I am a sucker for a hotel with a great view and of course during our trip to Taipei, I was not only looking for the best hotel in Taipei City for our stay, but also a hotel with Taipei 101 views from the rooms!
The best part is, you don’t need to pay a fortune for this. Amba Hotel Taipei Songshan offers city and mountain views for an incredibly pocket-friendly price and it’s also one of the best unique hotels in Taipei - I was obsessed with their sustainability practices and attention to detail.
Amba Hotels invited me to try two of their hotels in Taipei, Taiwan. You can read about my stay at Amba Hotel Ximending which I think is the best location for first time visitor’s to Taipei. Here I’ll be reviewing their Taipei Songshan hotel - although Amba Hotels provided me with a complimentary stay, all views are my own.
Taipei 101 view hotel room at Amba Hotel Songshan
Where is the best area to stay in Taipei?
For first time visitors, I recommend staying centrally in Taipei in the Ximending area. You can read about my stay in Ximending and the best things to do, plus how to get around in Ximending.
For our last night in Taipei, we stayed at the Amba Hotel Taipei Songshan location which is the sister hotel of the location in Ximending.
Songshan is an area of Taipei City which is further east and famous for the Wufenpu Shopping District.
Songshan is also a great area for proximity to Taipei 101 and Elephant Mountain - two famous sites for visitors to see during their stay in Taipei.
Elephant Mountain hike view of Taipei 101
Why pick a Taipei Songshan Hotel?
Amba Hotel Songshan lobby is on the 17th floor
Amba Hotel Songshan is definitely the best option if you’re looking for hotels in Taipei’s Songshan area. That’s because the hotel itself is actually connected to Songshan Station.
This means you have immediate access to the Songshan Xindian Line (green line) which connects you directly to the heart of the city and the Ximending area in just 15 minutes. Plus the station also has local trains connecting you to the city and surrounding areas, you can easily take a day trip to Jiufen or Houtong Cat Village and be there in under 1 hour!
The hotel and the station are also connected to the CityLink Shopping Centre which has shops and restaurants which are both easily accessed by the sky bridge so you don’t even have to go down to the street!
Best things to do in Taipei Songshan area
Wufenpu Shopping District - famous for its maze of streets full of wholesale price clothing
Raohe Night Market
Songshan Ciyou Temple
Riverside Park
Taipei 101
Elephant Mountain
Songshan Ciyou Temple
Raohe Night Market
How to get to Songshan in Taipei?
If you’re coming from Taipei Taoyuan Airport to Songshan, the easiest way to get to Songshan is to take the Airport Express Line or Airport Commuter Line from the airport to Taipei Main Station, 12 stops on the commuter train or 4 stops on the Express train.
From Taipei Main Station, change to the Songshan-Xindian Line (green line) and ride 6 stops, around 15 minutes, to reach Songshan MRT station. The station is connected to Amba Hotel Songshan so you can navigate straight through to the hotel.
Staying at Amba Hotel Songshan
Amba Hotel Songshan was my favourite hotel we stayed at during our one week Tawan road trip and that’s down to how well-connected it is to the city, the amazing location and views - I love a mix of city and nature. But also the staff and facilities were above and beyond anything I expected and I only wish we could have stayed longer!
The rooms:
Taipei 101 view from our hotel room
Wow, first the view!
Amba Hotel Songshan offers several room types but most rooms offer either a view of Taipei 101 or a view of the Keelung River and mountains.
We had a south-facing Taipei 101 view room which also offered stunning views of the hills and areas where the Elephant Mountain hike is located.
The view both during the day and at night when the city lights up is stunning. The views from our room and also the lobby and dining areas were a real standout for me - just spectacular!
We had an extra large bed, a chaise longue to enjoy the view from the floor-to-ceiling windows and a spacious storage, vanity and bathroom area. The fresh seasonal fruits and San Pellegrino waiting for us on the table were SO welcomed!
Amba Songshan Hotel room
In the rooms themselves, I loved the hotel’s sustainability and local business ethos. All the toiletries including soaps and shampoos are produced by a local eco-conscious company as the hotel endeavours to support local businesses first.
The hotel also takes great steps to reduce single-use plastics with flip-flops provided in each room which you’re encouraged to take home and reuse. I also loved that the “Do not Disturb” and “Please clean my room” signs are magnets that you stick to the door, rather than using paper door hangers.
Each room comes with personal wifi and even an intranet cable - an amazing touch which I found super useful for my stay and also shows their dedication to catering for international guests, plus it’s a great addition if you’re travelling for business too.
Our room also came with an amazing Bluetooth speaker, individual AC and heating for each room and a Nespresso machine.
I also loved the universal plug sockets - so handy when you don’t want to be fiddling to find the right adapter!
The separate bathroom and shower rooms were spacious and modern, I loved the minimal, fresh but also cosy aesthetic and I’m always pleased to report amazing water pressure in the shower!
A really funny touch which we loved was the shelf in the toilet to put your phone on - yes that actually is what it’s for!!
The extra large vanity space is so handy and we never once felt cramped or crowded, even with all our luggage.
The food:
The restaurant area in Amba Hotel Songshan is stunning! I loved the warm tones, wood decor and the amazing views!
Breakfast is included here and is a buffet style with American style and traditional style foods to choose from. Having the choice between bacon, eggs and hash browns vs. dumplings and noodles was too hard but thankfully being a buffet, we could have both!
The hotel is home to the Que restaurant, a woodfire grill restaurant on the 17 floor with spectacular views of the mountains.
On our final morning, we had a very early flight and had to leave the hotel at 5am - before breakfast was open. The staff were so wonderful the evening before, not only arranging our taxi but also putting together a breakfast box to take away with us. It wasn’t your average breakfast box, it had amazing breakfast sandwiches, fruit, pastries and a drink - it was so generous and so much more than we had expected.
Que Restaurant in the Amba Songshan Hotel
Amazing breakfast views
The services:
Amba Hotel Songshan in Taipei is connected to the Songshan station, so you can be almost anywhere in the city within 15 minutes. You don’t even need to go out onto the street, the hotel is connected to the CityLink shopping centre and the station by the Sky Bridge on floor 3.
The hotel also offers free parking, a self-service free laundry room and a 24/7 fitness room.
There’s free iced filtered water throughout the hotel, a lobby area with a table tennis table and table football.
The hotel also offers a free shuttle bus service to Taipei 101 so you can easily visit the famous Taipei landmark, enjoy the shopping area around Taipei 101 or ride one stop to Xiangshan station if you’d like to do the Elephant Mountain hike.
Another fun touch we loved is the gumball style machine in the hotel lobby where you can dispense a small plastic ball containing two small moon-shaped blocks. If you’re familiar with jiaobei, or moon blocks, these are traditional Chinese divination or fortune tools and Amba hotel has made their own take on them. You ask a question and then throw the moon blocks, depending on how they land, the answer is yes, no or maybe.
We went down the road from the hotel to the Songshan Ciyou Temple and saw the full sized moon blocks being used by people in the temple as well as the full ritual of how to use them by revolving them around incense 3 times before asking a question. Then using fortune sticks for a more detailed answer - this was so interesting and I loved this touch of tradition from the hotel too.
Amba Songshan hotel bar
The location:
Although the hotel is not centrally located, the hotel is so well-connected by literally being attached to the Songshan station, that you can be anywhere you want to go in the city within 15 minutes.
I love the hustle and bustle of the city but I’m also a quiet, peaceful, nature lover at heart and the incredible mountain views, Keelung River views and city views completely won me over.
We also found so many hidden gems in the area that were not even on my radar before staying at this hotel in Taipei, Taiwan.
This is the best hotel in Taipei to stay if you’re someone who prefers to be a little bit out of the hectic city centre but still want to be well-connected with public transit - this hotel really has the best of both!
Things to do in Songshan, Taipei:
Go shopping in the Wufenpu shopping district - a huge maze of streets with clothing at wholesale prices
Get food at Raohe Night Market
Visit the Songshan Ciyou Temple - it’s free
Take the free hotel shuttle bus to Taipei 101 and hike up Elephant Mountain
Easily take the MRT to Taipei City centre in 15 minutes for even more things to do
Songshan Ciyou Temple
Summary: staying at Amba Taipei Songshan hotel with Taipei 101 view
This was my favourite hotel we stayed at during our whole one week trip to Taiwan and that came down to the amazing views and location, incredible facilities, super welcoming and accommodating hotel staff and how well connected the hotel is.
Being at Amba Hotel Songshan not only gave us a great mix of city location and views but nature and mountain views, it also showed us a new area of the city that we would perhaps never have been able to enjoy if we hadn’t stayed at this beautiful hotel!
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