Bit last minute, but any good tips for a weekend in Taidong? Good hotels, nice pub, things to see and places to go (I’ll be renting a scooter I hope). Any help much appreciated.
brian
Don’t rob any convenience stores! 
Keep that pistol inside your pants!
Do not, I repeat do NOT stay at the Gringo. It’s filthy and there will be more roach traps in your room than guests in the whole place. I counted 7 of them (traps…and one guest in addition to myself during this summer on a weekend) and I only had a small room with a small attached bath, only furniture being a bed of questionable cleanliness. Thank goodness I brought my sleeping bag so I didn’t have to climb under the crusty covers. The Amigo pub, however, seems to be the only venue of action in town. And Chihpen b[/b] Hot Springs are nice, just make sure you have a swim cap since I think every place makes you wear one.
Thanks. How far is it to Zhiben from the city if I hire a bike and would it be a good idea to stay there rather than in town?
Brian
OK here’s my report on Taidong:
Getting There
We got the train down. It takes 6 hours so it’s best to book to make sure you get a seat. The (new) train station is a few K from the main town centre. My advice is do what we did and hire a scooter at one of the shops outside the train station, then its an easy ride into town and you’ve got transport to get around. The city’s quite spread out so that’s almost a neccesity. If you don’t like scooters, our hotel had bicycles ofr guests to use, so that’s another option. The train is 800NT one way. We couldn’t get a ticket back sao our original plan weas to fly back. Flights cost 1800NT or so, but we couldn’t get a seat. We went back to the train station on Sunday and they had seats, after saying on Friday that they were fully booked. I’ve had this happen before, so it’s always worth trying.
Accomodation
We stayed at a nice little hotel for 1200. It had a cool atmosphere with lots of artork, some nice design and stuff. I can’t remember the name, but the address is Zhong Xing Rd Sec 1 #110, (089) 227 238.
Atmosphere
I really liked Taidong. Lots of wide open streets. Very relaxed feeling. On a weekend in the holiday season there weren’t many cars or people. It seemed pretty quiet. There’s lots of nice scenery around within easy scooter distance, and the ocean at the end of town.
The Coast
It wasn’t swimming season so I didn’t check out the beaches, but there’s a really good stretch of coast at the end of town. The Park just off the NE corner of town was reall cool with some great little structures and sculptures giving it a good atmosphere.
Beinan Cultural Park
Just out of town, but within walking distance of the (new) railway station is A-Mei’s hometown of Beinan. As luck would have it, as I was reading the morning paper on Sunday wondering what to do, there was a story in the Taipei Times about the Beinan Cultural Park. taipeitimes.com/News/feat/ar … /09/193970
Basically this park is a new development built on and highlighting the archaelogical site where they recently discovered a fascinating 5000 year old stone-working culture. The park is really beautiful (and empty even on a holiday), has a great cafe and a really good little museum. What the Taipei Times article doesn’t mention is that while the National Museum of Prehistory was built on another site in Taidong (which I didn’t go to), the stuff relating to the ‘Beinan Culture’ is kept in the Beinan Cultural Park. The Museum is great, the only problem, was the lack of English. This place is a must visit for a trip to Taidong.
Zhiben
This is a hot springs area a half hour’s drive out of Taidong. It looks very nice. Basically similar to Wulai near Taipei.
Gringos
ImaniOU warns against staying here, but we had a really nice lunch there. Pretty good value for western traveller-style food.
So I highly reccommend Taidong. Best thing to do is rent a scooter and ride around exploring for yourself.
Brian
Included in Forumosa.com Knowledge Base
Didn’t MaoMan or SandMan or one of the Mans put up a review of a really cool restaurant on the beach with rooms for rent. I saw the link they put up, Gorgeous place, or was that in Hualian?
Cabins, or tent only?
Tents only, and you have to bring your own (I think). Very clean and well-maintained. Each site has one of those covered, raised wooden platforms for your tent, a faucet providing fresh water, a wooden table and benches, and a BBQ pit. Set right on the beach among pine trees. Also has a spotless toilet/shower block and an open air bar in the summer. Its about a googol times nicer than Kending.
I don’t deny that their menu is nice. It was just the thing to help me get over my seasickness at Fukang Harbor attempting to go whale watching…just don’t go upstairs. There’s a noodles place that’s not listed in your Lonely Plant Guide that my Nigerian friend took me to on my last day in Taidong. Right now it’s just a pencilled in dot on my LP map of Taidong, but I will try to get the address. It’s Korean barbecue style, I think. Very nice considering the fact that you can count the decent restaurants there on almost one finger.
…due to scheduled maintenance
Thanks for the heads up!
Same question. I’ll be there with my wife and two kids, and will be joined with a friend, his wife, and young son (5).
Any tips on things to do? I’ve booked accommodation at a B&B close to Flowing Lake (活水湖). I was planning on listening to some aboriginal music at a place famous for that in Taidong, but they’ve got these really bad group lined up (I don’t think it’s aboriginal music but one of the group members might be an Aborigine).
We will have only one car and will need to take a taxi for the other family, so ideally something not too far away.
Friday afternoon, most of the day Saturday, then Sunday until around noon.
hmm… you went all the way to Taidong, it would be a pity if you are limited in Taidong city. Natural scenery is kind of what Taidong is known for after all.
However, there are still places you could get to.
If you enjoy museums, I highly recommend National Museum of Prehistory (史前歷史博物館).
Then explore the Puyuma Cultural Park (卑南文化園區) near Taidong trainstation. Please note that it isn’t a park about the culture of the Puyuma tribe, but the prehistoric culture excavated at the location known as Puyuma.
Near Puyuma Cultural Park you could visit the Nanwang Puyuma village (南王部落), where inside their elementary school there’s a Puyuma Traditional Culture Center, which has a couple of traditional buildings. Please note that it’s a taboo for women to enter certain ceremonial buildings.
There are also great biking spots like Taipingxi riverside path (太平溪河濱步道), the Taidong old rail tracks path (馬蘭舊站鐵道路廊) or a ride through Taidong forest park (台東森林公園).
You could also visit Baoting Art and Culture Center (寶町), which is an area with many traditional Japanese era buildings.
You could also stroke long the beach from Flowing Lake, through Paposogan to Haibin park (海濱公園).
2 Likes
If you’re looking to chill out on a smoking hot afternoon, I would be hard pressed to think of a cafe better than Taidong’s awesome Cheela 小屋 (address: 台東市新生路395-1號). Great vibe, great people, great iced coffee!
Guy
1 Like
That sounds good. Thanks for the info.
Is a day trip to Green Island possible? Or is that too much work to try to do on one day? We should be done with our activities by 10am or so (my friend wants to swim a crazy distance in the Flowing Lake Saturday morning).
I would suggest saving Green Island for when you have more time.
A lot of your time will be spent on just getting to and back the island. From getting to the harbor, getting ticket at the harbor, even if you booked and paid for the ticket online, you still need to be there early just to get the ticket, to the actual boat ride, which is an hour long. Then you would need to rent motorcycles. You would then have to leave the same amount of time to get back to Taidong, that would mean you have less than 6 hours on the island.
You still have to squeeze time in to eat. Minus the time you spent riding around, you would have no more tan 4 hours to actually see the sites.
Like afterspivak said, the sun will be pretty brutal in Taidong during summer time.
Thanks. With the kids, that sounds very tiring. Maybe a whole weekend sometime.
Maybe the walk to 海濱公園 like you recommended. Maybe letting the kids swim before that would also be fun. And then barbecue and beer at our B&B for dinner.
Go here after dark lights up beautiful
Taitung Thean Hou Temple
No. 222號, Section 1, Zhonghua Road, Taitung City, Taitung County, 950
08 931 0120
https://goo.gl/maps/yn2Q7F8GE2t
Have great pizza here family oriented
PizzaFactory 臺東店
No. 181, Guangdong Road, Taitung City, Taitung County, 950
08 933 0151
https://goo.gl/maps/cpfuLJbXZZy
Go Dulan sugar factory saturday night live music
糖廠咖啡
959, Taitung County, Donghe Township, 台東縣東河鄉都蘭村61號
08 953 0060
https://goo.gl/maps/MuJ9MCfvVzo
Kasa is really cool restaurant in old Japanese style house very casual.
KASA卡薩
950, Taitung County, Taitung City, 台東縣台東市和平街102號
0980 085 878
https://goo.gl/maps/pQxqwRffVs32
I recently did a green island day trip which was perfect amount of time leaving at 1030am but a bit hot.
2 Likes