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Where to stay in Taipei?

Where to stay in Taipei?

Old Jun 20, 2016, 12:03 pm
  #1  
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Where to stay in Taipei?

Hi all,

Never been to Taiwan...but I will be spending 5 nights in Taipei in October. What hotels would you guys recommend for a family of 4(2 kids at 2 and 6 years old).

Do you guys suggest the SPG, Hyatt or Marriott properties? I'm SPG Gold, Hyatt Diamond and Marriott Gold. I'm trying to look for the best bang for the buck or best stays using points.

I have ~55k SPG, 150k UR(which I can transfer to Hyatt) or 140K Marriott. The Marriott properties seem to be "outside of Taipei" from what I see on award mapper. There is only one GH Hyatt. So I might be leaning towards an SPG property.

I can use my SPG points for 4 nights stay and get the 5th night free. I probably don't have enough SPG points as of now, but I can buy some points via their 30% off SPG points promo.

Just looking for suggestions and recommendations. Thanks!
emofeng is offline  
Old Jun 20, 2016, 9:32 pm
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I'd say the Sheraton Grand or Grand Hyatt had the best locations. In the centre, near touristy areas.

What sort of area do you want to stay in? What sort of things do you plan on doing?
There's no point getting a good deal in relation to your programme, but staying in a hotel in the middle on nowhere with poor connections to all the sights.
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Old Jun 21, 2016, 9:41 am
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Grand Hyatt is smack in middle of 101 area, lots of malls, convention centers, cinema, etc. It's a mad-house but in nice way....if that's your thing.

The Les Suites Cheng Ching location is a small boutique hotel, right next to major MRT location. Take a quick peek, it's considered a small luxury hotel....
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Old Jun 21, 2016, 1:17 pm
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Can you post the hotels you can choose from, and most importantly what you plan to do while in Taipei? Without it, it's difficult to give you good advice but in general, if it's between the three hotels mentioned:

Sheraton (MRT Shandao Temple)

The reason this hotel is there is because of the neighboring government buildings but this area has nothing particularly interesting for a tourist to do there. It is rather nondescript and in the evening becomes quite desolate. As I would usually choose a hotel based on its location, I'd advise against staying there.

Hyatt (Xinyi Planned Area, Taipei 101)

Next to the landmark Taipei 101. This area has been planned as the most presentable part of Taipei, and is full of shopping malls and department stores, which are all fine but look exactly like their counterparts anywhere else in the world. If you stay there, you'll enjoy it but you'll not be experiencing much of the real Taipei, which is arguably why you're travelling to Taipei in the first place. Another caveat is that the area and especially the flagship Taipei 101 mall with the very decent food court is overrun by tour groups from China, which very often makes the experience unbearable for anyone else, although Chinese package tourism is on the decrease now due to political factors, so perhaps it won't be so much of an issue by the time you come. Still, a very decent choice to stay overall. If you grow tired of the city you can do a short trail to climb the nearby Elephant Mountain.

Mariott (MRT Jiannan Rd, Miramar)

This is another recently developed area, which is unlike nearly anywhere else in Taipei. The Miramar shopping mall is not as grandiose as the Taipei 101 but it has its style, and the food court is nice as well. Both the crowds and the shopping options are more local here. There is a Ferris wheel with a very pleasant overlook on Taipei. This is also a good starting point for a riverside cycling trip (there is a public bike rental system with stations everywhere but for pleasure you want to cycle along the rivers). This area is served by the brown MRT line, which is completely elevated, and a great way to quickly see a lot of Taipei (sit in front of the first car, there is no driver, so the view is unobstructed), although it might be problematic if you travel with a lot of luggage during the rush hours. This place is calmer than the Taipei 101 area. I'm fairly certain if you stay there you'll be enjoying it as well.

That being said, if I were not constrained by the choice of hotels, I'd choose yet another area to stay, most likely Ximending. But of course it all depends on what you want to see and do.

Hope the above helps a little.
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Old Jun 21, 2016, 1:38 pm
  #5  
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Originally Posted by ProleOnParole
Hyatt (Xinyi Planned Area, Taipei 101)

Next to the landmark Taipei 101. This area has been planned as the most presentable part of Taipei, and is full of shopping malls and department stores, which are all fine but look exactly like their counterparts anywhere else in the world. If you stay there, you'll enjoy it but you'll not be experiencing much of the real Taipei
I cannot stop laughing about all these comments on the location of the GH....

What people seem to ignore is that the location is good for getting on the subway and that is something that is required if you want to see the sights. Things are spread out a bit. Lots of tourist locations are also within walking distance and if you walk the other way (not to 101) it takes you about 5 minutes to see the "real" Taipei, whatever that is.

It's a nice hotel and the lounge is not bad either, something you get to appreciate as a Diamond.
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Old Jun 21, 2016, 8:51 pm
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Yeah Taipei is a fairly spread out city in terms of tourist attractions. While Ximending certainly has the best night out and shopping, this group are going as a family - so I'm not sure if this is important.

The reason I recommended the Grand Hyatt or Sheraton was because of their locations. Close to the centre and metro.
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Old Jun 22, 2016, 12:14 am
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Originally Posted by RTW1
I cannot stop laughing about all these comments on the location of the GH....

What people seem to ignore is that the location is good for getting on the subway and that is something that is required if you want to see the sights. Things are spread out a bit. Lots of tourist locations are also within walking distance and if you walk the other way (not to 101) it takes you about 5 minutes to see the "real" Taipei, whatever that is.
I'm glad I could make you laugh but let's try to give the OP sound advice. First of all, you'd be hard-pressed to find a place within central Taipei less than good for getting on the "subway," so the same can be said about pretty much any other hotel. A better differentiating factor then is what can you do in the area without resorting to the MRT.

If it were my trip, I would want to see what makes the place I'm visiting different and special compared to anywhere else in the world. For Taipei, that would be: narrow residential lanes full of four-storey buildings overlaid with greenery, shophouses with shadowy public arcades and peculiar items for sale, rich religious life with temples large and small as well as streetside altars where offerings to gods are placed and incense sticks or ghost money is burned, itinerant food vendors with their vibrant and cleverly-decorated carts, myriads of scooters swerving and moving around chaotically or parked in seemingly endless rows.

All of the above is absent from the Xinyi Planned Area, which might make it a great place to live as an expat but arguably not where you want to end up spending most of your time as a tourist.

For comparison, the pedestrianized area in Ximending is also a bustling shopping district very lively into the night, however the shops there are not necessarily international brands but one-of-a-kind local ones, there is an abundance of street food, and it's also a walking distance to many of the sights such as the city gates, Longshan Temple, Presidential Palace or CKS Memorial Hall, which are concentrated in the older, western parts of Taipei. In the evening, you can also attend a traditional Chinese music concert at the Zhongshan Hall or the National Concert Hall or, and it'll be within walking distance too.

The Hyatt is the most obvious choice for the OP, and he could do worse than stay there, but it's important to realize that none of the three hotels are strategically located for the tourists, and the reason they are where they are is for business travellers to the central government offices (Sheraton), trade fairs (Hyatt), or the Neihu technology park (Mariott). As a tourist ideally you'd want to be somewhere else, where you don't have to take MRT the first thing you get out of the hotel. (This is mainly for other readers researching this topic later, as they will not have the same constraints.)

Hope the OP has a great trip.
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Old Jun 22, 2016, 5:06 am
  #8  
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I find it all to be a bit of an exaggeration, and I was just there for a 7 day stay as a tourist :-).

In my view both the location and the GH are perfectly fine. Most people want to visit the sites that are spread over the city, so travel is essential. And if you walk just 5 minutes towards the Sun Yat-sen park you will get a feel of the older Taipei. The Songshan culture/creative park and even the Raohe market are a fairly easy walk. As is that very nice Elephant mountain walking trail. And most tourists do that 101 visit as well....

And not to be an ignorant tourist.... but if you have seen one street market in Asia you have experienced what it's like. Taipei, even with its great food, doesn't add that much uniqueness.

My best advice would be to get out of the city for a day, or even more....

Last edited by RTW1; Jun 22, 2016 at 5:16 am
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Old Jun 22, 2016, 8:22 am
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Originally Posted by ProleOnParole
All of the above is absent from the Xinyi Planned Area, which might make it a great place to live as an expat but arguably not where you want to end up spending most of your time as a tourist.

For comparison, the pedestrianized area in Ximending is also a bustling shopping district very lively into the night, however the shops there are not necessarily international brands but one-of-a-kind local ones, there is an abundance of street food, and it's also a walking distance to many of the sights such as the city gates, Longshan Temple, Presidential Palace or CKS Memorial Hall, which are concentrated in the older, western parts of Taipei. In the evening, you can also attend a traditional Chinese music concert at the Zhongshan Hall or the National Concert Hall or, and it'll be within walking distance too.

The Hyatt is the most obvious choice for the OP, and he could do worse than stay there, but it's important to realize that none of the three hotels are strategically located for the tourists, and the reason they are where they are is for business travellers to the central government offices (Sheraton), trade fairs (Hyatt), or the Neihu technology park (Mariott). As a tourist ideally you'd want to be somewhere else, where you don't have to take MRT the first thing you get out of the hotel. (This is mainly for other readers researching this topic later, as they will not have the same constraints.)

Hope the OP has a great trip.
Well said....OP should take note.
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Old Jun 22, 2016, 9:31 am
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Courtyard Taipei

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/marri...er-2015-a.html

On top of metro station, HSR (July 1) good for Airport transfer
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Old Jun 22, 2016, 1:29 pm
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no need to make a new thread....same question here...

I have zero hotel loyalty and other than a trip to the Kavalan distillery, I don't have any grand plans for my two nights in Taipei in September. [i know the distillery is not in Taipei...]

I will be flying back from HKG and my meeting folks always put us up at the MO in HKG and therefore just checked the MO rate in Taipei and its pretty cheap...so arrive around noon and then two nights and depart to YYZ at 7pm so just over two full days.

Never been to TPE and not sure I will get back there anytime soon. The only reason for the stop is that it was too hard to justify the CX premium over BR, which frankly in J lately, is head and shoulders better than CX so I will save my company a little coin and spend two nights on my own...

i will not fuss if i have to take a taxi or two either if that matters.

can't really post my corporate rates but there is some reasonable incentive to stay at the MO....

frankly, i would like to walk around, do a little shopping, perhaps check out the night market or two and maybe spend a few hours at a hot spring...

and if i can not do much of that, oh well.

i will be flying
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Old Jun 23, 2016, 1:15 am
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Originally Posted by mkjr
[...] other than a trip to the Kavalan distillery, I don't have any grand plans for my two nights in Taipei in September. [...] just checked the MO rate in Taipei and its pretty cheap...so arrive around noon and then two nights and depart to YYZ at 7pm so just over two full days.

Never been to TPE and not sure I will get back there anytime soon. [...] i would like to walk around, do a little shopping, perhaps check out the night market or two and maybe spend a few hours at a hot spring...
The hotel is a good pick. Mandarin Oriental is on Dunhua N Rd, a tree-lined avenue with wide medians landscaped into a park. Alongside Ren'ai Rd, it's easily one of Taipei's most elegant thoroughfares. Assuming sufficient soundproofing, you can't go wrong with a room facing Dunhua Rd.

On the opposite side of the hotel, the quieter and also neatly landscaped Qingcheng St crosses diagonally through Taipei's Euclidean patchwork of streets, and takes you to the nearest MRT station, Nanjing Fuxing, where brown and green lines intersect.

To the northeast, alongside Minsheng E Rd Sec 4, is the upscale neighborhood of Minsheng Community. It is primarily residential and much calmer than the Taipei standard but also sports some decent restaurants and hipster cafs (a big thing in Taiwan that evolved perhaps as an antithesis to the traditional Chinese dining experience, where you are expected to finish without undue delay and promptly vacate your table for the next paying customer).

The nearest night market is on Raohe St (MRT Songshan, green line to its eastern terminal) but for more Taiwanese food and better overall experience, I'd recommend to go to Shilin Night Market instead (MRT Jiantan, not Shilin, on the red line, take green line towards Xindian or Taipower Bldg and transfer at Zhongshan for a train to Beitou or Danshui). Both night markets start at about 5 pm.

Taipei's hot springs are in the Beitou area, even farther north along the red line. Transfer at MRT Beitou for a train on the branch line to MRT Xinbeitou, then walk uphill along the park.

The following afternoon, for a change of climate you can visit the tea gardens at Maokong and perhaps have some tea the traditional way: the number of steps that need to be taken in the right order to properly prepare the beverage might seem intimidating at first but the staff explain everything patiently and are always there to assist you, while the final result more than makes up for the effort. There are many kinds of tea leaves to choose from, I'd recommend going for the locally-grown Wenshan baozhong.

There are some 20-30 gardens to choose from, the best places are in the open air, either with a view on Taipei 101, or in secluded gardens, surrounded by vegetation. Generally, the nicest ones are a little farther from the cable car station, as the immediate surroundings have become overdeveloped. Google listings with photos and ratings can help to make the right choice.

To get there enjoying some stunning views on the way, take the Maokong Gondola cable car (closed on Mondays) from the southern terminus of the brown MRT line at the Zoo. The long line is for cars with transparent floor, the regular ones are just as fine without the wait. This trip is best timed so that you arrive just before the sunset. Maokong tea gardens, some of which never close, are also very nice at night but then you'll have to depend on a taxi.

A good place for all kinds of souvenirs in one place (if that's what you meant by "shopping") is the government-run Handicraft Promotion Ctr at #1 Xuzhou Rd by the NTU Hospital, best visited at the same time as the CKS Mem Hall, which you'll probably want to see as well.

To get to the hotel you can take bus 5502 ("Freego") from the airport. Get off at Changgeng Hospital, which is opposite the hotel across Dunhua N Rd.

Hope you have a nice stay.
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Old Jun 23, 2016, 1:58 am
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Originally Posted by Virginia Emery
Courtyard Taipei
On top of metro station, HSR (July 1) good for Airport transfer
The hotel is all new and given the location you can probably get a good deal on it as long as your stay doesn't coincide with some big event at the Nangang Exhibition Ctr, although I would say it's anything but convenient to get there from Taoyuan Airport, unless you mean by car.
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Old Jun 23, 2016, 10:20 am
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Originally Posted by ProleOnParole
The hotel is all new and given the location you can probably get a good deal on it as long as your stay doesn't coincide with some big event at the Nangang Exhibition Ctr, although I would say it's anything but convenient to get there from Taoyuan Airport, unless you mean by car.
It's on top of the Nangang HSR station, 30 minutes from Taoyuan HSR, so I guess you're not a fan of the Airport shuttle bus ?
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Old Jun 24, 2016, 12:43 am
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Originally Posted by Virginia Emery
It's on top of the Nangang HSR station, 30 minutes from Taoyuan HSR, so I guess you're not a fan of the Airport shuttle bus ?
OK. Let's see...

Option #1, assuming the Nangang HSR station opens as planned on July 1 and doesn't close on July 2 after some SNAFU:

Ubus 705, every 10 min, travel time 25 min, 30 TWD

Note: limited seating and luggage space, essentially like a city bus, wouldn't recommend doing it with more than one large bag per person. Buses for Taipei have luggage compartments and everyone gets a seat (or has to wait for the next bus).

HSR Taoyuan-Nangang, every 20-40 min, travel time 30-35 min, 190/200 TWD

You can book online for a discount of up to 35% (certain trains, 5-28 days in advance) but every ticket is for a specific train only: miss it and you have to pay for another one with no refund.

I did a trip like this last year (to Gaoxiong). I booked early allowing some leeway for flight delays, and ended up arriving at the station 2 hours ahead of the train I had the ticket for. The reservation can be changed at the counter but the lines were so long I paid for an upgrade to business just to skip them (there's a separate counter that can be used for business bookings, otherwise the upgrade is not worth it). I think it might have been a Friday afternoon though, so it's not inevitable. Taoyuan-Nangang in business is 400 TWD.

Note: there are HSR tourist passes allowing unlimited travel for a number of days, maybe this changes the calculus somehow if you already have one or plan to get it anyway.

Yet another note: HSR is not really high-speed north of Taoyuan and goes in a tunnel much of the way so don't choose this option just for the HSR experience. Not worth it.

Total time: 1h 15 min assuming no wait in line for the ticket
Total cost: 220 TWD


Option #2 is to take bus to Nangang Exhibition Ctr:

Guoguang 1843, every 1h, travel time 1h 20 min, 110 TWD

There are three problems with this bus: (1) it doesn't go very often, (2) it gets off the freeway early to stop in Neihu, and then has to get back on the freeway again, which unnecessarily adds another 15-20 min to travel time, (3) adding insult to injury, it then drops you off one MRT station away from the hotel, so you can either take the:

MRT Nangang Exhib Ctr-Nangang, every 3-4 min, travel time 2 min (+5 min to get in and out of the stations), 16/20 TWD

Or just walk for 15 min or 1 km (not recommended with luggage).

Total time: 2h
Total cost: 130 TWD


None of the above looks convenient so far. Personally I'd go for:

Option #3, take the most frequent and quickest bus, and transfer to MRT at the first opportunity:

Bus 1819, every 10-20 min, travel time 40-45 min (to Kulun St), 125 TWD

Let the bus continue to Taipei Main Station in traffic jams for another 10-15 min while you get off at Kulun St and walk across the street for less than 5 min or 150 m to MRT Yuanshan.

MRT Yuanshan-Nangang, every 3-4 min, travel time 30 min, 28/35 TWD (change at Taipei Main Stn for a blue line train towards Nangang Exhib Ctr)

With a lot of luggage, you could alternatively take a taxi from MRT Yuanshan, typically for ~ 150 TWD up to ~ 300 TWD for very remote destinations.

Total time: 1h 25 min
Total cost: 160 TWD


There are dozens of hotels that won't need so much gymnastics to get to as they're reached directly by one or another bus from the airport, so you can't really say this one is convenient for airport transfer. The hotels easiest to get to from the airport would be somewhere near MRT Minquan W Rd or (MRT) Xingtian Temple. Not that I would particularly recommend to stay in these areas (I wouldn't).

Also note: bus 1819 doesn't go the same way back to the airport, so the best place to get on is unfortunately the Taipei (Guoguang) Bus Station (MRT Taipei Main Stn, exit Z3).
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