Itinerary

Day 1 and Day 2 – Taipei Children Amusement Park 臺北市立兒童新樂園 and Raohe Night Market 饒河街觀光夜市, Overnight at Courtyard by Marriot Taipei Day 3 – Yilan Wen Yao Chicken, Meihua Hu 梅花湖 and Luodong Night Market 羅東夜市, Overnight Westin Yilan Day 4 – Yilan Zhang Mei Ama Farm, Scallion pancake cooking class 蔥寶寶體驗農場, The Wooderful Land 木育森林, and Ludong Night Market 羅東夜市 Day 5 – Yilan Lucky Art Crayon Factory. Seafood Lunch at Nanfang’ao Fishing Port 南方澳渔港, Nanfang’ao Nantian Temple Chinese: 南方澳南天宮; , Red Lantern Restaurant.  Overnight Silks Place Yilan Day 6 – 新東陽休息站 Rest Stop, Lunch at 海瑞摃丸Hsinchu, Mountain Shabu Shabu, Overnight Abin Minsuku Chingjing Day 7 – Cingjing Farm, 蘇媽媽汤圆, 星月天空-猴探井景观餐厅, Overnight Fairfield Taichung Day 8 – Miaoli Old Mountain Line Railway, Chun Shui Tang 春水堂人文茶館, Fengjia Night Market Day 9 – Lukang 鹿港 Mazu, 海牛驛站 Manateelnn, Wu Lao Guo 無老鍋, Roaders Plus Taipei Day 10 to Day 12 – Taipei Ximending, Ding Tai Feng, Eatogether Qsquare Mall.

Introduction

Twice, my partner and I have had the pleasure of visiting Taiwan. Our first trip was a celebratory journey upon our university graduation, and the second was for our wedding photoshoot. Taiwan holds a special place in our hearts, with its friendly residents and pristine landscapes making it an ideal destination for us. During our visits, we found the country’s cleanliness and welcoming atmosphere perfect for exploring, especially via road trips. We made good use of Taiwan’s efficient public transportation, relying on their high-speed trains and buses to get around.

Our accommodations in Taiwan, often Minsu guesthouses, provided more than just a place to stay. The hosts treated us like family, cooking meals for us and ensuring our comfort throughout our stay. Given our positive experiences, it was only natural for us to choose Taiwan as a destination for our family vacation with our two young boys, aged 2 and 4.5, and our elderly parents. To accommodate our large group, we opted to hire a driver for our excursions outside of Taipei.

Preparation Tips

When planning our itinerary, we kept our children and elderly family members in mind, setting guidelines to ensure everyone’s comfort and enjoyment:

1. Limiting our schedule to 2-3 activities per day to avoid overwhelming our youngest and oldest travelers.
2. Scheduling activities around nap times to ensure everyone gets the rest they need.
3. Remaining flexible and open to changes, such as canceling planned activities due to weather conditions or the well-being of our children and elderly family members.

Our choice of airline whenever we travel with our young kids will always be Singapore Airlines, renowned for their exceptional service and safety record. The four-hour flight flew by, quite literally, with the kids managing to catch a nap. Hengboy2’s inaugural flight at just two years old was made smoother by the distraction of a snack pack i prepared, ensuring his willingness to remain seated in his own designated seat. I also prepared activity packs to keep both kids entertained.

Taiwan Lucky Land Campaign

Touching down at Taoyuan Airport, our first task was picking up our Easy transport card, pre-arranged via Klook. Our arrival coincided with the Taiwan Lucky Land campaign, and i actually won the NT$5,000 prize! The amount was preloaded in the iPASS e-voucher card and can be used at many locations including my favorite 7-11 and watsons. The process was as straightforward as scanning a QR code and clicking on falling coins on the ipad at the kiosk set up in the arrival hall. The campaign period is from 12 pm on May 1, 2023 to June 30, 2025, You can refer to this website for more information.

Day 1 – Checking in Courtyard Marriot

We reached the Courtyard Marriott around 7 PM, an hour-long journey from the airport. Connected to Citygate Mall, we found ourselves amidst a Japanese-themed culinary haven, where we had a quick Sukiya dinner and bought chicken cutlets and bubble milk tea other stores. Check out this post for a review on Courtyard Marriot.

Dinner at Citygate Mall

Day 2 – Taipei Children’s Amusement Park and Raohe Night Market

The boys knocked out and woke up late at about 9am. We wandered to the street adjacent to our hotel where there are many eateries. We stumbled upon a bustling eatery serving up traditional Taiwanese breakfast delights and settled on soy milk and egg crepes and toast. The boys loved it!

Breakfast at Xinghua Breakfast Restaurant

Xinghua Restaurant
Address: No. 口, Lane 114, Xinghua Rd, Nangang District, Taipei City, Taiwan 115
+886 2 2785 1125

Taipei Children’s Amusement Park

We then hailed a taxi to our next destination: Taipei Children’s Amusement Park. Pre-purchased tickets via Klook ensured smooth entry, where scanning a QR code exchanged for tickets at the kiosk outside the park. We thought it was a small park but we were wrong. There were many indoor and outdoor sections, and the best part was that most of the rides had no queues. Disclaimer: we came in April, so it’s off peak season.

Outdoor section includes rides like the pirate ship, water boats, train rides, ferries wheel, go kart, bumble car, carnival games and more while indoor section offered respite from the heat, complete with arcade games and snoopy playground (with separate fees). Indoor also allows me to carrier nap Hengboi2. With our Hengboi surpassing the height requirement for most rides, he explored most games but loved the go-kart the most. However, our younger one could only go for accompanied rides like the train rides, but he’s just happy running around the park. I would recommend getting the bug spray from 711 as their species here is termed 小黑文 and our mozzie spray / patch doesn’t seem to work on their species.

We settled our lunch at the park’s food court, and almost all stalls offer very cute kids’ meals!

Evening at Raohe Night Market

We deliberated on our evening plans, torn between the Shilin Night Market and Raohe. We have been to both markets (without kids) and decided to opt for the latter as we find its size to be more manageable with kids. We called for an Uber cab, and thanks to the slight jam, hengboi was able to nap on the car.

As soon as we stepped foot into the night market, we found ourselves drawn to nearly every stall and bought almost from all stalls. I’m glad that the boys enjoyed street delights like sweet potato balls, fried quail eggs, and grilled chicken. We had a sit-down dinner of mian xian and braised rice. After dinner, the boys went back to their carnival games, and it was so hard to get them to leave.

Raohe Night Market, which is beside Songshan station, is only one stop away from our hotel – Courtyard Marriot, and we got back to the hotel in 20 minutes.