We toured Taiwan from 21 to 25 Nov 2018 (Winter)  for  5 days 4 nights with 2 children (10 yrs old & 3 yrs old). Here’s a summary of our Taiwan Yilan Taipei Itinerary. The Airline we took was Jetstar Airways  and the flight hours was about 5 hours.

We visited 2 main locations: Yilan and Taipei and a total of 24 places.

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Relaxing 5 days Trip with more Countryside / Nature Areas

Vin wanted a more relax trip this time because his work projects coming up would be quite hectic (reason why we could not travel in December). Thus, I planned only to cover some areas in Taiwan, places we did not manage to see in our First Trip 6 years ago. We chose to explore more nature places in Yilan than in Taipei, because we all enjoy nature walks.

Pre-booked Taxi

To minimise transfers and wastage of time via public transport, we hired a taxi driver to drive us around each day. It was more expensive than taking a cab on the road. However, it was convenient and safe as Ling had a baby car seat to settle in. We could place our luggage in the taxi and continue our sight-seeing without worrying about where to store them after checking out. 

For Photography Enthusiasts

By the way, I love the photographs we had taken for this trip. Many of the places we went to were beautiful places great for photo-taking! Taiwan is really such a beautiful country and somewhere I do not mind going again and again. (Yes, I would go for more trips to other Taiwan counties if I have the opportunity). 

For this trip, we had also specially gotten a Go Pro Hero 7 Black to take videos of our trip. It was quite easy to use and we like that it was waterproof as some days were raining and we could use it in the pool.

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What We Achieved for Our Second Taiwan Trip to Yilan and Taipei:

1. Tried Taiwanese Hot Spring in Jiaoxi for the First time! Interesting experience.
2. Explored Yilan County for 3D2N
3. Stepped on a beach with black sand.
4. Did a Taiwanese Farm Stay and explored an organic farm with some animals.
5. Saw animals we had not seen before in real life – three water buffaloes and a wild boar (fulfilled Dar’s wish as he wanted to see one).
6. Made our own Sky Lantern from scratch! Glued, pasted and wrote. 
7. Visited the Northern Part of Taipei – Beitou, Yangmingshan and Danshui. We did not get to do it the first time so I need to put this into our itinerary this time!
8. Took the Maokong Gondola for the first time and enjoyed a nice afternoon up on Maokong Mountain.
9. Tea-tasting at a Maokong teahouse and fulfilled my wish to get my favourite Taiwan Jinxuan Tea again!
10. Saw two sulphuric valleys and a geothermal pond
11. Watched sunset at Tamsui Fisherman’s Wharf
12. Ate lots of delicious Taiwanese snacks / local Taiwanese dishes
13. Visited a few museums/exhibitions to learn – Luodong Forestry Culture Park, Bee Museum, Miniature Museum, National Palace Museum, Songshan Cultural and Creative Park
14. Walked several beautiful nature trails – Maokong Trail Walk, Yangmingshan Park trail walk, Zhu Zi Hu Trail Walk, Xiao You Keng Trail, Liu Huang Gu Trail Walk.
15. Went to a new Taiwan Night Market – Raohe Night Market
16. Shopped at Tamsui Old Town and Eslite Spectrum Songyan Store

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5- DAYS SUMMARY TAIWAN YILAN | TAIPEI ITINERARY

(*click to view bigger pictures in the gallery)

DAY 1  – YILAN

{ Read Travel Experience: Taiwan Yilan Taipei Trip Day 1: Jiaoxi }

• Flight to Taipei
• Lunch at Jiaoxi Famous Weng Yao Chicken
• Check-in Hot Spring Hotel and swim / bate
• Explore Jiaoxi Hot Spring Park/ Town
• Ate at famous dessert shop – Wei Jie Bao Xin Fen Yuan 

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DAY 2 – YILAN

{ Read Travel Experience: Taiwan Yilan Taipei Trip Day 2 }

• Luodong Forestry Culture Park – Walk on old train tracks, view historical exhibits and walk around
• Bee Museum – Learnt about bees, ate honey and took snack break
• Took a walk inside Lanyang Museum
• Bought some seafood at Wushi Harbour
• Played sand at Waiao Beach
• Check in Toucheng Leisure Farmstay

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DAY 3 – YILAN

• Morning Toucheng Leisure Organic Farm Tour & Checkout
• Taxi to Taipei
• Check-in Taipei Hotel (UiNN – closed)
• Maokong Gondola | Maokong Trail Walk | Tea house for Tea Break
• Raohe Night Market

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DAY 4 – TAIPEI

• Liuhuanggu Geothermal Scenic Area (Sulphur Valley)
• Beitou Thermal Valley – to look at the sulphuric hot spring
• Explore Yangmingshan Park
• Yangmingshan Park – Xiao You Keng ( Fumaroles / Trail Walk )
• Yangmingshan Park – Zhu Zi Hu – beautiful farming area
• Viewed sunset at Tamsui Fisherman’s Wharf | Tamsui Old Street

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DAY 5 – TAIPEI

• Viewed historical artifacts at National Palace Museum
• Lunch at Sushi Express
• Viewed miniature displays at Miniatures Museum of Taiwan
• Explore exhibits at Songshan Cultural and Creative Park
• Walking around Eslite Spectrum Songyan Store
• Night flight back to Singapore

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Travelling with a 3-yr-old and a 10-yr-old in Taiwan

My girl turned 3 years old not long ago. She is better at exploring places now and seldom fuss when there are things to look at. In fact, she loves airplane rides and kept laughing at the shaky motion while taking off! (a child a few seats away was screaming non-stop). I kept her occupied for the five hours on air, with a sticker book, magic markers and on the flight back, some iPad games.

While exploring and between places, she was able to nap in her comfy car seat while being driven around by our pre-booked taxi driver. We could also eat snacks in the car while travelling when she is hungry for food. 

This was Dar’s second time to Taiwan but he could only remember very little things from his first trip. Then, he was only 4 years old and enjoyed exploring places using Taiwan’s public transport. As we had only 5 days and wanted to explore more places, we could not oblige him to take the Taiwan Metro. Thus, he was a little disappointed. However, we satisfied him a little by taking a cable car ride both ways and seeing old decommissioned trains in Luodong.

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Exploring in Changing Weather

The weather was generally cool in Taiwan with temperature ranging from 17 degrees Celsius to 26 degrees Celsius. When we first arrived, the temperature was 25 degrees Celsius and we did not need to wear a coat. The next day and after that, weather temperature dropped to 17-18 degrees Celsius and rain occurred.

Fortunately, we were well-prepared for the rainy November weather and brought raincoats (for the kids) and coats with wind and water-resistant properties. Our outdoor bag is waterproof too. However, we had totally forgotten to bring a raincover for our stroller (though we had noted it). I had to cover it with an umbrella and our waterproof bag when we walked. For such cool and rainy weather, we wore waterproof shoes and protect our shoes with a waterproof spray. 

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Bring Your Own Bag

Some places in Taiwan do not provide shopping bags when you buy things and would charge a small fee if you need them. We always bring a recycle foldable bag in our out-and-about bag so we could still manage. Rubbish bins are also not available easily so people have to bag their own trash. We ended up always asking shop people or our taxi driver to throw the rubbish for us. Do take note of these.

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Food

Taiwanese snacks were plentiful and reasonably priced. There was no lack of food during the five days we were there, since we always try to buy snacks when we see them (lesson learnt from South Korea Trip).

We also like to buy packed meals (ask them to heat up), rice ball (onigiri), tea leaf eggs from the convenience stores (Family Mart, 7-Eleven, Ok Mart). We ended up eating a proper Taiwanese meal in only two restaurants. Do try to order Taiwanese veggie dishes as their vegetables are always cooked well (fresh and sweet!).

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Toilet Needs

Similar to rural places in China, many areas in Taiwan do not have toilet paper or hand soap provided. I used up plenty of my sanitiser solutions and my own packed rolls of toilet papers while travelling in Taiwan.

I do find it strange that there was a wide gap in cleanliness levels. Some toilets in restaurants/sight-seeing places had Japanese toilets with high-tech bidets (not many) while some toilets need one to “throw the toilet paper into the rubbish bin beside and not into the toilet bowl” because of the poor flushing system. Encountered disgusting sight of used toilet papers and smells for this type but no choice. T_T It’s been six years since I last visited and the sewage system is still the same.

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Shopping and Souvenirs

I love that Taiwanese are creative and designed lots of pretty items. We encountered so many nicely designed stuff that we kept buying and buying – when we are not usually shoppers. As a comparison, we went there with only 2 bags: one diaper bag and one coat bag but came back with 4 bags – three of them filled with souvenirs. ^_^”

Things We Bought: Standard places souvenirs (coaster, key chain, magnet), Taiwanese Snacks, Two Pair of shoes for Ling, Bag for myself, Jacket for Vin (his wind jacket was spoilt), train model, lots of DIY stuff (canvas painting and house model) and musical boxes!