Taiwanese Hot Spring Hotels for Every Kind of Traveler

Cold weather is a luxury in Taiwan, a subtropical country dominated by high temperatures and humidity for much of the year. So when the mercury dips between November and February, puffy jackets come out, hot pot restaurants get busier, and hot spring resorts fill with people taking advantage of the brief reprieve.

Taiwan has wild pockets of hot springs all over the island, thanks to its location on a tectonic fault line with frequent volcanic activity. While Indigenous groups enjoyed Taiwan’s hot springs for millennia, they went largely undeveloped for commercial purposes until 1893, when a German businessman established the island’s first hot spring spa. In 1895, when Taiwan became a Japanese colony, the colonial government began promoting the construction of hot spring hotels and bathhouses all around Beitou (just north of modern-day Taipei), inspired by Japanese onsens (called wēnquán in Mandarin Chinese). People flocked to these new bathhouses for their therapeutic effects, said to cure everything from arthritis pain to constipation.

At one point, there were more than 100 bathhouses on the island—until many of them were banned by the Taiwanese government in the 1970s for doubling as places of sex work. In the 1990s, after outlawing and cracking down on prostitution, the government began to promote hot spring spas anew and emphasized their role in traditional Taiwanese culture. They quickly became a major attraction for both domestic and international visitors.

Taiwanese hot springs patrons are usually required to bathe in the nude, but if that isn’t your cup of tea, plenty of options offer private accommodations or public baths where guests can wear bathing suits. Many hotels have on-site restaurants or cafés where guests can sip a warming cup of Taiwanese high mountain green tea.

Among Taiwan’s best hot spring retreats are hidden mountain getaways and hotels just outside Taipei. Here’s where to go for a restorative soak.

Onsen Papawaqa

• Location: Tai’an, Miaoli County
• Best for: Those who want to get away from it all
• Book now: Onsen Papawaqa

Located in the mountains of Miaoli, about 90 minutes from central Taipei, Onsen Papawaqa is one of the few hot spring resorts on the west coast of Taiwan. The highlight of the 64-room property is an open-air hot spring pool surrounded by rolling, tropical green hills on all sides. It’s a gorgeous setting in which to relax, either in your swimsuit or in the buff (there are separate areas). Each of the contemporary-feeling hotel rooms, with plush beds and tile or hardwood flooring, has an individual hot spring tub for maximum privacy. In April and May, when temperatures are still cool enough to enjoy a soak, the forest surrounding the hotel fills with fireflies at dusk, making a delightful evening show.

Courtesy of Relais & Châteaux

Volando Urai Spring Spa & Resort

• Location: Wulai, New Taipei City
• Best for: Travelers seeking hot springs easy to reach from central Taipei
• Book now: Volando Urai Spring Spa & Resort

This Relais & Châteaux property is easily the most luxurious in Wulai and easy to reach: A 20-minute metro ride from central Taipei brings you to the Xindian stop, where a free shuttle picks you up for the 35-minute drive to the hotel. Its public bathhouse is for adults and children over 12 and is divided by gender. Soak in the outdoor hot spring, dip in and out of the indoor cold and hot pools, or warm up further in the sauna and steam rooms. The hotel sits right on the Nanshi River, so even indoors, the large glass windows overlooking blue water and tropical greenery make you feel as though you’re outside. For those who prefer to soak in private, there are a handful of intimate hot spring rooms available to rent for up to 2.5 hours. Note that the hot springs are closed each Wednesday.

Courtesy of Chuang-Tang Spring Spa

Chuang-Tang Spring Spa Hotel

• Location: Jiaoxi, Yilan County
• Best for: Families with children
• Book now: Chuang-Tang Spring Spa Hotel

Situated in northeastern Taiwan and famed for its mountainous landscape and idyllic farms, Yilan is a favorite weekend getaway destination for many Taipei residents who make the hour’s drive southeast of the capital. In the small town of Jiaoxi, the 121-room Chuang-Tang Spring Spa Hotel is a whimsical public hot spring with tubs scented with aromas such as green tea, lavender, and lemongrass. Some people may consider this place a bit gimmicky, but it’s fun—and if you’d prefer to soak while wearing a swimsuit, this is the spot for you. Families with younger children can take advantage of the kids’ pool, which has several waterslides and play structures, as well as rooms with either two king beds or a king and two queens—plenty of space for the whole crew.

In addition to the scented public baths, there are private (and unscented) springs at the spa and in several guest rooms. Though Chuang-Tang offers “normal” accommodations with wooden flooring, coffered ceilings, and blackout curtains, it also has several themed rooms geared toward a younger crowd, like the outrageously pink Princess Room, the Forest Room with green curtains and green striped floor, and the African Safari Room, decorated with wildlife murals.

Courtesy of Water House

Water House

• Location: Beitou, Taipei City
• Best for: Deal hunters and day-trippers
• Book now: Water House

In northern Taipei, on the edge of Yangmingshan National Park, Beitou is one of Taiwan’s most popular hot spring towns. It’s very close to Taipei, about 40 minutes on the metro, and then the hotel is less than 10 minutes’ walk from the station. The Water House is a Japanese-style hot spring hotel with both a public hot spring area and private rooms. Entrance to the public hot springs, open daily 8 a.m. to 9 p.m., is a very reasonable $33 for as long as you’d like to stay.

Behind the Water House’s brutalist facade, travelers will find a smart, minimalist design and spacious rooms with hot springs–fed tubs that face the surrounding forest and smoking sulfur vents of Beitou Thermal Valley. Guests who want to stay the night can book one of 24 guest rooms with private hot spring baths.

Photo by weichen_kh/Flickr

Grand View Resort Beitou Hotel

• Location: Beitou, Taipei City
• Best for: An upscale experience within reach of Taipei
• Book now: Grand View Resort Beitou Hotel

If you want to splash out and stay relatively close to Taipei, the Grand View is the place to go. Situated on a quiet hill in Beitou, the hotel was designed by Taiwanese architect Chu-yuan Lee, known for dreaming up Taipei 101 (the world’s tallest building when it opened in 2004). The 66 rooms in the hotel seek to bring the beauty of the outdoors inside, with their floor-to-ceiling windows and earth-toned color palette. All the rooms are outfitted with private soaking tubs fed by the local spring in Beitou. For those day-tripping to Beitou from Taipei, the hotel has public pools surrounded by manicured trees; bathers in the indoor pools are nude, while the outdoor pool requires swimsuits. The Grand View also excels in spa treatments, which range from aromatherapy to full body massages. Book a Taiwanese-style acupressure session to round out your wellness escape.

Courtesy of Hoshino Resorts

Hoshinoya Guguan

• Location: Guguan, Taichung City
• Best for: Serenity-seekers after a luxury getaway in the mountains
• Book now: Hoshinoya Guguan

This Japanese import is just over an hour’s drive from Taichung, ringed by the Xue Mountains’ nearly 10,000-foot peaks. It’s by far one of the most luxurious hot spring hotels in Taiwan, and each of the 49 rooms has its own semi-open-air hot spring tub. A handful of outdoor hot spring pools—separated by gender—invite guests to soak alfresco in a beautiful setting. In spring, the scent of cherry blossoms fills the air, and in late autumn, some of the trees’ leaves change colors.

This article was originally published in 2023 and most recently updated on February 3, 2025, with current information. Sophie Friedman contributed to the reporting of this story.