We recently went to Taichung (Taiwan), a 40-minute HSR train ride from Taipei.
Taichung is a more laidback city than Taipei, and, imho, we liked the food at their famous Feng Chia Night Market.
Since I had never been to Taichung before, I had a harder time picking a hotel. I finally settled on Chance Hotel – I was able to book it for *really cheap* at less than P2,000 per night at Booking.com!
I was worried that it was going to be a terrible hotel, but I wanted to trust the reviews that said it was clean.
Chance Hotel – Location
Chance Hotel is literally a stone’s throw from the old Taichung Train Station at the heart of the old city center. Just cross the street from the Taichung Train Station and go right on the diagonal street, it’s less than a 1-minute walk from the station!
Regular trains run through this station.
This is different from the HSR station (High-Speed Rail). The HSR station is located a bit farther away, but is connected to the old Taichung Train Station by rail, about 4 stops (Xinwuri station to Taichung Train Station).
You can also just take an Uber, it costs about P200-ish.. and there was no traffic going from Taichung Train Station to the HSR Station when we did.
I really, really liked the location of Chance Hotel. Buses going to the newer, nicer parts of the city have bus stations really close to the hotel.
We can easily walk to the Taichung Train Station that had many shops selling food, plus some nice cafes. We could also walk to the Taroko Mall just behind the train station, where there’s a 24-Hr Carrefour.
Many tours meet up at the Taichung Train Station, so if you’re staying here it will be easy to get to.
There’s a nearby 7-11 and a Watsons. Miyahara (the popular Harry Potter place + ice cream shop) is also a very short walk away. There’s a Mini.D cafe beside Miyahara that sells good egg tarts.
This older area of Taichung is actually a bit run-down. There are homeless people sleeping in the streets. But they don’t bother us and they just mind their own business.
It’s a 30-minute bus ride to Feng Chia Night Market from Chance Hotel (just follow Google Maps, although Google Maps is sometimes not accurate regarding bus arrival times).
Our Room
This was better than expected, honestly! The room is simple, but the beds were clean. There’s a small table, a TV (local channels only), a mini ref, a hair dryer, and the bathroom was a real bathroom, with real walls and a real door. I *hate* those glass wall bathrooms in most new hotels, like wtf.
We also had a view of the train station!
We could adjust the airconditioning via controls on the wall. The towels were a bit old, but clean.
Housekeeping was good at keeping the room clean every day, you just have to put the “clean room” sign up before 2pm. We always see the housekeeping guy cleaning rooms on our way out every morning. There’s only one small thing he missed, cobwebs in one corner of the ceiling, but I don’t mind, because I want the spiders to eat any mosquitoes, LOL.
They provide 2 free bottles of water daily.
We were also able to do laundry, there’s a coin laundry area at the back of the hotel. The drinking water dispenser is also there if you want to refill your water tumbler for free.
We brought our own toiletries, so we didn’t need to get any from the hotel. Toiletries are by request. We were able to ask for some disposable utensils for some takeout food we brought back to eat in the room.
Summary
Would stay here again if we ever go to Taichung again. I’m totally on board with going back to Taichung because I love the night market food, and I find the food in Taichung generally more flavorful than Taipei, the breads in Taichung are all really good (they are not that health-conscious vs Taipei people, according to a relative who lives in Taichung, so the food tastes better).
Location is great – wherever you find yourself in Taichung, you can always find a bus going this way. Uber & taxis also know where the old Taichung train station is, so getting back to the hotel will never be a problem.
The price is amazing! Less than P2,000 (US $40) per night. Even if we have to take the bus to go to the newer parts of the city, we still end up saving more staying here vs. if we got a hotel room in the newer part of the city that was much more expensive.
This hotel is also popular with other Filipino travelers. We also saw other guests from Taiwan, Hong Kong, etc… The front desk is always staffed, and we felt safe staying at this hotel.
