<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).

MRT to Icon.jpg

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.

Dua to Icon.jpg

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.