Choosing a right place to stay is one of the most crucial part in planning your trip. I’ll be nice by listing out some of the better place to stay in Taipei (and around Taipei). Basically there are four types of accommodation in Taiwan and I’ve tried them all. :p
1) Hotel
Most Malaysians love to stay around Ximending area but I would recommend hotels around Taipei Main Station for convenience sake. It is so easy to move around the island by taking MRT, rail train or high speed rail train. The plus point is you can leave your luggage with the hotel before travel down south. Here’s some of my personal favourite especially a,b,c,d and g.
a) Ambience Hotel – http://www.ambiencehotel.com.tw/ starts from NT 2990
b) City Inn & City Inn 2 – http://www.gocityinn.com/ starts from NT1300
c) Dandy Hotel Tianjin - http://www.dandyhotel.com.tw/info_eng.html starts from NT2080
allie: I like Dandy Hotel! Stayed there during my last trip. The hotel staff is friendly and hotel is clean. Although it might be a bit pricey for backpacker
d) Hotel 73 – http://www.hotel73.com/ starts from NT3000
*Hotel a,b,c and d are related
e) Lio Hotel - http://www.liohotel.com.tw/index.php
f) Orangeone.Forte (guan qian branch) – http://www.forte-hotel.net/ starts from NT2800
g) See You Hotel – http://www.taipeionestarhotel.com.tw/index.html starts from NT1980
2) Hostel
Hostel is cheap, you meet a lot of interesting people and it can be a memorable experience. BUT to be frank, I don’t really enjoy my stay in a hostel, even though it’s an individual room. We paid NT100 for it, but I would prefer to top up a little bit of money and stay at one of those suites or hotels around Taipei.
a) Camel’s Oasis – http://camelsoasistaipei.tripod.com/index.html starts from NT350 for dorm room
b) Eights Elephant Hostel – http://www.eehostel.com/ starts from NT490 for dorm room
c) Taipei Backpacker’s Hostel – http://www.taipei-backpackers.com/hostel/index.php starts from NT500 for dorm room
apple foodees: I don’t recommend visitors staying at Taipei Backpacker’s Hostel given the fact that for a little bit extra, you can get a better room somewhere near there.
d) Taipei Hostel – http://www.taipeihostel.com/index.html starts from NT500 for dorm room
e) Taipei Home Stay – http://taipeihostel.blogspot.com/ starts from NT800
kbcg: Superb location, complete with basic necessities but dodgy surrounding because it is located at the end of some smelly alley.
f) Taipei Teacher’s Hostel – http://www.tth.url.tw/index.html starts from NT1400
g) YMCA (Y Hotel) - http://www.ymcataipei.org.tw/room_ch.php starts from NT 1800
3) Minsu (B&B)
A minsu in Taiwan is like a Bed & Breakfast kind of inn where you established a close relationship with the owner. Even though most daily rent suites/rooms claimed themselves as minsu but I beg to differ because you hardly interact with the owners. There are a lot of nice minsu outside Taipei such as Windsor @ Jiufen and Rottenburg @ Yilan.
We have become best friends with the Windsor B&B owner. The warmth and kindest of the owners have melted the hearts of many too.
When they came to visit last week, we met up and the other Malaysian guests who have stayed in the B&B before were there. We had fun catching up with each other over a bakuteh dinner.
4) Daily Rent Suites/Rooms
Strongly recommended especially when you are traveling in a small group. Some suites come with living hall, kitchen and even washing machine. However, some suites are actually apartment divided into parts so privacy can be an issue.
1. Taipei York - Longshan Temple Station (apartment divided into suites)
2. Julie Home Stay – Ximen Station
3. Baby Home - Shida or Ximen Station
4. 不小心的鳥 - Sun Yat Sen Memorial Hall Station (individual suite)*
5. gofortravel – Zhongxiao Dunhua Station (individual suite)*
*personal favourite
Gofortravel apartment is just 30 seconds walk to the nearest MRT station and we like the security feature that come with it. The owner gave us a pass code prior to our departure so we can just “check in” anytime. For payment, we received the invoice (NT1400 per night) in soft copy. We just need to print it out and make the payment at any convenience store in Taiwan. However, the room can only fit a maximum of 3 person and this is the only suite that owner has. Here’s some pictures of our apartment.
security feature
It took us only 2 minutes to reach the 24 hour Elite Bookstore.
Please share with us your experience . We’ll quote your comments in this post and hopefully we can compile a list for our readers. It’ll be very useful for those who are visiting Taiwan soon. 
