I am Ulyssa Elaine - Travel, Food and Lifestyle Blogger

Yehliu Geopark, Shifen and Jiufen are the must visit attractions in northern Taiwan. The north of Taiwan offers the most scenic part of the country.

Last January 2018, KKDay had a 3-day promo of Buy 1 Take 1 sale of their signature tours in Taiwan, which includes Jiufen, Yehliu and Shifen day tour. We used the promo code SPIRITEDAWAY to avail the tour. The tour costs Php 1,716 for two persons.

From KKDay Facebook page

The meeting time and place was 8:45 am at Taipei Main Station Exit E1. You can check this link for more details: https://www.kkday.com/en-ph/product/2287.

Unfortunately, the whole day was raining so hard. Good thing there were vendors offering to sell raincoats and umbrellas. We brought each and took the whole day tour.

Note: Our OOTDs were covered with raincoats. 😅

» Yehliu Geopark «

Our tour started in visiting Yehliu Geopark. This stunning geopark is located in Wanli District, near Keelung City. The park is best known for its number of beautiful rock formations, which was formed by wave attack, rock weathering and so on. The best known rock formation is the iconic Queen's Head. The other one known rock formation is the Princess Head.

The tour guide told us that the Queen's Head might broke due to marine erosion in the few years so the Princess Head will takeover it in the near future.

Note: The tour lasted for an hour.

» Shifen «

Our next stop was Shifen. This village can be found in the Pingxi area of Taiwan. It is one of the most popular destination because of its sky lanterns!

Our tour guide told us that sky lanterns in Taiwan can only be found in Pingxi area. She also told us a brief history of the place.

Note: The tour lasted for an hour and 30 minutes.

I bought 4-colored sky lantern for TWD 200. I wrote down all of my wishes and hoping that it will happen in the future.

Here's the glimpse of our sky lantern experience. After we flied our lantern, the train passed by. It was a great experience indeed.

If you're planning to buy "pasalubongs" such as sky lantern miniatures, I do recommend to buy it here because it's cheapest compared to the other 2 attractions. Luckily, I bought one sky lantern miniature for only TWD 50.

» Jiufen «

Jiufen is a mountainous town in Ruifang District. It is known as an inspiration setting on the award-winning movie Spirited Away.

Our tour guide told us a brief background of the place. What I love about going in to tours is having a tour guide, who have strong communication skills and enthusiasm.

Note: The tour lasted for an hour and 30 minutes.

» Overall «

This day trip was a blast. I felt that I was on a field trip way back when I was a student. We felt ease and comfortable. I really enjoyed this day trip indeed even it rained. 😉

How about you? Have you been to this 3 places? Share your experience.

Friday, April 27, 2018 No comments

Thursday, April 26, 2018 No comments

Three years ago, I promised to my family that I will bring them to Hong Kong. Three years later, I fulfilled that promise. I meticulously searched for a nice and affordable hotel and I bumped on this one. Not only affordable, I love how strategic the hotel's location.

Note: Causeway Bay area is where all the locals go and shop. It is filled with world-class shopping malls as well as thrilling night life. However, tourists prefer to head over to either Mongkok or Tsim Tsa Tsui because of cheaper accommodation and night markets. I already experienced staying there but I prefered Causeway Bay this time because it's very accessible on our daily agenda(s): Hong Kong Disneyland, Tung Chung Station (Ngong Ping Cable Car / Citygate Outlets), etc.

» Mini Hotel Causeway Bay «

Mini Hotel Causeway Bay is a mini boutique hotel, which was built in 2012 and has been a choice by most travellers. It is 350 meters away (about 6 minutes walk) from Causeway Bay Station, Exit F1. It is also a few blocks away from famous shopping malls such as Times Square, Sogo Department Store, Ikea, Hysan Place (where Apple Store is located) and etc.

Photo not mine. Source from Google Search.

» Booking Procedure «

You can book through its website: https://www.minihotel.hk/. Otherwise, there are few hotel deals from Agoda.com, Booking.com, Hotels.com, etc. For our case, we booked through Agoda.

Note: If you booked through its website, the hotel room comes with a free portable WIFI device. We didn't choose and avail this one because from what I have researched, there's a security deposit in case you damaged or loss the device. We also want to focus more on our vacation and stay away from the digital world. Plus, the hotel already offers free WIFI all over the place.

Booked through Agoda.com

» Rooms «

It has 208 rooms to choose from. We booked a Quad Room and requested to have a side-by-side bed and not bunk beds. For a brief overview, here are the 6 rooms to choose from:

Single Standard Room - 8 m²/86 ft² room
Mini Double Room - 10 m²/108 ft² room. A double bed. Choice of city view or not.
Mini Twin Room - 10 m²/108 ft² room. Two single beds. Choice of city view or not.
Smart Queen Room - 10 m²/108 ft² room. A queen bed and comes with a city view.
Quad Room - 10 m²/108 ft² room. Two double beds with no view.
Family Room - 20 m²/215 ft² room. One double bed with city view.

Our room for 3 nights. Room #302.

Note: We didn't have a chance to take photos inside our room because we're busy on our daily errands but here's what it looks like. We're glad that our request (not bunk beds) was granted. Thank you Mini Hotel Causeway Bay!

Photo taken from Agoda.com website

All rooms comes with toiletries, towels, hairdryer, electric kettle, telephone, satellite / cable channels, in-room safe box, air-conditioning unit as well as smoke detector. I love that the rooms were wooden / parqueted furnished. Sorry I hate carpet-type of rooms except if the hotel is new.

» Amenities / Services «

Hotel's Entrance

24-hours front desk. You don't have to worry if you will check-in or check-out in the middle of the night / early in the morning because the front desk is always open. They have English speaking staffs so it's easy for us to communicate with them.

Front desk

Fast check-in / check-out: Superb for this kind of service. It took us about 5-10 minutes to check-in / check-out at the hotel. We also asked for a portable weighing scale to check the weight of our bags when we checked out.

Services. The hotel offers concierge, daily housekeeping, laundry service, luggage storage as well as safety deposit boxes.

Two iMacs on the Lobby. We didn't use it but I guess you can request it from the hotel staff(s). I'm not sure though if it's free to use or it's just a display.

Dining. There are no breakfast available but the hotel offers a discount on Le Petit Salon, a coffee shop beside the hotel.

Vending machine

» My TripAdvisor Review «

» Info «

Hotel Classification:   3-star hotel
Website:   https://www.minihotel.hk/
Address:               8 Sun Wui Rd, Causeway Bay, Hong Kong
Nearby MTR Station:   Causeway Bay, Exit F1
Check-in from: 2:00 PM
Check-out until:   11:00 AM

Disclaimer: This is not a sponsored post. I booked our accommodation using my own money.

» Overall «

Considering for the price, location and services, my family were very satisfied on our hotel stay. We're hoping to go back here soon.