I went to Penghu with my family last weekend. It was cloudy and cold for most of the 2.5 days we were there but it was still quite enjoyable.
It costs 3000 ntd for a return flight from Taichung which takes 30 mins or so, 45 mins from Taipei. Very handy for us as we live 15 mins from the airport, so we would have been in Penghu in an hour except for a fog delay.
We visited Shanshui beach which was really beautiful! In fact Penghu has beaches that are better than the Kenting area in my opinion, also this time of year there was nobody around pretty much anywhere. A better time of year to go is obviously March/April/May, summer is good too but a lot of stuff books up, it’s very hot then too.
We stayed in a mingshu on just off the Penghu great bridge. Penghu has a lot of nice Mingshu and I would recommend this one, 23.5, but the cost goes up considerably in summer (from 2500 now to up to 6000 in peak season…and it books out ALL summer!).
The area is really quiet and nice and there is hardly any traffic on Penghu, everything is very neat and well maintained, we rented a car but you must be careful to observe the rules of the road as for some reason there are traffic cops and cops everywhere! Visited Erkan village which is pretty unique in Taiwan, it has got touristy since I was there last 10 years ago but still nice. We got shown around an ancestral house by a local guy, seemingly they were all relatives and got rich from trading in Chinese medicine, why Penghu, I’m not sure, perhaps they were smuggling or there was some tax exemption.
We also visited Xiaomen Whale blowhole and the geology museum (which is mainly posters and a few rock samples), frozen by the wind so didn’t see much but worth a visit. The ‘blowholes’ and ‘caves’ aren’t too spectacular, Fenggui was a bit of a joke to be honest. We visited the old Qing fort which is also not much to see but pretty scenic area, as well as the lighthouse built by the British and right beside an active radar station (Penghu has many military installations and personnel). We also saw some ‘giant’s causeway’ type basalt column formations, contrary to what I had been led to believe (that you can only see them on the small islands) before they can be observed on many spots on Xiyu island. Finally we went to see an enormous banyan tree which covers half an acre.
As we were staying near Dayi temple we were told by the Laoban niang to have a look at the 10 turtles under the temple. I wasn’t sure what she meant but we went along, place was deserted as it is off peak now, sure enough under the temple there is a grotto where they keep 10 magnificent green turtles in darkness except for fluorescent lights. I believe that some of these turtles maybe 50 to 100 years old just from their size. This left us feeling quite sad that the government still allows this exception to exist (green turtles are an endangered species), especially as Penghu aquarium is quite substantial (nice to visit too) and could easily look after the turtles and there is a green turtle conservation beach in Penghu. I left disappointed and frustrated at the local culture and their weakness in dealing with animal rights and conservation once more.
Magong, the main city on the islands, is not bad also, not much good food there but plenty of nice coffeeshops!
I would like to go back and stay in the Shanshui beach area and try a bit of windsurfing/swimming when it gets a bit warmer and when the ferries run to the smaller islands.