Everyone I talked to before I went to Taiwan said that the Grand Hyatt is the perfect choice for a traveler’s first trip to Taipei. I’m happy to report that they were right. It’s central location and easy access to public transportation is really hard to beat.
A full review of my 2 night stay at the Grand Hyatt in Taipei
The Grand Hyatt is in a perfect location, and right away I felt like I made a pretty good choice. It should be noted that Taipei doesn’t really have much of a central hub. It’s very spread out, and it doesn’t really have a “big city” feel to it like Hong Kong or New York.
The Grand Hyatt Taipei (with the Taipei 101 Tower looming in the distance).
This Hyatt is located adjacent to the Taipei 101 Tower and observatory which, to me, is actually a very centralized location with a lot of shopping and dining options within walking distance in every direction.
The lobby
The lobby of the Grand Hyatt is huge. “Big-city” hotel-like. Absolutely grand. And 100% the opposite of what you saw in my review of the Madison Taipei Hotel (a really nice property just a short 15 minute walk away from this Hyatt). Check this out:
Walking into the lobby of the Grand Hyatt Taipei was an experience. Whoa.
This place didn’t look like much from the outside, but wow…the lobby sure does live up to the “Grand” name. For comparisons sake, the lobby of the Grand Hyatt at the Incheon Airport (in Seoul) was nowhere near as impressive.
The atrium of the Grand Hyatt Taipei was really impressive in person – these pics don’t do it justice.
One more pic of the lobby just because it looks so cool. Note that the check in desk is to the left, and the main entry is to the right.
Getting to my room
Interior hallway of the Grand Hyatt Taipei.
Room 1539 was mine for this stay. I love being on the upper floors, as it usually means a pretty good view.
The room
I’ll admit it. Even though the style and design of the rooms don’t match the lobby at all, I didn’t mind one bit. As a matter of fact, this is one of the better looking hotel rooms that I’ve experienced in Asia recently. It’s nice!
Walking into the room for the first time. I see a splash of red, so that’s a good sign – I love red accents! (Which you would have known by now if you read my Seoul Plaza Hotel review).
Just for reference, this is the same view of the entryway taken with my regular point-and-shoot camera. I know a lot of readers don’t care for the super wide angle pics sometimes, so I’m including this one to keep ya happy!
Room 1539 Grand Hyatt Taipei.
I’ll get to the window view in a moment, but as you can see here, this is a pretty stylish room.
There were a lot of nice little design details in this room that I really liked. Every lamp was different!
Another detail shot showing yet another kind of lamp…
Simple and clean desk. I like it.
Another view of the desk, looking across it towards the entrance.
Walking towards the door, with the bathroom on the right.
Cubed furniture makes me happy for some reason. I love simplicity!
This red inset in the entryway was a nice touch – it contained an array of very expensive snacks and a safe in the cabinet below.
Close up pic of all the outrageously-priced snacks.
Complimentary bottles of water were nice – it saved me from having to buy some.
One last wide angle overview pic of the entire room.
The view
Being located directly across the street from the Taipei 101 Tower has its advantages. Unfortunately, this hotel is located so close that you probably won’t see the entire tower from your window. If that is what you seek, I highly recommend the Shangri-La Far Eastern instead (a hotel from which you can see the entire city of Taipei from any window in your room).
So what about the view? My room on the 15th floor was pretty good with big windows…
…which overlooked the Taipei 101 tower. Pretty nice, eh?
This picture is a bit more representative of what you can see from inside the room. The Taipei 101 tower is right across the street so you kind of have to crank your head around to see the top.
This is the view looking straight out from the windows. The Taipei 101 Tower is just out of the frame to the right.
My apologies to the cleaning staff for all the greasy nose prints I inadvertently left on the windows. The view was too good!
The bathroom was just as stylish as the rest of the room. This reminded me of the bathroom in the room I had at the Times Square Hyatt (in NYC) – but on steroids.
Bright and clean – everything that’s important to me in a bathroom.
I was a bit concerned about how much water would leak out from the bottom of the shower, but thankfully I didn’t have to mop too much up every time.
There’s also a full size tub on the other side.
Here’s a wide angle pic of the entire bathroom.
And another wide angle pic looking the other way.
Room service
The in-room dining was pretty good here at the Grand Hyatt. This was dinner on the first night (fried rice with shrimp and pork), and I’d have to say that it gets two thumbs up from me. Very tasty!
Oops, I did it again. It was so good that I had to do it again on my second night!
The buffet restaurant downstairs was really good, but impossible to get into for breakfast due to how busy it was. So this is what I ordered for in-room dining on my second morning.
Final thoughts
As you can see from these pics, it’s a very nice and modern property. If you stay here, make sure you reserve an upper level room facing the Taipei 101 Tower. All of the other views from the other directions aren’t as interesting IMHO – just a lot of spread out “city” with not much else.
I enjoyed my stay at the Grand Hyatt quite a bit. It’s the perfect hotel for first time visitors, and I didn’t see any other hotels in the immediate area that made me think that I made a bad choice.
The experience was typically Hyatt of course, meaning that it felt like a big corporate hotel with not much personality. This isn’t a bad thing of course, as some familiarity is comforting thing when you’re weary-eyed and far from home.
But part of me does regret that I didn’t go for a more interesting boutique hotel over this very safe and predictable option.
