Yilan, Taiwan is known for its hot spring hotels, which draw their soothing waters from local thermal springs. This is our review of our 1-night stay at the luxury Wellspring by Silk, Yilan, a 5-star Japanese-style hot spring hotel resort just a 5-minute walk from Yilan’s Jiaoxi train station.
Yilan County, also known as I-Lan, is a county in northeastern Taiwan. Visitors enjoy the renowned hot and cold springs, mountain hikes, and serene beaches. We did none of these things and stayed at our hotel for the majority of our stay! Who can blame us when we have such a luxury to enjoy and are short on time? But we will most definitely be back to see the sights.
The Hotel Room
Our room was the Hollywood Deluxe Suite. We stayed for 1 night on a bed and breakfast basis and added an evening meal in the hotel restaurant as their hotpot was also highly recommended.
As budget travelers we don’t often splash out on luxury 5-star hotels, but we were recommended this hotel for its location we had been staying in budget hotels and hostels throughout our trip to Taiwan so this was a special treat to help soothe our tired muscles from all the walking.
The Hotel Amenities
The hotel lobby had snacks available 24 hours, and a free ‘happy hour’ between 5-6 pm where free alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks were also available to guests. We didn’t partake in this as we were busy enjoying the hotel rooftop pools.
The rooftop has 3 outdoor swimming pools, hot spring baths, changing rooms, and a rooftop bar. Guests can also enjoy the open-air cinema on the rooftop, but due to the poor weather conditions that evening this wasn’t available. Free WiFi is available in all public areas but we had a local SIM card so didn’t use it.
There was a lot more on offer but we didn’t make use of them, so couldn’t comment on the experience. See below for the full list.
The Hotel Food
The hotel restaurant has an option of ‘Hot Pot’ or ‘Barbeque’. Both of these include a lot of meat, seafood, and vegetables for you to either slow simmer or grill yourself. The staff are on hand to help if you’re not familiar with this style of eating. We chose the hotpot, which also comes with a choice of meat so we went for pork and beef. Everyone gets this bowl of super fresh seafood as standard!
All diners have unlimited access to the salad bar and Häagen-Daz Ice-Cream Counter. The salad was fresh and plentiful, and it was nice to have more Western-style options after weeks of only Asian food. I’m not a big fan of Häagen-Daz Icecream but I tried as many flavors because I could!
Their breakfast buffet spread was immense! Lots of Japanese-style small dishes, I particularly enjoyed the Onsen eggs, there was even a Congee station! As well as the Japanese and Taiwanese offerings, there were plenty of Western-style breakfast dishes, pastries, and again a huge salad bar. Taiwan is famous for its pineapple so make sure you don’t leave without trying it!
Location: 8/10 (the view from the rooftop infinity pool in the daytime wasn’t great!)
Cleanliness: 10/10
Service: 9/10
Value: 9/10 (We stayed in low-season so the price was more affordable)
Last tip: Make sure you take the in-room slippers with you. They are really good quality and can be used as regular flip-flops outside. We bought a few pairs to take back with us!