Eslite Hotel

Rooms and decor

The rooms use real wood, earth tones and warm lighting, and each one comes with a private balcony — just the right size for two chairs and a round table. In the rooms that face out, you get to sit with a morning coffee and watch the 508-metre tower of Taipei 101 brighten through the haze; come evening, when the building's lights start shifting colour, you open the balcony door and pour a glass of wine. Bathrooms are marble from wall to wall, with a strong rain shower, and suites add a separate soaking tub. The amenities are a local Taiwanese brand carrying a faint oolong-tea scent — a small detail you remember on the way home.

Food and amenities

The one thing no other hotel in Taipei can match: Eslite Hotel connects straight into Eslite Spectrum, the 24-hour bookshop-and-lifestyle mall that stands as a cultural landmark in Taiwan. Book lovers fly to Taipei just to see Eslite, and if you stay here you simply ride the lift down and walk through the lobby to reach the shelves. At 2 a.m., when everywhere else has closed, Eslite is still open for browsing, coffee and live piano in a calm, quiet room. On top of that there is an in-house spa, a landscaped garden and breakfast.

Location and getting there

This is the edge that sets it apart from the other luxury names in Xinyi. While the Grand Hyatt, W Taipei and Humble House sit in the busy core, Eslite Hotel chose to be inside Songshan Park, a large green space in the middle of the city — so it stays calm all day. You can still walk about 10 minutes to Taipei 101 and Breeze Xinyi when you want to shop, then come back to something closer to a resort in the city, with art pieces scattered through the grounds. It is near MRT Taipei City Hall (about 8 minutes on foot) and Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall.

Things to know before booking

It is not in the dead center of the shopping cluster — Taipei 101 and Breeze Xinyi are a 10-minute walk rather than next door, so plan for that if back-to-back mall hopping is the point of your trip. The hotel also runs a premium over other places of the same class in the area; you are paying for the boutique experience and the location inside the park. And while the park setting is the draw, it does mean you trade the right-at-Taipei-101 convenience of the bigger towers for quiet.

Our take

Eslite Hotel fits honeymooners, art and book lovers, and anyone who wants a luxury boutique that stays quiet while still keeping all of Xinyi within walking distance. Travelers chasing real Taiwanese culture fall for the small ritual of heading down from the room at 2 a.m. to pick out a book at Eslite Spectrum. From around $157 a night you get a luxury boutique with the highest real-guest score in the district and an experience no hotel at any tier quite repeats. We put it at number one on this list with full confidence — luxury done in a soft, genuinely Taiwanese way.