Me and my gf are doing a 2 week backpacking trip through taiwan in november. We’re keeping it cheap (backpacker style). However It’s her birthday when we are in Kaohsiung and i want to surprise her by planning the day as follows:

• wake up and have breakfast delivered in bed
• go out for a slow sightseeing day
• get back to the hotel to get ready for dinner at a nice restaurant (any recommendations? I was thinking a michelin restaurant)
• get back to the hotel and have it romantic decorated by the hotel. We can take a hot bath with some scents in it and the likes
• which hotel would be open for delivering these requests? I want to do a fancier place than the cheap hostels we do for the rest of the trip.
• thanks in advance!

Hi all, visiting Taipei in a few months for work and will stay for a total of one week.

Two days of my stay involve business meetings in immediate area around Taipei 101.

This means that I'll have five days for myself.

Can anyone suggest any luxury hotels? I'm mid 30s, European and like to be able to do a lot on foot. Ideally, a hotel which is situated within walking distance of shopping, bars etc. but also convenient to get to Taipei 101.

Thanks!

​

I had the good fortune to spend a week at the new Capella Taipei this month. The property blew me away. Taipei has always wanted for a true luxury option, and now it has it. And this delightful city will probably get a few more by this time next year, too.

The physical plant, a brand-new mixed-use building, was clearly built with little regard for cost. Materials and build quality are superlative everywhere. I found myself gratuitously touching all of the soft wood and marble. The new wood also smells amazing (maybe I am weird!). And there is smart scenting used throughout the main areas. Being on property was aggressively pleasant and calming--a nice reprieve from the heat and pace of the city down below.

I almost must admit I am a big fan of Capella as a brand. It really clicks for me, and my family has felt the same. At the risk of being shamed in this discussion venue, we are not Four Seasons people. In fact, FS generally repulses me. I feel it has moved from true, warm hospitality to being oriented around guest capital extraction. That's not to say that there aren't FS locations we don't love and have long-term relationships with (we do in Koh Samui, Georgetown, Beverly Hills, Seoul, and a few others). People will say this is a pandemic outcome, but we noticed it long before, tbh.

I'll give some bullet points about what wowed me, and where the hotel can still grow, but please ask any questions, and I would be most happy to oblige them.

• The common areas are all amazing. Voluminous in height, but soft and approachable in design and material finishes. The Andre Fu team really nailed the brief here.
• The main dining and drinking venues are all on floors 1 and 2, and the F&B is top-notch.
• The common facilities on 14 (Living Room, pool, etc.) are all restricted to those in residence, which creates a nice, intimate atmosphere. And the hotel is small to begin with. 86 rooms across four floors at the top of the building.
• Breakfast was amazing every day: a small but quality buffet supplemented with a good al la carte menu. I think breakfast is gratis for all overnight guests. The local specialties were enjoyed the most, particularly the egg scallion pancakes and congees.
• The sushi omakase at Mizue was very good, but not the best.
• The cocktails at Plume were fab.
• The service was very good, and could be excellent. It's a new young team--eager to please but perhaps not at the full level of polish to be commensurate with the rates asked.
• The service design and concepts are fantastic, so I am bullish on the trajectory here. For example, my room was proactively fully serviced the morning of my late departure. This is a detail that always resonates with me. I guess it shows care over cost management?
• This is the most expensive hotel in Taipei, I think, but the value was v. strong. Mini bar was included, and the items were all premium and relevant. There was free-flow champagne (more on this below) on the comp at nearly every hour of the day.
• Location is PERFECT. Doubly so if you can fly into TSA, the better airport right in town. The Songshan district is a joy, as MO customers will already know!
• One of the things that charmed my socks right off is all of the collaboration branding the team here has done. Some of this is captured in the photos: a collab with a local Kombubca maker (the red guava flavor was superb! The F&B director took notice of my love of this drink and shared the story of how it came to be), a quasi-bespoke Frette line, a house-branded Champagne from a credible producer, etc.

It was a solo work trip, so I was in a deluxe room. My corner room had two exposures, including Songshan Airport. The other vista available is the downtown core/Taipei 101 skyline. I also looked at the pool suite rooms, but they were a bit small as far as indoor space went. Still, the concept of a private pool in a Taipei city hotel is very neat.

I've included photos of the most excellent Kohler washlet with massage functionality. Your move, Toto.

This feels very long, so I'll shut up now and see you in the comments. Thank you for reading.

Looks promising if the location works for you. And zero FAT options before potentially this. Plunge pool suites look intriguing, booked one for next month.

Any experiences out there?

https://english.gov.taipei/News_Content.aspx?n=A0EDC3930FBE7EFC&sms=5B794C46F3CDE718&s=6CBBBD4737D9391D

Here a massive list of state quarantine hotels.

Anyone have any experience at some of these? Recommend or don't recommend one? Should I just pick one at random?

Thanks!

Taipei 101 - right beside the W Taipei

Hi all, I recently went on a 5 week trip across Taiwan and Japan to celebrate our 15 year anniversary with my wife, travelling as a family of 4. You may have seen something familiar before from me because I did exactly that last year as well:

https://www.reddit.com/r/marriott/comments/1d0sjeb/a_review_of_all_marriott_properties_during_my/

This time we mixed and matched different levels of hotels and resorts throughout our trip, and stayed at the following properties I categorized into 3 groups:

Luxury Resorts

1. The Westin Tashee Resort
2. Hoshino Tomamu Resort, the Towers
3. Daiichi Takimotokan, Noboribetsu
4. Higashiyama Niseko Village, a Ritz Carlton Reserve

Premium Hotels

1. Sheraton Taoyuan Hotel
2. Kaohsiung Marriott Hotel
3. Le Meridien Taichung
4. Sheraton Grand Taipei
5. W Taipei
6. Hilton Niseko
7. Westin Sendai
8. Westin Tokyo

Budget Hotels

1. Vessel Hotel Campana Susukino
2. JR Inn Hakodate
3. APA Hotel Aomori Eki Kenchodori
4. Kokusai Hotel Sendai

This post is to focus on my experience at the Premium Hotels, pretty much all Marriott properties. For the TL:DR version, here's a little spreadsheet I used to summarize them.

|| || |Name|Room|Service|Breakfast|Elite Upgrade|Lounge|Price| |Sheraton Taoyuan Hotel|3|3|5|3|3|3| |Kaohsiung Marriott Hotel|5|3|3|4|5|3| |Le Meridien Taichung|5|4|4|5|4|3| |Sheraton Grand Taipei|4|5|5|5|5|4| |W Taipei|4|5|3|3| |5| |Hilton Niseko|3|4|4|3| |2| |Westin Sendai|3|4|2|3|2|4| |Westin Tokyo|3|4|2|3|3|5|

If you are interested, I will likely post the Resorts review in chubby travel sub and Budget hotels in travel sub in the coming week. Let's get started.

Sheraton Taoyuan Hotel

The hotel was nice, great food, friendly check in staff, and comfy beds. The breakfast was really nice with a ton of variety and as a elite benefit it was of great value. The selections of breakfast goes from west to east in abundance, with so much selections including things you probably typically don't eat for breakfast (cough ice cream cough). The custom noodle station has so many different choices that I went back 3 times to try what I wanted to try. However, restaurant staff seemed tired and indifferent with no smiles on their faces. To be honest I think a lot of people work very hard but for very little money, and are hard to stay motivated.

Freshly made western breakfast

Unfortunately because of timing, we didn't have the chance to enjoy the executive lounge's happy hour offerings, and there were no suite upgrade given for titanium elite due to lack of availability. I didn't really feel all that special because of my elite status from the hotel staff, nor did they do anything special because of our special occasion. However I would still recommend this hotel for travelers to stay in because the breakfast is really amazing and it kick started our culinary journey in Taiwan by setting a pretty high bar.

Room

Kaohsiung Marriott Hotel

This is one of my favorite hotels of all time. The rooms are nice, breakfast is great, and the spa pools are out of this world. However, this time I really struggled with the hotel, leaving a bad taste in my mouth. The hotel used to provide elite breakfast in its main restaurant, a fantastic experience and for us who spend way too much money at Marriott properties, a good way to appreciate our loyalty. Elites now are limited to have breakfast in the executive lounge, while not terrible, it certainly is in no way shape or form comparable to the main restaurant. There is so little variety, by the 4th day of my stay I went out to have breakfast instead of the hotel. This is such a significant elite benefit downgrade that I brought it up a couple times with the staff, understanding that they can't do much but hopefully enough people voice their displeasure that will result in them changing it back. That being said, the happy hour selection is probably the best amongst all my stays. There are about 20 items with great variety and tastes, plus open bar. Basically beats any lounge in North America.

Happy Hour Offerings

The pools and spas are still as amazing as ever, one of the key reasons to stay here. There are something like 10 pools with different types of spa jets. Some rains on you, some have you sit on a lounger in water and jets come up from the bottom. It also has both sauna and steam room, cold pools. It puts the Nordic Spa at Kananaskis Lodge in Canada to shame. And the best part is it's included in the room rate, no extra charge!

View from the Spa Pools

For elite benefits, we were granted a suite upgrade, although a smaller suite than my previous stay, was still much appreciated and is just a gorgeous, comfortable stay. We stayed here for a full week and just absolutely enjoyed every minute of it.

Junior Suite

Le Meridien Taichung

This hotel is one of the best ones we stayed in our trip to Taiwan across 4 cities, with consistent high marks in all aspect of our stay. Not only is the decor beautiful and modern, the location is close to the train station where there are lots of interesting things to see and buy. As our first Le Meridien experience, I liked its black and white décor, with that tiffany green as its main colour.

The elite benefits are in full swing here. We had a fantastic suite upgrade, it was absolutely huge, featuring a full blown walk-in closet, 1.5 bathroom, huge shower area, huge living room featuring a crescent sectional sofa, and a super comfy king bed in a beautifully appointed bedroom. It also has all the nice modern lighting controls in the room where you can control everything from both sides of the bed including the drapes.

Suite - Living Room

Suite - Full Bathroom

The full breakfast and happy hour were both very good, with the breakfast in its main restaurant. Furthermore, the staff graciously provided us some snacks and a beautiful card to help us celebrate our 15 year wedding anniversary in our room.

The only downside about the hotel is that the rooftop pool seems like a complete after sought. It looked like a giant bathtub on the roof and to access it you had to do a really odd and long trek up a floor instead of taking the elevator directly to it. It is actually borderline comical.

Really lame pool

Sheraton Grand Taipei

Similar to the Kaohsiung Marriott, I have frequent Sheraton Grand Taipei numerous times. Its location, staff's politeness, and room appointments are all at the top of its class. Although it is a bit old, the rooms have had updates over the years and it is clear the materials used in the rooms are very high quality. Because the hotel has a longer established history, it's location is also arguably one of the best in Taipei city, walkable to Taipei Train Station, and right next to a smaller MRT station for quick access to pretty much all of Taipei. 

Suite Living Room

The food in the executive lounge is one of the best lounge food I have experienced around the world. Not only does it have some traditional Taiwanese dishes like the pickled veggie shredded pork noodle soup or sesame chicken rice, they are very authentic and well prepared, showing off the chef's culinary skills. The food quality in the lounge rivals the rest of the restaurant establishments throughout the hotel, some being Michelin quality. 

Very nice curry chicken

The staff did a great job taking care of us. One of the FDA at the elite check-in desk exhibited very high professionalism and can-do attitude. She relentlessly took care of our check-in needs, and graciously upgraded us to one of the limited suites in this very busy hotel. Furthermore, the executive lounge staff also took great care of my little one, granted her an exception once to enter the lounge for breakfast (she behaves well, I promise), and allowed her to dine in the main restaurant the next day free of charge. I found both incidences over and beyond the typical expectations at hotels and truly appreciate the great service provided to us. 

W Taipei

This is the first time we stayed at a W hotel. As a modern luxury hotel on the same luxury tier as the Ritz Carlton, St. Regis, and JW Marriott, we had quite a high expectation for this place. The arrival experience certainly did not disappoint, where the absolutely beautiful grand entrance welcomes us in, with many staff helping with our luggage, we swiftly take the elevator to 40+ floor to check-in.

The service at the hotel is quite good. I would say it is as good as most luxury hotels we have stayed at. The staff is very friendly and attentive. They arranged takeout breakfast for us on the day of the checkout due to our early flight. The sandwich was amazing. The breakfast buffet included was good in selection but lacked a bit in texture and flavour. I recalled the rice meatball was a bit mushy, while the eggs benedict not only was poorly presented, the eggs didn't have their water drained properly resulting in a soggy English muffin.

The lack of an executive lounge for this caliber of a hotel is also a bit disappointing, but I think it is standard across all W hotels? To compensate the lack of a lounge, happy hour for elites is served in the WOO bar, which was very nicely decorated. I loved the projected W light on the wall, and its fresh take on the 12 Chinese zodiac animals (ex: the dragon is presented as a dinosaur, and the monkey is presented as a gorilla, ox is presented as a rhino). The drinks, both alcoholic and tea, were great tasting, coupled with a very nice snack.

WOO Bar during Happy Hour

The rooms are a bit on the small side but very modern and well equipped. It has built in Bluetooth speakers, very luxurious appointments for its interiors, and the shower was quite nice. My biggest gripe would be the lack of a shower door. I hear Marriotts all over the world are eliminating shower doors and this is the first one I experienced. Not a fan at all.

Room

One of the highlights during our trip was a dinner at the Yen Restaurant in the hotel. It was great and worth every penny. We very much enjoyed the specialties and showmanship this dinner course had to offer.

Unfortunately due to high occupancy we were not fortunate to receive a suite upgrade. However, they provided a nice welcome message and treats together with our travel agent, which was much appreciated. In terms of location, the W sits close to Taipei 101 on the east side of Taipei. This area is posh and new, but I personally prefer the west where the Train station and ximenting is located.

Ultimately, I think the W Taipei is a great hotel for many. However for me, at this price point I would likely pick the Ritz or JW brand in the future when said choices are available.

Hiltons Niseko

What the hell is a Hilton review doing in a Marriott sub you ask? Well, I'm a lowly Gold Honour on the Hilton side, and I thought this experience was actually quite eye opening for a typical Marriott Elite and see what the other brands do for their loyal customers. We were excited to stay at the Hilton Niseko Village as this was for us to revisit Niseko, where we had our honeymoon, but back then couldn't afford to stay here, to experience the ski in ski out privilege.

The hotel is quite nice and grand in its lobby, and the check in process was smooth. I was able to check in online through the app and select the exact room, which I thought was a nice touch from using the Hilton app. We are only Gold Honours so we weren't subject to a suite upgrade, but had free breakfast included.

Lobby

To our surprise, the hotel staff provided us a lot of small treats in our room to celebrate our anniversary including towel art and even a bottle of wine. During breakfast, the loyalty manager stop by our table and dropped even more goodies. I have only got this kind of attention once at the St. Regis Singapore being a Titanium Elite. We recognize Gold Honours isn't high up on the tier list of Hilton elites, but the hotel still went over and beyond and treated us very nicely. It was such a personal touch and we very much appreciated it, and to be honest, I thought Marriott could learn from their competition on how to make their elite guest feel special.

Welcome gift - including a bottle of wine, for just Gold Honour

There was a small hiccup though. When we checked in we requested a 2pm check out and was granted so, only to have someone called our room when I was out and told my wife check out is at 11am. When I came back, I tried calling the front desk, no one picked up, and I went downstairs and ask about it. It was indeed back to 11am and they put me back to 2pm. I thought this was some kind of miscommunication but was able to sort it out. It was a super busy hotel. They probably should hire more people.

The location of the hotel is fantastic, where you can pick up rentals of ski gear and go right to the lift. There are also many restaurants to choose from. I recommend anyone coming to Niseko to stay at this Hilton for its great location, good personal touch, and variety of food selection.

Westin Sendai

After 30 years, I had the pleasure to return to Sendai for the very first time. There is no sign of the 2011 Tohoku Earthquake, and the city is as lively as ever. We picked the Westin Sendai as one of the two hotels during our stay and it comes with everything expected from a 5 star hotel.

The rooms are nice and big, with a great view of the city. I wish I got a suite upgrade but no dice there. The staff are very friendly, courteous and attentive. I find the overall experience staying at the hotel very pleasant. They also provided us some nice treats in our room to celebrate our anniversary, which was greatly appreciated.

Room

However, I felt the food offering in the executive lounge and the breakfast relatively average. Perhaps due to the fact we were in Taiwan and stayed at a couple Westin, Sheraton, and Marriott that have food selections and quality surpasses Westin Sendai in every possible way, it was a bit disappointing. But even compared to some of the budget hotels in Hokkaido that provides breakfast it fell short. The offerings at Westin Sendai, during happy hour in the lounge, had no hot food items (compared to 20+ in Taiwan), while breakfast was mainly western focused, with some Japanese twist on the beef stew omelette, some tofu, fish, and soft boil egg dishes. While it is decent, it is just nowhere near in competition with other hotels similar in level and pricing.

The Happy Hour was so lame I took a photo of the lounge instead

Perhaps Westin Sendai is catering to more western palettes when it comes to food, but choices really should be the key here. In comparison, I head into the Sendai morning market and had breakfast there one of the days, with fresh oyster ramen and sashimi selections, and it was amazing. Perhaps Westin Sendai could consider having some of the local selections from the market as a part of its breakfast offerings.

Breakfast

Westin Tokyo

As the last stop of our Asia trip, I was quite hyped up with anticipation to stay at the 5-star Westin Tokyo. Located in Ebisu, this hotel had the most expensive day rate (Pushing $1000 USD a night) from our entire trip, and I expected the highest quality of everything. Unfortunately, that isn't what I experienced.

First the great things the Westin Tokyo offer are everything you can expect at the hotel. Beautiful decor, fancy-built materials, very friendly staff...etc. I want to highlight the service is really nice in general and that goes for Japan's typical legendary services. We had a few luggage that was being shipped to the property and they took great care delivering them to our room.

The room was decent. Due to Sakura season we weren't able to obtain any suite upgrades which is always a bit of a disappointment. However, the room was quite large and comfortably sleeps four, so we don't need to book 2 rooms for our family as many hotels in Japan would require us to do so.

Room

Where I thought the hotel felt average compared to its competitors, are mainly the food offering and its location. The lounge food selection was average, with limited hot food selection and average quality. The breakfast, where we chose to dine in the main restaurant, focused on western offerings, with limited eastern offering other than the custom noodle soup. Similar to my thoughts about Westin Sendai, Westin Tokyo just seem to not able to compete in the food department with other Westins/Marriotts/Sheratons in the rest of Asia, namely Taiwan, Malaysia, and Singapore. To be honest though, I was already generally sick of hotel breakfast half way through, with almost every single day I had elite benefit breakfast, I felt like I was the parents that turned into pigs in Spirited Away…

Lounge

The location of the hotel is quite interesting. Ebisu is quite posh and lively. However, to get onto the train it is a solid 15-minute walk utilizing moving sidewalk to the JR, a couple more minutes longer if you are taking the Tokyo Metro. I think this ultimately makes it less competitive to other premium/luxury hotels in Tokyo such as the Ritz Carlton Tokyo, and Park Hotel Tokyo, the 2 other hotels I recently stayed at in Tokyo both with under 10 minutes walking time to the nearest train station. This trek may not seem like much, but really hinders one's ability to go back to the hotel halfway through a day to take a break.

The hotel is very nice and comfortable, however with so many premium and luxurious selections available in Tokyo, The Westin Tokyo feels a bit dated and disadvantageous for its location.

In summary, I thought the average hotels in Taiwan surpassed the ones in Japan, in terms of food, upgrade, and rooms, the properties in Taiwan consistently perform better than Japan, and the pricing in Taiwan is also relatively cheaper for the most part. Within the premium hotel line up, the properties in Taiwan made me felt like I could just stay inside the hotel, go nowhere, and still enjoy myself. They are almost a destination in itself. However, once you start comparing the two countries outside of hotel properties though, it is a complete 180. For the lack of caliber in the hotels, Japan makes up for it in all the amazing places to visit, which is the reason I visit a county anyways.

Alright, that is all. Hope it was long enough.

Hello friends,

I'm a European living in South East Asia and I plan to visit Taiwan in about 3 weeks. I'm mostly going to be in Taipei but I'd also like to visit some other region/province. Here we go:

1- What area/s would you recommend to stay at in Taipei? I'm pretty flexible but I'd like to know if there are any area/s that I should totally avoid (Poorly connected, dangerous, particularly expensive, ...)

2- Is it better to book a hotel? or an Airbnb? I don't have a big budget, around 30-40USD (TWD960-1,275) per night. Any other good options I didn't think of?

3- What's the best way to move around in TP? I guess MRT is one, Is there anything like a pass card that I can use on different transports? Is there an app like Uber? If so, what would be the approximate price for a 5KM drive? Are taxis safe to use? In some countries in SEA you have to negotiate the prices with the driver (which I hate) or/and they will take the longer way to get to the destination.

4- Eating - What are the best options? Are there good food courts or street food where locals go? I have no probs with local food, as long as it's a clean place, even street food.

5- Socialising - I'm pretty laid back and approachable, are Taiwanese people in general cool with a stranger starting a conversation at a bar?

6- What are the best areas to hang out at night? I'm not that much into clubbing anymore but I like to go to local places where you can sit and have a cold beer and see/meet people.

7- What is the best way to go from the airport to Taipei city?

8- What are some interesting areas to visit out of TP? I'm into local history, food, architecture and nature. I'd rather traveling by train but if flight connections are not too expensive I'd consider that too. Some names of different areas would do and then I can research a bit about them myself.

9- Do TW people in general speak English?

I'm planning to do my own research about what to do in TP but if you can also recommend some places to visit that'd be awesome. I prefer local stuff more that touristic but if there are any ca't miss spots that are also touristic I'm totally down for that too.

Lastly, any other info that you consider relevant would be veeery welcome. Thanks!!

​