I’m looking for some place nice to spend a weekend with my girlfriend as we’re in Taipei later this month (visiting from Korea), and have heard about Beitou. I’ve been in the area before but never been to Yangmingshan and would like to check out the mountain and enjoy some hot springs. Apologies for my disjointed questions below, I’m new at this.
I’ve read through some of the posts here which have given bad reviews to the hotels / resorts in the area, criticized the quality of the water, or the fact that we’ll be knee-deep in tourists on the weekend. But I think the area would have some redeeming qualities, and would be a nice relaxing couple of days. Besides just enjoying the facilities I’d also like to see the park and get some hiking in.
Money won’t be any object, and would be fine with higher-end places, but of course I don’t want to spend tons of money on a place that’s just a glorified hot tub with trees. I’m curious if anyone has any recommendations for hotels / resorts in that area. Any comments on The Landis? I notice it has some availability for when we’re looking to go, although parts of their website aren’t working right now.
The hot springs are segregated by sex, correct? Then what’s the deal with private ones? Are they just outside each room?
But what will be an object is transportation. We don’t have cars and are relying then on subways and buses. Since neither of us can speak Chinese—but can read a good bit she’s Japanese and I’ve studied Korean—we are afraid of trying anything that involves sporadic or hard-to-find buses, or loads of transfers. Some place easily accessible would mean it’s more likely to be crowded, of course, but sacrifices must be made.
Anyway, does anybody have any recommendations for the area? I’m looking through online sites now, but there’s a lot to choose from, and based on what has been said in earlier threads I’m not really sure which way to go.
Or, is there a better place for a relaxing scenic weekend besides Beitou altogether? (We’re already going to Hualien)
I think it’s about NT$3,000-NT$6000 for a night in this historic hot spring resort that dates back to the Japanese era. Here are some photos. taipei.mmmtravel.com.tw/index_m. … 3_id=30619. Don’t expect them to speak much English (if any) but I’m sure you can figure out. Just take the MRT to Beitou and give the taxi the above address. Very easy.
Communal pools where people get naked are segregated by sex.
Communal pools where people wear swimsuits and swimcaps are not segregated.
Private rooms are primarily for couples. Individuals aren’t supposed to go into those alone anymore. (Some old guy had a heart attack a few years back…)
Hotels in hot spring areas will usually have hot spring water (or at least what’s supposed to be hot spring water) piped into your bathroom. There will usually also be separate small rooms for couples and often much larger communal spaces, complete with water jets, pools of various temperatures, steam rooms, etc.
Spring, which Feiren mentioned, has nice facilities. I don’t know about the hotel rooms there; but they should be fine.
And if you go to Xin Beitou (where Spring is), be sure to check out the public library there in the park.
As for Wulai, are there really any nice hotels there? I’ve been to a good hot spring restaurant on the road there. It has two or three private rooms overlooking the river, and sex-segregated larger rooms. The restaurant at least used to have a set meal with everthing cooked in or flavored with some sort of tea. Yum! But I’ve forgotten the name.