Mary Gostelow's Hotel of the Week: W Taipei
The lavish hotel pool at the W Taipei.
A weekly series featuring luxury hotel expert Mary Gostelow’s hotel pick of the week.
W Taipei is, frankly, one of the most ‘happening’ of the W’s, which says a lot– the W’s in Asia are, if anything, even more unreserved than their siblings in North America. W Taipei’s lobby is like two squash courts laid end to end, and about 24 feet high. This space is deliberately empty, apart from four, yard-diameter, blue glass circles on the floor, under-lit to look like puddles. One wall has an OLED installation by Philips via Art Basel: as you walk past your reflection appears. Up on the ninth floor, walk past a blank canvas and, as if scanning you, your image appears and disappears. Other wall decor is culinary: noodle spoons are arranged in sunbursts; metal cookie cutters form an outlined globe.
Mary Gostelow in the OLED screen.
Hotel GM Cary Gray and noodle spoon artwork.
And aside from the art? The 405 bedrooms, painted white, are fun too. Even the smallest has an all-wall window surrounded by wood, both floor and walls, to simulate an outdoor terrace. Bigger rooms have terrace loungers. Go for a WOW Suite and you have a Kohler infinity bathtub, red from a spout in the ceiling. The Suite includes a freestanding bar counter and enough space for a party of at least 20 of your friends. All bathrooms have decorative trees for you to put your rings on – made from twine of recycled Coke bottles.
Towel robe on a perspex screen by a ceiling-fed infinity bathtub.
Up on the 31st floor rooftop, Yen Bar‘s dim sum master is recognized as best in town – try his specials with the hotel’s own Five beer (pronounced WOO in Mandarin). The tenth floor, however, is the hotel hub. The orange-hued front desk gives way to a pink lounge, with evening DJ. Here, you have the yellow, all-day Kitchen Table, where a deliberately-broken plate is one of the displays, and unbroken plates hang under a glass-topped communal table, identical to those you eat off. Kitchen Table flows outside to the 25-meter pool. Kids love it (moms can be revitalized in the AWAY spa) and at night fire bowls turn it into an endless party.
The hotel has its own Five beer (pronounced WOO in Mandarin).
Masterly displayed dim sum at W Taipei.
