Beitou

Taiwan is known for its hot springs, said to have numerous health benefits. The list of hot springs to try seemed endless, but we decided to head to Beitou, located right off the MRT.

From the MRT station we walked through Qinshui Park. Along the long, narrow park is a stream with water from the hot springs. People from all over come and stick their feet in the warm water. 

At the end of the park is the Thermal Valley.

This is also called Hell Valley, because the water can reach up to 212ºF. The water was even boiling a little!

Sure, it smelled like sulfur, but was still such an amazing thing to see. 

The park is also where the public hot spring is located. For only 40NTD (about $1.30) you can bathe outside along with the locals. 

Instead, we decided to splurge on private one at a spa. Not exactly sure what we were getting into, we rented a family spa pool for an hour. We were given a key to a room on the third floor. There was a TV in the room, some chairs and...

a bathtub. Not exactly what we were expecting but once we got past that it was actually really nice. It was like a hot tub with sulfur water, minus the jets. Really relaxing and totally worth the trip!

You can check out more pictures here.

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