-
Travel from London
Booked London – Hong Kong, business class flexible fare with a short layover in Helsinki with Finnair. We were a victim of the pilots strike, and were quickly rebooked on to a direct flight with Cathay Pacific. Great service from Finnair (rebooked within 40 mins of being informed our flight was cancelled) and the J experience on CX was second to none. Attentive, but not too “in your face” throughout the whole flight. Crew always present if needed. Food plentiful and delicious, bed was very comfortable and we both managed to sleep a solid 6 hours.
Hong Kong – 5 nights.
Arrived around 4pm. Taxi to JW Marriott hotel. Quite a dated hotel finishes wise, but room size and bed were fantastic. Super comfortable and great location in city above the shopping mall with MRT inside. OH had never been to HK before, so we had a great time exploring and seeing all the sites, sampling all the food etc. over the Easter weekend. The city felt relatively quiet, but there were quite a few European tourists and those from China.
We took a day trip to Macau on Easter Monday, which was great. Again, mostly site seeing and sampling some of the Macau Portuguese food, which was nice and OH got to speak a tiny bit of his native Portuguese.
Taiwan – 9 nights
Avios redemption with CX to Taipei. Took about 1hr50mins to fly over. Big queues at immigration, but as I am pregnant we got to skip a lot of them. Probably saved about 1 hour.
Stayed the first 4 nights in the W hotel Taipei. Great hotel – well located above a shopping mall connected to the metro. Though we mostly used ubers to travel around due to pregnancy, and crazy cheap prices.
We really really enjoyed Taipei. A beautiful clean city, where the old and the new sit so well side by side complementing eachother set in amongst some magnificent nature. We did a couple of walking tours – one of the Old Town, another of some of the Buddhist history and sites, and a food tour of one of the food night markets. Everyone across the city were so hospitable and friendly, and it was really interesting to learn about the history of Taiwan and context. The food was fantastic, a real melting pot of different cuisines from across Asia, particularly China and Japan. Likewise, it was fantastic value – one of our best breakfasts (food and drink) of the trip came in at £5 for the two of us in the city in a locals cafe! Taipei was super busy with tourists and locals alike.
Whilst in Taipei, we took a day tour out to the countryside at Shifen Waterfall, Yehliu Geo Park and Jiufen Old Town. I must admit, we felt a bit spoilt from the very many waterfalls we have seen across the world, and Juifen felt a bit overburdened by tourism. Yehliu was good to see. Not sure if I would repeat the day trip again – but would certainly be back in Taipei at the drop of a hat.
We then took the fast train to Taichung and got a connection with our hotel to Sun Moon Lake. We stayed at the Fleur de Chine, which exceeded any expectations we had. Set on the side of the lake, the hotel fronts on to it with some of the best views around. It was absolutely fantastic and I would definitely recommend a visit to anyone planning a trip in the area. We stayed in one of the Japanese style rooms, and they had a deep soaking bathtub in the bathroom, which can be filled with hot spring water from the local thermals. The hotel was very popular the weekend we were there with families – and if you navigate your way down to the basement, you know why – there is a super well equipped kids area, including climbing wall, games room and adventure play ground. The extensive indoor pools were also welcome after a long day of hiking – lots of different types of jets, and sprays, and also some hot thermal pools for those who can use them. There was also an onsen, but we didn’t go in there – as I couldn’t due to the pregnancy.
The hikes in the area were fab – a wide spread to meet different abilities/difficulties. The hotel has a shuttle bus at some points during the day, but also offers free tickets to guests for the bus that circumvents the lake. A boat day pass allows you to stop at all of major “ports” on the lake.
Food was by way of an extensive buffet breakfast – we also took advantage of the onsite restaurant both nights, which was great value for the extensive menu served.
Next we took a 3 hour taxi transfer to Alishan to the Alishan National Forest Recreation Area. You can get a bus (one per day) from Sun Moon Lake, however, we opted for a taxi at c£100. The National Forest area is probably one of the most popular natural attractions in Taiwan. We stayed one night at the Alishan Hotel, which has the benefit of being inside the park. It is set on the side of a hill in amongst some ancient and enourmous Cypress trees, and has some great sunset views. We took in some great hikes and did an evening excursion to see the fireflies, which was included in our hotel price. The only downside was that it was in Chinese, so we didn’t understand much without some voice notes translatted via Google. Outside of Taipei, English is not very widely spoken in Taiwan.
The hotel was fine – bed was hard as nails, and room pretty basic, which was disappointing given the price and hotel apparently having undergone a fit out during 2020. The dinner and breakast buffet offering did however make up for some of the room dissapointment. Again, a very extensive selection of fresh hotel and cold dishes.
Next stop was Kaohsiung – we got there via a bus transfer to Chiayi and the train down. Stayed at the JW Marriott – which was very comfortable, well fitted out and priced very well (£160 per night). OH has a cousin who lives there, so was great to catch up with them and see Taiwans second city. Nothing about city that stands out massively (is certainly a victim of its bigger sister Taipei), but I did really enjoy walking around the old dockside area that has had a lot of investment poured in to it with pop up shops sat alongside the big high street names. It felt like a great example of waterside regeneration. We did do a side visit to Fo Guang Shan, which was ridiculous and impressive at the same time. Would definitely recommend.
Shanghai – 3 nights
The last stop on the trip was Shanghai. We took a Eva air flight from Kaohshiung to the city, without realising (until we were at the airport) that it was Golden week(end)! Silly us.
The taxi transfer from the airport took a long time due to extensive traffic in the city, but we still arrived in good time for a rooftop drink at our hotel at The Edition. What an impressive view!
The Edition itself was an oasis in the city. Really lovely hotel, with great views of the skyline. We had one of the higher corner rooms with a bathroom that is the size of most inner London apartments! Price included breakfast, including delicious a la carte options.
We only had two full days in the city to soak it all up and whilst it was incredibly busy, it was also great to experience – there was the flower show and special city lights to celebrate Golden Week that made the city look fantastic. We did our own walking tour and walked around both sides of the river, had a lunch up the top of the Park Hyatt, and then also did a food tour. Total about 45k steps over 2 days. The city gave me a real taste and desire for exploring much more of China – especially its nature.
Fingers crossed China at least extends the visa free entry for those European countries already allowed for, beyond 2025. There were quite a few European tourists in Shanghai benefitting from it, and I am sure many many more across the rest of the country.
Travel back to London
Today we are flying back on the daytime BA flight with a Companion Voucher Premium Economy redemption. A sweet spot for easy redemptions as flight is not always full, though not today – as lots of stanby passenger’s have been unable to board.
Conclusion
I have read a few tips from across the forum about some of the places visited, so thanks all for contributing. Taiwan does feel a bit of an ommission of information/detail on the forum, so hopefully some helpful tips included here for those who might be thinking about a trip there. It truly is worth it!
Any questions – let me know.
Thanks for the Taiwan ideas. I’ve been a lot but never for leisure and would love to take OH as I know she’ll love the food.
TPE always looks grim in terms of queues but it’s efficient. I’ve had it take an hour, but usually it’s 30 minutes, which is not bad given they are taking biometrics. Still, grab the queue jumps while you can! OH uses a walking stick a fair bit and that’s often very helpful for the same reason. I scramble after her for the benefits.
If anyone wants to do Taiwan-Shanghai, I’d recommend TSA and SHA rather than the main airports as there are fewer non-PRC/non-Taiwanese citizens on those flights which makes immigration faster. No CX but it’s a cheap enough flight.
Hi redlilly
Have a few questions if you don’t mind as wanting to do a similar trip
jW Marriott , what were the rooms like as I’ve heard the hotel is a little dated ?
The CX redemption from HKG-TPE was that in economy or business ? Who did you book the fligjts through ? Was it QR AY or BA if you don’t mind how many avios was it as it seems QR charge less than BA but not sure on the taxes
Also the W Taipei have they started the refurb yet ? What room type did you have there . The rooms look great but have read that they are due to do a refurb (or might have started already)
Thanks
I’m curious where exactly in Macau you encountered a Portuguese speaker as a tourist who wasn’t also a tourist
The CX redemption from HKG-TPE was that in economy or business ?
I’ll let the OP answer the specific question, but Cathay fly some old business class that route and I would never bother paying for it even as a redemption. It’s also a pretty short flight.
Cathay has upgraded me a couple of times HKG-TPE and I can’t say I’ve seen it as particularly great.
Thanks for the trip report, some useful ideas particularly for Taiwan.
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.
Popular articles this week:
