I should start by saying thanks - this site, amongst others, have been hugely useful in planning this trip. As the title says, I have 14 days which should be plenty of time, even for a novice like me! I have organised the rental of a bike in Tapei (I found him recommended on here I think. I contacted Giant but they were already rented out!).
As this is a) my first time in Taiwan and b) my first cycling trip, I decided against the HuanDao and decided to do half - to give me time to enjoy the sights and take it steady if necessary.
Below is my plan:
day 1 - Cycle from Tapei to Yilan 69km
day 2 - Yilan to Taroko – TRAIN + bike
day 3 - Exploring Taroko Gorge
day 4 - Exploring Taroko Gorge
day 5 - Taroko Gorge – Hualian – 86km
day 6- Hualian – Shihtiping
day 7 -Shihtiping – Dulan, Taitung.
day 8 - Taitung – Kending 128km
day 9 - Kending - relax
day 10 - Kending - relax
day 11 -Kending – Kaohshuing (Bus) then Kaohshuing高雄站- – Tapei台北站 or松山站0(Train)
day 12 - Spend in Tapei
My questions are:
Firstly - any suggestions?
day 8 might be a bit long, is there anywhere to stop in between?
Accommodation - how much do I need to research this? Will it be easy enough to find places, or should I at least have addresses of places to aim for at the end of the day?
Are the places I’ve chosen to stop and enjoy (Taroko Gorge, Kending) good choices? Enough/not enough time there?
I think I should be able to make my way to Kaoshuing (Bus hopefully) and then get the train from Kaoshuing 高雄站– Tapei松山, with my bike on board (or shipped ahead of me if necessary). I live in China and my Mandarin is decent enough to sort this out, but is this plan to return the bike the best option?
OK, thanks for the tips. I think I’ve worked them into this new plan:
day 1 - Cycle from Tapei to Yilan 69km
day 2 - Yilan to Taroko – TRAIN + bike
day 3 - Exploring Taroko Gorge
day 4 - Taroko Gorge – Hualian – 86km
day 5- Hualian – Shihtiping
day 6 -Shihtiping – Yili (via 193)
day 7 - Yuli - Dulan (via hwy 23)
day 8 - Dulan - Daren
day 9 - Daren - Kending
day 10 - Stay in Kending
day 11 - Kending – Kaohshuing (Bus) then Kaohshuing高雄站- – Tapei台北站 or松山站0(Train) (Or cycle up to Fangliao)
day 12 - Spend in Tapei
Day 5 is still wrong as it a short ride from Taroko to Hualien unles you are way up the gorge. Consider including a trip to Liyu Lake that day or even the Mugua Canyon.
You could also consider going from Kenting to Pingtung via the 186.
Scrap your entire plan and start over again; you’ll be riding on the wrong side of the road to enjoy the natural splendor of the east coast. Start from Kaohsiung or Pingtung and don’t miss the Suhua highway on your way back to Taipei. You don’t need to book ahead unless you’re riding during a holiday or you need to have things just so.
I’ve done pretty much all of the major east coast roads by bike or motorcycle (other than the 197) and I just did Hualien-Ruisui-Taitung-Chishang by bike in 3 days last weekend so I have some suggestions for the Hualien to Taitung stretch. I did what Abacus is suggesting, crossing on the Hua-64 (Ruigang Road) and Highway 23 both of which are ABSOLUTELY MUST DO.
Take the 193 south from Hualien to Guangfu. While the 11 does have some really pretty spots (like the stretch near Cow Mountain and Jiqi) there is also a lot of ugly development, especially the first bit out of Hualien near the Farglory Ocean Park. The 193 is easy and rolling, passing through farms and nice little aboriginal villages. Doesn’t have much traffic either, even on the weekends. A real joy of a road!
At Guangfu, take the 11-A to Fongbin. It is a really fast and easy climb up on that side but really long if you do it from the coast. It’s great to have that nice long descent down to the coast!
Head back down the coast past Shihtiping, a ways past there take the Hua-64 to Ruisui. It’s an amazing and secluded road through primordial east coast paradise. It is also very easy until the end where you hit some switchbacks to climb up out of the valley and over into Ruisui. In Ruisui you can find tons of cheap places to stay. It’s very popular with the college crowd and there are more and more homestays every year. Do a search on the web.
That was a one day ride for me but you may want to do it in two chunks depending on where you want to stop. strava.com/activities/162826628
From Ruisui, take the 193 and later the 9 to Fuli and take the 23 over into Donghe. This is another low effort, high reward road - the climb is pretty easy and it drops you into a massive and awesome descent. Looks like it’s already in your plan.
I’d say stay in Taitung as there are lots of nice cheap homestays and hotels there. There isn’t anywhere to stay in Daren as far as I know, only Jhiben and Jinluen further north. Contrary to what Abacus says, I do believe there are places to stay between Daren and Jialeshui - I remember seeing a handful of homestays in Mudan and Manzhou. You may want to skip the whole Taitung to Daren bit altogether though. It’s pretty empty and repetitive. Hot as balls, too. Check in Taitung to see if you can take your bike on the local train (I’m pretty sure you can) to Dawu or Guzhuang station and ride up the 9 to the 200 and on to Jialeshui or Kenting.
[quote]I’ve done pretty much all of the major east coast roads by bike or motorcycle (other than the 197) and I just did Hualien-Ruisui-Taitung-Chishang by bike in 3 days last weekend so I have some suggestions for the Hualian to Taidong stretch. I did what Abacus is suggesting, crossing on the Hua-64 (Ruigang Road) and Highway 23 both of which are ABSOLUTELY MUST DO.
Take the 193 south from Hualian to Guangfu. While the 11 does have some really pretty spots (like the stretch near Cow Mountain and Jiqi) there is also a lot of ugly development, especially the first bit out of Hualian near the Farglory Ocean Park. The 193 is easy and rolling, passing through farms and nice little aboriginal villages. Doesn’t have much traffic either, even on the weekends. A real joy of a road!
At Guangfu, take the 11-A to Fongbin. It is a really fast and easy climb up on that side but really long if you do it from the coast. It’s great to have that nice long descent down to the coast!
Head back down the coast past Shihtiping, a ways past there take the Hua-64 to Ruisui. It’s an amazing and secluded road through primordial east coast paradise. It is also very easy until the end where you hit some switchbacks to climb up out of the valley and over into Ruisui. In Ruisui you can find tons of cheap places to stay. It’s very popular with the college crowd and there are more and more homestays every year. Do a search on the web.
That was a one day ride for me but you may want to do it in two chunks depending on where you want to stop. strava.com/activities/162826628
From Ruisui, take the 193 and later the 9 to Fuli and take the 23 over into Donghe. This is another low effort, high reward road - the climb is pretty easy and it drops you into a massive and awesome descent. Looks like it’s already in your plan.
I’d say stay in Taidong as there are lots of nice cheap homestays and hotels there. There isn’t anywhere to stay in Daren as far as I know, only Jhiben and Jinluen further north. Contrary to what Abacus says, I do believe there are places to stay between Daren and Jialeshui - I remember seeing a handful of homestays in Mudan and Manzhou. You may want to skip the whole Taidong to Daren bit altogether though. It’s pretty empty and repetitive. Hot as balls, too. Check in Taidong to see if you can take your bike on the local train (I’m pretty sure you can) to Dawu or Guzhuang station and ride up the 9 to the 200 and on to Jialeshui or Kending.[/quote]
Paddy B,
THANK YOU very much for such a detailed and useful reply. I’ve tweaked my plan to include many of your suggestions. I like that you gave me a brief description to let me know what kind of roads I can expect. The Strava link was useful as well, I’ve used it to create my own.
I will give an update once I have done the trip incase anyone is interested!
Hi all,
The thread is super helpful for planning my upcoming east coast trip this spring.
Going straight from what you guys have suggested, I don’t really have any questions about the route or how bikes get on trains.
My questions are more as follows:
Since I plan to skip Suao --> Hualien, I wanted to ask, for anyone who has done East Coast in a long weekend, is do able in 2.5-3 days? I know the route is approximately 150-180km from Ji An station in Hualien to Kang Le station in Taidong, which isn’t a problem since the group I’m going with can manage 120km rides in one day with multiple climbs, so endurance is not really a huge issue.
I’ve estimated that the quickest way home from Taidong would be TRA from Kang Le to Kaohsiung and HSR to Taipei and it would take approximately 7-8hrs, is that about right? Or is there a faster way home?
Yes. You can easily do it in 2.5 - 3 days. And you can do some of the side trips and crosses and maybe hang out in Dulan/Donghe for a day.
I think it would take about 5 hours to go to K-town and take the HSR back to Taipei.
The new Puyuma train from Taidong back to Taipei is 3.5 hours but you have to get on the right train with few stops. The Puyuma’s with more stops take about 4 hours I think.
Taitung to Haulien is an easy 2 days (mostly flat) unless you are adding in the crossing routes (spectacular). I would highly recommend Hwy 23 and the road from Ruisui (60 or 61 I think).
