<REOPENED as Hotel Papa Whale> [Kaohsiung 高雄 ⌂ Stay宿] Icon Hotel 艾卡设计旅店－Lynda's Taiwan-logue

*The Icon Hotel ceased operations in Apr 2020 and now operates as Hotel Papa Whale-Formosa Boulevard*

< Stayed in May 2017 >

Being one of the two cities in Taiwan with an MRT system, staying near a station and at a central location are natural criteria when visiting Kaohsiung. The Icon Hotel 艾卡设计旅店 is located within walking distance to not one, but two rather centralised and popular MRT stations - Central Park 中央公园 (R09 on the red line) and Formosa Boulevard 美丽岛 (R10 on the red line and O05 on the orange line).

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In addition, along the 400 metres between Formosa Boulevard MRT (and Hotel dùa 住饭店, introduced in another blog) and The Icon Hotel 艾卡设计旅店, there are plenty of food options, making this a very enjoyable stroll route.

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Situated prominently at a cross junction, the less than 10-storey high hotel is hard to miss along the stretch of low-rise buildings. Consistent with its positioning as a design-centric boutique hotel, the reflective glass facade is visually-arresting in the daytime of (usually) sunny Kaohsiung.

The modestly-sized reception, in a sea of white, looks clean and fresh.

When checking in, guests can view available rooms for the day. There are five room categories, and a number of rooms per category (except for a single rooftop suite), each boasting a different decor.

If you are early for your check-in, or need to reorganize your luggage, there is a cosy rest area at the back of the ground floor. Despite its boutiqu-ish size, there is a Zen garden behind the rest area, reminding me of hotels in Japan.

Stairways leading to the breakfast cafe (at B1) and guest rooms.

A rather spacious and IT-themed Original Double Room for my solo stay.

The bedside table was a creative use of sound speakers.

A motherboard illustration makes the ceiling more interesting.

A plastic curtain separates the standing bath and toilet, though doing little to keep the latter dry. Good thing was the spacious bathroom with a decent ceiling height allowed good ventilation for the wet floor to dry quickly.

Rooms with window are my preference when staying more than a night. Kaohsiung lives up to its sunny Southern reputation, with often-lethal afternoons (great for sunning laundry, I guess).

I had a sneak peek of some other unoccupied rooms on my floor (check out their website for the full selection).

Consistent with the differently-themed rooms, each floor and its lift door are also elaborately done up - one of the highlights of this hotel. I took the stairs to admire each storey's theme - quite reminding me of another hotel I stayed - Tainan Rootsinn 台南古根.

Breakfast is at their basement cafe, which I did not enjoy this time as there were simply too many food options in the vicinity. From other blogs, an individual breakfast platter is accompanied by a soup and beverage buffet bar.

One of the foodstalls that caught my eye (with their large yellow signboard) was 曾家庄手工馒头(传统美食), loosely translated as Zeng Family Handmade Buns. I even came back to buy their soybean milk and buns during my 2018 stay at Hotel dùa 住饭店. The lady boss was chatty and highly recommended their sugar-less black soybean milk, making a healthy and extremely affordable breakfast or supper alongside their variety of buns.