CO-PLAT

Will be traveling from the hotel to Kaohsiung Dec. 29. Looks like the 10:20 train is one of the routes with the fewest stops.

Do I just stroll into the station the morning of and buy tickets? What is the difference between Standard, Business and Non-reserved. If comparable to the Shinkansen in Japan, I'm very familiar with it...reserved, non-reserved & green car.

We will be 2 persons with one large suitcase each and one briefcase each. Ultimate destination is the Grand Hi-Lai hotel. I assume we take the train from Nangang to Zuoying and then taxi from there.

littlevoices

If arriving at 10pm you are probably best to just take a taxi imho based on my last arrival at this hotel late at night on a similar timed flight. Whilst the hotel offers a very convenient and pleasant airport car pick-up price-wise it was very expensive (30% of one night's room bill and over double a taxi price). Either way a car will take under an hour and is going to be far better than trying to get a bus and train at that time of night (unless saving money is really important). The airport in Taiwan is miles and miles out of town, and the Courtyard is on the opposite side of the city again (though right above the train station).

Whilst I suspect you could get an uberX, I'd say you need to be comfortable with how it works in Asia - by which I mean sometimes there can be challenges unless you speak Mandarin, though I appreciate the airport is easier than most to do a pick-up. Personally there isn't much with a 10pm flight that would encourage me to accept any delays when I just feel like bed and the taxis in Taiwan are relatively cheap. Looking at the fare estimator an uberX seems to be nearly the same price as a taxi (NT$955 to NT$1300 when a taxi would be around NT$1200)

Now if travelling out of the hotel it is literally in the same train complex so very easy to get to, though sadly can't advise on the ease of tickets on the day as I didn't do that (it was easy to book the tickets online as long as you were doing it more than an hour or so in advance).

alc

Thanks for the respond. Look like we will be taking the taxi then.

username

Looks like the last high speed rail train departs Taoyuan at 23:25 and is NT$200. The bus to the train station is $30 and runs at 15 minute intervals. It might be fun to try at $230/per person. It does not save much over taxi and will take longer.

username

I have never taking THSR but according to this:

https://www.thsrc.com.tw/tw/Article/...6-f6c5ba539368

旅客每人隨身攜帶物品，每件長度不得超過 150 公分，且長、寬、高之和不得超過 220 公分，且總重量不得超過 40 公斤。

Maximum total dimension is 220 CM any one not to exceed 150 CM. Total weight is 40 KG. It does not say anything about number of bags.

CO-PLAT

Completed our five night stay here last week.

If on 19th floor, you can use either elevator…7-19 or 19-30. Gym is on 11th floor and is only accessible from the 7-19 elevator. 2 stationary bikes. 3 elliptical, 5 treadmills, dumbbells, 1 multi-function machine, 2 yoga balls, bottled water, 2 TVs…1 in either corner. Matrix brand. View of wooded area & skateboard park. Large & medium sized towels available. Open 24 hours.

Lounge
Happy hours 5:30 – 7:30. Only Heineken or Taiwan beer in bottles. Wine & liquor. Poor food selection…cannot make a meal. Never too crowded. Most Taiwanese seemed to prefer white wine. Either no dress code or its not enforced. Can’t take glasses out of the lounge. I watched a couple try and take two glasses of wine out and they were stopped. The staff poured their wine into paper coffee cups. Coke light and Sprite are available. Children running loose. Families of 10. Screaming babies in strollers and highchairs. One little monster had perfected the art of making fart sounds and his mother seemed so proud. Two computers, a printer and meeting room in the back of the lounge. Open 6:00 – midnight.

Breakfast on 7th floor(not available in lounge). Good selection, but nothing was very tasty. They don’t offer coffee or tea when being seated. This is a plus in my book as I don’t drink either. Cans of Coke & Sprite. No Coke Light.

Guaranteed Plat late checkout 4:00. Gold = based on availability. 20% off laundry.

Room
Poor bathroom lighting. Spacious. Separate shower & bath tub. Poor water pressure. Triangular shower shelf very small. Mirror doesn’t fog up. Hot water is hot, cold is cold. Comfortable firm bed & pillows.
Minibar complimentary, but only water, one can of Taiwan beer, one Pepsi and one bottle of tea. Replenished sometimes?
In-room safe. Only drawers are in the two nightstands. Good AC. Complimentary NY Times digital.
Good wifi. Floor to ceiling windows. Can see Taipei 101 out the corner.
Snacks from Elite bakery replenished daily.
Soft-close door on minibar cabinet and toilet seat.
Slippers & robes. Loveseat, chair + desk chair. USB, Audio/PC, HDMI inputs in wall above desk.
Electrical outlets above both nightstands. Iron + board. Big closets.
2 large platforms for suitcases.
No book of details of the hotel.
TV went out twice. 1st time = 1 hour, 2nd time =? Turning off & on again seemed to fix it.
42” LCD TV only faces direct to bed. Can’t pull out from wall or rotate.
Carpeting color pattern is interesting. It looks like something spilled on the other side of the wall and leaked through leaving stains.

Fast elevators that I never had to wait more than a minute for. Elevator doors close immediately upon pushing the >< button.
No self-service ice machine.
5-10 minute walk to Carrefour.
Getting there.
Landed 8:55 PM. Arrived in room at 11:03. Sky Priority tagged bags get pulled out and placed in roped-off area. 30NT for Ubus 705 to Taoyuan THSR station. The bus took all of 20 minutes from departure to arrival. No problem with luggage. Driver and one helper took bags and laid them on the floor in the front and middle of bus. 160NT non-reserved THSR ticket to Nangang. My wife and I ended up in separate rows due to crowding. Follow signs for exit 2A from the Nangang THSR station.

Easycard was extremely useful and even took it to Kaohsiung with us. First tried to purchase inside the THSR station, but the cashier said “XXX”…it wasn’t available. Wasn’t sure what to make of this so we went over to 7-11 and were able to buy with no problem. We saved more than the 100NT cost of the card. Taipei metro app was very useful as well. You can use the card for the TRA trains also. We went to Keelung one evening using this train.

If the lounge isn’t that important, this is a fine property that I wouldn’t hesitate to stay at again.

To answer my own questions on the THSR:
• Business class seats are nearly identical to the Shinkansen train Green Cars in Japan
• You are provided either water or tea and a sweet or salty snack (that’s how they explained it to me)
• I downloaded an IOS app and purchased our tickets through it. Upon arrival in Taipei, I went to the THSR Nangang station and collected the actual tickets. I had to show my reservation receipt & passport. Cost was $2,000NT each Nangang to Zouying
The train made it to 187mph according to my GPS

I have photos of the lounge violations (in my mind) and of the weird carpeting pattern that I may upload upon return from Malaysia & Thailand

SkiAdcock

Thanks for the detailed trip report! Any chance you can throw some paragraph spacing in the above (perhaps by room, lounge, etc) or more bullet points to make it easier to read?

I was chatting w/ someone & they said all the properties are a bit of a zoo during the Xmas/NY holiday. Would be interesting to see if the lounge is so crazy during non-holiday times.

Cheers.

CO-PLAT

Made it a bit more readable. I composed in Word, but when pasting into Flyertalk some formatting is removed.

SkiAdcock

Thanks! Much appreciated.

Cheers.

msp3

>tfw this Courtyard is becoming a cat 4, but your cat 1-4 cert is expired and never got a chance to use it

alc

If this is the one from your Marriott CC, you can ask them to extend it for another year (if you haven't done it already)

msp3

By the time I noticed it was past the expiry date so I was declined when I called in, but unexpectedly the unrelated cat 1-5 anniversary night posted

1KHI

Hi all, I'll be staying in Taipei next week for about 5 days and I'm trying to decide between the Courtyard and Marriott. Prices are about the same ---I'm even thinking about using a CAT 1-5 certificate given how expensive prices are.

Courtyard is better rated on tripadvisor and seems to be more convenient for public transportation (and to get to the city center). On the other hand, I'm a gold and have lounge access with Marriott. Does this courtyard offer access to the lounge for Golds?

At about the same price, is there any other advantage of staying at this courtyard over Marriott?

SkiAdcock

If the property has an exec lounge, then yes you have access as a Gold. A FTer I know is arriving at the property tomorrow (also Gold) using a Cat 1-5 cert. I expect he'll do a quick update.

Cheers.

kaiotes

Was able to access the Lounge as gold on annual night cert stay. Very friendly staff there. Very clean. Highly recommended.