Navigating Taiwan's Taipei Airport and Staying at the Hara Zuru Hotel

How To Get Away From the Taipei Airport: The first thing one must know when coming into a foreign country, in this case Taipei, is how to get away from the airport. This can be intimidating, especially if you do not speak the language of the country you are visiting or you are traveling alone. Taipei (TPE or CKS) is a small airport with only 2 terminals and is nothing to be afraid of. Once you get through customs and immigration and luggage pickup you must decide to take a taxi or a bus to get away from the Taipei airport. Make sure you bring the address of your hotel with you, as this will make the process of getting there much easier for you.

A taxi trip into the city center can be expensive as the airport taxi's are allowed to charge you more than the regular Taipei yellow cab. Expect to pay at least 1,200 NTD, or $40 American dollars. The bus ride into Taipei to get to your hotel is easy to acquire. Follow the signs for bus and they will lead you to a lobby of bus kiosks with the different areas of Taipei posted on the signs. If you are not sure of the name of the neighborhood in Taipei where your hotel is just walk up to any kiosk show them the address of your hotel and the nice English speakers behind the counter will direct you to the correct kiosk and bus. The buses are numbered so you don't have to read Chinese. The cost to go to Taipei Main Station, where a youth hostel is, is 124 NTD, or about $5 American dollars.

Spending the Night at a Hotel Near the Taipei Airport:

Hara Zuru Hotel, 122 Shuang Feng Rd., Taoyuan, Taiwan; Tel: (03) 355-8833; www.harazuru.com.tw; Email: harazuru@ms15.hinet.net

My friend and I had an early morning flight out of Taipei and back to Seoul so we decided to stay at a hotel near the airport. I mentioned I hadn't seen any hotels as we drove away from the airport to Taipei upon out arrival. But he insisted that hotels by the airport are standard and not to worry. We took the airport bus from Taipei Main Station and while on the bus befriended a Taiwanese man, James, who lives in San Francisco and speaks perfect English. As my friend related his master plan to James, James began to shake his head and speak in Chinese to the bus driver, who also was shaking his head. At this point I knew I was right and he was wrong, which is great except for where would we spend the night. We got off the bus at the Taipei Airport and James was nice enough to talk to the taxi dispatcher who confirmed, there are no hotels near the Taipei Airport. A few more minutes of Chinese chatter and we stepped into the overpriced Taipei Airport taxi and were whisked away to what we hoped would be a cheap but clean hotel.

Lucky for us, we were taken on a 500 NTD airport taxi ride to the Hara Zuru Hotel. The Hara Zuru Hotel staff spoke enough English to check us in; the hotel room at the Hara Zuru Hotel cost $45. The lobby of the Hara Zuru Hotel was the kind of lobby where you still weren't sure about the state of the hotel rooms. We requested a wake up call for 5am, the call came at 5:25am (no clock in the room), and requested a taxi back to the Taipei airport to arrive at 5:30, the taxi was on time.

As we made our way skeptically up to the room at the Hara Zuru Hotel we were pleasantly surprised upon entry. The room at the Hara Zuru Hotel was big, clean and smell free. There was a comfy couch and a very hard queen size bed with a paisley comforter; 2 pillows. There were 2 bottles of complimentary water in the refrigerator. The bathroom had shampoo, conditioner, shower cap, toothbrush with toothpaste, and a razor. There is a convenience store nearby.

I would recommend Hara Zuru Hotel for the 1 night close to the airport stays that are sometimes necessary when traveling. The front desk even had a togo bag with 2 breakfast sandwiches and 2 barley milks as we left too early to enjoy the Hara Zuru Hotel complimentary breakfast.