Taiwan feels sometimes like the big brother of Hong Kong, for me. Similar outdoor adventures are possible there but on a way bigger scale.
I will add here those places that we have visited or are planning to visit.
First, some explanations. Summer, my other half, is Taiwanese. All her family and most of her childhood friends live there. So when going back, outdoor adventures are secondary. With little time usually, we rent a car/motorbike to move around the island(s) out of Taipei. Quite some of the places checked have relatively close public transportation options. But once not used, I’ll not include any info about them.
The whole island is a bit less than 400km long. Taipei (on the very North) to Kenting (the very South) took us driving a bit more than 5 hours. The weather on the former is kinda similar to Hong Kong, significantly warmer in the latter. So it is common for Taiwanese to go to Kenting in beach ⛱ mode kinda year long. In any case, expect regularly more extreme wind conditions. Above all on the East coast. Bigger swell too.
The highest mountains are 3,000-4,000m over sea level. x4 times Hong Kong’s and high enough to be dangerous if you are not well prepared. The higher you go up any mountain the lower the temperature. Approx 6-7C per 1,000 meters altitude gain. It can be cold therefore on the highest mountains, but snow is rare as per what Summer tells me.
As mentioned before, everything feels bigger in a similar x4 proportion. Size of waterfalls, number & size of streams, coastline. So tons of options for our usual outdoor fun and some more: mountaineering & rafting for example.
October 2017
It was our first real outdoorsy traveling there. Our initial plan included a 10-day drive-through all around the island.
The weather forced us to change the plan though. A regular occurrence every time there. The ferries to Green Island were canceled for days due to too big waves. Be flexible and prepared with alternative plans, just in case.
Sun Moon Lake
A pretty touristy spot. Usually, people go there to see the aboriginal culture performances, take the boat around the lake, visit the Wenwu Temple (日月潭文武廟) and eat the local delicacies, among others. In our case, we also hiked one of the mountains next to it.
See full screen and Garmin track.
The initial part is well-hiked and very civilized, heading
to a lookout from where to see the lake (the biggest in Taiwan) below.
Later we started walking on dirt paths with big sections where we had a rope to confirm that we were on the correct way. This time within the bamboo forest.
Eventually arriving at the highest point. Over 2000m altitude. Not bad compared with our HK hills.
I could see hiking paths marked on the Openstreetmap and I wanted to explore a bit more. So instead of heading back down the same way, we gave them a try. In a little time, it became way messier. Something similar to this, but steep downhill.
No decent pics as we were completely within the fog and dense vegetation (watch the video below). I was having fun. Not for Summer. Taiwanese people have read too many stories about people getting lost in their mountains. Even minimal, I was able to see signs of previous hikers. Initially with ribbons, later a faint path with broken branches at the usual human levels. No signs of big animals (there are bears in Taiwan!). Eventually, we found a wider path, heading towards a tiny village.
And the road. After a little walk on it, two local guys on a pick-up asked us if we wanted a ride back to the lake. Perfect!
Maolingu Falls
Before going to Taiwan I had researched a bit (most links to blogs and webs checked then seem dead now). Trying to find relatively easy-to-hike pretty streams all around the island. The first one visited not far from Kaohsiung in the Maolin district.
There were tons of signs saying not to go to the stream itself. With a very well-maintained hiking path next to it.
But we couldn’t resist the temptation at the main fall.
Massive
and with cool crystalline water.
Kenting
As mentioned before, one of the must-goes for beach lovers. There are several touristy spots, starting from its night market with tons of street food. But it has a lot more nature-wise. The first stop was the very civilized Kenting National Forest Recreation Area. Easy paths, tons of different trees to see, lighted caves, etc. After we also went to a bit more wild Cikong waterfalls.
Muddy path with old set ropes. Check around and you might find intrepid buddies to join you up 😉
Several decent waterfalls and pools.
A very difficult stream hike, as you can watch for the kids in the video 😛
San Xian Tai
As mentioned before, we tried to go to Green Island, but due to the extremely strong winds we couldn’t make it. There were no ferries departing from Taitung. Therefore we continued our way up North on the Eastern shoreline to this little island.
See full screen and the Garmin track.
Connected by a very picturesque bridge
& wooden planks path.
Around we could find further cute fauna.
We went outpath to check the coastline a bit, but the wind-created waves were huge and coasteering was not an option. Maybe another time. Beautiful landscape anyhow.
A short compilation of videos of the previous four.
Taroko
If you would ask me which is my favorite place in Taiwan so far, this is it. Big streams with beautiful deep blue water, huge cliffs, mountain villages, hot springs. The map with the routes we did on different days. You will need to zoom in to see them clearly.
See full screen and the Garmin of easy next to stream path, up to Dali Village & down, hotspring and the parallel path to the greyish stream, Zhuilu cliff path.
Some of the routes are open to everyone. In some you need to apply for permits beforehand on the National Parks web or on the information center there. An example of the former is the super civilized path
with a completely blue water river next to it. In October, way more water than in the Google Maps pics.
After that, we went up a steep path to the village of Dali. An interesting route where you can see old construction and even an “elevator” coming from the gorge.
The village itself is very small with its tiny church.
On the second day, we started crossing a bridge
and going down precarious old stairs (a route not approved by the Government 🤫) to
a natural hot spring.
The stream next to it is completely grey, full of minerals. Curious to see the waterfall of pristine water transforming to concrete-looking grey water.
Once on the parallel path above, every stream crossing was “refreshing”.
A few ice cold 😆 and super clear. In any case, here we behaved and kept on the main path without adventuring up the waterfalls. A reminder to myself. Wasps are even more painful than in HK.
On the third day, we had the permit for one of the highlights: Zhuilu Old Trail. A path carved on the cliff with the gorge 700m below.
Spectacular and
definitely not for those with vertigo. Most of the time the path was wide (1.5m), but with no protection whatsoever.
A bit more than a half-kilometer on the cliff before the path officially ends. We talked with a local guy who told us that the government had not repaired the path even if the landslide had happened almost a decade before. 2023, six years later and it is not yet repaired… After explaining what we do for fun in HK he told us that we could go ahead with no problem. But again, we decided to behave and went back the same way we had come, following Gov recommendations. A bit more than 6 kilometers for the return.
Video of the previous two days.
April 2023
Due to Covid Summer was not able to go back to Taipei to visit the family for 3 years. Therefore we spent a full week there seeing them all and her friends. Among others, around we visited the mountain village of Jioufen (mainly eating in its old street), easy paths in Yangmingshan National Park, and an easy coastal walk in Bitoujiao called Fanziao Coast (?).
In Taipei itself, we went to Elephant Hill.
See full screen & the Garmin track.
You can go up and down concrete steps for the touristy picture or proper hiking and interesting scrambling. We did the latter.
Green island
This tiny island (barely bigger than Lamma) is about 33 km off the eastern coast of Taiwan. You can arrive there by ferry or tiny airplane. The main activity there is diving.
And another video in landscape mode. Testing the new GoPro.
In our case, all four dives we did within the day were just in front of the main promenade. The visibility was really good. Tons of turtles, fish banks, nudibranchs, a few tourist pic “wrecks”(the heart, the postbox where you can really send postcards from), and tons of beginners 😉 People doing fun dives with no fins, one-to-one with a dive master that you can watch in the video. A lot of people doing PADI courses. Very good place to do so, if you speak Chinese. The scuba gear and maintenance were really good (Blue Safari diving center). After my usual Philippines diving adventures a significant improvement. If you spend more time, you can go to better diving spots more apt for non-beginners. But after four years of no scuba diving whatsoever, it was good enough for us.
The coastline has tons of features. One of the nicest is going down to the Sleeping Beauty & the Blue Hole.
The hiking path down to the coastline is old and not maintained but for the regular readers of this web a piece of cake. Just potentially muddy in a few sections and slightly wet rock slippery. Once on the sea level you can dry walk to the Sleeping Beauty and the caves just behind. The Blue Hole will depend on the tide. The days we were there the waves were massive. Therefore we could not cross to it the first time. We went a second time timing it exactly with the low tide so that we could walk there easily. Scrambling & “safe” high cliff jumping in the peculiar rock formation.
We were not able to coasteer much, but with good sea conditions it must be fun. Just beware of the very sharp volcanic rocks everywhere. The coastline has a lot more even with bad sea conditions for example the Zhaori sea water hot spring.
Extremely hot seawater in this area. Hot enough so that you can boil your seafood in the wells that have been built there. Nice pleasant temperature water above on the man-made pools. We went there with the motorbike we had rented and also to other places like this nice cave in Youzihu and others around.
There is a historical mountain trail, well marked, but we did not have time to hike it. For more touristy options you have a Deer (and other animal) farm, a White Terror prison/museum, and a lot more little spots all around the island. We were there on public holidays in Taiwan, peak season, and some of the spots were a bit crowded.
If you have time and you want a bit less touristic option you could head to Orchid Island instead. It is less developed and significantly bigger.
Kenting
Our initial plan after the ferry back from Green Island was to rent a car and head to Hehuanshan area for a bit of “mountaineering”. But the weather forecast was not the best. High chance of some rain, relatively cold at high altitude, and very strong wind… So we drove to Kenting again. Too windy and wavy for beach or coasteering, but we were able to do a couple of dry coastal walks.
The first one from Mobitou to Baishawan.
See full screen & the Garmin track.
I had seen on the satellite image a clear path heading to the coastline, but once there we found a sign saying that it was forbidden to go down… It didn’t take me long to find another way. Actually in what it looked like the old touristy way to get closer to the sea. Now not used as, I guess, “too dangerous” for the Taiwan Gov. This seems extra protective, even significantly more than our HK’s… Once down, the route is impressive with tons of volcanic rocks, fossils, seeing sea life without needing to swim or even wade, and ending in one of the most photogenic beaches in the area. The pics & videos.
Longpan Park – Longkeng coasteering
See full screen & the Garmin track.
We spent some time on the touristy spot and then we headed down to the coastline. Too much trash. Several paths heading up to the road. Ending in a protected area… 😅 We arrived at a place where a guard found us with a surprised face. He explained to us that there is a maximum number of people that can go to that area on certain days a week. Reading now it seems you need to join some kind of guided tour to go into that area the civilized way. They never thought that anyone would arrive coasteering from “far away”. He opened us the gate and we exited towards the road on which I run back to pick our car that we had left in the initial parking area.
Video
and pics
September 2023
Long weekend with the family, including another visit to Yangmingshan. This time checking Juansi waterfall & Qingtiangang Grassland.
And later to the Matcha mountains and waterfalls around in Jiaoxi, Yilan.
The Garmin track.
December 2023
Super short Christmas visit. We only had time for an easy hike in Wulai.
Surprisingly good (compared with HK) water flow so late in the year. Garmin track + later we went to Wulai Falls & Yun Hsien Lake just above with the cable car (last 3 pics). Easy easy day out. There are tons of adventurous options that we will hopefully try another time.
Future outings
Not far from Taipei you have the wormhole and a big waterfall (which in 2023 seem are forbidden to get into…)
I would highly recommend checking Xiaofei‘s videos to get more ideas for stream and others. The last part of this video might give you quite some ideas of the fun available in Taiwan 😄
Davis from the Maproomexplorers contacted me recently (2023). It has a good map to search river tracing options.
For the outer islands, the aforementioned Orchid and Penhu are in our to do list. The high mountains of Hehuanshan & Mount Guan too.
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