Scooter rental around the island

Travel Taiwan Travel
1

Hey guys,

I know there are a lot of threads on this site about this topic, but a lot of them (that I can find and are relevant to my question) are from 7-14 years ago. Basically, a friend is coming for a week in December and wants to go around the island. He has an international driving permit. Can I realistically expect to find somewhere in Taipei he can rent from? I don’t need specific place recommendations (though they are still welcome), just want to know whether or not I would be wasting my time.

If not, can I realistically expect to find a scooter rental place in any given city? That is, if we take trains around and then want to rent scooters in Taichung/Tainan/Gaoshang etc. will we be able to consistently find them? I did this in Hualien a couple weeks ago, but it seemed like it was inconsistent even between shops there; I have no way to predict if I can do this in other cities. Any info is appreciated, thanks.

2

Generally speaking, it should not be a problem. However, I cannot speak for any scooter rentals in Taipei. Maybe they charge higher prices or check out the licence more closely.

I guess every bigger city should be fine. When I first came to Taiwan I had no problems renting a scooter in Kaohsiung from a shop that was popular with the (foreign) students.
But I’m not sure whether every shop will make “long term” rentals to foreigners, so I recommend to contact the shops before.

3

If he wants to travel outside of the city, he’s probably going to want something bigger than 50cc which requires a motorcycle license/endorsement. Some people might still rent a larger scooter to him, but technically they will require a motorcycle permit.

Note that Gogoros also require a motorcycle license.