[Taiwan Trip] Hotels

We stayed in 3 different hotels during the trip. 3 nights in Sun Moon Lake area, 3 nights in Ximending, Taipei and 1 night in Yang Ming Shan.

Spa Home in Sun Moon Lake was our first hotel. It's a boutique hotel with only few rooms and our group occupied almost all of them. It offers stunning view of the lake through the glass window panels. Good thing we stayed there for 3 nights, because it has no elevators!

The building itself does not look promising but inside it is a different story. The rooms are really spacious and each has different design. It's clean and immaculate. Breakfast was provided, and the food was good.

The only minus point is that the staff can not speak English at all. Luckily the helper that cleans and cooks is an Indonesian, so everytime we needed something we just approached her :p

Spa Home

In Ximending we stayed in budget accommodation called Via Hotel. Its entrance is in one of the small busy street and the reception is at second floor. Once our group reached there, there's no space left in the lobby, that's how small it is. The rooms are also small, but very clean.

Surprisingly the bath tub that also serves as shower area is very big with impressive taps. The ventilation was not that good as sometimes I could smell smoke, sometimes toast, and also toilet smell.

Given its location and price, it's a good hotel. It's smack in the middle of Ximending, so good food and shopping is within easy reach. Breakfast is not provided but there's a snack bar next to the reception with various breads, crackers, biscuits, chips, sweets, tea, coffee machine and soft drink machine available all day long, free of charge. The sweet potato chips is really addictive! They also provide washing machines and dryer with no extra charge. Oh, and microwaves too!

Via Hotel, Ximending

Tien Lai Resort & Spa was the last hotel we stayed in. With only 1 night and big place to explore, we decided not to venture out from the resort. It is located in Yang Ming Shan, so it has cool weather.

We booked some European-style room with no hot spring, and some Japanese-style room with private hot spring. They upgraded all the rooms to Japanese-style with no extra charge. The private hot spring tub is located in the balcony, accessible from the sliding door in the toilet. It's semi outdoor because of the dividers, to let the steam escapes. We can fill the tub with hot spring water, cold or hot water.

The hotel is spacious, clean and well-equipped. The only drawback with the hot spring is the sulfur smell in the rooms.

Tien Lai Resort

Around the resort

Around the resort