I know the routes available and I would rather prefer to make it a slow ride and enjoy my first driving expirience on that route down south, never made it further down than about 30 km south of Hualien. Unforutnatley it will be a rather rushed thing, need to be in Hualien on the 4th till about 5pm and than leave with the car and go to Kaohsiung City.
The governement booked our hotel already in Kaohsiong but the main point is that we need to be there before afternoon to do our stuff there again.
The question now is whats the best way to drive that. I will have to do it late afternoon and arrive rather late in Kaohsiung but we also need to survive the trip and be fit on the next day.
The routes I was thinking were:
going down on the east coast and cross over on route 20
Never took that road and not sure how the mountain road is after dark or how it’s condition is in this days. I can just guess on how long that trip will take, driving on mountain routs can vary very much and depands on how well the roads are, etc. I don’t mind driving in mountains or winding roads, Austria has plenty of that too and I drove a fair bit on the northern parts of the island too. Any suggestions on the road conditions and estimated driving times would still be very very welcome.
go down on the east coast and cross over further south on the route 9 and drive up on the west coast again
That option came in mind when I saw how winding the 20 is. This route should be a fair way around with additional kilometers going first south and than up north again but it might safe quite some time in the mountains. Again, this is are all new roads to me besides the part from Kaohsiong down south towards Kenting (or the other way around this time). Any one more expirienced on that road can comment on wheter that one is preferable to the one above or not.
go a bit up north on the east coast, take the route 8 through Taroko and than the 14 “jia” out to Puli and than down on the west coast.
Another option would be crossing over the highes point, I did this once in late December 2006. The roads were fine till a fair bit above the actuall narrow part but were higher up quite destroyed from typhoons that year. It was more driving through a big construction site and a bit tricky to drive (with a 8 seater that time and a couple of Taiwanese city drivers with no clue about driving in this conditions). So again, just can guess on how long it would take this time, no idea of road conditions and how much the link from Puli improved (althought that time I went north rather than south anyways.)
go the whole thing back up on the east coast, and use freeways 5 and the 3 or/and 1
This is the only one which I drove on all parts, still a rather unpleasant thought of going up all the way to Taipei again just to directly start the drive down all the way south to Kaohsiung. It should be the route with the most stable road conditions I guess, but it’s also far off a easy and fast trip.
Ok, any help, suggestions, tips and informations on road conditions are very welcome. Oh, and there is no option like taking train or so, we need to transport quite some trainings equipment (free sports camps for kids to introduce them to different kind of sports, ours is football (soccer) so we need to load up our car with all the stuff we need.
Planing was done by the Taiwanese government, not from us. I guess they have no clue about infrastructure on their island (2nd Sanzhong, 4th Hualien, 5th Kaohsiong, than 2 days break and Kaohsiong again, makes you thinking if they ever drove that roads or can read maps )
The best way is to take the coastal road and spend one or two nights in Dulan. Then drive past Taidong and there is a road leading to a town called LION that takes you across the lower reaches of the Coastal Range. Then you are in Pingdong county. That looks like option 2. I’ve done it many times. It takes between 60 to 90 minutes to get through the mountains. The road largely follows a valley so it is not too bad. It is less windy than the other route and faster. Once you are through the mountains it is easy going to Kaushiang.
That’s no option on this one, I need to be in Hualien till about 5pm on the 4th and the next training starts at 2pm on the 5th in Kaohsiung (and we need some time there to build up and get ready too) so it’s just a go as fast as possible from A to B (or H to K in this case )
Thanks for the other information. Any idea how long the drive from Hualien down to the point where the 9 starts crossing the mountains is? I think the other side up to Kaoshiong shouldnt be too long either, althought the last time I was on that roads was around CNY 2 years ago and it was crowded and took ages too.
We’ve done that journey the long way (20 - the Nan Heng). Think it took abt 8 hrs to get to somewhere on the west side, and we weren’t carrying much luggage. Nearly ran out of petrol (that was my fault ) over the mountains. The next day, still took 2-3 hrs to Kaohsiung IIRC.
Going all the way on the 9 (past Taidong, and then over to Pingdong), will be quicker, believe me. And much less tiring for the driver(s).
[quote=“Nuit”]We’ve done that journey the long way (20 - the Nan Heng). Think it took abt 8 hrs to get to somewhere on the west side, and we weren’t carrying much luggage. Nearly ran out of petrol (that was my fault ) over the mountains. The next day, still took 2-3 hrs to Kaohsiung IIRC.
Going all the way on the 9 (past Taidong, and then over to Pingdong), will be quicker, believe me. And much less tiring for the driver(s).[/quote]
The 9 actually pops out well south of Pintung (Fongkang) on the west coast, but given your time parameters there isn’t any other option for you. Look for a 6-7.5 hour drive depending on traffic.
That’s what I was guessing too. The way north and than with the freeways would take also about 6 hours I guess (1 1/2 to 2 hours from Hualien to Taipei, than about 4 to 5 hours to Kaohsiong).
Thanks everybody for the informations and help, will let you know how everything went.
Coastal east coast route would be safe to drive at night. It would likely take you about 4 hours from Hualien to Taitung and another 3 hours to Fong Kang and then from there about 2 hours to Kaohsiung. So bout a bit less then 10 hours of driving if going down the coast. Which is drivable at night without real problems.
Driving taroko to lishan takes about 4 hours, then about another 4 hours over to the west coast highway I would say, roughly. then say 2 hours on the freeway to kaohsiung would make it roughly ten hours also. But this route would be doable at night but more difficult to keep a good speed. And less safe in my opinion.
Driving back up to Taipei from Hualien should be something like 3 hours to Suao and then another 3 hours to the number 3 freeway I would say, roughly. Then another 4 hours or so to Kaohsiung on the freeway for bout a total of say 10 hours as well. But would be easily doable at night.
So I guess which ever way you are talking about roughly a ten hour drive?
This is just a rough estimate and based on past experience. Not timed to the half hour here.
Me? I think I would get back up to Taipei and go down on the freeway to Kaohsiung.
If you drive fast on any of these routes you could cut your time to bout 8 hours total. But using ten hours is more leisurely and allows a few breaks in between for a pee and a 7/11 visit or two?
You are going to leave Hualien around 4pm and need to be in Kaohsiung around 2pm the next day (but prefer to get there round 1pm ish?). You will likely need one nite somewhere right? To catch some zzz.
So if you go north , you could spend the nite in say hsinchu and get back on the freeway after a snooze. You should arrive in hsinchu before midnite and if you left the hotel at 9am you can get to kaohsiung before 1pm.
Going south you could stay in Fongkang or kenting and then its just a 2 hour drive to kaohsiung the next day.
Going up the mountains you could plan on staying in nantou or something like that? Or changhua or taichung even?
I’ve done Hualian - Kaohsiung on a 125cc scooter in a day. Started in H at 10.00, took Highway 11 down to Taidong with many stops for sightseeing, lunch in T. by 15.00, and then on down south where the 11 merges with the 9 and after the slow part where you cross from the east coast towards the west, it’s an easy road to Kaohsiung albeit with a lot of traffic. Arrived there before 21.00.
If you take the 9 to Taidong instead of the 11, you will be faster. I’ve done it in 3 hours.
Don’t take the 20 at night. In fact don’t take it any time at all if you want to go somewhere fast. Take it only if you specifically want to see what riding the 20 is like. It’s gorgeous.
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) over the mountains. The next day, still took 2-3 hrs to Kaohsiung IIRC.