Hi, this is Cliff, trip leader of a group of 7 from Ramblers Holidays in the UK touring and hiking around Taiwan.

We stayed at the Bulowan Leader hotel in Taroko National Park last week. We were due to to stay at the Grand Formosa, but ended up staying at the Bulowan Leader hotel as the GF is closed for refurbishment. Lucky for us! What a superb location - the hotel consists of 30+ log cabins on a grassy plateau looking out over the bottom of Taroko gorge, surrounded by mountain peaks. Nothing else nearby, just the peace and quiet of nature, broken by the sounds of the macaques early in the morning. You can often see them in the trees beyond the cabins.

Cabins are well-furnished and clean, all mod cons including TV, wifi access, with veranda (balcony) and chairs. Breakfast (buffet) and dinner are both fine. There's a free aboriginal cultural show each evening after dinner, nothing fancy, just the local school students singing, dancing. Good fun, join in if you want to, we did! There's a collection afterwards for the typhoon disaster relief fund, but no pressure.

Staff were friendly and helpful, but limited English.

Thoroughly recommended if you want a quiet, relaxing base right in the middle of this magnificent national park.

We were extremely glad that we chose Leader Village over the Grand Formosa as our base in the Taroko Gorge. The hotel is a series of charming wooden cabins, situated in a valley surrounded on all sides by the almost vertical cliffs of the Gorge. The cabins are clean and simply appointed with terraces to sit out on and take in the stunning views. The setting is drop-dead gorgeous and the hotel provides transport to some of the easy trails. While English is hard to come by, the staff do make an effort to communicate and are friendly. The place is not for night life freaks - free broadband access and CNN channel constituted our evening's entertainment.

The big let-down was the food. The hotel's website led us to believe that the set meals would be served a la carte but in fact it was free-for-all buffet style with very disappointing food. As there are no alternatives nearby, you are forced to submit to it which is unfortunate. Tip; bring snacks with you. The Taiwan beer went down well however.

All in all I would recommend this hotel if you want to have a charming experience and see the Taroko Gorge, which is unforgettable. Maximum stay would be 2 nights. If you wish to have a memorable culinary experience, I suggest you go elsewhere (not the Grand Formosa!), in fact you probably will not find it in the Gorge.

If you love hiking, magnificent views and nature then this is the place for you. One of the front desk staff speaks basic english adequate to explain the facilities. The english website is quite comprehensive. We chose a package including breakfast and either lunch of dinner. Chinese style breakfast was tasty and the set meals interesting. The views from the dining room are fantastic. Our cabin was small but adequate. The rooms are lined with wood and shower has a pebble floor. Each cabin has a verandah which is perfect for relaxing at any time of day. For those without transport, a shuttle bus [prior arrangement needed] will take and collect you from hiking trails for a reasonable cost. We also used the shuttle to return us to the Hua Lien train station which was very convenient. The views from the village as really somethiing special and unforgettable.

MY TRAVEL STYLE: If possible, I try to stay away from business and strongly prefer resorts that resemble the Four Seasons, Aman, and Oberoi but try to find similar properties at lower cost. I seek out the “wow” experiences and I encourage you to view hotels I have stayed at and their respective reviews (by clicking on my name).

LOCATION: Excellent. Off a side road (7 minutes) from the main Taroko road. Set in the middle of the nicest part of all of Taroko with the forest and mountains surrounding the resort.

BEST WAY TO GET THERE: Rent a car in Hualien is the best option. Takes about 45 minutes to one hour from Hualien.

TYPE OF ROOM: 2 person room (I don’t think there are room categories beyond the number of people staying in the room).

BED/SHEETS/PILLOW: Bed is a little hard and sheets are soft but stop short of luxurious. Pillows are foam and very thick.

LIGHTING: Good lighting in bedroom but a little too dark to read. Bathroom lighting is good.

BATHROOM/SHOWER: Very small and more cabin-like than luxurious. Pictures on the we are quite a bit nicer than in person. Rainshower and handheld has less than medium pressure with consistently hot water temperature.

TOILETRIES: Very basic and cheap quality. Probably best to bring your own.

CLEANLINESS: Room is very clean with a few dead worm looking bugs in the room (and one live one in the shower). Sheets had noticeable but minor stains.

A/C: Unit is in the room but is in Chinese. Never used but I think it may be A/C only. The beds have heaters in the comforter.

CLOSET SPACE: On the small side, difficult for 2 people to unpack all items.

STYLE OF ROOM: Cabin style with just a touch of luxury. The exterior of the cabins is are great and appropriate for the location. The inside could be a bit better, but are fine.

QUIET/MORNING LIGHT: Each cabin has one attached wall for the adjoining room. There was no guest in that room and our cabin was very quiet and the curtains could block all the morning sun light.

FOOD: Breakfast is mediocre with a set meal of eggs, corn, salad, porridge, toast, and unlimited refills of 3 juices and coffee. Dinner is aboriginal cuisine and mediocre but a good experience. We would have stayed here a 2nd night if the food was better.

TV/INTERNET: Flatscreen TV has no English Channels and the cabins have wired internet at no cost and is quite slow.

SERVICE: Staff speaks basic English sufficient for most travel/hotel requests. Very pleasant.

COMMON AREA: Spectacular. The mountains surround the cabins and are covered with green vegetation. The lobby is a place to check-in and eat but not a place I would hang out at beyond that.

ROOM & CITY TIPS: We stopped in at the Grand Formosa which is the only other hotel in the park in the same caliber. The scenery at the GF is also impressive and although they have a stream nearby, I found the scenery much better at the LV hotel. We had two different soups at the GF for lunch that could be the worst soup we have ever had. The GF is tired looking and my girlfriend mentioned it looked like a condemned building. Without seeing the rooms, the lobby is 3.5 star at most. It just looks so out of place in such a nice setting. The LV hotel is really the right style of hotel for the park and I highly recommend staying here since it’s clearly the best hotel in the national park and a very memorable experience.

I found this hotel thanks to one of the TA Taiwan experts who gave the link and loved the fact that it was a traditional aborignal vilage style hotel. My husband and I had wanted to stay in this hotel, but then we changed our plans as some friends wanted to come with us and they didn't want to spend too much money on the accommodation.

Before we knew that our friend wanted to join us, I had actually rung this hotel up before our trip to book a rooom but they were full.

Then when they told us that they wanted to join us, we booked 2 rooms at a B&B/minsu in Hualien, because in our party of 4, there was one who wanted the cheapest place possible.

However, when we were driving down from Taipei to Taroko, this same person didn't want to stay in Hualien anymore because she (and all of us) thought that the cities were quite ugly, and so she wanted to stay in the park (which was what I had orignially wanted)

We reached the Visitor's Headquarters in Taroko it was just after they had closed. The lights were off and the staff were mingling around inside. I went in and asked them for a map and one of the ladies who worked there, got us once and when i asked her about places to stay, she recommended the Youth Activity Centre, or the Grand Formosa.

I had seen both the Grand Formosa online and Leader Village prior to our trip and didn't like the look of it, so I suggested that we try Leader Hotel even thought they had told me they were fully booked before we left for Taiwan. We rang them up and they said that they had rooms for teh night, so we headed there.

The hotel is LOVELY. It's set in a field and there are the mountains all around it.

When we arrived, one of our friends felt that it reminded her of some aborignal thing in Australia. (Taiwan did have people from Austonesia, after all).

The rooms are like little log cabins. There are 2 matresses in each room, the bathroom was a little small, but the nicest thing was that the decor was very tastefully done.

There was also air-conditioing in the room and they gave us the electric plug like thing to ward off the "what-I-call-monster-mosquitoes" in the room.

They had the usual 2 bottles of mineral water, toothbrush, toothpaste, shaver, shaving cream, towels, body lotion, shampoo, etc. There were also bedroom slippers and a hairdryer. I have to add though, that I was VERY impressed that every hotel we stayed in had all these amenities (even the B&B at Sun Moon Lake and Chingjing Farm).

Once you step out of your room, you're on the patio and you can chill out there...there's also a lovely field in front, so it's also good if you have children as they can run around all they want.

At night, we had a cultural show - I just saw them gettting ready, but didn't stay for that as I felt that these poor girls had to probablyt put uyp this dance every night for the tourists. My husband stayed and took some photos...he also said that they explained and talked about the aboriginal tribe of the area, but he couldn't understand a thing as it was in Mandarin and he can't speak nor understand that.

As for food, well, we took the package of room, dinner and b'fast. They also have a package where it's just room and breakfast, but then you'd have to drive out somewhere for dinner...

Because it was a package, we couldn't order a la carte, but the set menu was so yummy because it was traditional style food, served very much in the traditional style way. Verey much like a Japanese bento set but instead of a box, it was a tray and the plates were in wood or bamboo. They also gave us a complimentary millet wine (very sweet, very nice, tastes a bit like honey mead). Tea/ Coffee and juices were complimentary throughout the meal..You just had to help yourself.

Breakfast was OK. Bread, butter, scrambled eggs, noodles, porridge, etc. An Ok spread.

Service was also very good. Staff were very friendly. We never had any bad encounters with any Taiwanese.

They also gave each guest a scarf with a design of the 2 people of the tribe (at least it looks like that, I haven't opened it yet). What was also cute was they also asked us to fill up a questionaire to comment on the service (which we didn't as it was in mandarin and we all couldn't read it), but they also had this "contest", where you had to guess the number of wooden animals (sculptures) at the entrance nad you'd get a prize per room. Of course, even if you didn't guess it correcly, you'd still get the prize, which was a mug, per room. A very cute touch.

We stopped by the Grand Fornosa the nexxt day for tea and were sooooo happy to have chosen Leader Hotel. Gold, gilded, and the balcony of the rooms faced each other. I mean, if you stay at Taroko, woulnd't you take advantage of the view? At least place the balconies such that they'd face the gorges, instead of the rooms opposite. Not well thought out. It was a very Chinese style decor. Not the tradtional Chinese style, but the nouveau riche type of style. They had a gold trellis where they hung plastic grapes and vines to simulate a vineyard....! I would like to stress very strongly here that this is personal opinion, but I don't like that kind of style. I find that very tacky and absolutely no taste at all.

Leader Taroko Village beats Formosa hands down, any time. You'd feel a lot more peaceful there than garrulous Formosa.