Taiwan

December 22, 2023 - January 6, 2024

There is so much to explore and appreciate in Ivan’s home country, we want to give our girls the grand tour around the island and show them what Taiwan has to offer!

Taipei is the capital and the largest city in Taiwan. The east side is more secluded by the mountains that run down the center of Taiwan and is less populated, but filled with natural beauty everywhere you look. The southern tip, Kenting, with warm weather and sandy beaches, is a popular tourist destination. The westside has more cities along the coast, each with its unique flavor. The center vertical strip is mountainous, with several gorgeous sceneries and national parks.

A few words on night markets: This is a must-do in Taiwan! You can find some amazing food in night markets, and they are perfectly safe to eat. There are too many to choose from in Taipei, so here are some tips: Ningxia and Raohe are two very popular and big ones. Ximending is great for shopping in addition to food and is extremely popular for younger folks. Our favorite was Nanya night market in terms of amazing food. Shilin is probably the most famous, but several locals we talked to said it’s in the decline and urged us to avoid it.

If you’re in Taichung, Fenjia night market is extremely popular and a great one to visit, but my favorite is still the traditional foods available at Zhongxiao Road night market.

Day 1 - Fly to TPE, Yehliu Geopark, Jiufen Old Street, Shifen Sky Lantern

Day 2 - Tour around Yilan

Day 3 - Taipei 101 & Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Memorial

Day 4 - Wuliaojiang Hike & Nanya Night Market

Day 5 - Ximending Shopping & Massage

Day 6 - Drive to Hualian

Day 7 - Taroko National Park

Day 8 - Drive from Hualian to Taitung

Day 9 - Explore Taitung, Drive to Kenting

Day 10 - Explore Kenting

Day 11 - Kaohsiung

Day 12 - Alishan Day 1

Day 13 - Alisha National Forest & Sunset

Day 14 - Sun Moon Lake

Day 15 - Sun Moon Lake to Taichung

Day 16 - Goodbye Taiwan

Voyagers tips:

Itinerary: The trip starts in Taipei, then we head down along the east coast to the southern tip of Taiwan, before heading back up on the west side. You can easily reverse the order and head the other direction after flying into the TPE airport.

Our trip around the island covered everything from the city life to the rural mountain tops, giving us an appreciation of all that is Taiwan! Two weeks is fairly tight for a round-the-island tour, doable but at a fast pace.

Transportation: The metro in Taipei is very convenient, clean and well managed. For harder-to-reach areas, taxis are also readily available and the prices are very reasonable, cheaper than just about any other developed countries I’ve visited. Most taxi drivers don’t speak English, however, so be sure to have the address (in Chinese) written for the taxi drivers. Buses are convenient too but we did not try this option.

Beyond Taipei, public transportation is more limited. We opted to rent a car ourselves, but this is not recommended for foreigners who don’t read Chinese. Instead, take high speed rail or train to the cities and pre-arrange private drivers to take you anywhere you need to go. Costs are around $150 for a full 11-hour day for a regular sedan, and $250 for an 8-passenger van. Taxis are also widely available in every city, just wave them down on the street. Taxis are all regulated so the prices are standard, just make sure they run the meter.

Day 1 - Arrive in Tao-Yuan, Head to Yehliu, Jiufen & Shifen

Taoyuan TPE Airport

Yehliu Geopark 野柳地質公園

Jiufen Old Street 九份老街

Shifen 十分

We landed at 5:40am and decided to make it a full day of adventure to help fight off jet lag. These places are outside of city center and also require time to go from one to the next, so allow for commute time. We took our time and run out of time at the end, but had an absolute blast!

Taoyuan TPE Airport

We took a China Airlines flight from Ontario airport to TPE, enjoyed the lounge at Ontario with our Priority Pass membership.

Once arriving at TPE airport, be sure to pick up local SIM cards or wifi router. If traveling with one or two people, it’s best to get the SIM card for your phone. Since we have five people, we got a SIM card for a local phone number (very useful for reservations and travel apps) and another one to put in our wifi router that provides wifi access for everyone else. There are a couple of stands at the airport for this, and the prices are very reasonable. A must-have in Taiwan.

There are a few ways to get to Taipei or other cities. Buses leave straight from the terminal and come frequently, very convenient. You can also take the metro to the nearby HSR (high speed rail) station to get to major cities including Taipei. Lastly, you can prebook private airport drivers, but this requires advanced planning and some referrals. Taxis are quite cheap in Taiwan compared to most countries, but it can add up for long distances.

Since we were meeting up with friends, we got a private driver and met up with our friends in Taipei with another driver, and headed off to our day of adventure!

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Yehliu Geopark 野柳地質公園

Yehliu is one of the most popular tourist attractions in Taiwan and lives up to the hype! Other than the famous Queens Head statue, the rocks here form various interesting shapes by ocean waves throughout the years, it takes just a bit of imagination to see interesting figures! Better yet, ask one of the many helpful workers there for some tips, many of them are happy to show you interesting views and angles now shown in the brochure! We had a worker that enthusiastically showed us hidden treasures and camera angles and even took pictures for us! There is also a nice food shopping street upon exit with tons of snacks. Just make sure you compare prices before buying anything!

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Jiufen Old Street 九份老街

This is an extremely popular, i.e. crowded, indoor food area. There is more food than you have appetite for, and it’s longer than you may imagine, so be patient and walk to the end then you can turn around and hit the ones you really want to hit. If you have a big crowd and want to eat at a sit-down food stall, be ready to wait for a table! Alternatively, go for the food you can eat on the go. We patiently waited for seating for the 10 of us! Save room for desert! The taro desert balls are popular here but we didn’t get to try them.

Parking around here is extremely limited. This is where the private drivers are great, they’ll take you close to it and take care of parking while you roam.

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Shifen 十分

There are two popular destinations at Shifen: Waterfall and Sky Lanterns. We started running out of time to do both and opted to do the sky lantern. It was such an unique experience! You find a shop, pick the number of colors you want in a lantern (the more color, the higher the price), they set up a stand for you to write anything you want (usually your wishes) on the lantern with Caligraphy brush pens, and they will help you launch it into the sky!

There are also tons of street vendors and food vendors here so be sure to walk around and try some snacks before leaving!

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Day 2 - Tour around Yilan

Qingshui GEothermal Park 清水地熱公園

Center for Traditional Arts 宜蘭傳藝園區

Patty’s place in Taipei

With so many days in Taipei, we decided to take a day trip to Yilan. It’s a nice change of scenery, with hot springs and a fun center for traditional arts. There are nice hikes nearby also, but we enjoyed taking it slow at the geothermal park and the center for traditional arts. Be sure to try the local scallion pancakes, they use the famous scallions from this area!

Our visit to Patty’s place was fun! This isn’t part of the recommended itinerary for others, of course, but we want to document our trip and look back on the fond memories!

Qingshui GEothermal Park 清水地熱公園

The main attraction here is areas for people to cook food in boiling hot springs water. You can buy food there and boil it at the hot springs areas. Since boiled food tends to taste bland, we only bought a few items in foil pouches that we felt were more sanitary and flavorful. The intestines were indeed very tasty! There are also a couple of public foot baths here but they’re crowded and don’t seem so relaxing.

The nearby hot springs spa was a fun stop. The hot spa pools are shared (not private) and are separated to men and women areas. You pay a small fee to get in to the spa area, swimsuits and swim caps are needed. Once you go in, you can stay as long as you’d like. It was a relaxing stop for us. For individual families looking for a more private experience, you can go to Beitou or Wulai for hotel rooms with private hot spring tubs, but this wouldn’t work for larger groups. The public pools here are better for larger groups, although men and women still can’t be in the same pool. We enjoyed our relaxation here for a while, then headed over to our next stop.

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Center for Traditional Arts 宜蘭傳藝園區

The Center for Traditional Arts is a great place to visit with lots to offer. The ground is open and beautiful, providing a relaxing stroll with in nature. There is even a misty area where the manmade fog creates a unique dreamy experience. A visit wouldn’t be complete without visiting the shops here, many of them offering unique experiences in traditional crafts, such as looming, playing traditional instruments, or like our kids, making decorated candles. There is also a food court with plenty of food options. A great place with lots to offer, highly recommended!

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Patty’s place in Taipei

It was so great to meet up with Patty and enjoy some yummy food at her nice condo!

Day 3 - Taipei 101 and Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Memorial

Taipei 101

Dr Sun Yat-Sen Memorial

LiaoNing Night Market 遼寧夜市

Taipei 101 is one of the biggest landmarks in Taiwan and is a must-hit in Taiwan. Dr. Sun Yat-Sen is nearby and an awesome spot to find some open space and get amazing shots of Taipei 101. Liaoning Night Market was pretty quiet on a week night, might be better on the weekend.

Taipei 101

Taipei 101 is easily accessible with MRT but there is a bit of a walk from the nearest station. The base of the building is a massive 5-story modern mall, with shops nearby. To go up to the top, follow the signs to Observation Deck and buy tickets either on the spot or pre-purchase online. There’s always a line but it moves fairly quick, our wait was around 20min.

Once exiting the elevator at the top, you can get 360 views by walking around. There is also an upstairs that allows you to go to the outdoor deck, but it was closed due to weather during our visit this time. Be sure to walk into the center of the floor to check out the Damper Ball, largest in the world, and the cool explanations. There are also cafes and snack shops and you’ll get some coupons with your tickets, but we skipped them due to the long lines. When you’re ready to go, walk downstairs to get in the elevator line. You can also get a different view of the damper ball from the lower level.

Don’t miss the massive food court in the basement level of the mall. There are tons of great options! It was super crowded when we visited though, Definitely worth checking out even if you don’t stay there to eat.

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Dr Sun Yat-Sen Memorial

Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Memorial is a nice place to visit with its open space around the fountain. The building was closed during our visit, but we still appreciated the outdoor space. The fountain was a nice place to relax, and you can take some amazing reflection pictures of Taipei 101 with the fountain. It was getting dark when we were here and we got some very nice pictures!

We visited Taipei 101 around Christmas and there was a food court event nearby. The crowd was insane! It was cool to see but the lines were not worth it for fairly mundane food choices. In a city where there is amazing food around every corner, I didn’t quite understand the fascination of this food court event.

There is an MRT station closer to this memorial than the one for Taipei 101, be sure to check google maps for the closest station when you’re ready to go.

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Liaoning Night Market 遼寧夜市

We actually visited this night market by accident, was thinking of Ningxia night market but ended up getting direction for Liaoning. Oops. We found a great spot for duck blood soup, very tasty! But this isn’t the most happening night market, especially on weekdays, would not recommend it.

Parking around here is extremely limited. This is where the private drivers are great, they’ll take you close to it and take care of parking while you roam.

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Day 4 - Wuliaojian Hike & Nanya Night Market

Wuliaojian 五寮尖登山

Nanya Night Market 板橋湳雅夜市

There are several beautiful hikes around Taiwan, and we stumbled across this one. The hike was much tougher than we anticipated, but the climb was exhilarating and the views on top was amazing. This turned out to be the #1 highlight for Megan and the girls!

Nanya Night Market was another accidental find. Our taxi driver didn’t want to get stuck in traffic getting to Raohe night market and suggested we go to this one instead. It turned out to be our favorite night market in Taipei!

Wuliaojian 五寮尖登山

This hike was absolutely amazing! Be warned, however — This was one of the most technically challenging hike we have ever done. Most of the “hike” was more like rock climbing and rope climbing. Lots of vertical climbs and repelling. Bring gloves and lots of liquid, and get there in the morning to allow enough time for the hike.

We showed up in the afternoon without proper equipment and didn’t know what we were getting ourselves into. We were very fortunate to run into a 71-year-old avid hiker who saw us and knew we needed help, and guided us the entire way. It’s hard to imagine how we could have done the hike without him. There are 8 marked stops to the top, and we got to Stop #6 which is the top of the first mountain. Our hiker guide suggested we don’t head to stop #8 as we would run out of daylight and did not bring headlamps. Still an amazing hike!

The hike is a loop, our hike up was extremely steep and the hike down was much more gradual and reasonable.

You can take the taxi to the hiking trailhead, as there are no MRT stations nearby. Taxi price is very reasonable and runs on meter by law. You may need to walk further down to call a taxi when you’re done hiking though.

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Nanya Night Market 板橋湳雅夜市

This night market is fairly long and takes a while to get through, so conserve your appetite! The sesame chicken stand is popular. There’s a good mixture of traditional and newer food choices, too many amazing food to list here. There are also fun games to play, it’s a fun experience even if you don’t win. There is also a side street for shopping, keep an eye out for that. You can find great deals on clothes, bags/purses/luggage and shoes/sandals. We got some shopping done here too!

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Day 5 - Ximending Shopping & Massage

Ximending Shopping & Massage

Teppanyaki Omakase

We decided to take it easy on our last day in Taipei, as we had a hectic itinerary ahead of us. There were plenty to explore in Ximending where we were staying, we got some food, shopping, and a nice relaxing massage, then met up with our dear friend Patty for an amazing Teppanyaki dinner. This was a special treat… not cheap, but totally worth it!

Ximending Shopping & Massage

Ximending is good during the day as well as at night. The Red House is a popular landmark and there are plenty of shops nearby for a nice stroll. Between food, massage and shopping, we really enjoyed a nice relaxing day to wrap up our stay in Taipei!

If you want to do some serious shopping for snacks, clothes, toiletry and even liquor (Kavalan whiskey, anyone?), look for a larger “hypermarket” that’s bigger than the typical supermarkets. These are usually multi-stories with a parking lot at the bottom, a food court floor, and several floors of shopping ranging from appliances to groceries and everything in between. We visited Carrefour Guilin Store, which was the closest hypermarket within walking distance to our vacation rental.

There are a few famous food places to try out in Ximending. The fried chicken stand is really good if you don’t mind the wait. 老天祿滷味 is popular and there are two store locations around here, with people lining up before the store even opens. It was only a few minutes wait for us though. The food is sold at room temperature. We tried a bunch of stuff, felt it was good but not worth the hype. 阿宗麵線 four rice noodle is also super popular, and this was certainly worth the wait in our opinion. The rice noodle bowl is packed with flavor, it just tasted so good!

As for massages, there are plenty of choices near Ximending, and we did a lot of research and review, only to learn afterwards that they all share masseuses. The masseuses are contractors on call, and when you visit a massage place, they just call in the masseuses they’re contracted with. Because of this, it helps to make reservations, because the masseuses aren’t just waiting at the spa. If you have a preference on male or female, make it clear when you make a reservation or when you first show up and they’re calling available masseuses. We got 30min foot massage plus 60min full body massage and it was heavenly!

A tip on massages: If you only get a foot massage, it’s done at the shared space. If you get a combo foot and body massage, you get both in the private room, they just do one after another while you’re lying down. Also, get the oil massage, otherwise they do massage over the shirt and it doesn’t feel as good.

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Teppanyaki

I consider our friend Patty to be a food connoisseur and she graciously offered to take us to one of her favorite restaurants. There are plenty of teppanyaki places in Taiwan, most of them are fairly casual with similar dishes where you choose your protein and get side dishes such as rice, soup, cabbage and bean sprouts. I love those! This particular teppanyaki place is completely different. Every dish is super delicate and a unique creation of this restaurant, and the chef patiently explains the ingredients and preparation of each dish as he served them. It was not cheap, but a great value as a similar experience in the U.S. would easily cost over $300 per person. It’s omakase style, with options to upgrade certain dishes as you eat, but we found the regular dishes to be amazing already. Reservation is definitely required here and they take full payment at time of reservation, and it gets booked up fast, so plan ahead! Note: It’s got an ambiguous store front in a small residential street so it’s hard to find, but trust google maps and it’ll take you there.

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Day 6 - Drive to Hualian

Qinshui Cliff - 清水斷崖

Yunshanshui Park - 花蓮雲山水

Yen Hotspring Hotel 元湯溫泉居

We rented a car from 中租租車 in Taipei and headed down to Hualian. The drive took about three hours to get to the hotel. Our recommendation — Don’t book the Yen Hotspring hotel if you plan to visit Taroke National Park the next day or if you plan to drive back up to Taipei. The hotel is very nice, but it’s about 45min south of the city, so it’d only make sense if you plan to continue the drive southward from Hualian. We didn’t realize the location when booking so did quite a bit of extra driving as a result.

Qinshui Cliff - 清水斷崖

The first stop on the way is Qingshui Cliff, which is literally on the side of the cliffside road. There are two separate stops, each with a short walking paths to the bottom, but the one we chose stopped short of the beach, so no way to get to the water. It’s still a nice stop that breaks up the long drive and provides some beautiful scenery where you can stretch your legs and get a nice walk.

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Yunshanshui Park - 花蓮雲山水

This place is gorgeous! So many IG-worthy picture spots, it almost looks fake! The tickets to enter are cheap. Walk around the lake, get some nice pictures on the colorful Adirondack chairs, and walk across the street to the water cascade area for more nice shots. We got here pretty late in the day, but still really enjoyed the nice walk around the park where we soaked in all the gorgeous views. Highly recommended.

Skip the bike rental, you don’t need it, the bikes would just limit the places you can walk to.

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Yen Hotspring Hotel 元湯溫泉居

We stayed here for two nights, and it was quite nice. It’s owned by a couple who took years to design and build the property and you can tell this is their pride and joy. The hotel is very nice, the owner lady was super friendly and nice. There is a hot spring bath in each bedroom and the rooms are huge! There are also outdoor tubs too that are available upon request, as well as a nice sparkling pool. The owner took time to explain to us everything we need to know about the property and the hot spring water. We only used the in-room hot tub and it was nice. The only downside is the location — It’s about 45min south of Hualian, so be prepared for the drive.

There is a small night market that’s just 5-minutes away by car. Don’t get there too late or the stands may run out of their popular dishes. There’s also a pretty decent restaurant there also if you’re tired of night market food, and some convenience stores for quick supplies. Breakfast is included at the hotel, but since they prepare set meals for each guest, reservations are required and the earliest time slot is 8am I believe. We left early the first morning to go to Taroke so missed breakfast, but enjoyed it the second day and it was delicious.

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Day 7 - Taroko National Park

Taroko National Park 太魯閣

Qinbuzhizi Walk 親不知子海上古道

Shitiping Scenic Recreation 石梯坪遊憩風景區

Start your day early to beat the tour-bus crowds! This is one of the most popular destinations in Taiwan, a must-hit for all visitors, yet the road is narrow and parking spots are limited, and it’s usually swarming with tourists. Wake up early and get there before 8:30am to beat the tour bus crowd. It’s best to hire a local driver for the day so you don’t have to worry about parking, just get dropped off at each stop while the driver waits for you. If you have time, do one of the hikes there to get away from the crowds, there are plenty of hiking trails around there. The weather was pretty bad during our visit, so instead of doing the hikes, we left early to hit other spots on our way back to the hotel.

Taroko National Park 太魯閣

This is one of the most famous destinations in Taiwan, and for good reasons. The view does not disappoint, many views are just breathtaking. The downside is the crowd. If you can hire a driver for the day, do it, and save yourself the frustration of looking for parking or spending valuable time waiting for buses. If the weather permits, go for a hike. Stop by the tourist center first and get some suggestions on how to visit the park and which hikes to go on.

Road repairs are frequent here due to falling rocks, so some places require hard hats. They actually provide the hats for free, just make sure you return them when you’re done. Even park entrance is free! BEWARE — For extensive repairs, they shut down the road for 45min to an hour at a time. We didn’t realize this on the way in, and was stuck in a 45min wait coming back down due to scheduled road closures. Read the closure schedule carefully and try to avoid it!

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Qinbuzhizi Walk 親不知子海上古道

This is a quick stop, worth it if you have half an hour to kill. Skip it if you’re tight on time. A nice cliffside walking path to get some gorgeous views, but the access is limited to the walking path. There are other spots with beautiful views, such as Shitiping, where you can actually walk to the ocean and jump on rocks. It might be better to skip this place and spend more time at Shitiping. There are also a few Instagram-worthy stops along the way, worthy of a 5-minute stop if time allows.

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Shitiping Scenic Recreation 石梯坪遊憩風景區

This place is amazing! Beautiful rocky cliffs, amazing scenery, and the kids have fun just climbing and jumping on the rocks. This place is big! We got here too late as it was already getting dark, wish we got to spend a few more hours here. I could easily enjoy half a day here and still wouldn’t want to leave! Highly recommended!

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Day 8 - Drive from Hualian to Taitung

Qiaotou Stinky Tofu 橋頭臭豆腐

Chishang Lunch Box Cultural History Museum 池上飯包文化故事館

Brown Avenue 台東伯朗大道

Lisong Hot Springs River 栗松溫泉

Naruwan Hotel 娜路彎大酒店

Do NOT follow our itinerary for this day! It did not work out for us. Learn from our mistakes!

This was our day from Hualian to Taitung. We were ambitious in trying to squeeze in the hike to Lisong Hot Spring River as the pictures of the natural hot spring is gorgeous! Bad idea! It’s an intense hike, and if you want to go, dedicate a full day for it. Otherwise, focus on the other spots and you’ll have a lot more fun.

The Stinky Tofu spot is touted to be one of the best in Taiwan, definitely worth a try. Chishang is known for it’s bamboo bento boxes that can be found everywhere in Taiwan. It happens to be very close to Mr Brown Avenue, which is a fun area to explore on electric quadcycles.

Our recommenation: Visit the stinky tofu if that’s your thing, otherwise skip it. Have the famous Chishang bento box lunch at Chishang, enjoy exploring Mr Brown Avenue, and get on your way to Taitung!

Qiaotou Stinky Tofu 橋頭臭豆腐

This shop looks very unassuming, with very simple tables and chairs like the typical street vendors. There’s no sign for the name of the restaurant, but you can find it by the crowd standing in front on the street. They add some extra pickled veggie to the standard cabbage and crispy fried tofu, the balance of flavors was delicious! We were glad we found it! Still though, you gotta love stinky tofu to enjoy it. If you’re not a stinky tofu fan, go ahead and skip it.

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Chishang 池上

This particular spot was difficult to find as Google Maps would give you the wrong address. Ask the locals for the restaurant with two train cars in front of it and they’ll point you to the right direction. There are plenty of Chishang lunch box restaurants around here so you can visit any of them. This particular spot has a mini museum upstairs and places to sit downstairs and is worth a quick visit. There are even dining tables in the old-school train cars, although they’re pretty packed. The food was decent, not spectacular, but it’ll satisfy your Chishang lunch box craving. Fill your tummy and head to the nearby Brown Avenue.

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Brown Avenue 台東伯朗大道

While you’ll see lots of cool pictures online, it’s hard to picture what it really is until you get here. It’s a restricted area with spectacular scenery, where cars and motored vehicles are not allowed. Go ahead and find a bike rental shop, they’ll help you park, then rent an electric quadcycle to ride around. The word “cycle” is misleading… you just need to turn the handle and it moves. Our girls had fun driving it around! Be sure to stop for nice pictures! This is the main attraction in today’s itinerary!

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Lisong Hot Springs River 栗松溫泉

This hike goes way down to the river, then you have to climb your way back up. The trail starts easy then gets very steep, and requires crossing rivers and walking on rocks while holding onto ropes. Bring gloves and be sure to get here in the morning. We were warned by fellow hikers that even those that were physically fit takes plenty of breaks coming back up because it’s so steep. We turned back fairly early and were still pretty out of breath on the way back. Not for the faint of heart… if you come, bring gloves and lots of water, and get here early! As for us, will have to give it another try next time!

Naruwan Hotel 娜路彎大酒店

This is a nice hotel! There are two different Naruwan, we chose this original one based on the reviews but they both seemed nice. It’s a resort hotel and the amenities were great! We booked a larger room with private balcony and it was nice!

There is a game room with free ping pong and pool tables to have some fun. The bar was a disappointment — They lure you there with free coupons, only to then tell you the coupons are only good for this one watered down drink. It’s not a full bar, you choose from a menu of 5 drinks, and the coupon is only good for the cheap one. A bait and switch, don’t fall for it.

There is a nice spa area, we visited it in the morning. A cool waterfall / water massage room was fun for the family! There are also small tubs of varying hot water temperatures to relax your muscles.

The dinner buffet here seems pretty good but we were too full to pay for the buffet so didn’t get to try it. There are not a lot of restaurant choices nearby, just a 7-Eleven, so plan accordingly. Breakfast selection was vast and quality was good, very enjoyable! Overall, this was our second favorite hotel during this trip and we’d love to come back some time!

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Day 9 - Explore Taitung, Drive to Kenting

Taitung Forest Park 臺東森林公園

Fugang Geopark 富岡地質公園(小野柳)

Haibin (Seashore) Park 海濱公園

Kenting Night Market 墾丁夜市

A full day of Taitung exploration before heading to Kenting!

We enjoyed the hot spas at the hotel before heading out, that was a nice treat! Taichung Forest Park was a beautiful place to get some exercise on the rental bikes. The kids had fun jumping on seashore rocks at Fugang Geopark. Haibin Park was a nice beach to hang out, although we didn’t have much time left by then so just did a quick stop before heading to Kenting. It’s about a 2.5-hour drive, and we wanted to get there in time to enjoy walk around the huge night market.

Taitung Forest Park 臺東森林公園

Taitung Forest Park is a nice stop for a few hours, the time it takes depends on your fitness level. We really enjoyed exploring the outdoors while getting some exercise on the bikes! The quality of these rental bikes aren’t great and some of our bikes would skip gears while riding, so choose carefully and test ride before leaving. The scenery here is quite nice, allow a few hours to explore!

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Fugang Geopark 富岡地質公園(小野柳)

This was a fun stop for about an hour to 1.5 hours. We are always fans of rocky shores where we can explore by jump around the rocks. The main area of the seashore is crowded, it’s worth it to go sideways and enjoy nature away from the crowds. There are some nice paved walking paths also. A very nice, scenic seaside stop!

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Haibin (Seashore) Park 海濱公園

This is a beautiful sandy beach, we would’ve enjoyed chilling here for half a day if time allowed! Since we were running out of day time and wanted to get to Kenting at a reasonable hour, we only spent about half an hour here taking pictures and walking around. Definitely a nice beach!

Voyagers tip: Cherimoyas are a specialty here, be sure to pick some up on the way to Kenting, you’ll see lots of stores selling them in the winter!

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Kenting Night Market 墾丁夜市

The Kenting Night Market is well known, and it’s huge! It’s just one main street, but it’s quite long, so make sure to allocate your stomach room accordingly. There are too many dishes to mention, most of them are delicious! Two items I’d suggest staying away from: the cubed beef and the crabs (except soft-shell crabs). The beef is of low quality that’s tough and chewy, and the stir-fry crabs are messy to eat while walking around. Softshell crabs are ok as you can eat the whole thing. Everything else is worth trying if it looks good to you!

Voyagers Tips: (1) Use the restroom before you go. There are no public restrooms available unless you eat at a sit-in restaurant. We had to ask nicely to use a restaurant restroom after buying food front the stand in the front. (2) Parking is a pain around here! We parked really far, almost as far as our hotel (Howard Johnson). If you’re staying at Howard Johnson, ask their golf cart shuttle to take you to the night market, which is just down the street. If you’re staying farther, just park at the hotel and take a taxi there.

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Day 10 - Explore Kenting

Kenting National Forest Recreation Area 墾丁國家森林遊樂區

Sail Rock 船帆石

Eluanbi Light House 鵝鑾鼻燈塔

Maobitou (Cat Nose) 貓鼻頭

There are lots to explore in the beautiful Kenting! Kenting is known for beaches, but it was too cold in December to swim, so we visited other spots instead. The National Forecast Recreation Area exceeded our expectation! It was surreal, with coral reef rocks in the forest, cool caves, and walking through narrow cracks between giant rocks. Definitely allocate half a day here! Sail Rock was a fun road-side quick stop for some pictures. Elaunbi Light House is a popular touristy area. Maobitou is a bit out of the way from the main road but a worthwhile stop with beautiful scenery, and of course, a rock that looks like a cat’s head. The Southern-most Point was on our list but we were on a tight schedule and had to skip it, hope to visit it next time. We had a full day with these four stops, then headed up to Kaohsiung for the night market!

Kenting National Forest Recreation Area 墾丁國家森林遊樂區

This forest recreation area far exceeded our expectation! It was one of Megan’s favorite spots in the whole trip! Due to tectonic plate shifts over time, you can see lots of coral reef rocks up in the forest, very surreal. There are two very cool caves, very unexpected in a forest near the ocean. There are tree roots from above that extends into the caves. Walking through narrow cracks of the canyons makes for some cool pictures! And you can get a nice view from the top of the tower in the park. Follow the map and you should be able to hit all the spots. Everything is by foot so allow about 3 hours for this park. There is a restaurant on top of the tower, prices seemed reasonable but we didn’t eat there as it was mostly western food. Definitely a highlight of our visit to Kenting!

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Sail Rock 船帆石

There should be a beach but we passed by quite a few tour buses and didn’t see the beach. Instead, we found a secret path by the side of the road into a coral area with coral rocks as far as the eyes can see. We could skip from rock to rock or walk in between the corral reefs (they’re already dead), which was fun and made for some cool pictures! The Sail Rock is a nice view but it’s a rock in the ocean and not reachable. It’s worth a quick 30-minute stop on the side of the road!

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Eluanbi Light House 鵝鑾鼻燈塔

The southern-most light house near the southern tip of Taiwan, this is a popular landmark that almost all tourists will visit. As such, there is plenty of parking and shops for the tour groups. The light house is a short walk away from the parking lot; there are paths to the bottom but the path ends without access to the beach, just the view. The large grassy area by the light house is a nice place to chill and relax before hitting the road again!

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Maobitou (Cat Nose) 貓鼻頭

We were glad we visited Maobitou! It was a bit out of the way on our drive up to Kaohsiung, but the ocean view here is beautiful, and seeing the cat rock was pretty cool! The walk up to the viewing point was pretty easy, and the breeze felt nice! We had a funny moment where some of us thought we saw the cat rock and were comparing notes on which one looked more like the cat, well before we actually got to the viewing spot of the actual cat nose rock!

Voyagers Tips: To make the small background rock appear bigger next to a person, take the picture far away from the subject then zoom in. It’s a cool trick whenever you want the background object to appear bigger.

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Day 11 - Kaohsiung

Cijin District 旗津

Great Harbor Bridge & Pier 2 Art District 大港橋&駁二藝術特區

Weiwuying Center for the Arts & MiMi Village 衛武營國家藝術文化中心 & 迷迷村

Love River, Love Boat 愛河愛之船

Liouhe Night Market 六合觀光夜市

Kaohsiung is the third largest city in Taiwan, yet I rarely hear about it as a travel destination. We didn’t expect much from the visit but ended up loving the city! The city has a modern and fun vibe, Cijin has beautiful beaches and a lively daytime street market. The Great Harbor Bridge is an engineering marvel, the Arts Center is beautifully modern, and the Love Boat was an enjoyable river cruise. The night market is massive and has tons of food options. What’s not to love?

Voyagers tips: Many hotels near city center don’t have on-site parking and you need to walk a few blocks to a parking lot where they have contracts with, or you can try your luck finding street parking. Pay special attention to parking arrangements when booking hotels.

Qijin District 旗津

Qijin is a peninsula in Kaohsiung with fun spots to visit. There are a few parks by the ocean, including the Windmill Park, Qijin Coastal Park and Cijin Beach, all are very popular in warmer weather and are pretty quite on New Years Day (1/1) when we visited. We visited the Coastal Park and got the black-sand beach to ourselves. There are bikes for rent to ride along the coast, but they require an app to rent the bikes, and each account requires one local phone number and can only rent one bike at a time so that didn’t work for us. It was still a nice stroll along the beach. The Cijin Old Street (旗津老街) daytime street market was super busy since it was a holiday, with lots of street food and street vendors. There is a harbor at the end of Old Street where you can take boat rides back to the city side but we didn’t try it. Not sure how busy it is at other times of the year but definitely a fun place to visit!

Voyagers tip: The official parking lot there was packed and there was a long line of cars waiting to get in. There are lots of people waving at us to go park with them, we decided to go with one of the old ladies, she led us by bike to go park in front of her house and charged us $6 for three hours. Money well spent, as we didn’t want to waste our time waiting 30min in the car for a parking spot in the parking lot!

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Great Harbor Bridge & Pier 2 Art District 大港橋&駁二藝術特區

Pier 2 is a nice walk with some street shops and wall murals. It’s quite a pleasant walk to the Harbor Bridge where there are even more shops and restaurants. We got there just before 3pm and walked across the bridge to find a sitting spot, then set up our tripod and waited for the bridge to open. Once the bridge closed again, we walked around the shop next to it and the open plaza area behind the shop. The girls had fun driving the dinosaur carts. :) We also had some yummy street vendor food like chocolate dinosaur waffles before heading back.

Voyagers tips: (1) Find a parking lot near Pier 2 and just park and walk. It’s a short and easy walk to get to Harbor Bridge. (2) Get there before 2:30 so you have time to find parking and walk to the harbor bridge. The guards will start clearing the bridge of pedestrians at around 2:50. (3) Once you cross the bridge, there is a small area next to a ramp by the water that was empty and was the perfect spot to set up our tripod for the bridge opening, with a place to sit by the ramp fences. It was a perfect spot that was overlooked by everyone else. (4) Set your phone to “Time-lapse” for a cool video of the bridge opening and closing. (5) There is a nice shop once you cross the bridge, and a nice shopping area behind it. Be sure to walk around and check out the area before heading back!

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Weiwuying Center for the Arts & MiMi Village 衛武營國家藝術文化中心 & 迷迷村

The exterior of the arts center is very open and green, a very nice outdoor space to relax and chill. We visited on New Years Day (1/1) and there was a huge food festival here as well as a free outdoor concert, it was a very happening place! The lively vibe was awesome! From the arts center, you can walk across the covered area and past the water fountains on the other side to get to Mi Mi Village for some nice pictures of the wall mural. Don’t follow Google Maps here, the location on the app not accurate. The big famous “closet” mural is on Jianjun 建軍路 Road right next to the 建軍站 Jianjun station, across the street from the Arts Center. There are some smaller wall murals on Shangyong Rd if you go down a bit farther. We didn’t get a chance to go inside the Arts Center, but I’m sure they have some really cool collections.

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Love River, Love Boat 愛河愛之船

The city lights are quite pretty at night, and the best way to appreciate them is on the Love Boat. The departing point is easily found on Google Map by looking for “Love River, Love Boat”. It was a very nice boat ride on the river, with open view of the cool buildings like the concert hall, as well as the famous Great Harbor Bridge. If you’re lucky and go on a weekend evening, you may even be able to catch the bridge opening at 7pm!

Voyagers tips: It takes off every 30 minutes, we went on the evening of January 1st and did not need to make reservations. There were quite a few folks on the boat but we were able to buy tickets for the next boat ride. The ride itself is pretty and not too long, probably around 15-20 minutes. It includes an informative explanation of the history of the river and the nearby buildings, and our tour guide was energetic and super nice! There is also a gondola option for those looking for a more romantic experience.

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Liouhe Night Market 六合觀光夜市

Of all the night markets we visited, and we visited a lot, Liouhe Night Market was the most visitor-friendly. There is a clean public restroom near the entrance, which I haven’t seen anywhere else. There are even some common dining tables near the entrance that’s not shop-specific so you can buy food from different stands and eat there together. Very thoughtful! There is even a big parking lot just a block away, also very rare. Lots of food options here, so be sure to come with a big appetite! In an unfortunate event, a street fight between two guys broke out right next to us, and one of the guys got beaten badly, which was traumatic for our girls to see. It ruined our mood and cut our visit short. We’ll have to come back again!

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Day 12 - Alishan Day 1

Chiayi Turkey Rice 嘉義火雞肉飯

Trail of Tea 茶之道步道

Eryanping Trail 二延平步道

We left Kaohsiung and made it to Alishan! Well, sort of. We make it to 石卓 which is a town close to Alishan National Park, as hotels inside Alishan is very limited and way overpriced. We drove through Chiayi and stopped at a popular restaurant for the famous Chiayi Turkey Rice, which was delicious! There are several popular hiking spots outside of Alishan National Park, and we visited two of them. The Trail of Tea is higher up in elevation and closer to Alishan National Park. It’s a bit hard to find, we had to ask the locals to find the trailhead. Eryanping Trail is near 石卓 and the trailhead is much easier to find. The hike up is beautiful and we got a really good workout climbing up, but the weather condition was not ideal and there was no sunset nor was there the sea of cloud. We still enjoyed the hike. And we got luck the next day, drove straight to the top for a stunning sunset. After the two hikes, we drove into town for dinner then went back to our vacation rental to relax and get ready for the next day.

To cut to the chase — 隙頂二延平步道觀雲平台 viewing platform is the BEST PLACE for sunset views! It is also highly recommended for sunrise. How is that possible? Well, you technically need to walk about 5-minutes from the platform to get to the best runrise spot, but close enough. We walked up and down the Eryanping Trail, but technically you can walk down the Tea Mist Trail and walk along the road to complete the loop, hitting both trails in the process.

Voyagers tips: (1) There are very few large hotels around here, so we stayed at a vacation rental called 找茶人家, which turned out to be pretty nice for a small vacation rental. It’s above a tea shop with the entrance and an elevator near the back. We booked two rooms, one room for two people and has an ensuite bathroom, the other fits three and has a private bathroom but that bathroom, while not shared with others, is located on the other side of the common area. Breakfast is included and you pre-order with them from a nearby breakfast place, delivered to the common area at 8am. (2) The famous “sea of cloud” only appears in certain ideal weather conditions so you need some luck to see it. The weather was too foggy.

Chiayi Turkey Rice 嘉義火雞肉飯

Turkey rice… that doesn’t sound too appealing, right? Turkey is usually dry and plain. Well, there’s a reason turkey rice is famous here. The shredded turkey tastes tender, the sauce is made with turkey rendering and soy sauce and is poured over the rice, it’s served with delicious side dishes at these restaurants that make the overall meal amazingly delicious!

There are so many turkey rice restaurants in Chiayi is borderline ridiculous, and it’s hard to know which ones are good without proper research. My guess is most of them are pretty good in order to survive here, but some are certainly more popular than others. We picked 民主火雞肉飯, which is closer to the freeway to minimize the detour, and while it was crowded, we only waited about 5 minutes before being seated. Here is a list of some of the most popular restaurants in Chiayi:

• 和平火雞肉飯

• 東門火雞肉飯

• 郭家雞肉飯

• 阿霞火雞肉飯

• 阿樓師火雞肉飯

• 民主火雞肉飯 (the one we tried, it was good!)

• 劉里長火雞肉飯

• 嘉義噴水雞肉飯

• 阿溪火雞肉飯

• 阿宏師火雞肉飯

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Trail of Tea 茶之道步道

This is a beautiful trail through a bamboo forest and by a tea farm! The initial path through the bamboo forest is beautiful and calming, take your time here and don’t rush it. The scenery actually got less impressive as we got close to the top, so it’s best to take your time and enjoy the view of the bamboo forest and the tea farm. The trail keeps going, but we turned around once we got to the very top. It’s a very doable hike, if you take your time. The best part is that this is a hidden gem, not too many tourists at all!

Voyagers tips: It was a bit hard to find for us, as there are no formal parking lots. Follow Google Maps directions, drive past a tiny temple on your left, and you’ll get to the trailhead. Here’s the address according to google: 605, Taiwan, Chiayi County, Alishan Township, 樂野村

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Eryanping Trail 二延平步道

This is a very popular trail near Alishan. The trailhead is at the bottom of the hill, and the hike up is beautiful. We got to see tea farm workers working during our hike, which was pretty cool. The hike is quite steep, we definitely worked up a sweat on this trail, but the trail is full of stairs and is in great condition. As mentioned above, we took the out-and-back way from the Eryanping trailhead, but based on our research, you can walk up the Eryanping trail and back down the Tea Mist trail to the east, then walk around the road back to the Eryanping trailhead if you want to hit both hiking trails.

For sunset views, we would recommend driving straight up to the platform so you can stay longer up there and not worry about walking back down in the dark.

After the hike, we drove into town for dinner. There are four restaurants in 石卓 but they have pretty much an identical menu with identical dishes. There are also two convenient stores there.

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Day 13 - Alishan National Forest

Alishan National Forest 阿里山國家森林遊樂區

MingFang Tea Plantation 明芳茶園

Cloud Waterfall

Sunset at Eryanping Viewing Platform 隙頂二延平步道觀雲平台

We made it to Alishan National Forest! The National Forest is well known and the beauty lives up to the hype! Once you get to the top, follow the trails on the map. The trails are clearly marked and well maintained. There are breathtaking views everywhere! There is also a nice plaza with plenty of food shops for a nice lunch stop. Allow for 3-4 hours to fully explore the park, it’s beautiful here!

There are several worthwhile places to visit outside of the national forest, so plan your day accordingly! Alishan is known for its mountain tea, and we wanted to find a tea place that doesn’t just sell tea but provides the whole tea experience, and we were lucky to find MingFang Tea Plantation. The owners were super nice and we really enjoyed our experience, read below for more details. We even caught the cloud waterfall outside the tea shop, it was such a pleasant surprise!

Eryanping Viewing Platform is arguably the best place to view sunset (and sunrise around the corner), and we got really lucky with the ideal sea cloud conditions on this day! By far the most breathtaking sunset we have ever seen in our lives!!

Voyagers tips: Remember to get to Alishan early (before 9am) to park onsite!

Alishan National Forest 阿里山國家森林遊樂區

Alishan is a must-visit in Taiwan, and the views live up to its reputation! The scenery is beautiful around every corner! Take your time exploring the trails, they are all clearly marked on the map. We enjoyed exploring every path on the map! There is also a nice food court area next to the trails that serve up some delicious food and snacks, it’s a good spot for lunch. Just don’t expect a lot of seating areas with dining tables. It took us about four hours to explore the area and enjoy lunch up there, and we enjoyed every minute of it!

Voyagers tip: (1) Get to Alishan National Park before 9am if you want to park in its inside parking lot. We got there at around 8:50am in January and the spots were almost gone. (2) Buy a map or take a picture of the map poster at the visitor center. You’ll want it handy as you explore the trails. (3) Once you park, take the train or shuttle bus to the top where the walking trails begin. Shuttle buses come frequently, whereas the train is every 30 minutes or so. We took the shuttle up and train back and that work out well. It takes about three hours to explore the national park by foot, and there is a gap in the train schedule during lunch time, so plan your day accordingly if you want to take the train back. The train is nice in concept but the ride itself wasn’t all that special. The natural beauty at the top are the highlights.

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MingFang Tea Plantation 明芳茶園

This was an unexpected nice find! There are tea shops everywhere in Alishan area, but we didn’t just want to buy tea, we wanted the whole tea plantation and tea tasting experience. We looked up a tea shop next to MingFang on google maps and bumped into the MingFang owners by accident. It was fate! The owners were nice and friendly, encouraged us to roam around their the plantation, even helped us take pictures and gave us straw hats to pose. Afterwards, they invited us in to the shop and patiently gave us a free tea tasting while explaining everything there worth noting about the different teas. The whole tea tasting was conducted in Chinese, so if you don’t speak any English, you may want to bring a translator along. They have a tea that won first place in a recent tea contest, and they are very proud of it! There were no charges for roaming around the plantation and for the tea tasting just for our group. Half way through our tasting, they noticed the cloud waterfall forming across the street and encouraged us to take a break and go check it out. It was amazing! We loved the whole experience and happily bought some premium-priced tea from them to compensate them for the fun experience. The entire experience was awesome!

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Cloud Waterfall

This is one of those 可遇不可求 experiences that you just can’t plan for, we were lucky enough to experience it. The heavy fog/cloud falls over the top of the hill like a waterfall. It took place right across the street from MingFang Tea Shop. We have never seen anything like it!

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Sunset at Eryanping Viewing Platform 隙頂二延平步道觀雲平台

If you’re lucky, you’ll catch the sunset experience of a lifetime! We went back to this platform the second day in hope of catching the perfect sunset, and boy did we get lucky! The sunset was breathtaking! This is a well-known spot for the famous sunset so get here early to find parking and pick out a spot. We got here a bit late but was lucky enough to squeeze in a parking spot and find a nice spot for viewing. The road up there is narrow so drive carefully. The views are just surreal! Do expect a crowd, as this amazing viewing spot is popular. At least the tour bus people can’t get up the small street so that helps keep the crowd size from getting too crazy.

Voyagers tips: Bring a few tripods! And use the time-lapse mode on your phone camera for best results.

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Day 14 - Sun Moon Lake 日月潭

Sun Moon Lake Bike Path 日月潭自行車步道

Ita Thao Shopping Street 伊達邵商店街

Fleur de Chine Hotel 雲品溫泉酒店

Ranked one of the Top 10 bike trails in the world, Sun Moon Lake Bike Path is how we started our exploration of the area! The drive from Alishan to Sun Moon Lake took about 2.5 hours. After the bike path, we drove to Ita Thao shopping street for some delicious street food, then checked in and spent the evening at Fleur de Chine, enjoying the amenities and food there. Fleur de Chine was the most expensive hotel of our trip, but it was also our favorite hotel! Highly recommended!

Sun Moon Lake Bike Path 日月潭自行車步道

This famous bike path around the lake is 30km in total length. You don’t have to ride the whole length to enjoy it though, and given the quality of the rental bikes, we wouldn’t recommend it either. The section from Shuishe Pier 水社碼頭 to the Xiangshan Visitor Center 向山行政暨遊客中心 is a popular section, and that’s the section we rode. There are quite a few bike rental places at Shuishe Pier, and they are negotiable, so compare rates. We picked up pretty basic bikes (with gears) for $3 each, can’t complain about the price! Just don’t expect high quality bikes. The scenery is beautiful along the way. It’s about 3.3km each way according to Google Maps, not too far, and you’ll want to make a few stops along the way for pictures.

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Ita Thao Shopping Street 伊達邵商店街

This is the biggest shopping street with numerous street food vendors to choose from. They have unique food choices that are must-tries! The chicken wings stuffed with stick rice was a group favorite. The spiral fried potato isn’t unique to this place but was tasty. Rice wrapped in chicken skin was interesting. Definitely plan for a meal here!

Voyagers tips: There is an underground parking lot right below the Wyndham Hotel at the entrance of the Ita Thao shopping street, it’s super convenient!

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Fleur de Chine Hotel 雲品溫泉酒店

Ah, Fleur de Chine, where you feel like a VIP! This actually wasn’t our first choice, as our well-traveled friend highly recommended The Lalu Hotel, but it was all booked up months in advance, so we picked Fleur de Chine, which seems to be the #2 hotel around here. We loved it! Starting at check-in, there was a designated receptionist who led us to a table where they serve you drinks and explain everything to us, and asked us to relax while she took our passports to do check-in for us, then brought our card keys back to us. There was a live music performance in the evening, a game room, a gym, a huge spa area, a DIY bath-salt activity in the morning… the list goes on and on! The buffet dinner included in the reservation was AMAZING! We liked it better than the expensive buffets in Vegas! And the one thing we have never seen anywhere else… a pillow-selection cart that goes to your room so you can choose from their 20+ pillow selections, from thick to thin, firm to soft, you pick the one you want and they will put it in a pillow case for you. Our younger daughter is petite and usually finds hotel room pillows too high for her, she loved being able to pick a thin one that’s perfect for her neck! The whole hotel felt luxurious, the staff was super friendly, and everything was sparkling clean, including the spa locker area where guests can change and shower. Oh, and we loved the breakfast buffet there, but if you so choose, you can order room service and have a robot deliver the food to your room. They will call you when the robot arrives at your door. How cool is that?

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Day 15 - Sun Moon Lake to Taichung

Fleur de Chine - Morning 雲品溫泉酒店

Ci’en Pagoda 慈恩塔

Cable Car / Ropeway 日月潭纜車站

E-Paddle Boat at Ita Shao Pier 伊達邵碼頭

Dinner in Taichung 台中市

Evergreen Laurel Hotel 長榮桂冠酒店

Our last full day in Taiwan before flying out on Day 16… We had the delicious breakfast buffet and enjoyed more activities before checking out of Fleur de Chine. The hike to Ci’en Pagoda was a good workout and the views on top lives up to its reputation as THE best view of the lake from anywhere. Beautiful! The cable car was an enjoyable ride, especially in the glass-bottom “crystal” carts. We did the tour boats before so we opted for e-paddle boat this time, which wasn’t quite as exciting as we had hoped but we made the most of it. That concluded our visit to Sun Moon Lake as we drove to Taichung to drop off Alison at the HSR station and met our cousins for dinner. It was so nice to see our cousins again! It’s been ages since we last met, we have all changed so much! It felt so nice catching up on old times!!

Fleur de Chine - Morning 雲品溫泉酒店

The hot spas felt so nice in the morning! It was hard to get out. The breakfast buffet selection was tremendous, we had to carefully allocate our appetite! The build-your-own guabao (Taiwanese burger) was surprisingly delicious, with the moist buns, deliciously tender pork and nice finishing peanut powder and cilantro! No beer dispenser in the morning though. The girls got to do the DIY bath salt projects and try out the rock wall climb before we checked out of this amazing hotel. Definitely our favorite hotel this trip!

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Ci’en Pagoda 慈恩塔

We learned from the hotel staff that the top of this pagoda offers the best view of the lake, and they were absolutely right! There is a convenient parking lot at the trail head with a bathroom. The hike was steep but not too long, very doable. Once you get to the pagoda, you still need to climb up the stairs to get to the top. The 360 view on top is totally worth the climb. Just gorgeous!

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Cable Car / Ropeway 日月潭纜車站

The cable car is another must-do here. It leads to a tourist village at the top where you can learn about the aborigine culture here, but even if you don’t want to visit the village, the ride itself is still fun and relaxing. There is a separate line for the “crystal” cars, which only one in six or so are crystal, but we were surprised to learn that this line was just as fast as the other one. I guess not everyone wants that experience. The ride is scenic and calming, a good relaxing stop after our hike where we enjoyed the view.

Voyagers tips: There is a small free parking lot across the street from the entrance, or you can pay for parking at the large lot here.

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E-Paddle Boat at Ita Shao Pier 伊達邵碼頭

Most tourists here opted for the tourist boat that takes you between three piers, but since we took it years ago and weren’t super impressed, we decided to do the e-paddle boat instead. What we didn’t realize was that the paddle boats are confined to a relatively small area, and the boats go pretty slowly. And oh, there are no paddles, just the handle bars. We kept ourselves entertained by thinking of the craziest things we could do with the relatively slow speed. That, and living like outlaws by going around the area-limit cones. We still had fun, but this isn’t on our Recommended list.

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Dinner in Taichung 台中市

Unlike our prior trip to Taiwan where we spent most of the time visiting relatives and hanging out, this trip was all about hitting the tourist spots and experiencing everything Taiwan has to offer. As such, we didn’t have much time to visit relatives, so it was really nice that we were able to have two meals with our cousins, this night with Ivan’s dad’s side, and the next day with Ivan’s mom’s side. It’s been way too long, almost couldn’t recognize some of them! Good times!!

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Evergreen Laurel Hotel 長榮桂冠酒店

This hotel was highly recommended as a luxury hotel in Taichung. After being spoiled at Fleur de Chine, however, this was a bit of a disappointment. It’s a nice, classy hotel, has everything we would expect of a nice business hotel, just nothing special. Breakfast buffet also didn’t quite live up to our expectations; it was decent, but we expected more from a hotel of such high reputation. We’ll probably save our money and stay somewhere else next time.

Day 16 - Goodbye Taiwan

Lunch with family

Third Market in Taichung 臺中市第三市場

Airport

After breakfast at the hotel, we met up with Ivan’s relatives on his mom’s side. It was so nice to see everyone! Ivan’s aunt cooked up an absolute feast! Afterwards, we did some shopping at the Third Market where Ivan frequented with his mom as a child, then headed to the airport. The Oriental Lounge could be accessed with Priority Pass and was a nice stop before boarding.

Goodbye Taiwan! We had an amazing time and the girls got to see a lot more of Taiwan. We hope they got to experience and fall in love with Taiwan, and will return to Taiwan often in the future!

Lunch with Family

We were so thankful that our relatives took time off of their busy schedule to meet with us at a short notice. Ivan’s aunt prepared an amazing meal, everything was so delicious! Really happy to see everyone doing so well!

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Third Market in Taichung 臺中市第三市場

When Ivan was little, he came to this market with his mom often, this was where grocery shopping was done. And the clothing prices are unreal! We walked around, did some clothes/socks shopping, and hurried off to the airport. Too bad we didn’t have more time to try out some food and drinks here, they looked delicious!

Voyagers tips: Zhongxiao Road Night Market (忠孝路夜市) is right next to the Third Market and has the absolute best night market food we have ever tasted anywhere in Taiwan. The stinky tofu here is, in our opinion, the best we’ve ever tasted, even better than the famous place in Hualian! The oyster omelette is authentic and tasted amazing! Even the meat ball, sausage sandwich, stew dishes and Taiwanese burritos here are all amazing, we are salivating just thinking about it!

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Tauyuan TPE Airport

All good things come to an end, and just like that, our amazing Taiwan trip comes to an end. We returned our rental car near the airport and got dropped off at the airport by the rental company. They actually just drove us there in our rental car. Two lounges were accessible with our Priority Pass membership, which was nice. We chose the Oriental Lounge which seemed to have more Asian food selections. The cook-to-order counter was a nice touch!

Voyagers tips: (1) Most gates have a separate underground waiting area after you scan the boarding pass at the counter, so don’t wait to the last minute to approach the counter. Get it scanned and go through to wait in the waiting room. (2)The rest areas in Taiwan are very nice, with plenty of delicious food choices in addition to the clean restrooms. Some of them are nice enough to be destinations themselves! If you’re driving your own car, definitely plan for some rest-area stops and check them out!

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