Hualien Hotel | Silks Place Taroko | Gorge View Room | Enjoy Magnificent Canyon Views from Your Room
Located within Taroko National Park in Hualien, Silks Place Taroko is the only five-star hotel in Taiwan set inside a mountain-type national park. Situated in the Tianxiang area right beside the gorge and surrounded by mountains, it not only lets you take in magnificent canyon scenery from your room, but also offers plenty of facilities and activities — making it one of the most famous luxury hotels to visit in Hualien.
Silks Place Taroko began life as the Tianxiang Guest House. In 1991 it was rebuilt as the Tianxiang Grand Formosa Resort, and in 2009 it was renovated once again and renamed Silks Place Taroko.
This was my second stay at a Silks Place hotel. My previous stay at Silks Place Tainan was also a good experience, so while visiting Hualien this time I chose Silks Place Taroko with a one-night, two-meal package, hoping to enjoy a resort getaway in the gorge.
📜 Information
- Stay date: 2022-02-28
- Room type: Leisure Room - Gorge & River View Room (2F)
- Package price: $11,800 (one night, two meals)
- Payment: Credit cards accepted, business tax ID invoices available
- Address: No. 18, Tianxiang Rd., Xiulin Township, Hualien County 97253
- Phone: 038691155
- Booking site: https://www.booking.com/hotel/tw/tai-lu-ge-jing-ying-jiu-dian.xt.html?aid=8003516
📍 Location
Silks Place Taroko is located in the Tianxiang area of Taroko National Park. Driving from downtown Hualien along the Central Cross-Island Highway, you can reach Tianxiang in a little under an hour if there's no traffic.
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| The main entrance of Silks Place Taroko |
Driving:
Follow the Central Cross-Island Highway to the Tianxiang area; Silks Place Taroko sits right next to the Tianxiang parking lot.
There is a parking garage beneath the hotel, but there aren't many spaces, the ramp is narrow and the spots are small, so park carefully. There are also some parking areas around the hotel, and if those are full, the Tianxiang parking lot has plenty of space.
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| Some parking spaces around the hotel |
Public transport:
You can take the Hualien Bus or the Taiwan Tourist Shuttle to Tianxiang Station.
Timetables
Hotel shuttle:
Another option is the hotel shuttle. Silks Place Taroko offers a scheduled shuttle service to and from Hualien Train Station / Airport at NT$250 per person each way (NT$150 per way for children under 12 occupying a seat). Note that reservations must be made three days before check-in.
🏢 Hotel Environment
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| A spacious, tasteful lobby |
Silks Place Taroko is only about four storeys tall, which was actually different from what I'd imagined (I always assumed hotels these days were all high-rises 😅).
Because of the terrain, the lobby you walk into from the main entrance is actually on the second floor. Stepping inside feels similar to Silks Place Tainan or Regent Taipei — a spacious, tasteful lobby with a faint floral fragrance in the air.
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| The elevator lobby and the lounge area behind the front desk |
The lobby lighting is on the dim side, but very atmospheric, and the corridors are decorated with plenty of artwork and paintings — overall a understated, luxurious style. The hotel building is ring-shaped, wrapping around the first-floor courtyard, with 160 guest rooms in total: leisure rooms on the lower floors and club suites on the upper floors, with the various facilities spread across different levels.
🛏 The Room
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| The oversized double bed — comfortable, neither too firm nor too soft |
This time we stayed in a Gorge & River View King Room on the second floor. The main selling point is being able to see the magnificent canyon scenery straight from the room! The room size is comfortably moderate — not shockingly large like the one at Silks Place Tainan, but plenty comfortable.
On entering the room, the TV displayed a welcome message with the guest's name, and something I really liked was the orchid fragrance in the room — it made stepping in a comfortable and pleasantly surprising experience.
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| A welcome message with the guest's name |
The TV also has built-in Apple TV and Chromecast — just scan the QR code with your phone and you can stream Spotify music in the room or binge Netflix at night, no problem!
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| Canyon views right from the room |
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| The in-room minibar is hidden inside this cabinet |
In-room amenities are what you'd expect from any luxury hotel: the essential coffee machine, plus complimentary facial masks just like at Silks Place Tainan, and welcome snacks laid out on the table in the sofa area.
The bathroom has separate wet and dry areas and is average in size, with a single-person bathtub and a washlet toilet. The toiletries are from the Wellspring (Mu Lan) series.
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| A bowl of bath salts is provided beside the tub |
🏢 Hotel Facilities
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| Wellspring Spa, the small bathhouse, and the laundry room |
Perhaps because Silks Place Taroko sits deep in the gorge with few entertainment options nearby, the hotel offers quite a lot of in-house facilities and activities.
- Facilities: https://taroko.silksplace.com/tw/amenities
- In-house activities: https://taroko.silksplace.com/tw/activities
Entertainment Hall
The Entertainment Hall on the B1 leisure floor could pretty much be called a kids' paradise (?). There are lots of things that can keep children — even toddlers — busy for ages, such as LEGO, toy cars, and even a whole row of mini shops. Of course, there are also pool and ping-pong tables, and the craft classroom is here too.
Indoor Swimming Pool
Also on the B1 leisure floor is the indoor swimming pool — a spacious indoor pool with heated stone loungers available, and right now there's an astonishing number of rubber ducks floating in the children's pool 🐤
Mountain Brook / Outdoor Pool
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| The rooftop outdoor pool |
The outdoor pool on the rooftop (RF) is one of Silks Place Taroko's biggest draws. When I was reading other people's stay reviews beforehand, I saw plenty of influencers coming here to shoot photos at this outdoor pool. Facing an entire sweep of canyon scenery, it must look beautiful from any angle on a clear day.
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| At night, the lighting makes it even more atmospheric |
At the other end of the pool is an open-air seating area with a fire pit in the middle. This is also the venue for the nightly Indigenous singing performance — every evening at 20:30 there's an hour-long Indigenous vocal performance. After dinner I'd definitely recommend coming to sit here and enjoy the singing surrounded by nature. (On weekend evenings it becomes an Indigenous dance performance instead.)
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| Everyone gathers around the fire pit to listen to the performance |
Between 20:00 and 22:00, the little poolside bar stand on the rooftop opens for business. You can come here with a few friends, order a cocktail or a non-alcoholic drink, and chat under the stars — completely relaxing for body and mind.
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| The drinks and cocktails menu |
As for the drinks — as someone who frequents bars, I generally don't have high expectations for hotel bars, apart from gimmicky ones like Silks Place Tainan's "36 Stratagems" or "Demon-Subduing Tower". This time, since there's nothing else to do outside the hotel at night, everyone agreed to come here for a drink and a chat. Sipping a drink under the stars was actually rather nice and relaxing.
Without ordering any classic cocktails, I picked a few interesting-looking signature creations, and surprisingly none of them were bad — some were even quite fun. But taste is subjective, so I'll leave that for you to try yourself. That said, since the little stand only had one staff member making drinks, whenever everyone ordered at once the wait was quite long, and they may not have prepared enough ingredients either — many of the signature drinks I especially wanted to try weren't available, which was a shame.
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| Taroko $400 |
🍽 Dinner / Breakfast
Our package included dinner as a one-night, two-meal plan, with both meals served at the Wellesley Buffet Restaurant. Dinner is split into two seatings, 17:20 and 19:30, and you can choose which one.
Both dinner and breakfast tasted good, but the variety was a little limited — after one round you're not sure what else to eat. The restaurant also has relatively few seats; with the split dinner seatings it was roughly full, but since breakfast isn't split, at peak times you have to wait at the door for a while until someone finishes before you can be seated.
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| The view from the room first thing in the morning |
Silks Place Taroko has always been one of Hualien's most popular and hard-to-book hotels. The day we stayed it felt fully booked, and if you want a comfortable night inside Taroko National Park, Silks Place Taroko is pretty much the only choice.
Overall there wasn't much to fault about the stay — after all, it's a five-star hotel costing over NT$10,000 a night, and both the service and the comfort were quite good. If you're after a comfortable resort experience in Taroko National Park, I'd definitely recommend giving it a try.
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