N. Castle Hotel

Clean room Near to the local train station and a night market

Not many eateries

It is just next to the Dongmen night market. We had a good time shopping plus a wonderful and cheap meal at a western food stall. The access to the building was made very safe as entry was by tokens given to us. It is only a 10 minute walk to YiLan Station which makes the place very accessible for exploring nearby towns. The receptionist let us check in early at 2+pm. That was very kind of her.

Proper mugs for drinking could have been provided rather than just paper cups.

The location!! It’s 5mins walk away from Yilan station (where there’s a Burger King, a 7-11 and at least 2 bento shops). Easy to reach and to find. Around the hotel there are a few eateries. There’s a cut-fruit shop at the junction where you can opt to add a special powder that gives the cut fruits a sweet/sourplum-ish flavor. Very nice! Further down that street there’s a small night market under a bridge. Also a lot of food about. The hotel is in a rather old building which they added a lift (nice). There’s a coin washer on Level 3 and a coin dryer at Level 1. Compared to Taipei, their washer/dryer charges are v acceptable. The counter’s unmanned. To check in, there’s an iPod at the door where u FaceTime the owner (?) to come over/check u in. Other than that, the counter’s mostly unmanned. Water dispenser is at Level 1. There is also a toilet at L1 for final loo break before heading out for the day. Check-out was easy, just need to leave the key-set at the counter.

The sewer smell from our Level 5 room (technically Level 4, but Taiwanese do not like the number ‘4’ due to superstition/it sounds similar to ‘Si’, the mandarin word for death so they just omit the number from the flrs). And the moldy smell from the air-con. The sewer smell we couldn’t do much but the aircon (moldy) smell goes away if u have the temp at 22c or lower. Any temp at 24c and it’ll smell.

M'cdonland

Small bethroom