Nice romantic hotel/spa

I want to plan a romantic night with my bf. I want to find a nice hotel something like a spa/hotspring like setting. Maybe too hot for hotsprings(but hey might be cheaper since it’s too hot?) but something nice and relaxing. Can anyone recommend a nice place? I’m in Taipei but won’t mind travelling maybe an hour away. Thanks.

If you or your BF has a car I would recommend Wulai. You can hike up to the mountains during the day and then ease the soreness away in a hot spring afterwards. You’re right, though, it is a bit warm for the summer…

Have fun.

You can try Beitou near the xinbeitou MRT station. There are some hotels that are japanese style meaning just bathroom and a small living room but no chairs or sofa. You need to put the tatami out and sleep on the living room. There is a sliding door and it connects to a hotsprings tub. I think they had two. One for a hotwater and one for just cold water. You can adjust the temperature if it gets too cold but simply putting more cold water. The hotspring is your own personal place so even after watching some tv you can go back to the hotspring tub at your liking.

hallyard.com/index-h.htm

There are other places much closer to the MRT station but you should check it out for comparitive prices and comfort.

Thanks, no neither us us had as a car. I would rather have a place with a bed, wouldn’t like getting tatami mat burns :wink: Does any one have any names of specific places they’ve been to?

You can take the bus to Wulai, so you don’t need a car. You want the Hsintien Bus Company’s Wulai Line. From the MRT you can transfer at Gongguan and Hsintien stations. The fare varies by how far you are going. You’ll need to know enough Chinese to ask the driver how much or enough to read the fare chart above the front window.

There’s a lot of very nice hotels in the area around Wulai. Some are pretty expensive, so you’ll have to figure out what you are willing to budget.

My wife took me to Spring Park Hotel (春秋烏來) for my birthday last year. Each room is very spacious, and has a private hot spring bath with a wonderful view of the river. There is a small pool for guests. Rooms include dinner and breakfast for two in a small intimate dining room for guests only, plus visits to their public bath facilities if the one in your room isn’t enough. The hotel is clean, quiet, and the food, service and amenities are top notch. Most of the staff also speaks English well. They are located in Yanti, a couple of bus stops before Wulai. It’s pretty costly though. My wife got a pretty good deal out of them for a mid-week booking though, so call and ask if they have some specials.

They also have nice private hot spring rooms by the hour and a public hot spring you can visit separately if you want to stay somewhere else.

Here’s some pictures from our stay:
jameslick.com/album/2003-06-11_Wulai/

Spring Park Hotel (Chinese, English, Japanese): springparkhotel.com.tw/

The Landis group also has a hot spring resort near Wulai called Pause Landis. You will have to call for more info as their web site is pretty sparse:

thelandis.com.tw/english/en-group-m.htm

Thanks, jlick that sounds right up my alley but unfortunately a little too rich for my blood :frowning: I’ll check out some more in the area.

Hotels and spas in Wulai are all very over-priced. Generally start from 4000NT a night for something decent. Much more expensive if you want something really nice (liek the Spring Park Urai Sap and resort which has a nice room for 32000NT a night - private swimming pool included).

Maybe a good bet for Wulai is the Naruwan - the big one across from the waterfall. Rooms there start from 3000NT a night. It is too far upriver to have a spa, but you could walk down to the free spa area (in the river).

Although very overpriced, you can always get 10%-35% off midweek - don’t forget to bargain.

Brian

Now that attitude adjuster has seen the Spring Park Hotel prices, NT4000 will seem CHEAP. :wink:

By the way, I highly recommend going mid-week. During the weekends the place is jammed packed, so it is hard to enjoy things. Mid-week there’s only a few tourists around, so it is much more relaxing (at least for me). There’s plenty of spa-only options if you want to make it a day trip instead. Prices typically range from NT150 for half an hour up to NT1000 an hour for a private hot spring room, depending on the location and quality. The ones right in town are not the best deal because they are in the heavily travelled area. If you go past the main area of Wulai, over the bridge and up the road to your right (to the left you would go to the train up to the cable car area), you can find some better deals because it is more out of the way, or stop at some of the spas along the road on the way to Wulai. If you don’t want a private room, the largers spas also have public baths which don’t have a time limit.

If you want a good spa then go to the Formosa Hotel( Bali style massage), I believe they have couples rooms. Far Eastern Hotel also comes to mind, but they only have singles rooms.

HI, new to the board,

Well, if you dont have a car, this one might suite you better.

lotusspa.network.com.tw/

this is a brand new hotel, i just came back from a two nights stay over there.
although no view, but the facility is really nice. They have shuttle bus so they can pick you up at Beitou(i dont know exactly how to spell it)

try to book the hotel online… they give out better price.

Thanks for the link blanktape but I can’t read Chinese :frowning: and the site doesn’t have English. How much was it?

Well, after reading all the posts, I think I must have been lucky in finding the Full Moon Spa in Wulai. My husband and I went there for our anniversary two weekends ago. We stayed for Saturday and Sunday nights. The deal we negotiated was that we got the Sunday night lower rate of approx. NT3500 for each of Sat and Sun nights. That included dinner each night - an NT380 value plus breakfast each morning plus two free public spas each day.

The hotel is only one year old and is beautiful. Great quality of furniture and building and is set into a hillside. There was also a private spa (two tubs for hot and cold) in our room. The room we chose was the smallest and therefore the least expensive of the choices but it was really really fine. The food was delicious.

To find it, cross the first bridge. Look to your left and up the hill on the far side of the first road going to the left of the main road. Or just walk up the stairs on the far side of that road. You’ll walk right inside the hotel.

I highly recommend this place. I promise you won’t be disappointed AND you can go on a Saturday and/or Sunday night. You won’t get the cheap rate if you only go on a Saturday night, though. You must negotiate it from the Sunday night first and then ask for the Saturday night at the same rate as Sunday. Good luck.

I stayed in Wulai for a night and payed 1600nt for 2 people.I cant remember the name of the hotel.It was a small place, with maybe 7 or 10 rooms.It was nice.I think if you go there and walk around for 1 hour you will find a hotel thats very cheap.

Mission accomplished :slight_smile:

We stayed at the Full Moon Spa. It’s really beautiful. We paid $3500 for the room. We looked at another cheaper place but it wasn’t nearly as nice as the Full Moon. You do get what you pay for. It included breakfast and lunch (good food). We stayed in our own instead of using the public spa. We had a very nice relaxing stay. Thanks for all your suggestions.

For future reference, if you want to check out more hot springs, head to Ilan for great springs at a fraction of Wu Lai/Bei Tou prices. Granted, the views aren’t always as nice as Wu Lai. But it’s only a 1.5-2 hour train ride from Taipei.

What’s that like? D’you get a proper hot spring pool with a view or is it just a normal bathtub arrangement with piped hot spring water?

I’ve stayed at a number of spas with private hotsprings in the room. None of them had a view, since, well, they were inside the hotel room. They were all pumped in. Biggest problem here is the number of fakes which pump in extremely diluted springs. This is common in Beitou, so gotta be careful.

I would imagine a private outdoor HS here would cost a fortune.

Oh, on a complete side note, if someone is looking for a private outdoor HS experience, I can recommend the Hakone region in Japan, near Fuji. Quite unusual to go buck nekked into a pool outside, but a nice experience. And the region is really beautiful - makes an outstanding 1 or 2 day trip from Tokyo.

Hey, attitude adjuster. I feel great that you took me up on my recommendation and were happy with your stay. Thanks for the follow up.

That’s what I was afraid of. I wonder if its like that at Wulai? For NT$3,500/night for a small unstarred hotel I expect more than a hot bath as an “attraction.”

Bit far away–but the Secret Garden of the Atayatl Princessin Lushan is very nice. You want the upstairs rooms with the wood hot tubs built into the outside deck. I think we got away with NT$1500/night but there was no one else there and my companion charmed the socks off the owners.