As I mentioned earlier, the Alishan House Hotel has gone through an amazing transformation since last we were here. In fact, this hotel is wonderful, even more amazing in comparison to the sparse, utilitarian place it was last time.
It’s so amazingly improved, I would go so far as to say I simply couldn’t believe it was the same hotel. That’s not so far-fetched. The 9/11 earthquake that devastated central Taiwan did a lot of damage in this area. Famous landmarks were destroyed, railroad tracks and trails disappeared down the mountain and there was much destruction.
The only way I could credit this being the same hotel is if and only if it had been leveled and rebuilt from scratch. The only thing that remained the same were the wooden beds.
To describe this hotel, 5-star is pretty close. We’ve got every conceivable hotel amenity (minus a refrigerator, which, considering the only thing people consume cold in this country are foods best served hot, is no surprise). It’s clean, the staff are efficient, they’ve even provided in-room internet, which isn’t that unusual in this day and age, but I wasn’t expecting it way out here in the middle of nowhere.
It isn’t wireless internet and I didn’t bring a cable, but a call to the front desk got us one in minutes.
Each room has a glorious balcony, looking out over the valley, aimed in the direction of sunset. Clever really, since everyone gets up at 4:20 AM to go to a special vantage point to see sunrise anyway. Even the soaking tub has a picture window looking out across the valley.
The only negative I have about this hotel is that at 4:20 when we got up this morning there was a smell in the bathroom like all the porta-potties in hell were loosed in the room. I’m assuming it must have come up the floor drain somehow, but was gone when we got back after our sunrise excursion.
Speaking of sunrise excursions, I’ll post about that later, but as we caught the train to travel to Chushan (where you see the sunrise) we passed the Alishan Gou Hotel, which is the hotel we stayed in last time.
Mystery Solved.
If anybody ever comes to Taiwan, make sure you come to Alishan and stay at the Alishan House Hotel. If I could figure out how to do it, I would not be going back to Taipei and just stay here for the next few weeeks.
We were at Alishan House Hotel on 6th October, in a very similar room. The customer satisfaction form was ticked in all the excellent boxes, but we did leave a comment about the appalling smell in the toilet! The view from the bathroom was magnificent and room extremely comfortable. The restaurant was friendly, efficient and produced the most delicious food.
We had been booked into Alishan Gou Hotel for 2 nights but one was enough. Reception was helpful and polite, but the restaurant, both food which was barely edible and service which was surly, was appalling, and
the rooms very basic. So we moved to Alishan House-wonderful.
We were at Alishan House Hotel on 6th October, in a very similar room. The customer satisfaction form was ticked in all the excellent boxes, but we did leave a comment about the appalling smell in the toilet! The view from the bathroom was magnificent and room extremely comfortable. The restaurant was friendly, efficient and produced the most delicious food.
We had been booked into Alishan Gou Hotel for 2 nights but one was enough. Reception was helpful and polite, but the restaurant, both food which was barely edible and service which was surly, was appalling, and
the rooms very basic. So we moved to Alishan House-wonderful.