On my most recent flight out of Taoyuan International Airport (TPE), I decided to arrive early and try an airport lounge before my long-haul journey across the Pacific.
After comparing the two lounges you can easily book on Klook, I chose the Oriental Club Lounge in Terminal 2.
For regular travelers without elite status or business-class perks, this is the best-value pay-per-use lounge in the airport. When I booked it here on Klook, it cost much less than Plaza Premium (the other main option), yet many travelers actually rate it higher, especially for its food.
This review is written for regular travelers like me: people who just want somewhere comfortable, simple, and affordable to relax before a long flight.
Below, I’ll show you exactly what the Oriental Club Lounge offers and help you decide whether it’s worth the splurge on your way out of Taiwan (spoiler: it’s not perfect, but definitely a great deal).
Why Use an Airport Louge
Before diving into the details about Oriental Club Lounge, it’s worth quickly explaining why someone might pay to access a lounge.
If you’ve never used one before, a VIP lounge can offer a noticeable upgrade over the standard waiting areas in the airport.
You can expect a quieter, less stressful, and more spacious environment, comfortable seating, shower facilities, and unlimited foods and drinks (including alcoholic ones).
Whether you’ve just checked in for a flight or you’re on a layover, staying in a lounge can be a treat to yourself as you wait for your flight out of Taiwan.
If you have a longer stopover, please see my Taoyuan Airport layover guide, how to travel from the airport to Taipei, and my recommended hotels near the airport.
A Look at Oriental Club Lounge in T2
Between its two terminals, Taoyuan International Airport has approximately 17 VIP lounges. Most of these are airline business class passenger or credit card lounges.
Only a few are pay-per-use lounges, with Oriental Club and Plaza Premium being the only two easily bookable on Klook. Both of these lounges are on the 4th floor of Terminal 2, which is the newer terminal with more long-haul flights.
Note: Plaza Premium also has this bookable location in Terminal 1.
Oriental Club Lounge is a locally operated contract lounge that first opened in 2020. It’s just over 1000m2 (10,764 square feet) and has over 200 seats. The interior uses a wood-based design motif.
Its amenities include WiFi, massage chairs (only a few), small gym (closed at the time I write this), showers (must register on arrival), and unlimited food and drinks. It’s open to the public from 5:00 AM to 11:00 PM, with food service going till around 10:30 PM.
The lounge has many windows with a view looking down on the road into the airport. In the daytime they let in lots of natural light, but at nighttime it was dark outside so I didn’t even notice the view.
Many long-haul flights leave Taoyuan Airport late, so the lounge gets busy or even full towards the end of its opening time (which is when I tried it).
Note that most carriers only allow you to check in from three hours before your flight, and three hours is what you get with the Oriental Club Lounge deal on Klook.
If you pay in person (instead of Klook, see prices below), you can choose anywhere from 2 to 10 hours, but the price for three hours is quite a bit more than on Klook.
Getting to the Lounge
If you’re departing from Terminal 2, the Departures Hall is on the third floor of the controlled area.
After you go through security and immigration at the back of the Departures Hall, you’ll enter the controlled area, with duty free shops in front of you. From here, you’d go left for D Departure Gates or right for C Departure Gates.
To find Oriental Club Lounge, go right and take any escalator up to the 4F (note: for Plaza Premium, go left and up to 4F). The photo above shows one of several possible escalators.
Much of the fourth floor is a food court, with most restaurants staying open until around 10 PM.
From the fourth floor, continue to the right all the way down and it will dead end at the Oriental Club Lounge, as you can see in the below photo.
From Terminal One
If your flight is departing from the older Terminal One, then consider choosing the Plaza Premium Lounge in T1, which is bookable here on KKday (a Taiwanese platform very similar to Klook).
However, if you want to try to the Oriental Club Lounge in T2, it’s easy to transfer between terminals after checking in for your flight and going through immigration at T1.
Gates A and B are T1 and Gates C and D are T2), as in the below map:
Once you enter the controlled area of T1, follow the signs to Departure Gate B6. Near it, you’ll find the free Skytrain (lower green line in above map), which will take you over to Gate C6 in T2.
From there, walk towards T2’s duty free shops and immigration area. You’ll soon see some escalators up to 4F, including the food court and Oriental Club Lounge).
If you aren’t pressed for time, you can also walk all the way from the Gates B to Gates C (lower red line in above map) instead of taking the Skytrain. On the way, you’d even pass the Sanrio Store, Hello Kitty Gate, and Lego store – all clustered around Gate C2.
See another map I made of Taoyuan Airport here, showing the locations of the terminals.
My Experience at Oriental Club Lounge
For my experience, I purposely went to Taoyuan Airport early, purely to try out this lounge and rate the experience for travelers.
I normally go to Taoyuan Airport two hours early and always find this to be plenty of time (some travelers in my Facebook group prefer to go three hours early to be safe and/or have extra time at the airport).
For my lounge experience, I went even earlier so that I could be in line to check in as soon as soon as the check-in counter opened three hours before my flight.
After going through security and immigration, which is usually very fast at Taoyuan Airport, I proceeded directly to the lounge (see the “getting there” section above).
Checking in For the Lounge
There was no line when I arrived and the check-in was fast and easy. I simply showed my Klook QR code and the receptionist explained a few things to know.
Since I was there at peak time for long-haul flight departures (late evening), all the shower times were full (there’s only one shower room and it needs to be booked).
I hadn’t planned on taking a shower, so this wasn’t a big deal for me, but if you are, this is a possibility to be aware of (note: Plaza Premium has more showers, so if that’s a priority for you, consider going there instead).
Also, after I checked in, I overheard someone trying to check in after me finding out that the lounge was now full. I had got the last spot!
Even if you have booked on Klook, a full lounge when you arrive would mean you’d have to wait for people to leave before you can enter. But with 200+ spaces inside, this shouldn’t take too long.
Lounge Seating
As soon as I entered the lounge, I found myself in a room with table seating, ideal for those who want to do work on a laptop. There are more than enough plug-ins for charging devices.
But I was looking for something more comfortable, so I went deeper into the lounge. Two hallways on either side of the central food and drinks area had comfier seats.
The left-side hallway was more open, with cozy chairs and an outlet for charging at each one, as in the below photo:
The right-side hallway has more private alcoves with only 2-4 chairs each, giving more privacy (see photos below).
I found the only available chair in one of these, which admittedly was a little awkward, as I was directly facing someone I didn’t know.
If you have a group of 2-4 people, you could ideally snag one of these entire alcoves to yourself. But since they are the most private (and comfortable) area of the whole lounge, it could be tough and you might have to be lucky enough to catch another group leaving.
Finally, there’s another large area of table-and-chair seating at the back of the lounge, as in the below photo.
Food and Drinks
Unlimited food and drinks is a major perk for lounge users. Since a meal and drink or two in the terminal can easily cost the same as the Oriental Club Lounge fee, the value here is obvious.
But what you’re probably wondering is: how’s the food and drink quality? Well, several travelers in my Facebook group have shared that the food in Oriental Club Lounge is better than Plaza Premium and even some of the business class lounges at Taoyuan Airport.
Let’s go through the items one-by-one.
The first thing I surveyed were the buffet style dishes and snacks. The fresh fruits and salad bar were much appreciated.
From what I could tell, they were 100% vegetarian, with familiar items plus a few very local ones like braised burdock, bean curd strips, and marinated edamame beans.
For hot items, there were dishes like steamed fish, peppered chicken, noodles, steamed vegetables, and a selection of dim sum.
While these looked good, I didn’t try any because I was saving my tummy space for the non-buffet dishes available directly from the kitchen.
The best dishes available in Oriental Club Lounge are those which can be ordered from the kitchen window at the back. These are:
- Beef Noodles (the most popular and recommended)
- Braised Pork over Rice with Shrimp Rolls
- Pork Thick Soup with Thin Noodles
- Meat Ball with Rice Noodles
- Noodles with Sesame Oil and Mushrooms (vegetarian)
- Blanched Vegetables with Goose Oil
- Vegetable Noodles Soup (vegetarian)
All these items are very local Taiwanese dishes and served hot & fresh. The two marked vegetarian should be vegan, as well.
I went for beef noodles and it was delicious. It wasn’t as large as ones you could buy in the airport’s food court (more tummy space to try other things!), nor was it as good as the famous beef noodle shops in Taipei – but I wouldn’t expect it to be, either.
There was even a sauce station where I could add my own green onions, pickled mustard greens, and spicy sauce. This is the real deal!
Other snacks available included a selection of instant noodles, desserts like brown sugar mochi coated in peanut powder, popcorn, and some cute little popsicles, which I’m sure any travelers with kids would appreciate.
As for drinks, there were coffee and pop machines, red and white wine (both entry level French table wines from Bourdeaux – nothing extravagant, but passable), and a draft Taiwan Beer tap.
I’m a beer guy and love a few airport beers before a flight, so I was pretty excited about this part. Unfortunately, though, the beer was a miss.
The keg was out when I tried the tap, so I had to find a staff member to replace it. But the new keg was putting out pure foam (common for new kegs especially if the line has been sitting for a while and warmed up). I had to keep dumping the foam for a while to get even half a glass.
This was probably just unlucky timing on my part, so I didn’t let it spoil my experience. I just drank as much wine as I could to make up for LOL.
Showers and Gym
As I mentioned above, the showers at the back of Oriental Club Lounge must be booked and there were no spaces left when I checked in. Thus, I didn’t have a chance to see them. They are adjacent to the regular restrooms available to all guests.
The very small gym is also at the back, but according to the official Oriental Club Lounge website, it is currently unavailable.
These weren’t important to me so they didn’t affect my overall experience.
Conclusion
The Oriental Club Lounge offers all the basics you’d expect from a VIP lounge.
For lounge newbies like me, it was a fun and relaxing alternative to waiting in the terminal. But serious lounge-frequenters may not be overly impressed.
Pros
The Oriental Club Lounge offers a quiet environment, cozy chairs and workspaces, and unlimited foods and drinks, including surprisingly good, local, and vegetarian/vegan options.
This lounge’s combination of low price, convenient location, and ease of booking on Klook are unbeatable.
Cons
For my late evening visit, which apparently is the busiest time, I was surprised at how packed the lounge was. It took me a minute to score one of the better chairs, and the lack of available showers could be disappointing for some.
The foods were pretty good but beer was disappointing. Seating was comfortable but not as private as in some fancier lounges, nor were there any chairs which could fully recline if you wanted to sleep.
My Overall Impression
I don’t usually bother with lounges because of the steep price. I also don’t even mind noisy airports and knocking back a few beers in the terminal bars.
However, the price of Oriental Club Lounge in Taoyuan Airport is so affordable that it’s easily worth the money for anyone who wants a more comfortable and relaxing area to wait for their flight, not to mention the excellent selection of foods available.
Would I do it again? Probably, but next time I’ll try the Plaza Premium to see how it compares. Stay tuned for the review!