Weekend trips with kids

can anyone recommend a good spot to go to in Taiwan when traveling with small children?

You didn’t say how small the kids are but perhaps Wulai with a visit up the hill to the theme park is something you are looking for.

We just came back from Hualian last week and it’s highly recommended. The Hualian Ocean Park is alot of fun where you can even swim with a dolphin for 30mins. We stayed at The Promised Land Resort and the facilities are very good. They have boats to go around the small man made lake, there is a farm where your kids can ride horses, a giant trampoline, swimming pools, biking trails and other activities.

This sounds wonderful. My biggest worry is that I’m afraid of heights, so no cliffside drives for me. How do you get to this place you visited?

I like Xiao Ren Guo 'round by TaoYuan. A whole world in miniature.

i’ve been to wulai this year, but i didn’t notice the theme park. will have to try it next time. can’t say i was that impressed with the rest of wulai tho. they’ve made a “lao jie” which is nice but i seem to recall you have to pay to walk thru it. i prefer the ones in jiu fen and tamsui.

ballet mom, the place in hualien sounds ideal. thanks! bh, i first crossed this off my list too because i didn’t want my toddler running around near cliffs. however the cliffs are in toroka gorge which is about a 30 minute bus drive from hualien city. i will definately have to check out the Promised Land. :bouncy:

i was also going to ask about xiao ren guo. it’s been around for a while and i wasn’t sure if it was still operating. rick, have you been there recently? it’s not covered with that green slimy mold that seems to grow on everything is it? sounds like a good day trip anyway.

I haven’t been to Xiao Ren Guo in years but I assume it’s still there. I need to take the kids there, but I’m afraid my daughter might knock over the leaning tower. It was well kept when I was there. A little cheaper if you go after four.

The first volume of Taipei Day Trips includes information about the suitability for children of the various excursions. I would expect the same to be true for the recently released second volume.

Yes, you have to pay a kind of entrance fee. To find the theme park ride the train (or walk) and then take the cable car. The theme park and it’s attractions are rather simple but you can rent a small boat and ‘cruise’ across the lake or go into the swimming pool (open and subjected to a fee). I think the kids will enjoy it though.

Richard M, you must be joking. Xiao Ren Guo is a bloody joke at best and a waste of time of worst. The old part is not very well maintained amymore, a lot of the moving things don’t work. I think that small kids will find it fun, but the bigger ones will be bored. The newer part has one water slide and a little bit more in the way of attractions, with a tacky “egyptian” show put on on weekends.

I would go to Leofoo safari park instead. It’s more or less next door to Xiao Ren Guo.

Both places are good one-day trips.

You can also

  • take the kids to a fishing port/market. There is a lot they can do there.
  • don’t forget the night markets they often have carrousels.
  • Mountains will be boring, unless they like sitting in the car for a few hours.
  • There are many theme parks around in northern taiwan, but most of them not really up to it.
  • Yama resort in Taichung is BIG you can spend 2 days there, no problems.
  • Try one of the leasure farms. The kiddies love that, I have tried it once. You can often stay there. The one I tried was in Miaoli, 21/2 hours from Taipei.
  • There’s a Weiquan farm in Yangmei. I have bever been there, but my gals love it.

That’s what I can think off here and now.

Me joking?
Like I say it’s been a while since I’ve been there but I liked it.

“I am what I am.”

So what do people do on a leisure farm? Is winter a bad time to go?

And when I say no cliffs for me, I mean NO CLIFFS. I don’t even want to drive anywhere near one, because I’ll start hyperventilating, then my husband will tell me I’m nuts, get over it already, and I’ll start crying, and the trip will be ruined for everyone. :blush:

[quote=“braxtonhicks”]
How do you get to this place you visited?[/quote]

We took a 30min flight to Hualien and then another 20min taxi ride to the resort. For the Hualien Ocean Park, we took the resort’s package which included the entrance fee and a shuttle bus. It actually came out cheaper since the hotel just charged us NT$500/pax (the entrance fee at the park is NT$720). We also went to Taroko using the resort’s tour service…they actually just provided us with a driver and a van. I found most of the trails a bit dangerous and since I have an 8yr old child, we decided to just take the trail in one of the old roads that is now used exclusively for walking. But if you decide not to go to Taroko, there are alot of other things that adults and kids can do at the resort. There is another new resort in the area called the Belle Vista. You might want to check that out too.

[quote=“Richardm”]Me joking?
Like I say it’s been a while since I’ve been there but I liked it.

“I am what I am.”[/quote]

My girls liked it too.

You speak Danish???