| A Kitzman |
01 September 2005 |
Stayed at Grand Hotel, Taipei - Taipei, Taiwan.
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Getting a rental car online was virtually impossible, so we ended up getting a car with a driver to take us over the North-Cross-Island Highway. Though the roads were treacherous and we only averaged about 35 kph the views and stops here and of the Taroko Gorge and our return up the East Coast Highway were amazing. Our stay at the very "grand" Grand Hotel helped make our stay in the surprisingly nice, interesting and diverse city of Taipei wonderful.
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| D Shirk |
29 April 2005 |
Stayed at Grand Formosa Taroko - Hualien, Taiwan.
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The Baiyang Waterfall trail is beautiful and easy (strollers can even make the journey) with wide trails and beautiful overlooks. The restaurant beside the post office is good for a quick meal and more predictable and fresh than some of the other restaurants. There is an ATM in the post office.
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| W Ng |
27 March 2005 |
Stayed at Fortuna Hotel, Taipei - Taipei, Taiwan.
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Taipei is a nice place to visit. Weather is good and people are certainly friendly when answering queries. Jiu Fen is a very nice place to visit where there are alot of things to buy and a lot of unique food to savour. The place is clean also. We thoroughly enjoy the place with it's scenery. Would definitely visit Taipei all over again and perhaps would wander further south of Taipei to places like Alishan!
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| A Mackenzie |
16 March 2005 |
Stayed at City Hotel Taipei - Taipei, Taiwan.
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I had one day. I visited the National Museum on a friend's recommendation. It was very interesting and a worthwhile place to see. I also stopped by the Chiang Kai Shek Memorial. Climbing up the stairs to get to the top was reminiscent of a certain scene from Howl's Moving Castle. I don't want to give any spoilers here, so if you've seen the movie you'll know! The food from the market areas was cheap. I didn't find it to be all that delicious though.
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| D Smith |
09 March 2005 |
Stayed at Imperial Hotel Taipei - Taipei, Taiwan.
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I was on a business trip, and did not have much time for sight seeing, however I can recommend a visit to the Grand Palace Museum for an impressive collection of extremely ancient Buddhist artefacts. Also worth a visit is the Confucius Temple, and many other Buddhist temples, within walking distance of the hotel.
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| P Young and pauline young |
25 January 2005 |
Stayed at Santos Hotel, Taipei - Taipei, Taiwan.
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As non-escorted tourists to Taiwan we were something of a rarity. We did tours to the Wulai Aboriginal Village (half-day) and the Taroko Marble Gorge (full-day). Both were good and the scenery in the Taroko Gorge is beautiful. We booked both of these directly with Edison Travel Service via the internet which worked out much cheaper than booking through a travel agent at home. Taipei has one of only three alpine railways in the world and with my husband being a train enthusiast, this was a "must do" for us. Despite much searching on the internet we couldn't find a tour that suited so we decided to do it on our own. The train goes from Chiayi to Alishan which is a small mountain village absolutely full of tourists at the weekends. The best hotel (a bit pricey but by far the best in the town) is Alishan House, we had a scenery suite which was decorated Japanese style, very upmarket. Everybody gets up at an unbelievably early hour to take yet another train up the mountain to watch the sunrise. It was freezing cold and not worth the effort for the sunrise we saw. Maybe some days if there is some cloud around it is prettier.
Anyway, despite the disappointment of the sunrise the trip to Alishan was well worthwhile. It is a pretty place. I booked the accommodation by phone a couple of months in advance and then had the problem of booking train tickets from Taipei to Chiayi and Chiayi to Alishan. Most travel agents I contacted couldn't help but Zion Travel Service in Taipei were most helpful. Our bookings were made by Lilia and she was fantastic. Spoke perfect English and gave us wonderful service. Our tickets were waiting for us at our hotel in Taipei, complete with a diagram showing us where to go at Chiayi railway station and an English interpretation of our tickets for the Taipei to Chiayi trip. On our last full day in Taipei we ventured up to Jouifen which is a small village north of Taipei and worth the trip. Lots and lots of shops selling souvenirs, food, etc. Very crowded but good. We took the train from Taipei to Ruifang, then a bus to Jouifen. On the return trip we took the bus all the way. We were very lucky at Taipei railway station to come across 2 local couples who had lived in the USA for 10 years and thus had perfect English. They also were on their way to Jouifen so we travelled along with them and their children. Like all Taiwanese, we found them very friendly and helpful.
In conclusion, we really enjoyed our time in Taiwan and would recommend it. Taxis in Taipei are plentiful and cheap. The reception staff at the Santos Hotel were extremely helpful in advising us how to travel around and on a couple of occasions we got them to write things in Chinese for us to show bus drivers, taxi drivers etc. As it turned out we didn't need this most of the time - we could mostly find someone who spoke English. If you are considering a trip to Taiwan you may find as we did that the internet is the best place to get info. I am happy to answer questions that other travellers might have.
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| L Scott |
01 January 2005 |
Stayed at Howard Plaza Taipei - Taipei, Taiwan.
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Highly recommend the Taipei zoo (on the MRT line). For someone coming from North America, it was fascinating to see the wildlife from this end of the world. We arrived at 9AM and found ourselves to be the only visitors to the zoo! Danshui is a great place to walk around. Indian Beerhouse is an interesting experience - kids would get a kick out of the hundreds of dinosaurs that decorate the place - kegs of beer and food's not bad either.
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| E Ahtuck |
02 December 2004 |
Stayed at Landis Taipei, The - Taipei, Taiwan.
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We purchased 3 different tours such as -- 1/2 day city tour which covered main tour points which is must, National Palace Museum houses many acheological items over 4,000 years old and many more art work; folk craft tour covered one of oldest temple with beautiful carvings, pottery place Ingee, old town and shopping; Pitou, rock formation and Jifun, town on the peak of the mountain which apperes in many movies and pass by the abandoned gold mine. We took MRT to cental city visited few more temple, night market, department store but seeing worthy is Taipei 101, world's tallest building standing on the land known with most frequent severe typhoon and earth quake. City center is very hi-tech and modern. We visited one end of MRT station Dunsui. Nice town with Red Castle turned into college and cathedral, mall like shop street, beautiful waterfront walk paved and many shops along the walking park.
People were very helpful and many spoke English so well. Taxi ride is very reasonable but most of the driver did not understand English. Many restaurants we tried were on the guide book and they were better than hotel restaurants. Any type of wraps filled with various ingredients, soup, noodle dish, meat & seafood dishes both Taiwan and Shanghai style are everywhere and good. Coffee shops are very nice both atmosphere and what they serve.
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| O Mentzel |
30 November 2004 |
Stayed at Santos Hotel, Taipei - Taipei, Taiwan.
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It was not a relaxing 4-day-stopover, but the food was excellent, the people are friendly, and there are some top-notch sights. You can visit the National Palace Museum and it's worth visiting the Huashi Night Market to see snake handlers playing with live cobras, to sample snake soup or a cup of snake bile, or to pick up an aphrodisiac made from powdered cobra's gall bladder. The Taipei 101 (the highest building in the world) is good to make some photos.
There are also a lot of very big and cheap department stores for computer and computer-accessories.
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| P Millett |
29 October 2004 |
Stayed at Santos Hotel, Taipei - Taipei, Taiwan.
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Formosa Aboriginal Museum (right near National Palace museum) is HIGHLY recommended, and covers Taiwan's pre-chinese arrival history as a tribal nation of the Polynesian group of Islands.
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Traveller's Tales: Places to go and see in Taiwan
