After an exhausting lounge adventure during my first pass through Taipei Taoyuan Airport, I took it easy on the return trip and only visited the Starlux Galactic Lounge in Terminal 2 during my 4-hour layover. I didn’t know what to expect with this lounge but ended up walking away pretty impressed with it!
Starlux Galactic Lounge Information
- Location: Terminal 2 near the D6 gate
- Hours: 5:00 AM to 11:30 PM
- Eligibility: Starlux business class passengers or Starlux Cosmile members with eligible status. Full eligibility rules here.
Starlux Galactic Lounge Entrance
The Starlux Galactic Lounge is located near the D gate side of Terminal 2. It’s off to the side of the moving walkway and not hard to spot.
Starlux Galactic Lounge Layout
This lounge is deceptively small. I walked around the main area in about 3 minutes and was disappointed at how tiny it was. But it turns out that I was just dumb as I didn’t realize that there were stairs leading down to a lower level.
Admittedly, even with the 2nd level, the lounge isn’t that large since both floors are pretty equal in size. However, this lack of space didn’t end up being that noticeable because of how few people there were in the lounge.
I came in around 6 PM and I was literally one of 2 people in the lounge. I assume this was a dead time for the lounge since all the intra-Asia Starlux flights had already departed and the only remaining flights were the 2 night time flights to the US. About 2 hours later, passengers on the SFO and LAX bound flights began pouring in but the lounge still never reached full capacity.
As for the lounge layout, it’s very simple and basically 2 levels of rectangular rooms. Turning left after the front desk brought me into the first room which is primarily a dining area filled with food and dining tables. The bathrooms are also located at the end of this room.
About halfway into the dining area on the left-hand side is where the stairs taking you downstairs are. The lower level has a similar layout to the upstairs area in that one half is dedicated to food and the other half consists of additional seating. The big difference here is that the downstairs area holds the shower rooms and VIP rooms.
There’s a first-class area somewhere in the lounge here that is advertised on the Starlux website but I couldn’t find it. It might be to the right of the front desk or be one of the VIP rooms but I’m not sure
Starlux Galactic Lounge Interior Design
My absolute favorite thing about this lounge was the aesthetics and this honestly might be my favorite business-class lounge in terms of design. The whole lounge has a plethora of futuristic decor like its sleek matte walls, bright LED lights, and automatic sliding doors. It truly felt like I was in a spaceship from Star Trek.
However, the most unique thing about the lounge’s design was how it didn’t use any traditional lighting fixtures. Most lounges will have a combination of desk lamps and hanging lights but this lounge relied purely on LED lights built into the walls and ceiling. This made the lounge really stand out from others I’ve visited and it reminded me a lot of the Tron Universe.
The main floor felt like the cockpit of a spaceship with two prominent rows of bright ceiling lights spanning the length of the room. In contrast to that, the downstairs area was dimmer and had a more modern and elegant vibe.
Some areas of the downstairs section also had large halo ceiling lights that emanated a faint blue glow that looked really cool.
One of the most underrated things about this lounge was not the actual interior of the lounge but the uniforms of the workers. The front desk workers wore the standard gray Starlux uniforms but the other lounge workers wore space-themed uniforms that reminded me of the outfits that the workers in Star Wars land at Disneyland wear.
I really applaud Starlux’s attention to detail here and how far they go to give guests this outer-space experience.
Starlux Galactic Lounge Seating
There’s a decent amount of seating in this lounge but not as much as I would have liked. The lounge’s seating options are almost evenly split between single-seater gray armchairs and yellow leather cushioned benches.
The dining area has 3 rows of seats and tables with the leftmost row along the lounge wall using a cushioned bench paired with tables and chairs. The other two rows consisted of just tables and gray chairs.
One thing I didn’t like is how densely packed together the seating is. The dining area doesn’t have many dining tables yet each one has 4 chairs assigned to it. This means that during peak hours when the lounge is crowded, you’re most likely going to have to share tables with strangers.
One positive though is how each table came with built-in charging ports as well as USB-C and USB-A ports.
The downstairs area had a lot more of these cushioned benches that shared tables with single-seater chairs.
Some areas consisted solely of benches with several coffee tables distributed throughout the space.
Starlux Galactic Lounge Dining
The dining options in this lounge are quite extensive. There is a center island filled with a bed of ice that has cold dishes like salads, fruits, and other condiments.
Along one wall of the lounge is a long counter with all the hot foods. The main entrees are all self-serve and served in hot chafing dishes. In my opinion, the entrees didn’t look very appetizing.
I was expecting classic Taiwanese dishes like fried noodles but was surprised to see that they didn’t serve that here. Instead, one of the chafing dishes had fried pork and grilled vegetables.
The other one had chicken and braised beef.
Further down the counter was the dim selection where there were 2 bamboo steamers sitting on electric warming plates. I was happy to see that there were at least some dim sum options although I was a bit disappointed that there weren’t more.
The first steamer had glutinous rice balls and the other one had siu mai.
The most random thing in this lounge was definitely the hot dog roller machine. I laughed when I saw this because I didn’t expect it at all and also because it reminded me of something I would see in a Taiwanese 7/11.
Past that was a pair of cereal dispensers and a bread box filled with rolls, sliced bread, and croissants. It was convenient having an automatic toaster nearby too.
Lastly, at the end of the counter was the dessert fridge. There were various puddings, cakes, and pastries found inside as well as jams for the bread. I liked how there were various signs with in-depth explanations of what the dessert was. I only ended up trying the flan which was pretty good.
One big plus about this lounge is how there is a made-to-order a la carte menu. Most of the tables in the dining area had a QR code that I could scan to pull up the menu.
There is a breakfast menu and a combined lunch/dinner menu depending on when you’re in the lounge. I could only order from the lunch/dinner menu and chose the beef sukiyaki.
The presentation was decent since it’s served on a wooden tray and I liked that it was brought out to my table by a worker but the food itself wasn’t that good. I found the beef dry and a little bit bland. I’d recommend trying something else like the gua bao.
Starlux Galactic Lounge Drinks
There are two drink refrigerators in the lounge with one on each floor. They contained drinks like sparkling water, soda, milk, tea, and even carrot juice. I was surprised to see Pocari Sweat too!
The downstairs area had the liquor selection and it was pretty standard with various vodkas, bourbons, and wines. The liquor bottle dispenser was a unique feature that I don’t see often in lounges.
Even the water dispenser seemed like it was from the future with how advanced it looked. It had an electronic screen panel and could dispense cold, warm, or hot water.
The most underrated drink was this bottled tea. I thought it was some kind of ginseng drink at first because of the floating object inside but turns out that was the tea bag lol. It was super flavorful and refreshing and I’d highly recommend trying it.
Starlux Galactic Lounge Amenities
The only accessible “amenity” in this lounge is the lockers on the main floor. I don’t really consider this a real amenity but it’s better than nothing.
The Starlux Galactic Lounge also has 2 VIP rooms that I’m pretty sure you have to pay to access. I don’t know what’s inside them but I assume most people won’t bother paying to find out.
Starlux Galactic Lounge Bathroom
The Starlux bathrooms are probably the coolest-looking lounge bathrooms I’ve ever been in. The doors to the bathroom had a motion sensor that made the doors slide open when I waved my hand in front of it. It was awesome.
Even the bathroom interiors were consistent with the futuristic spaceship theme as they had metallic gray walls and modern lighting fixtures. I loved the aesthetic of the oval mirrors in particular because of how they had LED lights around the perimeter.
The toilet was probably the least futuristic-looking thing in the bathroom but at least it came with a bidet haha.
Starlux Galactic Lounge Showers
The Starlux Galactic lounge has 2 showers downstairs on the lower level. When I asked the worker if I could take a shower, he told me that there were none available. I unfortunately had to wait 40 minutes for one to become vacant but when it was ready, the worker found me and gave me a keycard to get access to the shower.
I was really impressed with the shower room. It’s not the largest but it’s very modern and looks fantastic. The shower is spacious and has a stone finish that pairs well with the strip of light that wraps around the perimeter of the ceiling.
Inside the shower were two tiny bottles of Thann brand shampoo and shower gel that seemed a little cheap. They reminded me of shooters given out on a domestic US flight but I guess Starlux replaces these after every shower so there wasn’t a real need to use nicer bottles.
The rest of the shower room looked great too. I liked the stark contrast the yellow drawers and cabinets gave from the stone walls.
There were also folded towels held in a little basket on top of the vanity desk.
I was also impressed with how neatly the amenities were organized in the drawer. There was a comb, shaving razor, toothbrush, q-tips, and each item was individually wrapped in plastic.
The other drawer contained the hairdryer in a cloth drawstring bag.
The toilet also came with a bidet which was nice.
The craziest thing was how there was even Starlux-branded toilet paper!
Lastly, there was a little open closet with hangers.
Conclusion
The Starlux Galactic Lounge in Terminal 2 of Taoyuan Airport is one of my favorite lounges for how unique it is. The interior design of the lounge did a fantastic job of encapsulating the feeling of being in a spaceship. In addition to that, the lounge has a decent amount of space, adequate seating, showers, and solid food offerings. I only wish that the lounge didn’t pack the seating so tightly together. Overall, I really enjoyed the Starlux Galactic Lounge and I think it’s the best lounge I’ve been to in Taoyuan International Airport so far.
What did you think of the Starlux Galactic Lounge?
