Six Week Itinerary for Visiting Taiwan with Kids

This is my series on our 2018 Round the Island World Schooling Trip.  For more posts, you can check out the index page or subscribe to my Facebook page.  You can also subscribe to my Instagram for pics.

Researching sample itineraries for Australia reminded me that I didn’t write one for our WSA18 trip!   So if you wanted to do a “round the island trip” for Taiwan, just how many weeks would you need?

Wouldn’t you hate me if I said this depends on what kind of traveler you are and if you wanted to hit just the highlights or really see the island?  So instead, let’s assume you want to hit most of the major cities and major tourist attractions and with kids in tow, you’ll take it just a tad slow.  In this case, two weeks would be really rushing it, three weeks is barely possible, and 6 weeks, what I chose, is really good if you’re not including Taipei.

What I did was doubled a 3 week itinerary since we’re slow world school traveler.  Even then we did not hit Northern Taiwan, Kenting, and Miaoli province.   So before I start on our itinerary, here’s a sample itinerary I would put together for my friends.

I tried really really hard to do a 2 week trip that covered everything, but assuming that you want your kids to sleep at decent times and aren’t doing weird adult traveling habits like arriving late at night at a lodging and starting out 7am in the morning, 3 weeks really is ideal for family travel.  You can arrive at a 2 week itinerary by just cutting down some of the destinations.  I’ve put in bold things I think you should definitely hit.

Oh! Lastly, overall I think the trip was totally worth it.  It’s made all these fiction books that I bought, written by local Taiwanese authors, more relevant and interesting.

3 Week Trip 

• Taipei (3 days)
• Yilan (1 days)
• Hualian + Taroko (2 days)
• Taidong (2 days)
• Kenting or Aquarium (2 days)
• Tainan (2 days)
• Alishan (2 days)
• Lukang (1 day)
• Taichung (2 days)
• Sun Moon Lake (2 days)
• Taipei (1 day)

Our 6 Week Trip

• Taipei (3 days) – arrived at night
• Taichung (6 days) – base for Soy Sauce factory, pineapple factory, Lukang
• Puli (1 day) – Paper factory
• Sun Moon Lake (3 days)
• Tainan (12 days) – base for Salt museum, Salt fields, and toothpaste factory
• National Aquarium (1 night) – overnight stay
• Taidong (3 days) – base for 池上
• Hualian (8 days) – base for Taroko, drive along the coast, firefly viewing, and Yilan
• Taipei (4 days)

We tended to lose our energy while staying long time at a place like Hualian or Tainan.  Often we would do nothing for a day or two, except a walk to the park or to going to get brunch next door, grocery shopping, or ice cream after dinner.  Sometimes it feels like a waste of time, but I’ve learned that when you travel long time with children, you really have to build down time in.  They humor me with touristy places I take them to, but I also need to take in their needs to just play at a playground for several hours with friends, or veg out in front of TV.

On those days, we try to catch up on our sleep.

Some details on our itinerary for people who need ideas for their round the island trip!  Everyone travels a bit differently.  We tend to go for cultural experiences, food, and physical activities.

Taipei

With kids, there are endless things to do in Taipei once you’ve gotten to all the touristy spots.  Heck, I could spend 2-3 days just book buying.  Oh wait, that’s what I did the last 4 days we were there!   The good thing about squeezing our Taipei trip to just a few days this time is that we ONLY hit the favs.  Or we tried.  Those are:

1. Children’s Amusement Park – where better height limits allowed even the younger children to enjoy rides they couldn’t enjoy here in the States.  Oh wait, we didn’t get to this because, book buying.
2. 林東芳牛肉麵 Beef Noodle Soup
3. 阜杭 早餐 Fuhang Chinese breakfast – locals like to tell me other places that are better, but it’s perfect for the Americanized palate, less greasy and the high volume means cockroaches hasn’t had a chance to scatter along the floor or my food.
4. Coco Curry –  I love Coco Curry because it’s got that familiar chain store feel when you’re tired or homesick.  Even though we fell in love with Coco Curry while in Japan.  You’re guaranteed a good meal and happy children, who love picking out a toy at the end of the meal.
5. Din Tai Fung – the place to go to for dumplings.  Again locals likes to tell me of better places, which I’ve tried, and not liked as much.  DTF’s food is definitely not as greasy, and definitely pricey!
6. Maokong gondola – the kids always get a kick out of taking the crystal cabin, where they make fun of my fear of height as I try not to stare down the clear glass floor.
7. Lantern festival – happens twice a year during Autumn Festival and Lantern Festival

Taichung

Highlights included:

1. Ice Cream parlor converted from an old optometrist building from the Japanese occupation era.
2. Soy Sauce factory
3. Sunnyhills Pineapple cake flagship store
4. National Science Museum – I loved the museum.  The kids probably loved walking down the path in front of it more.
5. Lukang – One of my favorite cities as you get to see what old Taiwan looked like, restored.
6. Costco – We always hit Costco the first night to stock up on food and ooh over the weird Asian chips and other local offerings

Puli

We stayed here one night just for the paper factory, which was definitely one of the highlights of our trip.  I highly recommend!  Puli was also where we had the best night market experience in all of Taiwan.  I’ve since learned that many other southern night markets are set up more like Puli’s night market.  But overall, its food were the best tasting out of these types of night markets.

Sun Moon Lake

Originally I wasn’t sure if 3 days was too long for Sun Moon Lake, when most people spend just a weekend there.  But 3 days was just right.  Every activity we did was memorable there, and at just the right travel speed.  This is exactly the way I like to travel, one enjoyable activity a day, without a lot of time spent getting to and fro the place.   We did:

• SUP – short for stand up paddle
• bike around SML
• Aboriginal Amusement Park 九族文化村

Tainan

Tainan ran away from us.  We spent a lot of it vegging, started freaking out and added touristy activities near the end.  I did none of the things my friends did that I wanted to do.  Instead, we walked a lot.  Highlights were:

1. Salt Fields
2. Toothpaste factory
3. Cultural Walking Tour

What I remember the most is that I ate a lot.

National Aquarium

Another highlight and highly recommend, especially during weekdays.  Overnight stays are at half the price of US aquariums, I thought it had enough interesting activities for the children and the exhibit we saw was awesome.  Though I’ve since learned that the operator probably isn’t the best since they don’t really take care of the Beluga whales they use as an attraction.

Taidong

You definitely need a car, and 3 days is just right if you travel to Taidong by train.  After the hubbub of western Taiwan, it was very nice to get to some place that really reminded us of Hawaii.  Highlights included a

1. bike ride around the rice fields of 池上
2. a day searching for a beach.

Hualian

Hualian also ran away from us.  We lived more like locals and I loved chancing upon a cup competition in the local elementary school.  Highlights included

1. Getting our feet chewed by fish in Yilan
2. Firefly tour – 一生難忘！ An unforgettable experience!
3. Taroko Gorge – It really is beautiful and majestic, but in a different way from say, Yosemite.

I know I’ve covered a lot of itinerary ideas, without details or a lot of link.  Hopefully I can link to some detailed posts as I get to them.  Maybe in a few years?  Ha!