I have been living in Taiwan (currently in Taoyuan) for more than 2 years now and for the first time my parents will come to visit me here. They will be here from June 8 to June 20.
I plan to spend the weekends with them in Taoyuan and Taipei and then take them around the island between Sunday to Friday (when the tourist spots are not so crowded). I have noticed the possibility to take a tour trip all around the island but prefer the freedom of going on your own. Also the tour trips try to squeeze in so many tourist spots in a few days. I prefer to concentrate on two places and stay on each place for a few days. So I have chosen to go to Hualien/Taroko Gorge and Alishan. It will be the first time also for me to these two places. We will travel by train between Taoyuan and Hualien and between Alishan/Chiayi and Taoyuan.
The problem is how to go to between Hualien and Alishan/Chiayi. Is it at all possible to travel by bus across the island in such a way? Are there any buses between Hualien and Alishan. How about domestic airlines? I noticed that Mandarin Airlines operates between Hualien and Taichong. Isn’t there a small airport also in Chiayi? Any advice would be appreciated.
I am sure there are buses or coach but not exactly sure how and where to contact them.
I went to Alishan with my mum last summer and would like to give you some advice on that. We arrived in Chiayi train station and my mum hired a mini bus (because there were 6 of us) to take us to hotel. (I could find a list of hotels around where we stayed if youu like) Then apparently my mum arranged something with the hotel that there was another mini bus very early in the morning to take us up to Alishan to see sunrise. It was something likt 3 or 4 in the morning we had to get up. When we got there, there were already hundreds of people and coaches. There was a guy giving people a special piece of glass to watch the sunrise. After then we took a walk around Yushan national park and we took the train down the mountain. (The old fasion steam train) It was pretty cool but I forgot some detail about how we actually get to the train station. I could ask my mum if you want.
I also went to the Ocean park in Hualian. It is pretty good except it was realllyyyyyy hot. Make sure you have enough water with you and check when the dolphin or seal show is when u get there.
Sorry if that wasn’t any help and I can maybe show you some pictures I took if you’d like. In case if u’re wondering, I am Taiwanese and it was a family trip…
Thanks for the input. It seems to me the way to go is to take a bus or airplane between Hualian and Taichong and then continue with train from Taichong to Chiayi. Apparently there is a bus service between Hualian and Taichong although not so frequent.
I think a bus ride would be kind of an adventure in itself since I assume there will be some pretty beautiful scenery to watch along the way.
Another option would be to hire a driver to take us directly from Hualian to Alishan. I will check with the hotel in Hualian if they can arrange a quote for such a service. However, I am afraid that it will be very expensive since it is pretty far.
Was looking on a road map of Taiwan and discovered this road from Yuli (玉里) up through Yushan National park.
I was thinking maybe we could take the train from Hualien down to Yuli and the hire a driver to take us from there to Alishan…and see a lot of beautiful mountain scenery along the way when driving through Yushan national park.
It seems much closer from Yuli to Alishan than from Hualien to Alishan. But the road has to be open.
No. Route 18 ends about 10 km. past Nanan at the edge of the Yushan National Park. It looks like it goes through to Sanmin in Kaohsiung County, but in fact it has never been built and hopefully never will, since it would go through the middle of Yushan National Park. The highway bureau has been lusting after this route for years, which is why it is on the map.
If you are considering going that far south, why not head about 20km further south and take 20 (the Souther Cross Highway) over to the west coast. This one of Taiwan’s highest and most beautiful roads. Try to cross Yakou at the top early in the morning as the fog comes up after about 9:30am and obscures the incredible views. In fact, now that you’ve been up here, you can scrap your trip to Alishan (the town), which is a nasty, over-developed tourist trap catering to the KTV n’ tea set.
Instead of wasting your money there, go down to Baolai and head up into the hills to camp at the Shidong Hot Springs for a small fee (or spend NT$4,000 for a romantic evening in the Japanese suite with large outdoor private hot spring + free views of beautiful mountains. Fellas, your SO wil NOT forget this romantic evening). BTW, they also have private hot springs without a suite for a more modest fee. The group hot spring pool in NT$200 or so).
Drive thru Taroko, amazing views, down through the central mountains… 202.39.225.132/jsp/Eng/html/map/index.jsp#
Rather useful maps. Wish they had been around when I made the trip around the island.
[quote=“Feiren”]
Instead of wasting your money there, go down to Baolai and head up into the hills to camp at the Shidong Hot Springs for a small fee (or spend NT$4,000 for a romantic evening in the Japanese suite with large outdoor private hot spring + free views of beautiful mountains. Fellas, your SO wil NOT forget this romantic evening). BTW, they also have private hot springs without a suite for a more modest fee. The group hot spring pool in NT$200 or so).[/quote]
This Japanese suite…is it only suitable for 2 or can you fit 4 people or more in the suite?
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