, the local bus from Xincheng, the closest train station to Taroko Gorge National Park. After an exciting and not too long of a ride on the narrow Taroko Gorge road, we arrived at Tianxiang right in front of the Silks Place hotel.

I arrived too early to check-in, so reception took my bag and said they would email me when the room was ready (amazingly, I had a strong 4G in Tianxiang).  It would have been nice to wait in a lounge and have a drink, but I did not find one, so I got my Taiwan beer at the stall across the parking lot. With time to kill, I decided to climb to the Tianfeng pagoda and when finished there I found a park and some other trails (uphill) behind Tianxiang. When I was totally exhausted from climbing and hiking, I got an email saying my room was ready.

What would a resort hotel be without a great pool? Silks Place has one. It’s a large outdoor rooftop infinity pool or check out the indoor pool which is more kid-friendly. Near the outdoor pool are several hot tubs for soaking. A rooftop tennis court is also available.

Daily activities

Locations of the different facilities

Need some pampering, then leave the kids at the Kid’s Club and head to the spa. Afterwards, in the evening watch an aboriginal performance and a movie.

I reserved the Garden View King room. It was a good size with a nice view of the river. Like most Taiwan hotels there are different room sizes. When you book just specify what you want.

There were some snack biscuits and the mini-fridge had a couple of free items in it including a facial mask. Nice little details. The room is somewhat dated but still shows nice.  I had wished the bathroom would have contained some marble from the area but instead had a pinkish color tile.

Facial mask

Since there is not an abundance of good restaurants in Tianxiang, I highly recommend you book the hotel’s available dinner plans. I purchased the “Western” dinner package which was a very abundant buffet consisting of many stations which I thought was reasonable for NT$880 including service fee. There is a Chinese dinner available which looks to be off a menu.  

Chinese restaurant

"Western" dinner buffet

Dinner fruit station

Beautiful desserts

Breakfast was also a buffet with many stations. If the weather is nice and you are one of the first ones to arrive, you will be asked if you want to sit on the terrace. DO IT! What a treat.

Breakfast outside on the terrace

Breakfast bread station

More bread and pastries

The abundance and freshness are even more remarkable given the location where the hotel is and how food needs to be transported to it.

Not sure the purpose of scales, maybe just decoration

Overall, I really enjoyed my stay at this hotel within Taiwan’s natural wonder.

On to Taroko Gorge and Silks Place

I am now on my second day around Taiwan as a solo traveler who can’t speak Chinese and only using public transportation. My first stop was Luodong where I visited the National Center for Traditional Arts and had a nice stay at the Sunny Stream Villa homestay. See Day One post here. I am now traveling down to Taroko Gorge and will spend the night at the luxury resort Silks Place in Tienxiang which is 18 km down a twisty, sometimes one-lane road in Taroko Gorge National Park. 

Nondescript Luodong Station

To get there I will leave from the nondescript Luodong station and take what is called a local train that stops at every station on the way to Xincheng, the nearest station to Taroko Gorge National Park. I purchased the ticket when I first arrived at Luodong. The fare was about US$3.50. Cheap!  I had inquired about the express train to Xincheng, but it left late, cost more and it was a standing ticket only. My experience is if you can pronounce the city you want to go to correctly, you’ll have no problem with ticket clerks outside of Taipei or better yet, write down the city and times you want to leave on a piece of paper and show them.

Local train interior

Local trains do not have reserved seats, but on this weekday I had no problem getting a seat. The train was filled with many local tourists, heading to Taroko Gorge. While the train seemed slow going (just over an hour), the view was amazing every time we came out of a tunnel and saw the coast.

Very pretty Xincheng Station

Xincheng station has been redone and is very nice. Half the parking lot was full of private tour buses which is where most of the tourists headed.  If you are traveling on your own, you have two options to get into Taroko Gorge, the Taiwan Tourist Shuttle bus, and the local bus. Both stop at the bus stop in the parking lot at the left as you exit the train station.  My only goal was to get to Tienxiang since I had toured the amazing Taroko Gorge before, and both buses made a stop there. As it happened, the local bus arrived first and with my “Easy Card” I was off along with the other tourists!

Taiwan Tourist Shuttle bus route

Amazing

Incredible that a road could be built here

Tienxiang

The bus made a few stops, but overall we had a quick trip through the beautiful Taroko Gorge and I finally arrived at Tienxiang. I arrived too early to check into the Silks Place resort so they took my bag and said they would email me when the room was ready (amazingly I had 4G).

Silks Place resort hotel

So I had time to kill in Tienxiang. A hike up to the Tianfeng Pagoda was in order in addition to walking around Tienxiang. I had wished Silks Place had a lounge where I could rest and have a drink. They have a  lounge, however, it’s only for those guests who pay extra to be “Retreat Guests.”  So I had my Taiwan beer in the stall across the parking lot. At 3:00 pm I got an email saying my room was ready (I will review Silks Place in my next post).

Tianfeng Pagoda 

Restaurants and stalls across from Silks Place parking lot

Church up above Silks Place

I had reservations on the southbound express train leaving about 10:00 am the next morning from the Hualien Station. This ticket was bought in advance when I was in Taipei. Both the local bus and the Taiwan Tourist Shuttle bus terminate at the Hualien train station. When I checked out, the local bus was waiting in the Silks Place parking lot. I also have noticed that the local buses do not always keep to a schedule and may leave early, so keep that in mind. After another trip through Taroko Gorge this time by a betel nut crazed driver, I arrived safely at the badly needing upgrading Hualien station for my next destination in my around Taiwan trip.

What happens when two big buses meet on a one-lane Taroko Gorge road?

One backs up.