Short road trip with kids

Hi,
I’m planning a trip to Taiwan for a week in May with family. We will stay part of the time in Taipei with some of my wife’s relatives (she is from Singapore, I’m from Australia), but would like to get out of Taipei for a little while and see a bit more. So we are thinking of hiring a car for 3 or 4 days.

We have two toddlers, 1.5 and 3.5 years old, so don’t want to spend the whole time driving, or do too much each day, which makes options quite limited I suspect.

My original plan was to go to Taroko gorge, spend the first night near there, then spend a couple of nights near Alishan, maybe stay in Ruili, and do a short part of the rail journey to Alishan as a day trip. Having a look on Forumosa I saw Road journey times mentioned and it looked like it might be 7-8 hours drive from Taroko to Alishan area, even if you can find the right road, so maybe that is not a good idea.

I was wondering if anyone could suggest alternatives, and assess whether the above was possible?

Also looking for suggestions of good places to stay overnight with kids. Ideally places with a separate room for the kids. Ideal would be a farmstay or at least somewhere with things to do, parks nearby or a swimming pool.

We are coming from Western Australia, which has no mountains, so seeing some nice mountain scenery is something we would like.

The attractions at Taichung mentioned in another thread here sounded good. Is driving from Taroko across the middle to Taichung feasible? Anywhere in the middle nice to stop/stay?

It also seems possible that any such trip with only 3-4 days would end up mostly driving and we’d be better off focusing on some daytrips from Taipei? There certainly seem to be lots of suggestions on the forum for Taipei area that sound nice.

I have also seen lots of warnings about weekend crowds, and since we are visiting from Wed-Tues any multi day trip away will have to include the weekend.

Michael

With kids you really should look at staying closer to Taipei. You could go across from Taroko to Taichung but you’ll reach an altitude of 3300m which will likely make the kids very uncomfortable, especially coming down.

Lots of great mopuntain scenery close to the capital.

I’ll write more later.

one and a half and 3 and a half years old? Im not sure the one and a half year old will take in much of the scenery and long drives will definitely be uncomfy .

i would NOT suggest driving long distances then of course. So avoid all the cross island highways, they are uncomfy for many ADULTS. thousands of turns , etc. They are really only good for the driver (everyone else can get car sick).

I would suggest yangmingshan. YOu could drive up to yangmingshan and there is a little park there to take a break and also a nice western restaurant too. Plus there is a nice hotel there you could stay overnight at and if its summertime a great pool (cool water tho). And then drive on down to GIN SHAN . Its a pleasant road and has a lot of places you could stop for awhile. Theres a fumarole (its a volcano thats dormant, but not dead) and you could get to the top of 7 star mountain and check out the scenery from the nearly 4000 feet high peak. And then when you get to ginshan you could turn right and then visit YEH LIU, with its little park, great place to see the funny shaped rocks and also visit the OCEAN PARK there, They have dolfin shows .

and then you could either continue on to KEELUNG to see the busy small harbor. And drive up to the park there that has that budda. and ur kids can use the bumper cars there.

OR you could go back towards gin shan and continue on the scenic road running alongside the ocean to tamshui and theres a cute place to walk around and the kids will like it.

Then take a side triip by the NEW tilting train to taroko. If you have time, try to make a stop in Nan fan ao , (buy two tickets on the train. one to nanfang ao and then hours later onward to hualien) . Its probably taiwans largest fishing port and worth a visit to the seafood restaurants there to eat live steam crab, fresh fish, etc. pretty scenic.

spend the night in hualien and take a cab (dont even need to rent a car) to taroko and enjoy the gorge . Hualian has a very unique and nice feel bout the place. Its hard to describe, but its definitely a VIBE about it.

Then continue by train down to Taitung. And if you can stay at the ROYAL CHIHPEN hotel. at least one night. Beautiful place in its own environment. Great relaxing place for kids and adults.

and then take the train again down to the southern tip of the island . And then spend a few days there at the southern tip of the island. YOu can rent a jeep to drive the family around. And you can go swimming in beautiful waters. and rent a jet ski and all that.

stay at the howard plaza hotel there (it has a water park indoors , great for kids) or next door at the ceasars park. lovely place, very relaxing and kids will love the swimming pool, the tennis courts are often free of people too. and the wondeful beach tehre is just awesome. clean and beautiful.

and then take one of the many buses onwards to kaohsiung and enjoy the sights of a major taiwan city. Btu one thats also taiwans biggest harbor. And there is a park shi chi wan. that you can go to and walk along the shore there. And there is a ferry , small boat to go across the harbor entrance to the little island there, that has a lot of seafood restaurants. Kaohsiung has a cute zoo too that kids will like.

And on the way up the island. this time on the west side. be sure to try the new highspeed train. kids and you will enjoy taiwans latest toy , the newly finished 15 billiondollar train. Take that to chiayi, Stay overnight in chiayi and the next day rent a car to drive the two hours up to alishan. OR better yet. take the tiny train up to alishan. spend the day there in taiwans high mountains and take the train back. the train takes 3 and ahalf hours each way i think? but nice.

goes thru something like 49 tunnels and is memorable (I took it only once and i was a kid then and i STILL remember it).

if you can , stay anight at alishan and get up at 430 in teh morning for a short walk to see the sunrise. again something a kid will remember for long time (even if you thought it was just OK).

lots to do in taiwan, even with kids

And of course you shoudl visit the beautiful sunmoon lake and stay a night there. the lake has boats that will take you around. or you could rent your own rowboat and just row around the beautiful blue/green waters .

theres more , but that willll do for now? let others give more ideas.

They’re Australian, they aren’t coming here for the beaches. In any case, they wouldn’t be impressed. They are nice, for sure, but nothing to travel around the world for.

They also only have 3-4 days.

Taking the train to Taroko is fine (2.5 hours I think ) then renting a car to head up. I would stay in the park not Hualien. At Bulowan there are beautiful cabins on a high meadow. Great aboriginal food, nightly show, and a walking trail out back where the kids are sure to see monkeys.

But I would restrict myself to a few places. Driving in Taiwan always takes far longer than you think. It may look 20km on a map but it can take 2 hours (and not because of traffic but because the road is so steep and windy).

Fishing harbours. I haven’t found one that wasn’t grubby.

The train up to Alishan is nice but it takes all day (yes, it’s 3.5 hours but you have to get there, wait, and well, by the time you get up it’s almost dark).

Feels like it could be easier to plan a 3 week trip than a 3 day one. Some good suggestions there though. It may be we are better off not renting a car but doing a couple of trips by train.

I thought the Alishan train sounded nice but too long also. My idea above was to just do a section of the trip. My sons are fairly easily impressed when it comes to trains though, would probably be happy with the MRT.

There’s a fun branch line just 30 minutes from taipei called the Pingxi Branch Rail. At the end of the line there are some working jiggers and coal carts and even an old caboose with gears the kids can manipulate. My friend’s three year olf boy was in heaven the day we went. Oh, and at Shifen, along the line, there is an old electric train that you can take for 1km to get to the coal mines.

Lovely hike up behind the coal mines to a lookout over the ocean and mountains. And some excellent crags to climb by way of ropes and ladders.

Lonely planet indicates the drive down the coast to Taroko is very scenic, is the train journey just as scenic, or more scenic?

If we do drive, how does this sound? Thurs, drive to Taroko, stay overnight at bulowan cabins, look around a bit more the next morning then drive west up to lishan, maybe stay at wu ling farm overnight, then back to taipei saturday, either northwest via the northern cross island road, or northeast via to Ilan?

If we just go to yangmingshan is it worth having a car, or would trains/buses/taxis do the job better. We’ve been warned against trying to drive in Taiwan. Not sure how bad it really is, have survived driving in Malaysia previously, although at least they drive on the same side of the road we are used to most of the time, at least when not driving on the footpath.

[quote=“mikedufty”]Lonely planet indicates the drive down the coast to Taroko is very scenic, is the train journey just as scenic, or more scenic?

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From what I remember of the train ride from Taipei to Toroko is that much of it is spent inside noisy tunnels.

I went up the east coast on a bus a few years ago, and while the scenery is definately breathtaking, my fear of heights got the better of me and my stomache started rolling.

tiawan has a lot of roads that are great driving roads. a lot of scenery, but all the twisties often have passengers not feeling their best. And it takes a long time too.

the drive down to taroko is very scenic. You could do ok to drive there by way of the new tunnel to yilan and then onwards. used to take about six hours to drive from taipei to hualien before the new tunnel . now i guess you could do it in bout 4 hours? and then the drive up to taroko is real nice too. YOu could continue onwards up towards LISHAN and then take a turn towards HO HUAN SHAN (the road beyond lishan is ruined and out of commission, maybe for good they say) and then onwards to sunmoon lake. This is a very scenic drive but has thousands (literally) of turns and if you dont drive overfast should probably take you bout 8 hours to the west coast or maybe bout six to seven to sunmoon lake. Iv not stayed at wuling farm, but i think only spartan accomodations there? And wuling if i recall is out of the way. its actually on the road from LIshan back up north to YIlan. That road was scenic but not as scenic as the one over hohuanshan.

with two young kiddies? if it was ME? I would rent a car and drive up over yangmingshan (public transport doesnt do it there as well) and on to the beach area, visit YEHLIU and the OCEAN PARK there. Tamshui, and those areas. Shihmen Dam is also a nice spot to go to. Lots of wide open spaces. Theres a nice hotel there or two. And you can take a boat ride on the reservoir itself. Adn there is an amusement park (sometimes open, maybe closed now? have to check)

generally, if you drive on to hualien? you COULD just do an overnight there and drive back the next day , but this time staying the whole way along the very scenic coastal road all the way to KEELUNG. visit the night market there and then another 40min drive back to taipei.

if you didnt have kids with you? the cross islands are very scenic indeed tho. Taiwans mountain roads have a lot of bends and turns and even make my two (very car adapted ) cats car sick sometimes. Means you will have to drive relativly slow. And then of course it takes forever.

its not hard to drive in taiwan, especially out in the countryside. much harder to drive in the cities because its hard to know what the other guy is going to do, plus all the scooters freak out the uninitiated.

your call, of course. you only have a few days??? hardly enough really, but a start.

with only a few days, hang around the north maybe? take in yangmingshan. drive the north coastal ? go over to shihmen reservoir?

taiwan is small by australian standards but because its mountainous and takes a lot longer to get somewhere then you may think, its really NOT TINY

theres also a safari park bout 60km from taipei thats worth going? kids like it

wulai is also nice. theres a cable car that goes up to this little park with a place to row a boat. pretty cool. some hot springs there too i hear . and the drive to wulai is pleasant and in the mountains.

the train ride to hualian is fairly scenic up to bout nanfanao and there where the road REALLY becomes scenic the train unfortunately is in a tunnel most of the time, so you dont get to see much at all till close to hualian. But if the new tilting train starts up, its only two and a half hours to get there from taipei.

No, do not go up to Hehuanshan. It’s 3300m in altitude. The kids are going to feel sick.

Wuling Farm has a 3-4star hotel and also really nice cabins. Accommodation is not primitive at all.

Lishan is awful. They are closing the mountains down to high altitude farming and it is really messy and dirty up there. Ignore and Fushoushan Farm.

Wulai is not nice unless you get onto the hiking trails or do a little river tracing. The village is ugly as sin and the hot spring water is recycled. Everyone knows that which is why business has drop by half in recent years.

And Tommy, again, they want to see mountains not beaches. No Australian wants to come to Taiwan to see beaches.

[quote=“Muzha Man”]No, do not go up to Hehuanshan. It’s 3300m in altitude. The kids are going to feel sick.

Wuling Farm has a 3-4star hotel and also really nice cabins. Accommodation is not primitive at all.

Lishan is awful. They are closing the mountains down to high altitude farming and it is really messy and dirty up there. Ignore and Fushoushan Farm.

Wulai is not nice unless you get onto the hiking trails or do a little river tracing. The village is ugly as sin and the hot spring water is recycled. Everyone knows that which is why business has drop by half in recent years.

And Tommy, again, they want to see mountains not beaches. No Australian wants to come to Taiwan to see beaches.[/quote]

HAHA muzha man. OKOK no BEACHES. argh!!! But you will admit its kinda hard to escape the beach?? because one is never too far from one in Taiwan.

but like you I will recommend NO cross island highways. too high, too long and too hard on kiddies. what do you think if he just takes one of the western freeways and spends a night at sunmoonlake? that may be nice? scenic and NO BEACHES !!! no chance to even see a beach in the distance. And if God forbid he ends up in Kenting?? well at least in the waters there they are unlikely to get in touch with MISTER WHITE (the white shark) or arakanji the killer , microscopic jelly fish? so can be SAFE?

iv told him stay in north taiwan. even the drive to taroko is too long for kiddies in my opinion.

3 -4 star hotel in wuling now? cool.

wulai iv always enjoyed (never used the hot springs there) the cable car ride, and the pushcart ride as well. even the tiny park up there is OK if you row a boat a bit,

but from the loooks of things our man seeems hell bent on HIGH MOUNTAINS tho? We have to do more to dissuade him

Beaches, we have perfect beaches with sparkling white sand, clear water, surfable waves, about 15 km from my house, and only bother going about once every two years, so its not a big priority.
I acknowledge the kids probably won’t appreciate the mountains too much, but I like them. I just have this idea that maybe staying around Taipei would be like going to New Zealand and never leaving Christchurch. A cool enough place in itself but you would miss out on so much.

7 hour drives with kids are definitely not my idea of fun though.

Any idea if the tilting train is due to be finished for May? Seem to hear a lot about them crashing on the news, recently in the UK and before that in queensland, but I guess all the ones that don’t crash don’t make the news.

Maybe we’ll just do an overnight trip to Taroko and do everything else as day trips from Taipei.

[quote=“mikedufty”]Beaches, we have perfect beaches with sparkling white sand, clear water, surfable waves, about 15 km from my house, and only bother going about once every two years, so its not a big priority.
I acknowledge the kids probably won’t appreciate the mountains too much, but I like them. I just have this idea that maybe staying around Taipei would be like going to New Zealand and never leaving Christchurch. A cool enough place in itself but you would miss out on so much.

7 hour drives with kids are definitely not my idea of fun though.

Any idea if the tilting train is due to be finished for May? Seem to hear a lot about them crashing on the news, recently in the UK and before that in queensland, but I guess all the ones that don’t crash don’t make the news.

Maybe we’ll just do an overnight trip to Taroko and do everything else as day trips from Taipei.

[/quote]

the tilting trains are new for taiwan. they are japanese made, i havent heard of any of the japanese made ones crashing. anyone know different??

You could take a bus or train down from Taipei to Hualien, rent a car and go through Toroko. You could then continue up the mountain as far as the kids/wife feel comfortable with and then turn around and head back to Hualien. You could then head north along the east coast highway and again go back to Hualien.

If you drove to Taroko it would be 4 hours with breaks. On a weekday the traffic would be light and I don’t think you would have any problems on the Suao Hwy. Spend night inTaroko at the cabins in Bulowan. Let kids see monkeys, they will be happy.

Next day drive up gorge to Wuling Farm as you suggested. Though I have never driven up this way so hopefully someone can pipe in how many hours it would take. 4-5 maybe. But fantastic scenery the whole way. Spend night in Wuling Farm.

Next day drive up toward Taipei but stay in Mingchi Forest Recreation area. About a 2.5 hour drive. This is on the eastern portion of the North Cross Island Hwy and is the best part. Old growth forest trails, a small pond for the kids, and if you can find a babysitter for a couple hours there’s a natural hot spring by the river you can hike down to in an hour.

Could also do a side trip up toward taipingshan just for the great mountain scenery.

Next day head back to Taipei. Maybe stop in Jiaoshi for hot springs. There’s a place that has a hot spring slide the kids would probably like.

From Jiaoshi I would take the number 5 hwy back to Taipai but take the exit in Pinglin. Walk along the dikes and let the kids see all the flashing fish. Visit the tea museum, or go for a bike ride in the tea fields. Not somethig you will do in Oz.

You could even take the titling train to Hualien and then see if you can rent a car and drop it off in Taipei. This is getting more common.

Or:

Take high speed train to Chiayi in morning (less than an hour) and catch small train to Jiaoliping (1.5 hours, you’ll be there by 10:30) and get the Ruolan Hotel to pick you up and take you to Ruili. You then have the whole day in Ruili. May should be firefly season and the Ruolan is best for that. Also at night they have a movie and hands-on activities making traditional snacks and stuff.

Next day take bus back to Chiayi. Couple small museums to see includng one that has dinosaur fossils and a huge collection of weird colorful minerals, monkey statues, and rocks. Kids love it there.

Take high speed train back to Taipei. Do day trips to Yangmingshan (even stay on Yangmingshan in one of the hotels). Take kids to Tienlai hot spring. Scores of different pools, includng slides, and whirlpools. Great moutain scenery.

Near is a trail to a natural hot spring that you could walk to. Not too hard.

A possible day trip would be to drive to Yingge, let the kids make some pottery stuff then head to neary Manyueyuan Forest Recreation Area. Lovely cedar forest there and many waterfalls in the first 30 minutes.

There is no certainty your kids will feel sick driving to Hualien. They might though. It twists and turns a lot on the Su Ao road. If you are not accustomed to driving in Taiwan, I wouldn’t recommend a mountain drive like that. The road between Su-ao and Hualien has many large reckless buses and slightly more curtious equally as large gravel trucks on it. The road is sometimes narrow and always treacherous. Many people drive like banshees. You really have to know what you are about before driving it in my opinion.

On the other hand the train only takes about 2 and a half hours and there is ample scenery plus you can hire a car in Hualien.You can drive either up or down the coast from there. I would spend a day driving south. The road exceeds the Great Ocean Road drive in Australia.

i bet iv been in taiwan longer then muzha man but honestly? hes probably been to way more places then i have>>> i aint been to half of the places hes mentioned here !!!

GREAT STUFF im sure. listen to THE MAN :slight_smile:

Okay, I think this oen is great:

First day train to Taroko. Second day drive down to Ocean Park World just south of Hualien (for the kids) then take the inland hwy 11 (straight and easy to drive). Along the way stop at the Hualien Sugar factory for great ice cream, and maybe Mataian for incredibel aboriginal food.

Stay the night in Yuli at a fantastic B&B up in the hills overlooking the rift valley and Chika Mountain. Can’t say enough good things abotu this place. The owner used to work in 5-star hotels in Taipei and knows service and how to decorate. It’s a true retreat and the kids will like the open space and maybe even the old fashioned beds.

From Yuli go to Nanan (30 minutes awa) for the incredibly Wallami Trail. Big wide trail high above a raging river. Some of the nicest scenery you’ll find anywhere. Wak along for a while and see monkeys, waterfalls and birds.

Then drive to Wulu on the South Cross Island Hwy. Stay night in Chief Spa hot spring hotel. Great aboriginal food, great hot spring water, and a gorgeous canyon with a fantastic natural hot spring area where the water pours out of a crack in the ground with a steaming and hissing fury. Always turtle doves in the parking lot.

You then head back down toward Taitung. Along the way at Guanshan you can rent bikes and ride through the fields on designated tracks. Also visit Hongye Hot Springs. Two big open pools in the mountains.

Then finish in Taitung. Fly back to Taipei.

Ya, know, I think this last one is best. Not too much driving each day and what there is is not difficult. Lots of stuff for the kids too. And a couple really nice places to stay.

this outa be a sticky for those coming for a brief tour of our little island in the China (err should that be changed to Taiwan ) Sea .

How about?
Drive to Taroko, stay in cabins, drive to the Yuli b&B for next night, then drive back to Taipei?
How many hours drive is Taroko-Yuli?

I think I’ve decided to do only 2-3 days, either east coast (Taroko) or West (chia-yi/ruili/alishan) any opinions as to which you would choose? Some pictures of Taroko remind me of the Verdon gorge in France, but I guess its really quite different.