Taiwan Family Holiday - Self-drive to Strawberry Farms in Dahu, Miaoli

Taiwan Day 3

When it came to organising our trip two issues stood out:  

1: Everyone hires a driver/tour guide to get around Taiwan. 

2: Everyone speaks Mandarin and not speaking Mandarin will be a problem. 

And the two issues are problematically linked.  There aren't many English speaking drivers and when I found a couple, they charged a lot more because we didn't speak Mandarin.  So our options would be to take public transport or self-drive.  What's that?  Self drive in Taiwan!?  Yes another outstanding issue I forgot to add is... 

3: Nobody apparently self-drives in Taiwan.  

Everybody I asked looked confused and insisted without a driver it would be impossible to get around Taiwan.  I looked online and there was negligible information about it.  One travel website said it could be done but you must sound your car horn all the time to let drivers know you are there! Then I found a local blogger who drove and scootered throughout Taiwan and it was never described as being dangerous and in fact it looked great and very scenic.  Taiwan is also a small island and you could probably cover the whole place in just a few days if you were extremely dedicated.  Of course Taiwan has an excellent and reliable public transport system of trains, bus networks and affordable taxis.  However to some locations, driving would still be preferred especially in the outer areas of Taiwan.  

Why self-drive?

Self-driving is great because sometimes public transport can be a pain with young kids.  Trying to jostle two wriggling children, your luggage and a stroller on and off platforms to make transfers can be unnecessarily stressful.  With a private car you can come and go whenever you wish and best is both kids can nap in the car.  When I compared the price of renting a car for the day versus the cost of a private driver for 8 hours, car rental was at least half the price.  So self-driving would also be more cost effective for us.

The only requirements to drive in Taiwan are: a valid International Drivers Permit, a drivers licence, a passport and the ability to left-hand drive (the same as the USA/Europe).  The Hubs was happy to drive so we decided we would endeavour to self-drive in Taiwan for an opportunity to see some Taiwan countryside.   And I decided I would blog about it so there is some information out there for others who want to do it.

Renting a car in Taiwan

Organising a rental car in Taiwan was relatively simple and here I'll share our experience.

These are three car rental agencies I found with English websites:

https://www.rentalcar.com.tw/ (Chailease Auto Rental)
https://www.easyrent.com.tw/english/ (Hotai Leasing and Rental)
https://www.car-plus.com.tw/

I looked for the outlets nearest our accommodation so we didn't have to return to the airport just to pick up the rental car.

The online reservation forms required at least 3 days notice to rent a car online.  Due to weather restraints there was just one sunny day left and it meant we had less than 24 hours to book a car.  Not speaking Mandarin, I opted to send out emails to try to reserve a car and waited for a response.  The responses were surprisingly quick for a Sunday and after a number of emails in both English and Chinese (thank you Google translate) I did secure a car with Easy Rent (also confusingly called Hotai Leasing and Rental) at their Da'an outlet.

They informed me that child seats were first come first serve so there was a risk the trip would be cancelled if they didn't have any seats.

I admit I was a bit nervous leaving the car booking to such last minute so if you know your schedule it would be better to book in advance.

We left early after breakfast and took a short taxi ride to the car rental shop.  Stepping into the empty office we were greeted by befuddled faces when they saw we couldn't speak Mandarin.  But our name was miraculously on the booking list!  They brought out two car seats for the kids and once we showed all the required documents we were handed the keys to embark on our self-drive experience of Taiwan.  

Despite the incredibly bored faces of the staff, we were very excited to get our rental car

We relied on navigation via Google maps.  So you definitely need a reliable pocket wifi.  Our device was having some technical issues aka not turning on the night before and it was making me nervous we wouldn't have navigation.

An immediate challenge that I noticed with Google navigation was that although the road signs in Taiwan have both Chinese characters and romanised Chinese names, Google navigation only uses the road names in Chinese characters.  This means the road names are as good as useless apart from the highways that are numbered or the Formosa Freeway that has an English name.  The Hubs was completely unaffected by this issue but I thought it would have been so much better if Google navigation could use the romanised Chinese names.    

Both Chinese characters and Romanised English on Taiwanese streets signs - but not on Google Maps navigation

Destination Dahu, Miaoli County

So why did I want us to self-drive?  For strawberries!  From previous winter trips to Japan, we had enjoyed picking strawberries and I was really excited to discover the strawberry season was still open in Taiwan until early April.  The strawberry farms are located in Dahu a farming township in Miaoli County, 1.5 hours by car from Taipei city.

The options to reach the farms by public transport involve a high speed train to Miaoli and then bus/taxi transfer to Dahu.   But I was not comfortable about finding the bus stop with two toddlers and I always get travel sick in a bus plus my youngest son is quite the puker.  If we took a taxi to the farms, I did not feel confident we could organise a taxi back to the station.  And furthermore, if local families drive to the farms to pick strawberries then why wouldn't we be able to do it?

The drive was not winding and the views of the countryside were filled with amazing greenery.  The roads were really smooth and so much better than Hong Kong roads.  However Mr R still did get car sick on a completely straight road, and I am amazed that we managed to wash him off and the car seat at a 7-11 wash room en route and no smell remained in the car!  It really helped to place his wet but washed clothes on the dashboard to dry and let the sun bleach the smell and residual stains away. It would also help to not give your child milk and red grapes for breakfast.

April is already the end of the strawberry picking season and we checked the Dahu website to check if there were still fruit to pick!  I had chosen a farm purely based on Google map reviews but when we turned into a shop we realised we were at the wrong one.  But before we could leave (escape?), a lady was beckoning us and showing us where to park.  Since I honestly had no opinion about which farm to go to, we just decided to stay put.  Turns out the farm (國際草莓園) actually has higher ratings.  But the whole road is full of farms to choose from and the two at the beginning probably have the higher ratings because most people just stop at the start of the road and don't go further down.  We saw some of the farms grow their strawberries up on trestles so the strawberries can hang down on either side off the ground.  If I was to be really picky, I would suggest you choose one of those farms instead to avoid the dirt and constant need to squat down.  

The sun was beating hot so we got ourselves ready with slip, slop, slap and followed the staff lady to an area in the field to pick strawberries.  She handed us a basket and scissors and pointed out the best strawberries to pick.  And then we were off.  The boys had a blast running up and down the rows of strawberry plants and Mr A was particularly attentive at finding the best and biggest strawberries.

There were plenty of fruit to pick and we could really find the best fruit.  I had been worried that if we arrived too late in the day or the season, there would be no fruit left after others had visited before us.  We didn't have this issue at all and it was so quiet we could have had the whole street to ourselves if we had wanted.  

Mr R points out which fruit NOT to pick

The staff showing us the true meaning of slip, slop, slap...

Once we thought we had enough fruit (and honestly you could pick forever and ever) we went to weigh and pay for our pickings.  The lady had baskets of small fruit on the counter that she looked to be hulling perhaps for jam making.  She gave some of these berries to the boys to taste and she pointed to this grotty sink at the back so we could wash the fruit.  I really had to control fits of OCD paranoia at whether that tap water was clean enough for my kids.  But she was so friendly and everyone was more than ready to eat some strawberries already so after paying we ate a bag of our bounty too.  The fruit was quite sweet and crunchy.  However, these berries were definitely not as good as the Japanese ones we picked near Osaka.  Some of the fruit seemed a little over ripe too, probably because it was already the end of the season and a lot of fruit was still on the plants waiting for harvest.  In total, our own picked strawberries cost us NTD400.  

It was well pass lunch by now and I thought we could be ambitious and visit the Flying Cow Ranch but it was a 45 minute drive away!  The Hubs searched online and found a cafe near the university and we drove there to find a surprisingly great fusion cafe called Could Be Cafe.  It was very child friendly with high chairs and kids serving ware.  The grown ups really enjoyed the three cup chicken pasta.

From here we decided we should truly maximise our strawberry experience and head back to the Dahu Strawberry Cultural Centre for strawberry ice cream.  About 5 minutes into our drive the car turned an eerie silent and I realised both kids had passed out asleep at the back.  The joys and the lows of having a car.

It didn't take long to arrived at the Cultural Centre but we couldn't see where to park so we unintentionally turned into the entry of the cafe next door and we discovered a kitsch though I think they were going for quaintly decorated cafe called Flower House.  The cafe clearly specialises in strawberry desserts and we ordered their strawberry shaved ice and strawberry waffles.  The fruit were really sweet and so much bigger than the ones we had picked!

If you haven't had a shaved ice dessert before it is really far superior to a snow cone.  They freeze a huge block of flavoured ice and a machine shaves thin sheets off the ice block creating a mountain of frozen layers of sorbet.  A must try in Taiwan.

Next we walked next door to investigate the Dahu Strawberry Cultural Centre but since we had already eaten there was little to gain from this place.  The centre is made up of lots of small shops and stands selling strawberry themed snacks and souvenirs.  A lot of the stuff is tacky and the venue is quite run down and mostly underwhelming.  What was nice though was the terrace area out the back over looking rows of strawberry fields.   We were really the only visitors there and this didn't help give the place much atmosphere either.  Perhaps if we had visited there for lunch and tried some of the snacks we may have found it more enjoyable but I would give this place a miss.

Yes I am carrying our box of strawberries to keep them from cooking inside the car.

Satisfied with enough strawberries to last a week, we headed back to Taipei city to return the car. The sunset was beautiful as we reached the city and we were greeted with overwhelming numbers of scooters and commuters on the streets once again. 

The driving verdict

Within Taipei city it felt congested and there are a lot of lane merges and let's not forget the sheer number of scooters everywhere.  This was more of an issue at night when everyone seemed to be on the roads. During the daytime though, once we hit left Taipei city, the route to our destination was very straight forward.  The Hubs commented that the roads were very wide, smooth and well maintained making it a really easy and nice drive.

After we returned the car, we were quite close to Shida Night Market so we hopped into a taxi and had a quick beef noodle dinner.  Staff were super grumpy but the food was delicious and it was not even crowded that night so I blamed Mondayitis.

Shida Night Market has heaps of great looking shops that looked worth exploring for people who didn't have two overtired and under-napped toddlers.  In particular there were some nice looking clothes and accessory boutiques that I would have liked to browse if I had more time.   

I have to mention that we probably let our picked strawberries spoil a bit since we had them in the box the whole day and not refrigerated.  I insisted on carrying my strawberry babies into our lunch venue, the dessert cafe, the cultural centre to keep them out of the hot car and I even tried to blast the AC on them inside the car.  But then we even had to lug them around the night market.  So perhaps if one were more prepared you could have a cooler bag ready and buy ice packs(?)  I don't know how we could have addressed this issue better to be honest but it certainly was sad to see some of our fruit soft and bruised by the time we got home.  Previously when we picked fruit in Japan it was an all you can pick and eat experience so we never brought fruit home plus it's winter and cold.  Maybe it would have been better to just eat them straight away at their best.  Either way it was still a very successful day self-driving in Taiwan and I would definitely recommend it to anyone who visits during strawberry picking season.