Hi,
Relatively new to Taiwan and looking for Western-standard boutique-type hotels (if any) in TW. So if you’ve visited or experienced any recently - location isn’t important but quality of hotel / service is super-important, I’d be pleased to receive your comments or recommendations.
Thanks in advance 
No first-hand experience with any but I know of these: lessuitestaipei.com/
As a general note, Taiwan doesn’t do luxury very well. Getting excellent service will be difficult. If it’s for holiday, perhaps you can consider flying out?
Looks good, thanks. I’ll check it out.
I’m trying to put together a package for some friends and that seems to be a decent start. Is there really nothing in the more remote parts of TW? I’m thinking Six Senses style resorts, though I don’t hope to find something of similar size, just similar quality? Anything along these lines would do and I’ll check them out personally.
Have you tried looking at Booking.com? The top segment of the market in Taiwan seems well-represented there (budget hotels not so much).
I have, but was hoping for facilities a little less ‘discovered’. There is a reason, though I’d rather not go into it here.
As I said earlier, size isn’t important, but level of personal service and quality of facility and surrounding environment is. I’ll be visiting everything recommended to make my own assessment, I was just hoping you guys might have made some personal discoveries you’d care to share
Perhaps if I suggested that ‘unique location’ could replace ‘high level of personal service / facility quality’ this would widen the range of locations about which you may know?
How about this one: silksplace-taroko.com.tw/en/
Or this one then: leaderhotel.com/leadervillage/
I haven’t stayed in either myself but arranged a room with the latter for a guest of mine, and they were very pleased with the experience. Taroko is certainly a unique location, although this was all before the influx of Chinese tour groups, so I’m not so sure now. Perhaps staying there mid-week would be better.
I’ve stayed at Silks Place in Taroko and was very happy with it. Swimming in the infinity pool inside the gorge was an amazing experience. The food was great and the service friendly. I don’t recall seeing any Chinese tourists while I was there.
Ah, I knew you guys would come though
Silks/Leader - excellent. Ardennes - super-perfect.
I hoped there were places like these out there but I had no idea where they were. I also realise a web site isn’t the same as a site visit, which of course I’ll do.
If you know of more, please share…
As an aside, the ‘Chinese tourist’ issue. Is it a real-world issue? How disruptive can they be?
Also - and this may be a dumb question - is private rental helicopter use allowed in TW and if so do any of these facilities offer helicopter access?
The number of Chinese tourists is down by like 30 percent this year, meaning that places like Taroko, Alishan and Sun Moon Lake likely have less tour groups now, which can be a bit overwhelming at times. But it’s easy to avoid them if you stay clear of certain hot spot area.
Couldn’t find anything about helicopter services in Taiwan, so my guess is, it’s not really available.
Hwy 8 passing through Taroko is a narrow, winding mountain road. In many places two cars can barely pass each other without using pull-outs. Driving on it is pleasant though, as long as the traffic is within reason. If however, there are convoys of buses approaching from both sides, it inevitably leads to congestion. Further, if said buses happen to meet in one of the bottlenecks, which are numerous, one (and everyone behind it) will have to drive in reverse to let the other pass – that is assuming there is no disagreement as to who should backtrack.
This is on top of all the usual issues with tour groups, and not only a problem in Taroko of course but in other popular places as well.
So it’s not as much about the Chinese as such, as it is about tour groups being driven there by the busloads, although with the dwindling number of tourists, things might have got better since the last time I went there. Perhaps someone could update us.
I know two people who have raved about Villa 32 in Beitou. Maybe the restaurant is more famous than the hotel.
+1 for Silks Place in Taroko. Gf went there and said it was the best hotel she’s ever stayed at in terms of service. All staff (she encountered) greeted her by last name + xiao jie, l knew which room she was staying AND reminded her of her intended itinerary.
This place is more of a bnb than boutique hotel, but it is quiet, very limited guests (probably zero Chinese tourists) and service is just great.
https://www.facebook.com/pinehomestay/?fref=ts
I also recommend another bnb type place in Tainan, 台南謝仔/Tainan Old House Inn. From what I hear it’s one of the most exclusive bnb’s in Tainan. Since they ONLY take phone reservations and their bnb locations are not even disclosed to the public unless one of their guests shares the info on a blog or something. I heard there’s a few types of “rooms” where you share an entire building with a guest occupying one floor, good for socializing. There’s also a few standalone buildings inside small streets where you’ll get your peace and quiet.
Thanks everyone for taking the time to reply. Now all I need to do is to work out how to programme my GPS to visit everything. How hard can this be for a technophobe? Pretty damn hard, I can tell you
If I die on the roads I’ll blame you. Just sayin’…
Hi folks. Looking for recommendations for boutique hotels in Taipei and Taroko on behalf of a friend who plans to visit in February.
Any updates on the recommendations above would be awesome.
Does the Tango Hotel group count as a boutique? I haven’t been inside but they seem nice. Also the Madison on Dunhua across from Eclat. Can anyone share experience?
I like the Kindness Hotel 康橋飯店 a lot. I try to stay in them whenever I go to Kaohsiung or Tainan. They’re conveniently located and very clean.
In Taroko, cannot recommend Silks highly enough. View of gorge from infinity pool. Rooms are amazing. Good food.
Tango can be nice if you get a better room. Standard rooms are so so ordinary.
Taipei: dong wu hotel in datong district is soild budget option. Green room pretty good. United hotel the standard rooms bad but vip rooms are fantastic. Ambiance hotel is good.
Longterm resident and Taipei Times columnist Michael Turton has generously shared an image of the latest “boutique” hotel he’s found, located I believe in Douliou.
Just seeing that photo makes me want to book a ticket to Japan.
Source: https://twitter.com/michaelturton/status/1768912471954497590
Guy
