WHTW #6 – Although I already arrived back to Taiwan, there was still about a week left until I could move in to my long term shared apartment. I was going to use this week for trying out the different hostels near the Taipei Main Station to see where the Taiwan Youth Hostel is positioned among its competitors.
Background Info
Spoiler Alert: as long as the Taiwan Youth Hostel is the only one that has a piano and gives me the opportunity to perform there for free accommodation, it will remain my personal favorite in Taipei. But out of pure curiosity I went through a few other hostels nearby to see what would be my Plan B if the TYH is not an option for some reason.
I wanted to try the best rated ones on booking.com that are a few minutes walk away from the main station. There were 5 hostels with 9+ ratings at the moment I checked so I booked one night at each.
Since I’m working every day from 4pm until 1am, having a comfortable working environment has a really high priority for me. But I belong to the minority with these standards. Most of the visitors come to hostels either for its price or for socializing – usually the best rated hostels put more of effort to the latter one. I tried to imagine that I’m a socially capable human and included in my final opinion how I satisfied I’d be as such.
Normally I would rate the location too but they are now all in walking distance from the main station so it’s more or less irrelevant I think.
Star Hostel Main Station (11.16, Wednesday)
Rating: 9.3
Room Type: 6-bed mixed
Price: 737 NTD (23 EUR)
The reception is on the 4th floor of a building one block away from the main station. It was easy to find, the receptionist woman let me check in even if I arrived around 14:15, 45 minutes early. She had very good English and gave me a plastic card I could use to open the dorm room and the room for the common area.
The hostel has a lower floor where the reception, the kitchen and the lobby areas are located and an upper one where the rooms are. This system separates nicely the private and the social spaces. The main lobby is a bit of an exception because it’s double as high as the other parts, taking two floors. The extra space is filled with unique wooden buildings to climb on or to chill under.
The room was really spacious, unlike many other dorm rooms it doesn’t feel crowded even if it’s full. The bunk beds are massive, they won’t shake when climbing up or jumping around on the top part – it’s also not like that everywere. They all have a curtain for more privacy, a large locker nearby for more safety and a universal plug (although no USB charger) for charging the phone. The shower rooms seemed to be a bit small for the capacity of the hostel and I found it strange that they only had female and mixed (boys + girls) shower rooms. That really hurted my masculinity.
There is a cafe on the lower floor as well, the breakfast is served there. Next to the unlimited toast, coffee and orange juice they prepare something extra for every morning as well for which I had to choose what time I’m arriving, to avoid the crowd (8:00, 8:40 and 9:20 were the options as far as I remember). The cafe closes after breakfast until the afternoon which is a bit unlucky because it would be a nice working place. The main lobby with the wooden constructions is nice but the spaces are limited. No problem with the wifi, although some comfortable looking places didn’t have a plug nearby so had to be ignored. And the lobby music was super repetitive (Best of Ernesto Nazareth was playing), after an hour I was familiar with the whole repertoir. That would be a very easy fix, just try my Scott Joplin playlist on youtube, that’s much longer.
As for socializing, the hostel has a board on the wall with an event advertised for every evening of the week. Mainly movie nights or Nintendo Switch nights which they have in the main lobby as well. And the breakfasts provide an opportunity to make connections with strangers when they are sitting down no too far from you. I’m just assuming this, didn’t happen to me.
To sum up, the calm athmosphere, the spacious rooms and the great breakfast were the main selling points for me. The small shower room and the lack of plugs in the common areas pull it a bit down. Still a great stay!
Daniel Rating: 9/10
Old Door Hostel & Bar (11.17, Thursday)
Rating: 9.3
Room Type: 8-bed mixed
Price: 753 NTD (24 EUR)
Although I’m not going to compare locations, if I did, the Old Door would be probably unbeatable. After exiting the main station’s underground maze at exit Y13, the entrance was right in front of my eyes. It’s a bar on the ground floor so the reception has more whiskey bottles in the background than one would normally expect. The receptionists were very welcoming. Although paying with card under 1000 NTD was impossible so I had to use cash instead.
One of the receptionists showed me around on my floor. There are 3 small floors, each one having only one room on it: one with an 8 bed mixed dorm, then a female-only room with 12 beds and a smaller dorm room on the top, 4-bed female, with a common area and laundry room also included there.
The whole hostel felt narrow, the seats in the bar were closer to each other, the common area was tiny compared to the Star Hostel, but on the other hand, the shower room was really large (there is one on each floor) and the capsules were also higher and wider than usual: I could almost stand up in it and there was enough space for the baggage next to the matrace. If you’re small enough, it would feel as a tiny room.
I struggled a bit with finding a proper working space. First I tried the common area on the upper floor which was fine until I was the only one there. It also serves as kitchen, as a board game place and there were even gym equipments there which is too many functions for the size. And it also closes at 11pm to not disturb the guests of the upper floors dorm room. I tried to work down in the bar area as well. The music there was way too loud to focus and to make calls and although there is a more hidden corner there, the guests of the bar always go through it for the toilet. At the end I finished my working day inside of the capsule which was not as bad as it sounds thanks to its size. There is a curtain for the beds here as well but these leave a large space at the top of the capsule for everyone to peak in, providing not too much privacy.
The breakfast was nice but also not on the level of the Star Hostel: an egg roll with tuna (corn would have been the other option) and a single slice of chocolate spread toast. Way better than no breakfast at all, but I would definitely redirect the hardcore breakfast fans to the previous hostel instead.
I feel that the Old Door is not so much for having a place to relax, to spend even the whole day inside, it’s more for the ones who would like to go to the city during the day and have some drinking company for the evening at the bar.
The rating and the room price are the same for the Old Door as for the Star hostel (the price is even a little bit higher). Which is something I don’t know how to explain. Maybe the female room is a wonderful place with sunshine and rainbows and it pulls up the ratings. But for me it felt that I got less for the same price.
Daniel Rating: 6/10
CU Hotel Taipei (11.18-19 Friday, Saturday)
Rating: 8.3
Room Type: 4-bed male
Price: 617 NTD (23 EUR)
For the weekend I wanted to choose something cheaper and for two nights instead of one. The CU Hostel is a bit further away from the main station (2 metro stations / 20 minutes walk) but right next to the famous Ningxia Night Market.
The check-in is supposed to happen through a computer instead of a real-life receptionist. Still, after I rang to enter the facility, an employee came out of his office, the we went to the check-in computer together and he typed in all my details. So the experience was basically exactly the same as checking in with a real receptionist. Anyway, the idea is good.
The ground floor is relatively small (cafeteria and a tiny gym) but the upper level is huge. If I counted correctly, the hotel has almost 100 rooms, most of them are private, but there is a section for dorms. There was a large group of high school students staying there and they occupied most of these dorm rooms (and also the common areas).
My room was a 4-bed dorm and I didn’t like it. It was two bunk beds in L shape, these completely took two sides of the room so you can imagine how much space was left for the 4 inhabitants if they decided not to lie on the bed but still exist inside of the room. On the second morning everybody packed their stuff to check-out after each other because there was not enough space for multiple humans to do it simultaneously.
The number of the showers and the toilets were enough for the dorm guests (4-5 each per gender), but I found them not necessarily super clean, assumably due to the large group of the high school students.
Although the toilets were only used by the dorm guests, the cafeteria downstairs was used by everyone, mainly for eating and so it wasn’t suitable for work. There are a few tables upstairs, I used those for working and they were fine until there was noone else there. The high school students sometimes gathered there, mainly in the late afternoon and early evening but after they went to sleep, it became an ideal environment again.
Sadly, the breakfast was not included. I could have bought a breakfast ticket for about 9 EUR, and then all I can eat. There are many countries in the world where 9 EUR is worth it for a buffet breakfast but Taiwan is definitely not one of them – I can get full here in any breakfast shop for half price.
CU felt more like a professional facility than a hostel to socialize. The workplace possibilities are highly limited, the dorm room is very small for 4 adult males. But the price is really good and it’s close to the night market, which are two important advantages.
Daniel Rating: 6/10
We Come Hostel (11.20, Sunday)
Rating: 9.0
Room Type: 6-bed male
Price 516 NTD (16 EUR)
I chose this weirdly named hostel for Sunday because this was the only one with the check-in time for 4pm instead of 3pm and I’m supposed to already start working at 4pm. At least they have the check-out time also 1 hour later, at 12 instead of 11am.
I arrived there at 11:30 and I was allowed to use the common area until my bed is ready. When I sat down to one of the tables, they were cleaning the lobby: the receptionist just grabbed a robot hover, put it on the floor and the common area started to clean itself. Very practical!
The reception, the common area and also my room were on the 3rd floor but the 7th floor of the same building also belongs to the hostel. That one only has rooms and I guess they only use it when the lower floor is full. That was not at all the case for the day of my stay, my room was about half full and there were just a few people in the common area.
That would have been a great situation for me to work but since it was Sunday, I went out instead and walked to the famous Ningxia Night Market next to the CU Hotel because I couldn’t get enough of it. After having enough takoyaki, grilled chicken and watermelon juice I went back to the common area. Since it was empty, I could turn on the large screen there and watch the F1 Season finale in Abu Dhabi. A few people joined me later but I can’t tell if they were interested in it or just needed some time in front of a screen.
Unlike in most of the other hostels, everything happened on the same floor. There was no need to use stairs or elevator to go from the room to the reception, the kitchen or even the laundry room which I also happened to use here (40NTD for a wash). This might be the main reason why I got TYH vibes here. It would be its serious competitor if there was a piano inside.
Daniel Rating: 7.5/10
Taipei 109 Hostel (109台北旅館-台北109青旅) (11.21, Monday)
Rating: 9.1
Room Type: 8-bed mixed
Price 506 NTD (16 EUR)
I arrived a bit earlier here. The entrance was closed, the cleaner lady opened the door after ringing. She couldn’t speak English so called the receptionist who checked me in remotely by sending me a google spreadsheet I needed to fill in and submit.
The hostel is tiny, with 3 dorms (8, 8 and 10 beds) and 3 private rooms. But they probably don’t spend much on staff, I only saw the receptionist once, when I had a break and went out for food short before 6pm. When I came back short after 6pm, she was gone already and I never saw her again.
The common area is very small for working but they are appearantly fully aware of that: the receptionist offered me a small laptop table I could use on my bed. That was very helpful, I wish it was more common in the hostels! I could do horizontal working without getting numb after a few minutes!
After I checked out and went back to the good old TYH, I realized that I forgot my EasyCard (the one I use for public transport and convenience stores) on the little shelf next to my bed. When I went back to pick it up, the entrance was closed, I rang again but this time there was no cleaning lady. I had to call the receptionist to let me in. Which she did but still, just in case, if you book here, you better have a Taiwanese SIM card.
Daniel Rating: 7/10
TLDR – Final Ranking
- Star – Unlike the rest of the list, the no.1 was easy to pick. With the highest rating and the (almost) highest price comes the highest quality as well. Fits well no matter if you want to work, socialize or just play with your phone on your bed. Breakfast is the best by far!
- We Come – Although the check-in time is 4pm, the nice and spacious common area is free to use before. Its athmosphere reminded me to the TYH the most. No piano though, obviously. Plus I liked the robot hover!
- 109 – Really small but friendly hostel, with just a few rooms. The common area doesn’t suit for work but could be nice to sit down and chat. Might feel too crowded when full. Dorm rooms include an own toilet and shower room.
- Old Door – Same rating and same price as the Star Hostel but you’ll be disappointed if you expect the same quality. Everything feels narrow, except for the capsule and the shower room. Can be a good choice for bar lovers. Very welcoming staff, probably also good drinking buddies, didn’t try. Not recommended for working.
- CU Hostel – Professional facility for a reasonable price, next to a night market. It’s huge, compared to the other candidates with not much option to work or chat with others. Works well if your only purpose of a hostel is to have a place to sleep.
Last and least, I just remembered that I promised a new piano video at the end of every new blog post. Here you go, enjoy the Pleasant Moments by Scott Joplin, from 1909:
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