Taiwan Road Trip: Where to go?

Travelling in Taiwan? Where to start and what to visit? This article makes suggestions for a few days' road trip around Eastern Taiwan.

We took a 4 day road trip along the eastern coast of Taiwan from Taipei down to Taitung. This article outlines some of our Taipei highlights and our favourite stop points along the way!

We began our journey in Tamsui area just north of Taipei. We stayed north of Taipei in a friend's apartment with a great view of the estuary. We spent a few days in the capital city and site seeing in and around Taipei. A must-see is the Yehliu Geo Park in the Cape Wanli area. The park is famous for its hoodoo rocks which have formed interesting shapes such as that of the 'queen's head' which is heavily patronised by photo-hungry tourists.

Taipei highlights: night market, children's leisure park, the Taipei 101 building, (at the time of writing: the 10th tallest building in the world).

If you stay in Taipei, why not travel up to Yehliu for the morning, have lunch in the nearby restaurants and on your way back down south, call in at the Fisherman's Wharf; Tamsui to watch the sun go down?

Day 1

After a few days in Taipei, we journeyed by car down to the Taroko National Park which is a vast area of protected natural beauty in the central mountains. Entry is free unless you are going via the Zhuilu old road entrance, where any one over 12 pays just over 5 pounds entry. Visitors are required to pre-purchase a park-entry permit from https://npm.cpami.gov.tw/en/ . Parts of the trail include exposed cliff edges, suspension bridges and water-logged caves, so it is not for the faint hearted, but they do provide waterproof covers!

We stayed at the Farglory Hotel for one night. The hotel offered clean and comfortable rooms, a vast international breakfast buffet, and well- maintained pool and jacouzzi with coastal views.

Day 2

Next stop: Travelling down further to just south of the Ruisui Township, we called in at the landmark of the tropic of cancer line of latitude !

Next we headed further south to visit the plate boundary between the Eurasion and Phillipine tectonic plates. The location is close to the Yuli Township.

Day 3

We stayed the night in a budget hostel in Taitung, after sampling some of the street food from the night market, (including all kinds of offal and stinky tofu which the kids found to be a bit too much)! The next day we enjoyed time at two coastal beauty spots: the striking Sanxiangtai beach with its moody grey skies, piercingly pure turquoise seas and unusually vibrant pebbles . We also called in at the Taitung seaside resort, where we became addicted to the wonderfully succulent 'golden star' pineapple variety.

Day 4

After a wind-beaten day, we ventured inland to the acclaimed Zhiben Wenquan natural hot springs resort and soaked away some hours. We stayed one night, (the accommodation was basic but comfortable), before making our return journey back up to Taipei!

What did we miss? Please drop us a comment!