The night before our flight out of Taipei to Singapore, we were invited to Emperor Spa to enjoy a relaxing hot spring experience. Perfect timing because it was exactly what we needed before pulling an all nighter at the airport to wait for our 6am flight.
Just north of Taipei, the Beitou area is popular for its hot springs and green surroundings. Rest assured that the spa resorts established here naturally source their water from geothermal mineral springs straight out of the ground. You can spend a day at the Beitou Hot Spring Park and view Thermal Valley, the source of sulphurous hot spring water, from an observation deck, in which temperatures range from 80-100 degrees celsius. Unless you want to be boiled alive, be careful and don’t fall in!
We were lucky enough to enjoy the benefits of this healing water at the Emperor Spa and had a fantastic experience.
Front desk at the entrance of the resort
Emperor Spa Facilities
Emperor Spa is a beautiful, wooden cabin resort nestled in the middle of its green, mountainous surroundings. Although it’s not a luxury spa, it provides basic, clean amenities and gives you the proper experience at an affordable price.
The resort offers public bath pools and private rooms. There are three public bath pools – two nude pools for men-only and women-only and one pool where swim attire is allowed. If you are uncomfortable with the public pools, you can book a private room for two people.
Outside the spa restaurant
Public pools
- $250NT per person (~$8USD)
- Open 24 hours
- Showers and saunas available
- *If you spend $400NT (~$13USD) at the spa’s restaurant, you will get one free entry to the public bath pool.
Private rooms
- $500NT per room for two people (~$16USD)
- Only two people are allowed in a room and the minimum is also two people for safety reasons
- Time limit per use is 40 minutes on weekdays and 30 minutes on weekends and holidays
Note: You will need to bring your own towels. The spa is cash only.
Since it was dark when we got there, we didn’t get to tour the public baths. We opted for a nice and quiet private room experience.
Me enjoying the private room spa!
Our Spa Experience
The private room offers a stone tub, a shower equipped with soap and shampoo, and a lounge chair. Decorated with bamboo and stone in a semi-open space layout, the room gave the illusion of bathing in nature, without giving up your privacy or comfort.
You have the liberty to adjust the water temperature by the hot-cold knobs when filling up the stone tub. N and I both love a sizzling hot tub, but I don’t last as long as he does inside. I love that you can hop in and out as you please!
The water felt amazing, and when our time was up, I exited the room feeling completely relaxed.
Filling up the stone tub
Shower area in the same private room
The Restaurant
After our spa session, we had dinner at the resort restaurant. The restaurant was still bustling with hungry spa patrons at 9:30pm!
Reminder: If you spend $400NT (~$13USD) at the restaurant, you can get free entry to the public pools for one person.
Inside the restaurant
The menu covered a wide variety of local and international dishes. Since there were so many choices, we left the decision making to the representative who was hosting us.
We tried the fish porridge, spare pork ribs, xiaolongbao (soup dumplings), and stir fry water lily vegetables.
Nothing like a fantastic meal to finish off the night!
Pork spare ribs, fish congee, and water lily vegetables
You can’t really tell, but I was extremely relaxed here leaving the spa. Almost looks like I didn’t want to leave!
Thank you Emperor Spa for having us!
This post is in collaboration with Emperor Spa. As always, all opinions are my own.
