Is Taiwan worth visiting?
Taiwan is a great country with tasteful food, friendly people, enjoyable weather and beautiful nature. Is it the best country ever? No, it is not. Although it’s a great country we missed some impressive natural things which you find in other locations. Nevertheless, I can really recommend it, certainly for less experienced people. It’s a safe country and a perfect fit for a first far away travel.
Practical information
Route
Taiwan is not a big country and most convenient is to ride either clockwise or counter clockwise around the island. We selected to go clockwise and in the end we rode 1539 km in 2 weeks. We decided to return our rental car before spending our last days in Taipei.
Can you easily drive yourself?
The short answer is: Yes. The roads are in good condition, they ride on the right side of the road and most Taiwan people are disciplined drivers. There are a few specialities that we have noticed during our trip.
Firstly it’s important to realise that maximum speed is very limited and that outside the Taipei region you should count for an average speed of 45 to 50 km per hour. Yes, covering 100 km will easily take you 2 hours. At one side this is due to the low speed limit, but also due to the hundreds of traffic lights you will come across. Someting I noticed was that the Taiwan people accelerate really really really slow at traffic lights. A convenient thing is that they have “pre traffic lights” at crucial points. It can be when you’ll need to reduce speed or when there’s a traffic light behind the corner, the pre-traffic light will inform you there is an upcoming traffic light and it shows already the current color. It was a little confusing in the beginning which made I was stopping at the wrong location.
Most major traffic signs are in both Chinese and English, but it means also plenty of them are not translated into English. With Google Maps navigation we managed to get everywhere we wanted, and only had a few awkward moments like when we ended up on a weighbridge for trucks where the people quicky informed us to just move on.
Some final tips:
- As we spent quite some hours in our rental car during our trip, we downloaded our favorite Spotify lists up front, so we could listen at them without using roaming data.
- We rented our car at Avis to make sure we had a trustworthy company. We rented a lower car class as we always get a car upgrade due to our American Express membership.
- There are plenty of speed cameras so make sure you obey to the speedlimit.
National parks
Yehliu Geopark
Yehliu is a cape on the north coast of Taiwan. It’s known for Yehliu Geopark, a landscape of honeycomb and mushroom rocks eroded by the sea. Well-known formations named for their shapes include the Queen’s Head and Dragon’s Head. This park is a must visit and you would probably want to spend up to 1 hour or 1 hour 30 minutes. We took the time to go at the far most point, but if you are short of time you can easily skip this part of the hike.
Taroko National Park
This is really one of the highlights of Taiwan and you might want to spend more than 1 day in this National Park. The most impressive is the tunnel of the 9 turns where you can admire the marvelous gorge. Be aware that there is no parking closeby. There is place for 3 or 4 cars so when you are lucky or very early it might work out, but I would not count on it. You either continue for 2 km and walk back or you take the bus. We walked to the gorge and hitch-hiked back to our car.
- Lüshiu Wenshan: This trail is a hard one. It’s labelled as mounteneer trail and that’s correct. There are hundreds of stairs, chains and ropes that you need to conquer during this trail. At the start there was a sign it would take up to 5 – 6 hours to do this trail. As it’s only around 7 km that sounded a lot to us. But please don’t underestimate this trail, it took us little more than 2 hours and we are quite sportive and kept up the pace. It’s a hard one, but we didn’t see any other people and the views and environment was awesome. Also worth mentioning is to be aware for Asian Hornet wasps. We left them alone and so did they with us.
- Shakadang Trail: Certainly the most famous one and there is a lot of parking for cars and touring cars. We had high expectations as everybody mentions this one. We started early and were alone heading to the end of the trail. It is a nice trail, but an out-and-back is not our favorite type of trail. When we were heading back and got closer to the starting point it got more an more crowded to an extent it wasn’t pleasant any more. So crowded, people everywhere, and the parking lot was so busy. Go early to get the best out of it.
- Baiyang trail: This trail has a bit of everything. You start with a dark tunnel of a couple of hundred meters where you can see bats if you pay attention. Later on you’ll see a big waterfall and the impressive river. But the highlight is at the end where you reach the Water Curtain Cave. For some reason we didn’t catch the details on this part up front and were little suprised to see that people were carying train clothes while weather was great. It quickly became clear when we reached this cave as you can enter this cave, but water comes from the ceiling making it a water curtain. Very special experience and unless you want to be completely wet, take rain clothes or a poncho with you. We were lucky and some people leaving gave us their poncho. We used it and passed it on to other people arriving. Quite efficient. It’s just a pity it’s again an out-and-back trail. And yes, it might be smart to put your shoes aside, and go barefoot into the cave, like most people.
Strava tracks
Yushan National Park
While heading to this NP we spotted Mumu House a long te road and as we still needed to lunch we decided to stop there. It looked awesome, was very cosy inside and the food was delicious. The only problem was that it was busy and it took quite some time. Add to this that the start of the Walami trail is still quite a drive once you arrive at the national park. We could only start to walk around 14:30. This out-and-back trail is really worth your time and we enjoyed the type of track, waterfalls and views. Although some fogg limited the views at some moments.
Kenting National Park
This National Park spans the Hengchun Peninsula at the southern tip of the island and is Taiwan’s oldest national park on the main island. This area is known for its tropical climate and sunshine, scenic mountain and beaches. The beaches are nice, but not amongst the most beautiful we have seen. In Kenting you can visit Cape Eluanbi, the southernmost point of Taiwan where you can find a statue to mark the point.
There are different location within Kenting National park where you can go for a hike. We selected Sheding national park where you can spot birds, see the coastal line and the forest. Our hike was reduced as parts of the park where closed due to recent Typhone Koinu. Clean up will take quite some time. Luckily we could still access the watchtowers to get an impression of the area. At these points you could feel the strong wind very well. (see movie later) We spotted some very unique rock formations inside the park. However, if you are in a hurry, and don’t have much time, you can easily skip this hike. (Strava track 2.43 km)
After a day in nature you can satisfy your hunger at the Kenting night market. It’s spread across the coastal road and you will have plenty of choice what to eat. As the road is not closed for traffic, you will need to keep on paying attention on the cars. Certainly when you want to cross the road once you have spotted yet again another food stall you want to explore.
Apero time!
One thing we missed in Taiwan is the culture of having a drink or an apero. You don’t have cosy bars or terrace to enjoy a drink. At least not like we know it in Europe. We learnt from the past that bringing your own bottle of alcohol might be a smart thing to do on travels for certain occasions. Like this we were able to create our own apero moment, like the picture above where enjoyed a Gin & Tonic on the roof top terrace from our hotel, including free ocean views.
Night markets
You will find the night markets everywhere in Taiwan and they mostly go on from 16:00 till 23:00. There are variants in crowded streets, along side busy streets and some are in some squares. They all have one thing in common: delicious food. There were mostly local people that came for dinner or that picked up their food to take with them home. We did came across some other tourists, but often we were the only ones present. There are dozens of stands with all kinds of food, although mostly fried. It’s not always trivial to figure out what the food is, but then Google Translate (picture mode) comes in handy. Aim your phone to the menu and instantly you will get some translation which should get you a fairly good idea about ingredients. We did receive sometimes insane translations, but mostly it was fine. It’s crucial as most people don’t speak a single word of English. Make sure to bring cash money as you won’t be able to use any of your creditcards.
Cities
Tainan
The oldest city of Taiwan is worth your time. We arrived by the end of the day before checking in into our hotel. The location was perfect as we were very close to Old Shennong street. It’s a cosy street which you should visit after sunset because the lights makes it very special. There are some shops, restaurants and even a cocktail bar, which obviously we tried. On the corner with the main street you can find the Izakay Japan BBQ restaurant which was a great choice. We can different plates to share in a cosy setting at the bar. As we spend 2 days in the city the second evening we went to the Night Market which for once is not in a street but on a square. It’s crowded and you won’t see much tourists, but as usual in Taiwan, you will find delicious street food. We enjoyed ourselves strolling around and consuming several different dishes.
During our second day we followed a hike from Lonely Planet and ended up with 19 km By the end of the day we were happy we arrived at the hotel and Old Shennong Street. We went to the “We Drink Beer Company” and bars like these are very rare in Taiwan. I won’t disclose how you enter the bar, but I can share that we didn’t figured it out ourselves but with a little help we were able to order their beer tasting option. 4 little glasses with different tastes of beer. During the hike we saw plenty of temples and honestely, by the end of the walk we had enough of it. We reached our quotum of temples 🙂 A nice layed back environment was the Blueprint culture and creative part where you can admire plenty of graffiti artworks.
Taichung
We can’t say much on Taichung as we didn’t spend that much time in the city. On the west side of Taiwan you pass more cities which means less nature. In stead of spending time in the city we went to the Dakeng Trail which is unique and extremely heavy. When I searched for information I always saw pictures of some stairway made of trees. I wrongly assumed there is like 1 stairway that everybody is taking pictures of. The reality is that there are kilometers of stairway to overcome. It’s such a unique setting. We went barehands but noticed that other people were wearing gloves, which might be a smart idea. There are ropes which you can use on the stairs and after a longer time, you can start to feel it to your hands. Going up was heavy and intense, but what really should not be underestimated is going down as it requires a lot of concentration. A truly unique experience and we can strongly recommend that you go check it out yourselves. As usual, here is our Strava track (8km and 1.000.000 stairs)
In the evening upon arrival we explored the area and ended up in the Cultural Heritage Park before heading to the night market. You can find some sculptures and graffiti which are nice to see. Taichung quick city walk
Kaohsiung
This is a city you should not skip as there are quite some unique things to see. We arrived around noon from Kenting area and after check-in to the hotel we started for our city walk. Few meters later we spotted feet massage and after all that walking in the last days we went for it. A luxury moment and how wonderful it was! For European standards it was also quite cheap so a no brainer to us. Afterwards we felt like reborn and took off for what would end up a huge 10 km city walk.
We wandered via 85 Sky Tower in the direction of the harbour and afterwards we continued our journey in the direction of the Formosa Boulevard metro station, which you must visit. You can find a movie at the bottom of the page.
In the morning, before continuing our journey we went to check out the Zouying area which is famous for the Dragon and Tiger Pagodas. Unfortunately these were under construction during our visit. If you Google them you will find some incredible pictures. But next to these Pagodas there are other things worth your time like the Lotus pound and the insane dragon which you can explore inside.
Taitung
Fo Guang Shan Monastery
A must visit! Located around 40 minutes from Kaohsiung you will find Fo Guang Shan Monastery. This place is extraordinary and impressive. It is huge and I can’t imagine how much this must have cost. I initially wrongly assumed this was a very old place, but during our visit we learnt it was only built around 1980s. The museum was closed on the day of our visit. We didn’t intend to visit the museum, but if you want to, you want to check out the openingdays upfront. Entrance fee for the centre itself was free and the domain is huge. We walked over 4 km (Strava track) and mainly the view on the 8 pagodas and the huge Budha statue was very impressive. The status itself measures 40 meters, but if you add the socket and building it adds up to 108 meter. Even from a distance the statue is impressive.
Tourist traps
In my opinion there are 2 tourist traps in Taiwan. First you have Sun Moon Lake, which is a nice are from nature point of view, but I don’t understand agree with the fuzz they created about the lake itself. From space the shape of the lake would reflect the combination of the sun and a new moon. That is a nice marketing message, but it’s not that you can observe the shape of the lake around or on the lake. Secondly they provide lake cruises which go from the one side of the lake to the other side. It all fell very commercial to us and obviously we skipped it. Through internet searches we had high expectations and as we read that we would need several days to cover everything, we initially thought of staying multiple days. However, after a half a day and evening we left the next day after breakfast. We covered it all to our opinion. From riding with our bike around the lake, explore the small night market and visit the Ci En Pagoda. Now don’t get me wrong, it stays a nice area but in the end it’s just a regular lake and don’t expect any marvels of nature.
The second tourist trap was Rainbow village. Although it was free and original, the things you find on internet are not inline with the real life experience. We have spent a little bit of time before heading further, but I would not recommend it if you are short in time or have to make a huge detour.
Taipei
We dropped our rental car at the airport before spending the last couple of days in the capital of Taiwan. It’s convenient to travel from the airport to the city center. During our stay we used a metro card which brought us everywhere in the city. Things which can’t be missed are the impressive Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall and Elephant Mountain. Taipei 101 was officially listed as world’s tallest building when it opened on 31st of December in 2004. It now is on second place as it was passed by Burj Khalifa in 2009. There is a secret Starbuck’s in the building, but you can only access it with a valid reservation which needs to be made the day upfront the latest. To finish off our awesome roadtrip we treated ourselves with a dinner in the 2 star Michelin restaurant Molino de Urdaniz.
Our several city hikes can be found here:
Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall
A powerful building with a statue of Chiang Kai-shek flanked by armed soldiers. Between 9 am and 5 pm you can watch the hourly change of the guards. Its impressive and worth to attend. Make sure to arrive a little before the hour to get a good spot.
Ximending
Ximending is a neighborhood and shopping district in the Wanhua District and is a Pedestrian Area for shopping. The screens near the metro station have some resemblance with Times Square and Piccadilly Circus. The place gets extremely busy certainly in the weekend. There are often artists or music groups performing on the street hoping to become the next big thing.
Elephant Mountain
A famous hike is the Elephant Mountain trail which will take you 30 to 45 minutes. The trail exists out of hundreds of steps. In the weekend and towards sunset it get very busy. You will be rewarded with marvelous views over the skyline of Taipei.
Conclusion
Taiwan is a great country with friendly people, good weather and great food. Roads are in good condition, traffic is smooth and drivers are friendly. It’s a great mix of nature and cultural which means that everyone will find something. The night markets can’t be missed and if you eat at one in the beginning of your trip, you will mostly search every day for a night market. Don’t expect terraces or bars like you would experience in Europe. The east part is more about nature and old villages while the western side has more bigger cities. Don’t forget to explore the options for a massage as prices are low compared to European standards.