Lakeshore Hotel Yilan

If you know Taiwan, you know the locations of its convenience stores are basically around every corners. The location of this hotel is so remote that you need to walk 10 minutes to its nearest convenience store. We didn’t realize how far this hotel is from everything, that was on us for not doing our research. We were hungry when we checked in at 3pm, so I went to the hotel restaurant to order a meal only to be turned away and said you should just go to its nearest convenience store. The restaurant staff told me to rent a bike from its front desk and the store is only a few minutes biking away. I like biking so I was excited. I went to the front desk and the staff said the bikes are not for rental because the ground is wet. So I walked 10 mins to Family Mart. With its remote location, away from the city center (or really anything else), you’d expect more hotel amenities such as a gym or swimming pool. None of these exists other than the top floor has an instagram-able mirror room filled with pink bubbles. When we checked in, we saw there was a kid’s activity from 8-8:30pm which required sign-up and a 10-min check in at 7:50pm. So we signed up and rushed back from dinner so we don’t miss it. The parents are needed to present. This activity is just a way for the parents to write a Google review. There’s really no other reason other than sitting through a series of questions for the kids to answer (which is related to how to behave in a hotel, such as “can you run in the hallway?”) then followed by taking pictures of the mirror room and post it on Google for a small prize which was cookies. As a foreigner, I didn’t quite what I needed to do, so the staff took my phone and pressed all 5-stars on my Google review page (I had since deleted that review). Everywhere you go will need a car or taxi. If you’re driving then this isn’t too bad. If you’re dependent on uber or taxi. Be prepared to wait awhile. Availability of taxi or Ubers are limited and we waited over 45 mins to get back to the hotel.