A low-key weekend just outside Taipei with two very excited kids, at a place where you can do almost everything without leaving the building.
We knew COZZI Blu was going to be a good weekend about a minute before we even got inside. On the walk up to the entrance, the boys spotted Chiao-hu Wonderland through the glass: the slides, the ball pit, the big pit full of soft little plastic beads that passes for “sand.” Both of them immediately started yelling that they wanted to go in and play, at full volume, pointing at everything. That’s usually my cue to get the camera out, because when they’re that excited before anything has even happened, you know you’re onto something.
We’d been wanting a little escape from Taipei. Nothing far, just a change of scenery, and this turned out to be close to perfect for it. COZZI Blu is down in Taoyuan, about a ten-minute walk from the high-speed rail station, and it sits inside one big connected complex. The hotel links straight into Gloria Outlets, and from there you can reach Xpark (the aquarium), the cinema, a load of restaurants, and the HSR without going anywhere near the weather.
That last part is the thing I keep telling people about. You can do almost everything without stepping outside. If you’ve spent a summer in Taiwan you’ll know why that matters, because it’s either blazing hot or pouring rain, and often both in the same afternoon. Here you can get from your room to the playground, to dinner, to shopping, to the aquarium, and never open a door to the outdoors. (You can step out if you want to, of course. The outlets and the HSR are right there.) For a weekend, it felt like our own little self-contained world.
Chiao-hu Wonderland is on the first floor, and it’s apparently Taiwan’s first. Our boys already knew Chiao-hu going in, which probably explains the volume of the yelling, and the place lived up to every bit of it. Once we were inside I mostly just ran around with them. Half the fun for me was watching them disappear into the structure and pop back up somewhere completely different a minute later, then come barreling down the slide together.
The Cozzi hotel room was the next surprise. It was huge and brand new, with a gorgeous bathroom, and it was easily one of the most comfortable rooms we’ve stayed in as a family. There’s a little raised area with two beanbags that the boys claimed within about thirty seconds and then refused to give up. The thing they really couldn’t get over, though, was the room’s service robot, which rolled right up to our door and delivered games to us. All you need to do is to call up the front desk from the room and request the games the games that they have available. Our boys picked three games that are ocean-themed. They played a penguin-balancing-on-a-boat game and a pirate game (the one where you poke little daggers into a barrel until the pirate pops out), and I think those robot deliveries might have been the single most exciting thing of the whole trip for them. It was a close call between that and the slides.
Food and entertainment at Cozzi Blu is very comprehensive and well thought-out. We had a comfortable dinner at Yi Hui Xuan (see separate blog post here) and enjoyed an amazing breakfast buffet at at Cozzi Market the next morning. The buffet food selection was splendid and we spent at least two hours there. After that, it started pouring outside. Luckily, there is a lot of indoor entertainment options available. We did a family craft session a few floors up, and the boys had a go on a car racing simulator. By the second day I’d more or less stopped planning anything, because everything we could possibly want was already right there.
If I have one real complaint, it’s that we didn’t give ourselves enough time. We could’ve easily filled another day or two without leaving the building. For families with young kids, especially if you want a relaxed weekend where the weather can’t wreck your plans, this is about as easy as it gets. We’ll be back, and next time we’re staying longer.
Good to know if you’re going with kids
- It’s about a ten-minute walk from Taoyuan HSR through Gloria Outlets, or you can take the hotel shuttle, which is a lifesaver with luggage and little ones in tow.
- The covered bridge between the hotel and the outlets keeps set hours, so if you’ve got an early checkout or flight, check the times the night before.
- You can buy Xpark tickets at the front desk, which can work out cheaper than buying them at the aquarium.
- If you arrive before check-in, drop your bags at the front desk and turn the kids loose in Chiao-hu Wonderland while you wait. Ours would have happily started there.
- Save enough time for breakfast! We slept too well at the hotel and the food selection at the buffet is amazing! A great opportunity to enjoy local breakfast food options. I would save at least two hours for a relaxing breakfast. Breakfast ends at 10am
- Make sure to try out the room robot service with the kids! The game selection was great – all you need to do is to call the front desk from your room! Games will arrive within 10 minutes