禾風竹露生態民宿 — Hotel in Yilan City

Travelling with family in Taiwan and on our way to Hualien, we had booked this accommodation relatively late. We were not expecting too much, especially when we saw the location was a little far from the city centre (?10mins) and adjacent to a highway. Easy enough to find with Google maps and we drove in and welcomed by a lovely old couple. I mean really welcomed. We felt at home the whole stay. My wife, who speaks Mandarin, kept calling him uncle. We fully expected to be staying in a room in the house but it turned out we had a cabin with 2 double beds, well and truly enough for my wife and one of our kids travelling with us. Wood panelling, cathedral roof, TV with cable channels and a few movie channels in English, kettle, bar fridge, reverse cycle air con/heating, double glazed windows (still could hear the traffic but muted), usual disposable amenities - all simple and basic but comfortable. If you are looking for better pillows and firmer bed springs then it may be not ideal but we slept soundly. The elderly gentleman gave us suggestions for dinner and we drove literally 2 minutes (right, left, though the traffic lights then first restaurant on the right) and had a fabulous meal at a traditional Chinese restaurant which we got to before last order at 19:45. Also managed to get a load of washing done in their laundry which saved us a trip to a laundromat! The next morning we really appreciated our surrounds. A lake with ducks - duck egg hunting yielded 4 eggs which the old lady cooked for us for breakfast. The trees and the bamboo , the flooded fields (weed suppression?), the greenery - very serene, even though we were next to a highway, except for the traffic noise, you could easily feel there was little else around. Breakfast was traditional taiwanese style with congee, fresh vegetables and fruit - much needed home food after many night markets and hotel food or banquets. My son thought it was the best breakfast we have had this trip! We really...

My family originally planned to stay for 3 nights, but eventually, we left after 1 night because there were many small black bugs, which naked eyes can see, coming out from the mattresses and quilts. It was scary. I Googled and found that the tiny bugs should be due to mold, which was reasonable considering the overall damp condition inside the rooms without dehumidifiers. We slept on the hard floor that night (couldn't fall asleep at all) left the next day, booked another hotel with extra money.

Frankly, the outside environment is excellent, but the room facilities are really run-down. This is a good place and I strongly urge the owner to spend some money to renew the facilities inside the rooms, including the unstable hot water supply, old lamps with spider webs, damaged...

Nice place to stay at. Enjoyed our stay there. The owners are very friendly and warm. The only thing I didn't like much was their breakfast, got limited...