Happy Tuesday! Coincidentally, we’re nearing the end of this Taiwan 2017 series the same time I’m nearing the end of my time with my current company. It’s a bit weird to already be leaving when I feel like I’ve only been here a short while. This is already my second job (but third company because the company I was hired in got acquired by a bigger one five months into starting), and I’ve been with this company since April 2016. Not short at all. Most of my time here was spent working night shifts and when I moved back to working days mid-November of last year (without any project allocations, I literally just had to be in the office for nine hours without any actual work), I knew that my days were numbered. Without the night differential pay (aka 18% increase in salary), and losing my work from home privileges that came from the previous project, I got so exhausted with the 3-hour one-way trips to and from the office (and my transportation budget was twice as much as when I worked for the second company). While I would have liked to stay longer, I just knew it was time to move on.

However, people who know me also know that when I find something I like and enjoy, I rarely move on from it. Staying in DG Hotel is a great example for this. When I first went to Taiwan for my birthday in 2016, DG Hotel has only been open for a few months and when we decided to head back, I volunteered to pay for the hotel so we can stay here. I sent them an email a month before we arrived to ask if there were any extra charges if we wanted to check in early, the only reply I got was that they would be waiting for us. And they were right! Because when we arrived at their doors in the wee hours of the morning, Wilson was there to check us in. Can I just say it now that I would always find myself here whenever I’m in Taipei?

The room I originally booked was the Cozy Four-Person Room. It is their cheapest room that is good for four people, and while it’s a bit cramped when you have four medium-sized pieces of luggage, space was enough for four people to be comfortable in. The rooms were as fun and quirky as I remembered them, and this really just looked like the room I previously stayed in (but with the additional bed and claw foot tub). Even if the hotel already has over two years of experience, the beds stayed as comfy as ever, and nothing in the room felt dated or worn out. It really shows how much they take care of their rooms.

As usual, every time we head back to the room, all the complimentary water, coffee, tea, and toiletries have been replenished. Unlike my first stay where you had to put a sign on your door to make sure that they clean your room, we got back to freshly made beds and a sparkling room (our things aside).

I think the only think I didn’t like about this room is that there weren’t a lot of outlets beside the bed, as you can see from the photo below. The number of outlets didn’t really bother me until there were four of us who wanted to charge while also using our phone (not something people should do with their gadgets, I know) in bed. It was a good thing that we had brough a universal adaptor with a lot of USB ports. However, it may be a problem with other groups who don’t have one. But other than that, there still are other outlets (such as near the television) within the room where you can plug your gadgets.

Do take note that the bathroom wall is frosted glass, so staying here with friends and family can be quite.. exposing. What we did was to always make sure that the lights inside the bathroom were off whenever we use the toilet (this was right beside the glass too). You don’t really see detailed bodies of your family members in their birthday suits, but you can see an outline of it. Which isn’t really something you want to see, right?

DG Hotel was nice enough to upgrade us to their Happy Four-Person Room our first two nights there. The first night/wee morning was also free of charge, too. It was the bigger of their rooms for four people, and it was a loft-type hotel room. I have never stayed in a loft-type hotel room before, and to be able to do so in DG Hotel was a great experience for me. The room was so spacious that we can all open our luggage at the same time and still have room to walk around. Also, one of the things I observed was the lack of English instructions on how to operate some of the room’s utilities such as the AC and the bathroom vent. I was so glad to find English manuals for how to use them in this room, because I still can’t understand Mandarin and the Google Translate app sometimes gets wonky that even the context clues won’t help you.

The lower part of the loft had one double bed, the bathroom, a sitting area, and an exposed tub. There’s also a mural on one of the walls that made me think so much of Italy – like it’s a view I’d see in either Amalfi Coast or Manarola. It was such a weird, but a thought that I would gladly welcome. All the rooms have their own huge television, water kettle, hair dryer, hangers, disposable slippers, fridge, and, safe.

Unlike the other room we stayed in, this bathroom had way more privacy where you can pee, poop, and shower in peace..

However, using the tub can make anyone self-conscious because it also faces the small sitting area (well not really a sitting area, but a bench) of the room. Fortunately, there is a shower curtain to protect your family’s eyes from your birthday suit. Although I admittedly prefer the clawfoot tub over this tub (as cute as it is) because I get to stretch out my legs with that one. I did see some photos from Instagram where a family with young kids stayed here, and the kids were too adorable when they made this their makeshift pool of sorts.

The upper part of the loft only contains a bed, the phone, a night light, a trash can, and a bean bag for when you want to relax at nights. There were still a lot of space upstairs and I can see now why couples traveling with children prefer to stay here. There’s also a mural of fall scenery in the wall, which continued into part of the lower floor’s ceiling. There is also a clear glass wall ensuring the guests’ safety and avoiding people to drop things from the upper floor. Overall, if I had a bigger budget, I would definitely have booked this room. And I am super grateful for the team behind DG Hotel that I got to experience this room with my family.

DG Cafe still looked the same and maintained the great shabby chic ambiance it has always had for being a garden cafe. I still want to take home with me all the furniture they have here. Haha! The complimentary breakfast they served still had huge servings sizes, and varied slightly from day to day (if you keep up with my Taiwan posts). For some reason, I enjoyed the breakfast selection more from my previous visit. But as all the meals really kept me full until the next meal (I’m a hungry person in general), I can’t complain. 😛

One of my major concerns about this hotel is that the area around it didn’t really have a lot of places to eat in. However, during this visit, I realized how close the convenience stores are (a couple of blocks away, maybe 15 minutes of walking?). And it was also a pleasant surprise to find out that more cafes and restaurants opened up between the 1+ year gap of my visits. There’s even another coffee shop beside the hotel now. Also, if you walk along Dihua Street, there were just so many sights to see. There’s also A LOT of shops where you can buy snacks and souvenirs. There are bakery-cafes, a pizza place, and a lot of other local cuisines that you can find. We went there during the morning, and I’m not sure whether they’re still open late at night. But Yansan Night Market is close by (although in a totally different direction from where we’re walking along Dihua Street), where you can buy food until late in the evening.

To my pleasant surprise, DG Hotel and its location just improved over time. It’s so refreshing to have found a “home” in Taiwan where the staff treats you like a VIP all the time (I even got a shout out from their Facebook page!). They gave me a gift of their cafe’s own coffee beans to take home as a belated birthday gift. The guy Audrey calls “boss” even met with me before we checked out to tell that I should have mentioned that it was my birthday so they could have celebrated it with me. Huge thanks to Audrey, Wilson, Summer, Cindy, and guy with glasses with no English name, for taking care of me and my family, arranging our last minute tour for us, the SUPER early check-in, the upgrade, and the gift! I will surely stay here again the next time I find myself in Taipei. ❤

DG Hotel, No. 334, Section 1, Dihua Street, Datong District, Taipei City, Taiwan 103

(This is NOT a sponsored post, I really just like this hotel lol)