Orange Hotel - Guanqian @ Taipei

Sponsored Review

When the opportunity knocks for a short trip to one of our favourite country, we immediately checked for our leave approvals, booked the flight and planned the itinerary!

Thanks to the nicest people from Omy, Kless and I were transported to the land of 珍珠奶茶 and 滷肉飯.
Best of all, we do not need to worry about our accommodation, as we were hosted by the Forte Hotel Group（福泰饭店集团).

If you are traveling to Taipei in the coming months, do consider the Orange Hotel @ Guanqian 桔子商旅—馆前店（台北）

It’s like most of the budget hotels in Taipei, small but fully equipped, truly living up to the name of 麻雀虽小，五脏俱全.

 

  

The place seems to be renovated just recently and I was pleasantly surprised to find a safe in the room.

 

Down at the lobby area, there are fresh fruits prepared for all guests and coffee tea. The fruits were a great welcome especially all the “sinful” street food in the night markets.

 

One thing new in this hotel is the breakfast system. Since the hotel is small, they saved the space from a dining restaurant for more rooms. Instead, we were given breakfast coupons for a few nearby eateries.

This was totally my type of service, because personally I prefer to eat breakfast with the locals rather than with a group of tourists.

So, we choose Yoshinoya!

 

And one funny incident during breakfast was witnessing an elderly Taiwanese man arguing in the Taiwan dialect, regarding why can’t he order Lemon Tea for takeaway. Seriously I didn’t understand the explanation as well, but I was more than amused to see how livid the elderly man was and how his wife just sat there watching the drama like it happens everyday.

So where is this hotel located? Glad you asked.

The nearest MRT station is Taipei Main Station. This is by far the most convenient station you can live near to. From this station we took the High Speed Rail (HSR) to Kaohsiung, and we didn’t have to drag our luggage too far from the hotel to the station. Walking distance within 5mins.

And just opposite the hotel is a shopping mall with almost everything you need, from stationeries to electrical, to fashion, to food, to beauty services, to massages and more.

It is really nice to see all these chinese signboards all around us. Gives us the “at home” feeling.

 

Overall experience
Since I do not wish to stay in any hotel room for a long time when I am traveling, the size of the hotel rooms is not my primary concern. As long as it is clean and relatively new, I am more than happy.

Orange Hotel @ Guanqian is conveniently located (near to one of the main MRT station and the one for HSR if you are planning to travel to another city within Taiwan). I could be greedier and ask for a place nearer to a night market, but I’m fine.

The amenities are much and with variety to choose from. 7-11, Family Mart, Watson, Cafes, Shopping Malls, McDonalds, Japanese Restaurants, etc. Should be good enough to curb any late night hunger pangs. Actually with 7-11, the 黑轮 is more than enough.

Staff are nice, though the cleaners are way friendlier than the front desk girls. Quite a surprise.

Wifi is available and signal is okay. Air-conditioning in the room is strong. We had to wear a sweater to bed (but that could just be me).

Security is excellent, even the main door at L1 is opened only by access card aka room key.

Celebrating Conrad Centennial Singapore’s 20th Birthday

Sponsored Review

When you are planning for the next staycation, why not think of Conrad Singapore?

Nested in the vicinity of the Marina Bay, Suntec City Mall and the Esplanade, just to name a few, Conrad is located ideally for business people looking for good services and also convenient to move around. In fact, the first thought that crossed my mind when I came across Conrad was of a business hotel idea. But I was pleasantly surprised when we were invited to experience the Conrad-experience, little did I know that the people are not just “business” effective, but very “family” friendly.

From the simple check-in to getting our room cleaned, nothing is short of excellence.

As Conrad Singapore celebrates it’s 20th birthday, this is the best time and reason to indulge in some family relaxation and fun.

First up, the check-in process was done on the road from home to hotel. Yes! With the HHonors app. check-in can be done even before you reach the hotel, no more queueing and waiting in line with the masses.

     

Once we are done with the check-in, the app shows the various info icons for us to navigate within the hotel and also to nearby places for sight-seeing or restaurants for meals.

 

We were staying on the high floor and had one of the best view of Suntec Fountain.

For a 3D2N staycation, this is how much things we have to bring. The truth of traveling with 3 girls.

Room inspection by the girls.

 

 

Conrad offers 4 brands of bath amenities – Aromatherapy Associates, Shanghai Tang, Tara Smith (which is Vegan) and Refinery for Men. Usually, the hotel will only provide Aromatherapy for its guest, but we are thankful for the hotel’s hospitality to provide all 4 brands for us to try.

 

 

Another super cool feature of Conrad that you may not know, is the Digital Key system. You can use your smartphone as a digital key to unlock your guest room doors via the Hilton HHonors App. With a family staycation like us, I can pass the keycard to my wife without the fear of being locked out of the room if I am outside. Another advantage of having this feature is when I went for my daily run during the staycation, I do not need to bring the keycard with me. I just need my phone for my music app, my running app and my hotel room app. Nice!

   

Do you also know that Conrad Hotels & Resorts launched a hyper-curated guide that delivers a true flavor and personalized snapshot of authentic Singapore experiences? To experience, simply visit the online curated website at www.stayinspired.com and choose Singapore City. This meets the needs of guests by organizing mini itineraries according to the amount of time a traveller has in a city, thus answering the question they have even before they set foot in the lion city.

What can you do if you have one hour, or three hours, or five hours… starting from Conrad? With 1/3/5, Conrad does the hard work for the guests while the guests can concentrate on staying inspired and having fun.

   

Lunch was an elaborated affair as we were hosted at the famous Chinese Restaurant – Golden Peony’s Weekend Dim Sum Experience. It was truly an exquisite experience of class and comfort. More than I can emphasis, the customer service in Conrad is probably one of the best I have experienced throughout all the hotel stays we had. The servers were attentive, not too close for discomfort, but always there when you need something, almost like a ninja just round the corner.

Needless to say, the dishes were fantastic!

 

 

 

This dish deserved some special mention. For most of my friends, they would know I am not one who enjoy fish dish. But this Baked Canadian Sea Perch with Teriyaki Sauce is out-of-this-world! I cleaned my plate and got a second serving too. Superbly done.

After lunch, we went for a walk around the hotel lobby and the missus caught me red-handed, admiring another lady (pianist).

No staycation is complete without the pool experience, especially so for the 2 girls. No kidding, the girls were asking to go to the pool almost every other moment. Sometimes, I think it would be better for us to have the bed just beside the swimming area.

Finally back to our room after lunch and a walk, we were taken by surprise because Conrad prepared a special gift for us. The weekend we stayed at Conrad was also our wedding anniversary, but we didn’t mention to the hotel or anyone. Somehow, the hotel’s PR Team caught hold of the news (probably from our IG posts), and it was thoughtful of them to send a small gesture.

On top of that, a good friend of ours sent a bouquet of flowers over for Kless. Double joy for the missus, and I’m not complaining.

The only time I would wake up early for breakfast is when I stay in a hotel, local or overseas. Who would miss out the hotel spread right?

 

 

Thank you Conrad Singapore for an unforgettable experience within our own grounds. I would never have expected such hospitality so close to home.

Book a staycation now with Conrad Singapore till 23 Dec 2016, and receive the limited edition memorabilia 20th Birthday Conrad Singapore bear. But more than that, you will surely bring home with great memories spent with you loved ones. I did.