Travel: Taiwan - Taipei

[Blessed Homemaker]

Typhoon

My gf stayed in Taipei for 2 years. There were a few occassions whereby her school-going kids had to stay home due to typhoon. When I told her we’ll be going in Nov, she suggested we go mid Nov onwards.

Taiwan is a beautiful place. Depending on your interest, there are so many things to see and do. We only visited Taipei (6N) and Hualien (3N) in our last trip. Honestly speaking, I do not appreciate Taipei ie TMS, it is so crowded! We do enjoy our stay in Hualien though and DH commented we should have stayed for 5N instead. We prefer nature to city.

With kids, you may want to bring them to Taipei Zoo, very cheap admission and the zoo is big. However, I think Singapore has more animal exhibits though. We did a day trip to the zoo followed by a gondola up Maokong, had some tea to appreciate nature and went to Shida NM for dinner. We did all these with 3 children, age 3 - 9 then.

In Hualien, besides visiting Taroko Gorge (which my kids enjoyed the trails), we went to Ocean Park too. Kinda boring for the adults but definitely welcomed by children. In my opinion, admission fare is pricey for the limited rides. However, we (adults) did enjoy their shows.

[Blessed Homemaker]

princesskari,

For good location, you can consider Cosmos hotel. I’ve not stayed there personally but read good reviews about it. City Inn is highly recommended in TA too.

For our coming trip, we decide to stay in a daily rental this time round. Reason: washing machine in our own room!! We did our laundry everyday last year, thankfully the hotel we stayed has a coin-operated washer just next to the family room.

[princesskaris]

Blessed homemaker

Thanks for the recommendations. Will check it out. When are you going this time round? Does daily rental provide housekeeping service like making bed etc?

I’m thinking of going to flying cow ranch and xiao ren guo/loofoo theme village. Is it ok to take cab there and back to taipei or more advisable to engage a driver to and fro? I’m concerned that if I were to engage a driver on the specific day and it happens to be a rainy day, we still have to pay the driver even if the trip has to be cancelled due to the weather.

[Blessed Homemaker]

Different daily rental operates differently. Some provide daily housekeeping but some don’t. We’ll be going in mid nov.


Leofoo and Window on China are not in our itinerary but I’ve read that you can take a bus from Taipei. IMHO, you prob won’t need a driver since you’ll be spending a few hours there. When we visited the zoo in Taipei, we spent about 3 hours there but still didn’t complete the whole zoo as we were rushing to go up maokong to avoid the evening crowd.

[1place1dream]

We have been to Taiwan twice within 6 months - count our blessing

1. December 2011 - rainy season
2. June 2012 - typhoon season

But we had fun. The Taiwan island is so big, so you can choose where to go to avoid the weather challenges. eg In December, when we discovered the rain was stuck in the northern region, we went southwards after 2 days in Taipei (since that was our first trip to Taiwan so we thought we need to go to Taipei). And we stayed in the Eastcoast when the rain was heavy on the Westcoast. We went to the Westcoast when the rain subside.

Our recent June trip was even more interesting - 2 typhoons! We stay close to the weather report every evening and confirm again in the morning to plan the day's journey. We had great fun.

You can read all about them on my travel blog 1place1dream.blogspot.com
June 2012 starts at http://1place1dream.blogspot.sg/2012/07/taiwan-june-2012-day-1.html
December 2012 starts at http://1place1dream.blogspot.sg/2011/12/singapore-taoyan-airport-taipei.html

Have fun, don't let the rain or typhoon bothers you.

[1place1dream]

And to add to my earlier comment, GET OUT OF TAIPEI!

Taiwan is more interesting outside Taipei.

The Taroko is scenic, so is the Eastcoast. and there are the Alishan and the Sun Moon Lake. And there are the many night markets with different things to see and food to eat. and different types of hot springs to experience and many different old towns and streets to see.

For the children, you can do theme park, fruit and diary farm, do some factory visit (we did the Blow Glass factory and had DIY blow glass pieces to bring home) aplenty like blow glass, paper, pottery etc etc. Our recent trip in June we went to Pingxi to light the sky lantern and played fire crackers.

[princesskaris]

Thanks for the sharing 1place1dream. For us, the trip is meant more for our little one. We have been to Taiwan a few times when we didn't have kids and the itinerary was different from the upcoming trip. Like you said, we went to Alishan, sun moon lake etc etc. I think our girl may not appreciate beautiful scenery yet since she's only 3 and we didn't want too much of travelling too which may be quite hectic for young children, So, we will probably be focusing on activities and places of interest meant for kids near Taipei this time round.


Will check out your blog for more info..

[princesskaris]

Blessed homemaker

Thanks for the info. Will check out how to get to leofoo and window on china by public transport… Maybe more covenient to take cab after all? Anyone knows how long is the journey by cab from taipei main station to leofoo village/ window on china?

[pinkitty]

With the trend of people doing wedding photos overseas, I am thinking why not we do our family photo overseas too. Only 2 countries came to mind, Taiwan and Korea but we just been to Korea like 2 yrs back so I am thinking of taiwan.


Wondering if anyone has done the same before. Care to share some advise… also need help on where to go with 2 little tots, 2+ and 1+ and our parents.

[thumbelina]

I am planning to stay at Hsinchu and visit Leo Foo Village on one day and Windows on China on another day.

Anyone has any hotel to recommend other than the Leofoo Resort Guanxi.
Many thanks in advanced.