On this trip to Tainan, I had originally planned to stay at Chengyi Light Travel, which I’d had a great experience with last time. But I never expected that beds in Tainan would be so hard to come by over the Qingming long weekend. Still, it worked out well — it gave me the chance to discover an amazing hostel called Wo Tainan WoW Tainan. A happy accident, haha! WoW Tainan is a very local hostel, and its interior design is a lot of fun — that’s the main reason I like it so much. Wandering the corridors, you always stumble across interesting murals; no matter how tired I was, I wanted to walk through the whole building and collect all the different murals. On top of that, it has every facility you could need and is extremely backpacker-friendly!

WoW Tainan Information

  • Address: No. 7, Ln. 90, Sec. 1, Fuqian Rd., West Central District, Tainan City
  • Phone: +886 - 6 - 222 5585
  • Website: http://wowtainan.blogspot.tw/
  • Price: NT$600 for this stay (bed), plus a NT$300 deposit that is returned at check-out.

The ground floor of WoW Tainan is a yoga studio. Don’t worry that you’ve gone the wrong way — just pluck up your courage and walk in. The owners are all really fun, haha!

To book, you can call, or follow this booking guide and reserve through a site like Book Now.

WoW Tainan gets excellent reviews on both Google Maps and TripAdvisor, and was rated by TripAdvisor as the second-best hostel in Tainan. When I wrote this post, it had 62 reviews on Google Maps with an average of 4.4 stars (out of 5).

The front desk at WoW Tainan isn’t open 24 hours — if I remember right, it closes around 9 p.m. But at check-in the owner gives you a slip with the door code, so if the desk is closed you can just enter the code to open the front door.

WoW Tainan is only a 15-minute walk from Tainan Railway Station, and since there are no popular attractions nearby, it’s fairly easy to find a parking spot if you come by scooter. It isn’t too noisy at night either, making it a convenient yet quiet place. The main attractions are all within about 10 minutes by scooter — for example, it takes only 7 minutes to ride from WoW Tainan to Chihkan Tower, and just 6 minutes to Dadong Night Market.

The biggest highlight is probably these fun murals! There’s clever little detail hidden everywhere — there’s even a battle guide for taking a shower! Click the images to enlarge them.

Here we are on the third floor! The stairwell walls are covered with all kinds of travel information — don’t walk past without taking a look!

Look closely — it’s actually a map of the area around WoW Tainan!

It’s not just the interior design that’s beautiful; the rooms hold their own against any hostel. The ceilings are high enough to feel comfortable. The thing I hate most about hostels is cramped space where you sit up and immediately hit the upper bunk — at WoW Tainan you’ll never have that problem, or at least, the floor I stayed on didn’t, haha!

The mattress is on the soft side, but not the kind of soft you sink into — it’s supportive and very comfortable.

And I was lucky enough that my room actually had a window with sunlight streaming in, so I could enjoy being woken up by the sun. The natural light was so abundant that it didn’t feel like any backpacker hostel I’d stayed in before — I couldn’t help giving it five stars!!!

 

Every bed has a large locker, big enough to fit a suitcase, and you can set your own code!

Every bed has a power outlet, plus a thoughtful little storage box by the head of the bed.

At check-in, WoW Tainan gives everyone a large towel — no need to rent one, and it isn’t a paper towel, which was a huge relief! Perfect for someone like me who doesn’t like carrying a towel when traveling. Also, if you forgot to bring a toothbrush, toothpaste, or sanitary pads, you can buy them at the honesty shop in the third-floor stairwell.

The showers are in the stairwell on the other side. The one between the second and third floors is women-only, and the one between the third and fourth floors is shared — don’t go to the wrong one. The only downside is that there aren’t many showers; I’d guess there’s a big queue at night. Luckily I always shower in the morning, so I never ran into that problem.

Don’t forget to change into the bathroom slippers before you go in.

There aren’t many showers — about three per floor — and it seems there’s only one hair dryer per floor. But one of the showers actually has a window, which is hilarious!!! You can look out at the view while you shower, so of course I picked that one! The floor isn’t very high up, though, so if you’re worried about peeping toms, I’d suggest not choosing the one by the window. The showers provide body wash and shampoo.

The shower floor is spotless! And there’s a handy shelf for your things — the design of these two is just right, unlike a lot of hostel showers where there is a shelf but it’s nowhere near enough.

A washing machine and dryer are of course indispensable! Head up to the top floor and you’ll find the two of them. There are only two, though, so they’re not quite enough — you can also ride to a nearby laundromat to save time waiting for other people to finish their laundry.

Laundromats for reference:

  • No. 3, Ln. 101, Sec. 2, Linsen Rd., East District, Tainan City — Bobo Self-Service Laundry
  • No. 146, Sec. 4, Jinhua Rd., West Central District, Tainan City — Bobo Self-Service Laundry
  • No. 204, Sec. 2, Shulin St., West Central District, Tainan City — Mianxi Quick Laundry

The second floor is the common room. After a shower, why not come sit here, read a novel, chat with other travelers about where to go next, and enjoy a night that belongs only to backpackers. Or bring your laptop and get some work done — that works too!

I think next time I go to Tainan, I probably won’t stay at Chengyi Light Travel again (laughs). Not that there’s anything wrong with it — it’s just that I’ve found somewhere even better!