Onsen Papawaqa — Hotel in Tai'an

The Onsen Papawaqa resort has quite a reputation in Taiwan as a top resort. However, there’s two elements which have prevented my family from visiting this place for the past years – prices and access. ||||Let’s start with the “ugly” – the resort has been around for quite a while, and we’ve always wanted to try out the onsen at a comfortable resort tucked away in the mountains. However, prices for the room can get quite hefty, and the trip is not manageable if you don’t drive. ||||Fortunately, things worked out for us this month and we were able to purchase a tour package from Taiwan High Speed Rail which encompasses a stay at the hotel and train tickets for a reasonable price. Of course, we had to arrange for the 40-minute ride, but at least that’s something money can resolve. So, off we go for a 2D1N Trip!||||The hotel itself is – as we’ve expected – located in a remote areas in central Taiwan. The good part is the air is great, while the bad part is there’s not much around. Of course, you can book a ride to nearby towns or go hiking in the vicinity. Fortunately for me, the only I want to do is rest, and to this end the resort definitely fits the bill. ||||The room we got was a room with a king size (or bigger?) bed, which is enough for my wife and kid. The Japanese style living room area with TV and bed is on an elevated wooden platform, while the desk and closet is on the stone pavement part of the room. The bathroom is located in the back of the room with the wash basin and toilet on one side and the private onsen on the side of the elevated platform. The only thing that divides the bathroom area from the rest of the room are huge curtains. There’s one huge window panel allowing you to take a look at the woods and creek (and for us, the 7-Eleven across the bridge as well). Fortunately, there’s blinds you can lower if you don’t feel like exposing yourself to the rest of the world when you soak in the hot bath. ||||The hotel amenities were fits the high price tag of the room. All the shampoo, hand soap, and shower gel were L’Occitane, and the Hakka snacks that came with the room were freshly made on the day. In fact, they give you a bottle of locally-produced hinoki cypress solution you can dump into the hot spring in your room if you want to add some “flavors” (Yeah, you can also bring it home with you – confirmed that with the front desk). ||||Now, there’s several benefits for hotel guests. First, you can use the gym and game room for free, as well as all you can drink beverages and refreshment at the club house facility. You can also use the outdoor pools and public hot baths during open hours. Yes, you can bring the towels back to your room and just leave them there for the cleaning people the next day with your other stuff. We went on a Sunday and used the pool at night, and there weren’t a lot of people – which is a good thing. However, kids can only use life buoy, float armbands, or other gadgets at selected pools. Also, there’s a footbath area for those who prefer not to change but still want to enjoy a soak. I personally didn’t have time to enter the public nude bath (or the sauna and such), but they’re definitely available for guests. ||||As for the food… well, I didn’t plan to go anywhere else except stay inside the hotel, so we added a dinner option to the package as well (Of course, there’s the 7-eleven across the bridge for the thrifty travelers). The restaurant, as other fellow reviewers have already mentioned, has a weird design – think of tables laid out at different steps of a staircase. So if you get seated at the bottom steps, you’ll have to make your way to the top of the stairs to the buffet area to get your food. This can be a hassle, but fortunately there weren’t that many people that night, so it wasn’t a problem for us.||||The selection of food is quite modest, but I think the resort did a pretty good job at choosing the dishes. I tried out many of what was available, so I was quite full by the end of my meal. The same is true for breakfast, and they even have local ingredients and dishes to choose from – I actually have some hakka noodles along with my bacon and cheese. At one point they ran out of milk, and the waiters wasted no time to replenish it (and I saw the milk was a brand from New Zealand). ||||All in all, it was quite some experience. I paid for a getaway trip to a place that offer serenity, fresh air, and hot spring. I’m glad Papawaqa provided my family with all of those in a one-night-stay. I’ll definitely go back after my savings account recovers...

The Onsen Papawaqa resort has quite a reputation in Taiwan as a top resort. However, there’s two elements which have prevented my family from visiting this place for the past years – prices and access. ||||Let’s start with the “ugly” – the resort has been around for quite a while, and we’ve always wanted to try out the onsen at a comfortable resort tucked away in the mountains. However, prices for the room can get quite hefty, and the trip is not manageable if you don’t drive. ||||Fortunately, things worked out for us this month and we were able to purchase a tour package from Taiwan High Speed Rail which encompasses a stay at the hotel and train tickets for a reasonable price. Of course, we had to arrange for the 40-minute ride, but at least that’s something money can resolve. So, off we go for a 2D1N Trip!||||The hotel itself is – as we’ve expected – located in a remote areas in central Taiwan. The good part is the air is great, while the bad part is there’s not much around. Of course, you can book a ride to nearby towns or go hiking in the vicinity. Fortunately for me, the only I want to do is rest, and to this end the resort definitely fits the bill. ||||The room we got was a room with a king size (or bigger?) bed, which is enough for my wife and kid. The Japanese style living room area with TV and bed is on an elevated wooden platform, while the desk and closet is on the stone pavement part of the room. The bathroom is located in the back of the room with the wash basin and toilet on one side and the private onsen on the side of the elevated platform. The only thing that divides the bathroom area from the rest of the room are huge curtains. There’s one huge window panel allowing you to take a look at the woods and creek (and for us, the 7-Eleven across the bridge as well). Fortunately, there’s blinds you can lower if you don’t feel like exposing yourself to the rest of the world when you soak in the hot bath. ||||The hotel amenities were fits the high price tag of the room. All the shampoo, hand soap, and shower gel were L’Occitane, and the Hakka snacks that came with the room were freshly made on the day. In fact, they give you a bottle of locally-produced hinoki cypress solution you can dump into the hot spring in your room if you want to add some “flavors” (Yeah, you can also bring it home with you – confirmed that with the front desk). ||||Now, there’s several benefits for hotel guests. First, you can use the gym and game room for free, as well as all you can drink beverages and refreshment at the club house facility. You can also use the outdoor pools and public hot baths during open hours. Yes, you can bring the towels back to your room and just leave them there for the cleaning people the next day with your other stuff. We went on a Sunday and used the pool at night, and there weren’t a lot of people – which is a good thing. However, kids can only use life buoy, float armbands, or other gadgets at selected pools. Also, there’s a footbath area for those who prefer not to change but still want to enjoy a soak. I personally didn’t have time to enter the public nude bath (or the sauna and such), but they’re definitely available for guests. ||||As for the food… well, I didn’t plan to go anywhere else except stay inside the hotel, so we added a dinner option to the package as well (Of course, there’s the 7-eleven across the bridge for the thrifty travelers). The restaurant, as other fellow reviewers have already mentioned, has a weird design – think of tables laid out at different steps of a staircase. So if you get seated at the bottom steps, you’ll have to make your way to the top of the stairs to the buffet area to get your food. This can be a hassle, but fortunately there weren’t that many people that night, so it wasn’t a problem for us.||||The selection of food is quite modest, but I think the resort did a pretty good job at choosing the dishes. I tried out many of what was available, so I was quite full by the end of my meal. The same is true for breakfast, and they even have local ingredients and dishes to choose from – I actually have some hakka noodles along with my bacon and cheese. At one point they ran out of milk, and the waiters wasted no time to replenish it (and I saw the milk was a brand from New Zealand). ||||All in all, it was quite some experience. I paid for a getaway trip to a place that offer serenity, fresh air, and hot spring. I’m glad Papawaqa provided my family with all of those in a one-night-stay. I’ll definitely go back after my savings account recovers...

This is my first time at this hot springs, and everyone I've talked to told me it was very famous in Taiwan and how fortunate I was to be able to go.

Stayed for 1 night in May. Was able to reserve the free shuttle service from the HSR to the hot springs.

When we got there, the front desk staff were really polite and even upgraded our room to a suite (I'm assuming because it was low-season and COVID...). Our room was fantastic! The only comment I would make would be that the door to the personal hot springs area blocked the shower, it was quite awkward to get into.

The outdoor hot springs was really nice. They have multiple different temperature heated pools, a cold infinity pool, children's pool, and even naked hot springs if you want to. They also have a swim up bar where you can get free tea!

The layout of the hot springs was really nice, and we were thoroughly impressed. Yes it is a bit dated, but I think they did well considering.

Now, to why I only gave it 4 stars. I think due to COVID, they do not offer a dinner buffet. The dinner was a set menu of 10 dishes. The atmosphere of the dinner was a bit odd. The speed of which the dishes came out was off, fast and then slow, then fast, then slow? Out of the 10 dishes, (1 dish was fruit consisting of 2 grapes, 2 slices of pineapple, and 2 small triangles of watermelon), I would only eat about 3 or 4 of them. The rest of the 4 to 5 dishes were NOT GOOD! I don't know how to explain it, but the dishes were really not tasty. I wonder if the restaurant staff have tried eating their own food. Most of their dishes lacked seasoning or salt. For example, the shrimp dish was just butter and lots of garlic. I really couldn't believe that when the hotel is charging on average, 10,000NT a night, they would serve this dinner! I was even more shocked when I saw that the set menu was charging 900NT!

I was almost going to say something to the staff but they were just too busy and I doubt they would have been able to do anything. Next time I come back, if there is no dinner buffet, I will choose NOT to have dinner there and either spend money on the local hakka restaurants nearby within walking distance (one is literally right beside the hotel), or take the 5 minute walk to 7-11 and buy instant noodles.

Breakfast buffet was decent. At least it was a buffet with a noodle station and a wide selection of western and taiwanese cuisine.

Overall, the value of hot springs was there, just...