I drove the Southern Cross-island in a rental car from Tainan in the Fall a little over a year ago, and spent the night in Litao before continuing to Taitung. I second Bob’s advice about getting a very early start on the day you go up, and Joesax’s recommendation to spend a night in the mountains (Litao is very nice) rather than trying to drive through in one day.
The fog sets in early, and it can be extremely dangerous driving in the area around Yakou in the fog. When it’s thick, as it got shortly after noon on the day I did it, you can see only a couple of meters in front of you with the highbeams on. There are hairpin turns that could send you tumbling over a precipice if you miss one. An advantage of planning to spend the night is that if you do miss the scenery because of the fog on the way up, you can get up early the next day and take in the vistas.
Meishan is a better place to stay as it is closer to the top and on the not so foggy side of the pass but Litao is a much much nicer town. Of course you could try for the whole banana and stay at Yakou but it may be tough to secure a room and even if you did it would be cold as heck I bet.
In any event, I’d go back there in a blink either which way.
I did it in 1 day in my old Yulon - nice drive. My family is more into taking pictures and then looking at the scenery, so only 4-5 short stops along the way.
Was immensely enjoyable.
When it comes to the fog thing, then use low beam, you actually see farther that way. I did not find the drive dangerous, as long as I kept the speed down.
Not much has changed since then, but there are very recent rumors that the Tainan-Tianchih bus now only goes as far as Meishan, meaning its impossible to go all the way to Taidong on public transportation. Hitching lifts is still pretty easy, even on weekdays.
[quote=“Lo Bo To”]The southern cross-island highway is the only other motorcycle road trip I haven’t done since being here. Has anyone here done it on a motorcycle?
What would be the best time of year to do it as far as weather. It would be nice if there was good visibility and warm weather.
I did the number 7 ffrom Taipei to Hualian a few years ago during the winter. Taipei-Fuxing-Chilan-NanShan-LiShan-Taroko-Hualian.
It was an incredible trip but cold as hell. And it was in dense fog pretty much the entire time.
How does the southern highway compare?
Would anyone be interested in joining me some time in the summer?[/quote]I’ve done it. I put together a short account and some photos here: mcttw.tripod.com/trips_photos/so … /index.htm
I’m sure MJB’s done it multiple times, Plasmatron too.
Feiren did it a couple of years ago on a rented scooter.
It tends to be foggy on the east side all year round I think. One guy I met had fitted twin, low-pointing fog lights on his motorbike. Good idea.
As regards rockfalls etc. I think it’s a bit safer in the dry season. That’s probably not enough of a reason to not go in the summer though.
I’d love to do that no.7 from Yilan up to Lishan/Dayuling sometime. I’ve done the Puli-Dayuling-Taroko route a number of times.
That was the the situation when I was there last week. [/quote]
might be wrong. I caught a bus at 3:00 from Tainan to Meishan. I suspect that there might still be an earlier bus and that earlier bus may well indeed go all the way to Tianchi.
Just this very second called Singnan Bus Company 06-2223142 to find out about buses. There are 3 buses each day to Meishan, at 7-20 am, 9-30 am, and 3-10 pm - none of them go as far as Tianchih, the bus company confirmed.
Foreigners taking buses in southern Taiwan? Sheeet! I’ve seen foreigners driving small blue pickups down there. One could probably rent a scooter with a western library card.
Funny you should mention that, but I’ve a Canadian friend who does drive a small blue truck.
As for renting scooters, some of the rental outfits near Chiayi Train Station have begun refusing to rent to people without licenses. Whatever next? Country’s becoming a police state…