Our circle island tour of Taiwan:
Taipei (2nights) to Taroko Gorge
3.5 hours 170km
Taroko Gorge (2nights) to Doulan (surf town)
4 hours 180 km
Dolan (1 night) to Kenting (beach town)
3.5 hours 150 km
Genting (2nights) to Tainan (historical town)
3.5 hours 150 km
Tainan (1 night)to Taipei
4 hours 300 km
In Taipei we took my friend's Airbnb recommendation, lots of loft beds for our family, very basic, but EXCELLENT location, we could walk to most places we wanted to see.
Address:
東區地下街 Section 4, Zhongxiao East Road & Section 1, Da'an Road,
Da’an District, Taipei City, Taiwan 106
Airbnb Link:
https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/4853890?s=41&ref_device_id=161cefa26dba9c7c6ed0ec1b8a4dd3dd0cfcc569&user_id=43057113&_branch_match_id=357939221992961287
Favourite things to do in Taipei:
Food tour with Ivy Chen was my favourite
(we did the evening one which covered an
evening food (fruits, veggies, fish) market,
and a night Taiwanese snack market).
http://kitchenivy.com
Aquatic Addiction was one of our favourite
meals and foodie experience (seafood, Japanese, sushi/sashimi)
but we are all crazy about seafood, so if you love it too, head there.
http://www.ladyironchef.com/2016/02/addiction-aquatic-development-taipei/
So many temples but we thought Longhua temple was really pretty.
Although touristy, we did love going to Maokong tea plantation/hill area
to see the view of Taipei from above.
http://english.gondola.taipei
Our next stop was Taroko Gorge, the highlight as far as hotel stay for us was Silks Hotel.
http://www.silksplace-taroko.com.tw/en/aboutus.php
When booking a room you have a choice to include dinner, and since you are pretty remote, it's really your only choice but the Western dinner buffet is DELICIOUS (you can opt for the Chinese set meal in the other restaurant but for our kids a buffet is a great option). We did eat a lunch at the Chinese place and we loved it too. Breakfast on the patio is gorgeous! The pool indoors and outdoors plus all the various temperatures of hot tubs is so cool in an idyllic setting. The hotel has a list of hikes you can do. I would do minimum two nights here (I could have stayed longer). The hikes were probably the highlight of our Taiwan trip.
With kids we recommend the Baiyang Trail (1 hour each way, mostly flat, waterfalls at the end) and Luishi Trail (get dropped off on one end and picked up the other) only 1 hour and kids can dip their feet in the stream so we stayed awhile.
We were surprised there is an Aboriginal culture in this region, we had lunch at a place about 15 minutes away from Silks and they had an Aboriginal theme, the kids liked trying bamboo rice. None of us liked the boar skin.
We moved onto Doulan, it's a sleepy little surf town. Not much here, but a good way to break up the 6-7 hour drive to Kenting about half way. It was the only day we had rain or we would have rented surf boards for the kids. Having said that, we didn't find an easy way to access the beach. We went to the beach w/ out the kids to check it out early morning, almost black sand beach, but great waves. We stayed at the Travel Bug as recommended by our friend Cecile, it really is a basic (but clean) youth hostel run by friendly 20something year old Nick. There is a back private area - a room with 4 mattresses for our kids and adjoining room with 2 singles - sharing a bathroom. For families traveling, having a washing machine here was so handy. We ate at a pizza/burger joint across from the Travel Bug, food is average (not many choices) but the sweet grandpa Cookie (retired businessman) was so nice to us, and inspiring - he said, I don't want to sit at home and channel surf, so I opened this restaurant. This is a photo of the youth hostel and then a photo of Cookie's restaurant.
We moved on to Kenting. I think Kenting shows off what Taiwan beach life is all about - night markets, brightly lit clubs, touristy restaurants. If you've been in Asia a long time, Kenting is very tacky tourist with an average beach, but still loads of fun. Our friends stayed in Chateau but it was fully booked, I think the "nicer" resort would have been Caesars but it was also fully booked for us b/c it was spring break, so we ended up at family-friendly hotel Howard Beach Resort. Worked out great! I would say it felt like 3 stars in Las Vegas (complete with singing Elvis type of guy, cafeteria crowded breakfast buffet, animal deer feeding station, bright Christmas lights, game room, etc.) The kids loved it! There's a tunnel access to the beach which was a great way to safely access the beach. We did love our beach time - it was a secluded corner of Kenting and quite pretty. One afternoon the kids went paint balling and Go Karting. In their minds, THAT was the best!
KENTING does have a fishing wharf and they also have Japanese seafood places, but compared to the one in Taipei this was prettier (real fishermen, real boats, right on the water) but the food was average, only the sashimi was good.
Our last stop was Tainan. After Taroko, this was probably my favourite town. I could have stayed longer to do temples walking tour (as outlined in the Lonely Planet), culture outings etc. But 24 hours was perfect for our family. We stayed at the Shangri la, very centrally located, you can never go wrong with a Shangri la. Outdoor pool at the top was lovely, great breakfast buffet of course, glass elevator the kids loved, etc.
http://www.shangri-la.com/tainan/fareasternplazashangrila/
My favourite meal in Tainan was this Taiwanese noodle joint:
On TripAdvisor it's called Slack Seaon Tan Tsi Noodle,
I have no idea why, but the restaurant only had Chinese name.
No 16 Chongcheng Road (actually it's ZhongZheng road - Taiwan and China interchange their sounds which makes it confusing). Only 1-2 km from Shangri La.
I would say this was a foodie highlight for our family that
showcased Taiwanese food in a family-style historical setting.
I read this article and ordered some of the food I saw on this list:
http://edition.cnn.com/2015/02/25/travel/tainan-street-food/
The kids loved the braised pork and rice, and the noodles in soup were a hit.
We went for dessert at Mary B's, the most DARLING mini cupcake place
run by two young American Girls (Mary and Rachel) living their Taiwan dream.
1 km walking distance from Shangri La
No 297 Section 2 Minzu Road Tainan
The coolest stop in Tainan which is hard to imagine but it was rated so high on
Lonely Planet so we decided to go was this art-deco building, the first department store in Tainan.
Hayashi Department Store - great place to see a view from the top deck,
but really cool design items for sale and lots of antiques decorating it.
Kids thought the old-fashioned art-deco elevator was pretty cool!
From the foodie touring Taipei we found our favourite snack, these rice and sesame balls (dry snack) not the same kind you get at an American Chinese restaurant, these are fluffy, crunchy and soft in the middle, kind of the pop corn of Taiwan I suppose, anyway we found it here at Hayashi and loaded up.
Tainan is a town full of temples, since my kids can easily get templed out,
I picked ONE. I picked a great one because the Confucius temple is so pretty,
but it also has a lot of open grass area and a little playground. Just across
the street from it is a stone Chinese gate that leads to a pedestrian street
the kids loved with awesome Taiwanese snacks. We stopped at the
Hawaiian restaurant and had authentic Aloha shave ice from a guy who
has moved from the Big Island to Taiwan b/c his parents retired here.
In the morning, I went out sightseeing by myself, I loved it all! I first went to Anping Fort (Dutch influenced area) and Tree House (it was all closed still but I could still see most of it from their gate/wall area) and walked around and saw so many Chinese temples. Anping streets are historical and closed off to traffic.
I stumbled on a lively morning market which I loved - my happy place. On the way back to the hotel I checked out the streets of Shennong Street, probably better in the evening when the cafes and restaurants are open, but I still loved it.
From Tainan, my friend Cecile whose itinerary I copied dropped off their car rental, and took the high speed train (1 hour 45 min to Taipei, then 15 minute taxi to TSA airport), she said you can easily buy tickets online and pick them up at 7/11. For our family of seven, one way tickets cost about 200 USD so we decided to just keep driving the 3.5 hours to get back to Taipei and we didn't have to deal with the in and out of the train stations and transfers. I would have loved the train experience but this was right for our family. We loved Taiwan and there was something for everyone in our family!
NOTES from Lisa Crawford:
-For food suggestions in Taipei, talk to Judy Yang or Wilford Wu in the branch.
-The Cooks did a trip with their kids to Taipei in the spring and might have suggestions for the city (she’s not on WeChat)
-If you can fly from Hongqiao airport into Songshan airport, it is right downtown and shaves off hours from your trip on both ends.
-The National Palace Museum in Taipei is the best Chinese museum hands-down, BUT it is totally overrun with mainland tourists. If you go, do it during lunch and you’ll avoid a lot of the tour groups. Get the self-guided audio tour headphones. Your group won’t have to stick together, and everyone can choose the things they are interested in seeing because you just enter the number of the exhibit you are standing in front of, and it tells you about it.
-On the north side of Taipei is Yangmingshan National Park. There are some good hikes and a super cool sculpture park: Juming Sculpture Park on Yangmingshan
-You can drive all the way through the mountains north to the coast if no one gets carsick. Otherwise, you can drive west to Tamsui and then up and around.
-On the north coast of Taiwan, Baishawan (White Sand Bay) is super kid friendly, you can rent stuff there, they have showers, etc. It would be a good stop for a few hours on a road trip.
-The east coast drive is supposed to be gorgeous and is definitely on our list. Kenting is far, and not that worth it to us after being to beaches in Thailand and other places, but the Taiwanese like it. If you do go there, we liked the beach where they filmed Life of Pi, also called Baishawan. The aquarium in Kenting is huge and pretty awesome, and Kelsey and Dave went to the national forest in Kenting and said it was cool.
-I think you are right to either fly out of Kaohsiung or take the high-speed rail back to Taipei. Both are fast and easy, and you don’t want to drive back.
NOTES from Channing and Spencer:
an important note about driving in Taiwan: Driving in Taiwan isn’t too crazy, especially when compared to, say, Indonesia or Mainland China, but throughout the country, they are sticklers about international driving permits. In other words, you cannot simply show them a valid US drivers license; they’ll want you to show an international driving permit (IDP). You can actually pick one up on the spot, no training required from AAA in the US. They also can do it via mail, but it takes longer. This is the case for all gas-motor vehicles, including scooters and cars. Some places will have electric scooters you can get without the IDP, but they are limited availability and capability.
TAIPEI
Do:
Markets: quintessentially Taiwan, you’re spoiled for choice here!
Elephant Mountain (象山): if you’re just in Taipei and want to get out, climb to the top (30 minute hike) of Elephant Mountain for a great view of Taipei. Fun sunrise or sunset outing.
Eat:
Sleep:
W Hotel: in my opinion, one of their nicest properties in Asia. Walking distance to Taipei 101 and the Woo Bar is one of the most happening bars in the city. No seriously, the Woo Bar is popular. Luxy is another nearby club that is starting to break into the international scene.
EAST COAST
Note: The vast majority of Taiwan’s population lives in Taipei and the western third of the island on coastal plains. Once you get further inland, the terrain becomes aggressively mountainous and continues all the way to the eastern coast. Getting to the east from the west generally requires going around, all the way back up to Taipei and then back down. Therefore, the east is surprisingly isolated from the rest of the island
Do:
Taroko Gorge: This is the consensus most beautiful area of Taiwan. I would recommend hiring a driver, as there isn’t public transportation built out to get you to all the hiking spots. Tons of taxi drivers hang out by the train and bus stations ready to take people up the mountain, but they tend to have pretty lousy English so you likely need to make arrangements ahead of time. If you don’t have someone to drive you all the way from Taipei, I would recommend taking a bus (75 minutes) or taxi (45 minutes) to Yilan, and then take the pretty train ride from Yilan to Hualien.
One nice thing about having a knowledgeable guide is that you can get an intro to the much under-appreciated Taiwanese aboriginal culture. Taiwan has several aboriginal groups which differ substantially from one to the next culturally and linguistically, suggesting deep and ancient divides. Linguistically, and genetically, research suggests that Taiwan was the jump off point for much of Southeast Asia (Sumatra, Thailand, Philippines) and polynesia. Interesting stuff here, here, and here,
Orchid Island (Lanyu): Home of the Tao tribe (probably Taiwan’s best preserved, but there’s still not a ton to look at), nice views, good snorkeling. Can also rent scooters and drive around.
Green Island (Lyudao): A nice island getaway from Taiwan, you can sent scooters and cruise around. They’ve also got some fun hot springs right on the ocean. Also generally considered to have Taiwan’s best scuba sites. Both Orchid and Green Island can be reached by a short domestic flight or ferry from Taidong (Taitung). Green Island take about 50 minutes frry to get to, while Orchid island takes 2.5 hrs. Flying to either island is short and easy, but also potentially risky. It’s been a rough year for Taiwanese domestic carriers. Actually scratch that. It’s been a rough six months.
WuShi Harbor: Just a stone’s throw from Taipei in YiLan. This is where I learned to surf--it’s got great beginner waves, and a soft sandy bottom. Rentals are super cheap and include wetsuits if you’re going at a colder time of year. You’ll have to be careful in checking if they have English instruction though. Beach has a really pretty view depending on how clear it is and nice black sand, although they whole east coast is similar so if you miss it here you’ve got plenty of other options.
CENTRAL
General note about getting here: the fastest way by far to travel north-south in Taiwan at almost any distance is to take the high speed rail (HSR). If you want to go to Taichung, for example, you can take a 45 minute HSR ride from Taipei or drive 5 hours.
Do:
Sun-Moon Lake: This is one of the big three natural beauties of the island (Taroko and Alishan are the other two). Really pretty sunrises and sunsets, idyllic setting. They’ve also got a pretty massive Daoist temple you can check out, though if you’ve seen a bunch of Chinese traditional temples in the past, nothing you see inside will surprise you
Chung Tai Monastery: This is one of my favorite spots, and I’m surprised how much it flies under the radar. This is the biggest monastery in Asia, not far from Sun-Moon lake. The thing to do here is book ahead and set up a (free) tour of the monastery with one of the monks. I’ve done it a few times, and the monks consistently had outstanding English. This place is unlike any Buddhist or Daoist temple I’ve seen elsewhere. Really cool to see, but even cooler than that is to dive deep with the monks and pick their brains on Buddhism. Buddhism’s conceptions and details around how eternal progression are probably the closest to LDS doctrine I’ve seen anywhere. Also really cool to learn about how indulgences came into Buddhism as well, although the depth of your discussion with the monk is entirely up to you. Ask lots of questions, it can be really interesting
Lukang: Used to be the second biggest city in Taiwan, but kind of froze about 300 years ago. It’s got some fun old streets with stuff to buy (including a dude who will do beautiful custom-painted fans (I had him do a Chinese stylized nativity for my mama), but you can’t rush art--turnaround time is typically a week, so you’ll need to have him mail it.
Alishan: Famous for it’s ancient forests and beautiful sunrise, this place stands apart from the rest of the island as it’s altitude gives it a distinct climate. My recommendation is to take the HSR down to Taibao and then rent a car and drive yourself. The drive is fun, and if the fog hasn’t rolled in, it’s gorgeous. Tour groups there take large buses and should be avoided. It has huge, ancient Taiwanese Cypress trees that exceed 30 feet in circumference and the tea plantations are beautiful and make lovely rest stops. If you’ve spent time with redwoods and sequoias, this won’t be as impressive as it otherwise would be.
SOUTH:
Do:
Tainan: This is Taiwan’s most historic city, and home to some of it’s best historic sites, including the Confucius temple.
Kenting: This is where the Taiwanese go for a beach getaway paradise experience. Great in the Taiwan context, but not compared to the best Southeast Asia has to offer. Some good surf spots and impressive scuba. Warm currents come northward from the Philippines and hit Taiwan, especially Kenting Harbour, straight on. Kenting Harbour itself is home to over 60% of the world’s coral species, although the heavy tourist traffic means it has no shortage of litter. If you scuba the harbor, you’ll launch straight from the beach and need to swim through some garbage before getting to the good stuff. Once you go under the surface it’s totally fine. Getting to Kenting requires taking the HSR all the way southwards to Kaohsiung, and then taking the (pretty) 2 hour car ride further south. It’s got some pretty scenery best explored by scooter, and the Kenting township is still contained within the old fortress walls.
