Is there a direct bus route from Taichung to Hualien which would travel across the map instead of taking the train and going around the coast line? If it exists is it necessarily faster or cheaper?
I know you can get a but up to Lishan and then connect but I don’t think it goes down to Taroko but on to Ilan.
In any case, it is slow. Consider taking your bike on the bus to Hehuanshan and cruising 90km downhill into the gorge.
Train is best. It’s two hours to Taipei (an hour on the high speed) and the new titling trains to Hualien take less than two hours.
If you really want to take the bus call the 24-hour tourist hotline and see if the whole route is still open: 0800 011 765
You can take the new Toroko express all the way from Taichung to Haulien. My wife and kids did this trip last CNY; they said it was fast( 4-5 hours) and comfortable. If you could take the bus I’m sure it would on some old and shitty one.
Kent
I’m interested too. You say it takes 4-5hours for a bus to do taichung hualien, that sounds quite fast
I have never taken this route, but google maps says it takes almost 7 hours by car (for only 170km). I know googlemap seems to be irrevelant in taiwan for trip duration calculation, but I guess going through the mountains isn’t really fast
Does anyone know how long a taichung-hualien trip takes by car ?