Travelling with a toddler can make things quite complicated. Anticipating the effort that we were going to exert for our Jiufen trip, I booked a room at Sunny Room while planning our Taiwan itinerary. It was a good decision because traipsing all over Jiufen in the midst of a huge crowd was exhausting, especially with a 3-year-old toddler in tow. Those stairs were a challenge to scale, I kid you not.
Since we were traveling on a budget, I found Sunny Room by narrowing down my search options in Booking.com. It looked so quaint in the pictures and the reviews were very good. It was also specified that it’s quite near A-Mei Teahouse, the highlight of our trip to Jiufen.
I’ve always been a huge fan of Miyazaki’s Spirited Away, and knowing that this teahouse was his inspiration for Yubaba’s Bath House, I knew I had to visit this place while we were in Taiwan. Taking a look at Google Maps, Sunny Room looked so near to the teahouse, but the actual experience was very different.
why did i choose sunny room for our jiufen stay?
A-Mei Teahouse is only 290 meters from Sunny Room, but it was not specified that you would be scaling the steep stairs. It’s not a problem for people with average fitness, but for someone like me who is barely active, has anxiety, and has a toddler to carry around, it was definitely a challenge.
The main reason why I chose Sunny Room was because of its consistently good reviews and I am very happy to report that they delivered! The entire place is so charming, with quaint details all over the place, giving it an almost storybook-like feel.
If I had more time, I’d probably spend a week here. It is also notable that the staff of this place were also very warm and accommodating. The rooms were also very cozy – just don’t expect anything modern here. The place has a very homey vibe, much like staying over in your grandma’s house. Our room had a loft for hanging out and eating, and it also had a big window overlooking the view of the mountain and the sea.
Overall, Sunny Room has a very homey vibe, much like staying over in your grandma’s house. The rooms were also very cozy—just don’t expect anything modern here. The room we were given had a loft for hanging out and eating. I especially liked the big window overlooking the view of the mountain and the sea.
EXPLORING JIUFEN OLD TOWN FROM SUNNY ROOM
As we explored Jiufen Old Town, starting with tea and biscuits at the beautiful A-Mei Teahouse, we continued our journey up the steep hill to gather food and souvenirs at the night market, and we then went upwards some more to the temple gates.
We were so exhausted from the entire excursion! However, I didn’t expect that we’d have more troubles in our descent. After eating and shopping around, we realized that we were so high up the mountain that we didn’t have enough energy left to go down.
Unfortunately, there were no available buses that we could ride going down. The taxis, on the other hand, refused to use their meters and only insisted on charging rates for a Taipei-bound trip. We ended up descending the stairs on a cold, dark night, with me being all anxious and crying all the way down. I’m glad that we bought some food from the night market as I was so hungry halfway down, and we took a little break to eat and rest a bit.
AFTERMATH
After that entire ordeal, Sunny Room was such a welcome reprieve after our exhausting wanderings. The morning after, my husband still wanted to explore the Old Town before checking out of Sunny Room; however, they also felt so exhausted that they decided to stay and rest.
Yes, the climb and descent were very tiring for us in our current state. So, we will definitely come back to Jiufen and stay for a longer period of time when our toddler is older. For now, we are just happy to have made a lot of great memories in this wonderful place.
http://www.sunnyroom.tw/
No. 56號, Shuqi Road, Ruifang District, New Taipei City, Taiwan 224
+886 2 2497 0956
THE PAPER MENAGERIE 