Merry Christmas everyone! Hope this year have been fulfilling and filled with joy! 

A month or two ago, we headed to Taiwan for a week’s holiday to explore Yilan 宜兰. Upon arrival in Taipei (taoyuan international airport), we drove to Jiaoxi.

Jiaoxi is known for their hot springs and it’s about 1.5hr drive from the airport so we decided to spend a night there.

Hotel – City Suites Jiaoxi Maple Leaves Hot Spring Hotel (城市商旅礁溪楓葉館)

We were ‘upgraded’ to a 4 persons room and so it’s more spacious. Our room faced the Main Street/ shops and restaurants. There is a tub in the room which provides hot spring water as well. Good for those who prefer soaking in privacy. Their outdoor hot spring pools were also nice and had the Japanese zen feel. 

The hotel is clean but not new and the decor is dated. The rooms and doors were not sound proof as we could hear kids and families talking in the corridor and running around. There is a common area at ground level which offers free beverages.

Food at jiaoxi 

We liked the street side onion pancake (葱油饼) diagonally opposite to the left of our hotel facing the street. There were also grilled cuttlefish, braised foodstuff (卤味), BBQ skewers, tid bit/ snack shops, bakeries selling milk jelly rolls (奶冻卷) and ox tongue biscuits (牛舌饼) and a chili museum which was quite interesting. These were all within 5 – 10 min walking distance from the hotel.

Hot springs and fish spas

Other than food there’s also complimentary hot spring foot pools to soak off your weariness…. fish spas at a nominal price are also available.

Further from our hotel, we also explored more good food on our way to yilan city.

柯氏蔥油餅 – look out for the 2 cute dogs…. to find jiaoxi’s famous and delicious onion pancake, rolled with glass bottles. Ensure enough time here as long queues form anytime of the day, and we could add our own sauces. Do note that the queue moves fast so get ready exact change and know what sauces you want. I did not know what the sauces were so I just smeared all of them on mine.

義珍香烘焙坊 – known for their milk toast. Well, after tasting unsure if they really use fresh milk but not too bad. Perhaps it’s nicer if toasted and eaten with spreads or made into sandwich but it’s quite a raved about bakery nonetheless. The milk toast comes in thick or thin slices.

二吉軒濃い豆乳 (soypresso) – the best thick and delicious soy milk. Made fresh daily and sold in sturdy bottles. There’s seasonal flavors at different times. When we were there, the limited edition was rose. Loved the original, black sesame, and rose flavors.

Wufengchi waterfalls – after all the food, we headed to wufengchi for a walk. The waterfall was worth seeing and it’s not really a long walk, it was quite a relaxing one with quite a few rock stairs to get to view the main waterfall.

We will be sharing about yilan city next, please stay tuned!