I have some relatives coming to Kaohsiung, and they will be spending a few days in Taipei as well. Any suggestions on decent hotels/hostels? Explicit directions and/or street addresses would be appreciated; these folks have never been in Taiwan before and have zero language skills.
What’s the budget? If you’re looking at hostels the one across the train station is nice, with new facilities. There’s also a foreign guy who runs a hostel which I have heard good things about.
Midweek there are always deals on hotels and even the Grand Hotel can be pretty affordable. There are a couple hotels in Bitan for under NT2000 and some of the Beitou places are around the same weekdays.
The budget is low. They are taking two months off; Taiwan, Thailand, and Australia. The hostel near the train station would be Taipei MAIN station I assume? That might be what they are looking for. Do you have the name of the place?
If they want to go the clean budget hotel route, there’s a place called “Rosemary Hotel” reasonably near the train station, and No 15, Lane 105, Sec. 1, Zhongshan North Rd. Tel. 02 2542 9511.
My sister and her boyfriend booked a room there for a few days last year. They actually booked it over the Internet from the UK, and I was a bit worried about that, as it’s hard to know what you’re getting that way. But I went there to check it out, and it was actually fine. Clean rooms with TV, ensuite bathrooms, and hot water machines. I can’t remember the room price but it’s in the budget hotel range, so more than a thousand (per double room) but less than two thousand.
The Rosemary’s actually a little closer to the Zhongshan MRT station than to Taipei Train Station, though the latter is still walkable – ten or fifteen minutes’ walk I think.
If they want something closer to the train station and a hundred or two NT cheaper, they could try the New Mayflower, on Chongqing Rd. (Phone no. 02 2311 0212, tell me if you need directions). I’ve stayed there a few times, but it’s a little run-down and has a decidedly more “budgety” feel than the Rosemary.