Room with a View

Our children had a fabulous time during our family adventure to Leofoo Resort in Hsinchu County. The resort’s main attraction is the fantastic view guests have of the hotel’s courtyard. Inside are seven different kinds of animals: giraffes, rhinoceroses, zebras, lemurs, goats, flamingos, and tortoises.

The lemurs there are extremely bold. They’ll often jump on the walkway and won’t even flinch until a visitor gets around a half a meter from them. Then they’ll jump or run away.  One of them hit me in the face with its tail as it jumped while I was trying to photograph it and my son. The pair of giraffes were absolutely majestic and the kids loved watching them from the walkway and from our hotel room window.

Passes to Leofoo Village Theme Park were included with our resort package. Unfortunately it was rainy and windy for most of our visit to the amusement park so with the exception of a couple rides on carousels it wasn’t too much fun for the children.

On the morning of our second day we had a van tour of the theme park’s animal areas before checking out. After a quick stop to feed some goats our guide drove us through pens of lions and tigers and bears [oh my!] as well as passed sections devoted to hippos, bison, emus, and many more.

Our guide was kind enough to take a photograph of us with her Fujifilm Instax camera in front of some giraffes. Sadly the photograph was horrendously underexposed.

If booking the Leofoo Resort make sure you reserve a room facing the center courtyard. Rooms on the outside are less expensive but they only look out at lemurs and goats. Also ask for a room towards the end. Rooms closer to the lobby have views that are obstructed by the walkway. Our room had a huge window facing towards the center. More expensive rooms have balconies but are higher up [much higher than the giraffes].

When discussing the trip with my Taiwanese coworkers most were very curious whether or not the resort smelled. Neither my wife nor I noticed any foul odors at the resort. That might be a different story on a hot summer day but I saw crews frequently out to clean up after animals during our stay.

The resort wasn’t too busy during our trip but clearly was booked full on our checkout day: Double Ten. Overall its a great place for families to visit while the kids are still young and before they get to the age when doing anything with their parents is considered uncool.

More photographs from the trip are available on Flickr.