Tag: Trip to Taiwan

Escape Plan to Taichung June 2019

Escape Plan to Taichung June 2019

Posted on by ziyi

A brief summary on the itinerary

Escape Plan to Taichung:

Total duration 6D5N
Singapore is on same timezone as Taiwan.
Flight time is 4hrs 45mins on China Airlines from Singapore to Taipei. Return flight is 4hrs 45mins on China Airlines from Taipei to Singapore.

Morning flight on 20th Jun at 1030am and arrival in Taipei in the afternoon at 310pm. Return flight from Taipei on the 25th Jun at 230pm and  arrival in Singapore at 715pm.

Day 1 Arrival into Taiwan, drive to Taichung and Feng Chia Night Market
Day 2 Natural Science Museum, Farm visits and Gao Mei Wetlands
Day 3 Sheng Hsing Station, Long Teng Bridge and Flying Cow Ranch
Day 4 Flying Cow Ranch and Little Ding Dong Science Theme Park
Day 5 Window on China Theme Park, Leofoo Village and Hsinchu City God Temple
Day 6 Home Sweet Home

This escape plan was the first time that we travel with my wife’s extended family. I didn’t participate in any of the planning and just went with the flow. As such, some parts of the trip didn’t turn out to be as enjoyable as I thought it would be.

Budget nature: Not too bad 

The bulk of the costs were the plane tickets and accommodation which was paid off by extended family members and I only had to pay for the attractions which weren’t all that expensive. Food was affordable too (and paid by FIL).

Complexity: Easy

As it was planned with a daily driver, we didn’t need to know how to move around since the driver would bring us around. We only need to know where we wanted to go.

Also, we targeted attractions within Taichung and northwards towards Taoyuan, it was easy to cover these with the driver.

Escape plan to Taiwan November 2016

Escape plan to Taiwan November 2016

Posted on by ziyi

A brief summary on the itinerary

Escape Plan to Taiwan 2016:

Total duration 9D9N
There is no time difference between Singapore and Taiwan.
Flight time is 5hrs 35mins on Scoot from Singapore to Taipei.
Return is almost 5hrs on Tigerair from Taipei to Singapore.

Flight from Singapore to Taipei at 1255am, arriving at 530am in Taipei. Return flight from Taipei to Singapore is at 155pm and touching down in Singapore at 650pm.

Day 1 Arrival in Taipei and some shopping
Day 2 Cat Village, Jiufen and Shifen
Day 3 To Hualien and Qi Xing Tan
Day 4 Tokoro Gorge
Day 5 Landslide on the way to Cingjing
Day 6 Arrival in Cingjing farm and Old England tea and Swiss Garden
Day 7 Cingjing farm visit and arrival in Flying cow ranch
Day 8 Flying cow ranch, Leofoo village and stay
Day 9 Home Sweet Home

This trip was planned to celebrate our boy’s 2nd birthday. Therefore, most of the destinations in the itinerary were more catered towards his interests ( but since he arrived, most of our trips were already like these).

Budget – affordable most of the journey until the visit to Leofoo village which was quite expensive.

Taiwan was a country known to be affordable if we want it to be. Taking public transport such as the trains and staying in Airbnb helps keep the costs down. However, travel in less developed areas required us to book a driver or self drive which was not too bad. The only big spendings we had was the Flying cow ranch farmstay in a private villa and safari hotel in Leofoo village which was expected to be expensive.

Complexity – High without car. Ours made easy due to car and Google maps on data plan.

The public transportation in Taipei city was easy to use and therefore getting around was straightforward. Out of the main city and into the mountains and farms then a car is a must or private car is a must as public transportation would require quite a bit of planning and a lot time. Road signs would require a little to get used to but it’s not too difficult if you know Chinese. When going through the mountains, we learnt to read road blockages due to landslide. Knowing where to get the most updated news is essential as most of the mountainous roads are single lane and only one way there and planning ahead helps to avoid a long detour. Sometimes there are no data signals on the mountainous area but it is not difficult since there is only one road to navigate.

Escape to Sun Moon Lake, Taichung in May 2014

Escape to Sun Moon Lake, Taichung in May 2014

Posted on by ziyi

A brief summary on the itinerary

Escape Plan to Sun Moon Lake in May 2014:

Total duration 4D3N
Singapore is in the same time zone as Taichung, Taiwan.
Flight time is 4hr45mins direct flight on China Airlines from Singapore to Taipei.
Morning flight on 10th May and arrival in Taipei at 3pm on the same day.

Day 1 Arrival in Taichung
Day 2 Sun Moon Lake
Day 3 Back to Taipei, Raohe Night market and Wu Fen Pu
Day 4 Ximending and Home Sweet Home

This escape plan was to getaway on a long weekend due to Vesak day. Due to wife expecting, we had a change of plan for our long Europe trip into a shorter getaway. Took China Airlines as all the budget airlines were really expensive as we booked very late and close to the travel date. The tickets weren’t out the initial time we saw and we actually intended to book Jetstar. It was until when we wanted to purchase the tickets (after planning) that there was another price hike which forced us to relook again (luckily), and it seemed like an extra trip offered by the airlines, co-sharing with Garuda.

Budget nature: Affordable travel and cheap eats. 

Moving around Taiwan was easy and pretty affordable compared to Singapore. The public transport was cheap, even the taxi was of compatible costs. Of course, expect tourists price at the Sun Moon Lake, but these costs aren’t also sky high.

Eating is definitely cheap, though quantity wise, it was smaller too. But it is so that you can eat as much variety as you move around the night markets. The food is pretty tasty too.

Complexity: Easy to get around

Travelling between cities is really easy, linked by the ultrafast bullet train and MRT networks. Getting to Sun Moon Lake required a bit of reading up although the hotel receptionist and the taxi driver can easily guide you to the long distance coaches. Our main transportation tools at Sun Moon Lake was the ferry but due to time constraints, we did not venture out, which the buses could easily do the job.