Taiwan Family Holiday - Introduction and Arrival in Taipei

A trip with a purpose!

This was our second trip to Taiwan.  Our family visited two years ago for the Easter weekend and it was done completely at the last minute.  Our flight was delayed by 5 hours and most of the actual trip was a blur because our youngest Mr R was 8 months old and single-handedly winning the worst-sleeper award. Which meant I was also having the worst sleep too.  Irregardless, I can still admit that what we did see of Taipei was lovely.  

Taiwan is a mere 1.5 hour from Hong Kong with multiple flights daily, making it a doable weekend destination for some of my friends.  People keep raving at how great Taiwan is especially with kids. Now that our two boys are out of the baby phase, our trips can be (a little) less structured around naps and feeds so I was quite interested in visiting Taiwan again.

How we plan a holiday

I have never been one to prepare a fixed itinerary.  Usually I compile a long list with places of interest and mark them on Google maps and we aim to accomplish at least one item each day.  Free and easy and child-friendly is the key since we have two kids to work with and also to account for any last minute changes like the weather.  Below is how our Taiwan holiday panned out.  I will expanded on each day in separate posts.


So here we go!

Taiwan Family Holiday Itinerary

Travel Period: mid-April

Weather in Taiwan was very warm and humid with occasional rainstorms so while it was uncomfortably hot at first, the temperature dropped on the days it rained and became windy and cold. I was glad we were prepared with lots of layers and we brought our rain jackets too.

Day 1

Flight from Hong Kong to Taipei

Hakata Ramen

Day 2

Lifehouse church

Xinyi District - Commune A7, Simple Market, ATT 4 FUN

Day 3

Self-drive to Dahu, Miaoli for Strawberry picking

Dahu Strawberry Cultural Centre
Flower House 

Shida Night Market 

Day 4

Kidsburgh at Living Mall

Tonghua Night Market

Day 5

Home Cafe
Gudetama Chef

Lashlab eyelash extensions (just for me!)

Day 6

Shifen - sky lantern

Shifen Waterfall

Day 7

Taipei Children's Amusement Park

Mingsheng district - SunnyHills Cafe, All Day Roasting Company

Day 8

Taipei Zoo

Maokong Gondola

Day 9

Flight Taipei to Hong Kong

Taiwan Day 1

Hong Kong to Taipei, Taiwan

After a smooth flight from Hong Kong we landed in Taipei at Taoyuan International Airport.  It is a clean and efficient airport with great child-friendly facilities and feels very similar to Japanese airports.  We arrived in Taipei as scheduled and moved through the immigration progress really quickly as families with babies or in our case a toddler in a stroller, can use the APAC line and avoid the queues.

We always try to travel with just one check-in suitcase so baggage collection is fast and we can fit into a taxi easily.  Our accommodation was booked via Airbnb and the host had organised our airport transfer for us.  We have previously taken a taxi for a similar fare of approximately NTD1200.

Our accommodation was near one of many SOGO shopping malls in Da'an.  Our host was waiting for us to give us a warm welcome to his home.  It really made for a nice start.

And a side note on our accommodation

We usually stay in a vacation rental home when travelling in major cities.  As long as I've been travelling on my own I've always used a rental apartment as I love the feeling of living like a local.  I guess that's why I also always knew I wanted to live abroad.  Now we have the kids this really makes a difference to us.  Firstly we can get more space for the four of us especially in countries that are notorious for tiny rooms like Japan.  The kids will have a separate bedroom to sleep before the grown ups so we don't have to all sleep at the same time or have to sneak around in the darkness in the silence.  We also look for a washing machine so we can pack really light and kids just get grotty easily.  In a rental home we can also prepare meals like breakfast so we don't have to rush out in the mornings to feed starving children or sometimes there are nights when we just feel like eating in and we can prepare a simple meal at 'home'.  Basically a rental home allows us to take things a bit slower just like a local would.

Dinner was Hakata Ramen Taiwan Headquarters, a small restaurant off one of the main roads with good local reviews.  It didn't disappoint.  The shop was full and there was a wait outside for about 10 minutes.  When we were ushered to our table we saw metal cauldrons of noodle soup over small burners on each table.  Not exactly child friendly and there are no highchairs.  The place is really simple and no frills but the dishes delivered on flavour and the prices were really reasonable too.  We also just gestured that the burners were dangerous for the kids and they understood and removed them from the tables.

After this we took a walk back to the basement level of Sogo for ice cream. The boys shared Haagan Das while I found 108 Matcha Saro for a much loved matcha soft serve hit. 

The key here is distract the rest of the family with ice cream so you get to eat your OWN ice cream.

By now we were incredibly full so we quickly picked up some basic breakfast supplies from the City Super supermarket on the basement floor and then headed back to apartment and called it a night.