Helen123

Planning an asia trip coming up which will include taiwan w/ a stopover in Taipei. Has anyone stay at the Westin Taipei recently? and, how's its location for shopping, eating, and mainly sightseeing stuff?? Many thanks!!

Helen

miles to go

I stayed at the Taipei Westin and at the Lai Lai Sheraton a few times about six months ago. I liked both but since I was doing most of my sightseeing using the subway, I liked the Sheraton's location better because it is half a block from the nearest station and it is closer to some of the sights. The Westin looked closer to some department stores but I did not visit them. The Lai Lai is a couple of blocks from a government-run souvenir and handicraft store where I spent quite a bit of time and money.

As far as the quality of the hotels, they were both nice. If the rate is reasonable, they are both good choices. Not sure about upgrades, I was not yet gold at the time.

Eastbay1K

I stayed at the Westin several months back. It was a very nice hotel, though I'd agree that the Sheraton is in a better location for a tourist. (By the way, make sure you have someone write down the name of the Westin in Mandarin, because it's not called Westin - and keep it in your pocket, along with the street address in mandarin - a flight attendant did that for me and it saved me extra grief on a horrible travel day).

Taipei

The Taipei Westin, is much newer than the Sheraton, the Westin is one block (about 3-5 min walk) from the Fushing Rd/Naking Rd, station on the Mucha MRT line. The location is closer to the business district (new city center)/ Sungsan (domestic airport), while the Sheraton is close to the Goverment center of Taiwan, its also one station from Taipei Main station area, a train/ bus transportation hub .
If you email your address
( [email protected] ), I can forward a request to the Westin Hotel director maybe for a good rate or upgrade.
I stayed there, and had a problem with the room rate, but the hotel director, did fix the problem and much much more help with future stays, which I really enjoyed !!!!

MilesDependent

I was at the Westin Taipei for a couple of days last week, but I checked out the Sheraton as well.

As others have said, the location of the Sheraton is better. Others who know Taipei may disagree with this, but I found the Westin to be in a slightly seedy part of town. I felt much more comfortable walking around near the Sheraton. That's just my personal experience, though.

Service at the Westin was excellent and they even upgraded me to an executive club room on level 14 (minus the free breakfast).

There's a good deli at the Westin (NYC Deli) where you can get reasonably priced coffees, pizzas, cakes and the like. There's also a convenience stores about 50 metres from the hotel which is uhh.. quite convenient

MD

schubert

I stayed at the Westin Taipei 6 times in the past 1.5 month. The service is excellent, and the rooms are nice (the hotel is <1 year old). I agree with the others that the area near the Westin is not very nice, but if you want to play tourist, you would probably take a taxi or subway anyhow.

A little sidebar. The subways in Taipei can be a little intimidating (even for someone who was born in Taipei like myself). Cab rides are relatively cheap compared to the states. You should be able to get to most places you want to be from the Westin for less than $300NT (~$10US).

Taipei

The line to the Four Points is open , its about a 10 minute walk to the station, its a mid market hotel, brand new, nice but not as big as the Sheraton or Westin and the area is local residental, but Westin in the Finianical district location, Sheraton near the Goverment center

Plato90s

Well, just came back from a stay at the Westin Taipei, and it was a very nice place. The hotel was conveniently reached by 2 different bus lines from the airport, and it's an easy hop via the "subway" to many other locales.

While others might find the locale "seedy", I think it's pretty normal. The downtown area is more active than most of the city, but Westin Taipei is in what I think of as a "normal" part of town.

thezipper

I've been to the Westin as well. I's in a pretty good spot as far as I'm concerned. 2 blocks to NanKing MTR station, 5 blocks to the Hard Rock Cafe, and under 10 minute taxi ride to restaurants such as Tony Roma's, Trader Vics, Subway, Ruth's Chris Steak House (Dont wanna know what the prices are there). Might be in a seedy area, but I didnt notice. If you do stay at the Westin try for a room looking out toward the Yangmingshan mountain.

MilesDependent

For those of you who have been to Taipei recently, how did you get into town from the airport?

I wanted to get a bus, but I was told that the bus stops running at 9:30pm. I was on SQ30 which arrived (late) at about 11:30pm. I was told the only was into town was a taxi for NT$1,200 or a hotel car for NT$1,800. On the way back to the airport I got a bus for like NT$150.

I'm not going back to TPE anytime soon, but I just think it's a bit odd that there is no public transport available after 9:30pm, at what is a major international airport.

TerryK

There could be some miscommunication here. There are several bus companies which run buses to/from TPE airport. I know Airbus runs until 2AM to Hyatt, among others.

It is possible that buses to Westin stop running at 9:30pm, but there are other buses to Taipei city available and Westin could be just another short taxi ride away (no more than NT$100). Hope this helps for your future trips.

Plato90s

The "Flying Dog" bus line, which has a stop right in front of the Westin, might stop running a bit earlier. But Airbus has a stop on Nanking East Road, which is drop-off only. That's less than 75ft. away from the Westin Taipei if you don't have heavy luggage.

If you do, get off at the next stop and call a cab. No cab will pick you up only to take you 75ft. away. It'll be only $150NT. Added to the bus fare of $140NT, that's less than $300NT.

Fly Me To The Moon

Stayed once at this hotel a few months after opening, and stayed there again this past weekend. The first was on a paid stay; the second on a "cash+points" stay (Category 3).

I am a Platinum and both times got upgraded to a suite upon checkin. The suite has a separate living room (quite nice) and bedroom. Late checkout of 4:30pm given, no questions asked. Very good recognition of Platinum members. There was a Heavenly Bed, and very comfortable. In-room fax/copier/scanner in my suite. Decor is nothing special (just similar to many five-star hotels in Asia), but the rooms were spotless clean.

Ordered a burger at 10:30pm after checkin; took 40 minutes to deliver.

During my first stay, their Executive Club Lounge was not open yet. So, received two Breakfasts at East West Buffet. During my stay yesterday, got access to the Club Lounge--it was EXCELLENT. The breakfast spread has to be one of the best I have experienced (I would say on par with the Grand Hyatt Grand Club Lounge in HKG, which many Flyertalkers consider excellent as well). The Lounge has good seating and lighting, a large-screen projection TV (no doubt for sports games!), and is very quiet and comfortable.

I didn't try out any of the F&B outlets on this occasion (they have 12 or 13 of them), but according to friends in Taipei, they say the experience at the restaurants have been quite good.

Snoopy

Stayed at the Westin Taipei on Tuesday night. It was my first stay there as a Plat and I was pleased to be upgraded to a suite on the 15th Floor (Executive Floor) as they call it.

I had been in the room all of 2 minutes when there was an almighty rumblin' and a shakin'. Not an earthquake, living in Tokyo I recognise them easily. It stopped after a few minutes, but started again after about 5. This kept up for about 30 minutes. I was going out for dinner, so on the way out I enquired whether this would continue all night. The girl said that she didn't know but would let me know when I returned. Sure enough her answer was that it was some machinery on the roof (the 15th is the top floor). Anyway I said that I wanted another room then. She said that would be ok, but not a suite. Well, considering that I was only there one night, that wasn't an issue and anyway, I'd rather have the sleep than space to prance around in! So, no sooner said than done I was demoted a floor to the 14th (also executive though...) to a nice sized regular room and a great deep sleep.

Breakfast in the Exec lounge was great. The buffet is well appointed and the lounge wasn't at all crowded despite there being quite a few people in there.

The Westin is a nice hotel and I will stay there again....just not on the 15th Floor!

thezipper

I've been there several times, recently last month. Used the $$$ and points for a nice room and upgraded to a suite on the 14th floor, although the corner suites on the 15th floor rock! The ceilings on the 14th were about 10' while the 15th had at least 15' with floor to celing windows looking towards Yan-ming shan. The Exec floor lounge is great for breakfast as noted with an egg station for made-to-order food. The spread is one of the nicest I've seen. Stopped by in the afternoon for snacks and the cheesecase they had was superb, believe it was from one of the other outlets they have in the building. I took the bus from the airport and it got me within a 5 min walk of the hotel. Not bad considering the bus fare was only 130 NT. (About $4 USD) The biggest kick I got was the Westin Taipei had a little folder on the desk where you cold use your Starpoints to purchase "Freddie Awards" ... Lurker and Randy got a chuckle out of that one!