Hsinchu Bali Forest Hot Spring Resort

LikedIt's a lovely area in the mountains. There is hot-springs bath in the room. The restaurant is quite nice.

DislikedThe main hot-springs were closed, I don't know why. The restaurant only has set menu, and it wasn't what we had been told in advance (it's very expensive, too). The breakfset is quite basic ...

LikedThe 'resort' is in a beautiful natural setting. The food in the restaurant was good. The 'hot springs' bath in the room was big.

Disliked. Staff were rigid and not attuned to the needs of individual guests. This place is totally set up to cater for Taiwanese groups who arrive via tour bus in late afternoon and depart early in the morning. If you eat in the restaurant you must order one of their set meals and what you see is what you get...no real choice for a party of two. Their address is not registered on Google so we ended up taking a very narrow and steep road up the mountain, quite scary. Fortunately a guy came by on a motorcycle and led us to the location, otherwise I doubt we would have found it. We later figured out that the address they provide on Booking.com is incomplete and that's why the GPS could not find it. The GPS directed us to turn onto a road that was over 500 meters past the real entrance. If you stay here, you will be forced to listen to inebriated locals singing Karaoke with powerful amplification, until 10pm. The noise penetrates the room and is inescapable. Bring ear plugs. When we mentioned this we were told, "This is according to our manager's system and we must stick to it. Sorry." In the morning you will be forced to listen to some new age music that features one song in a loop. So you will hear the same song about 100 times. When we asked them to change the music or turn it down, the staff replied, "This is according to our manager's system and we must follow the rules." So, basically, this is not a place the cares at all about the needs of guests that don't fit their business model. As such, they would be better off not listing this property on an international site like Booking.com. I would strongly advice non-locals to avoid this place. It's a typical case of nice infrastructure with poor service. It's clear the staff are not trained to be flexible and consider the needs of guests. I should also mention that no attempt was made to service and clean our room during our 2-night stay.