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Taiwan: Road Trip - Taiwan


Lammy84
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When I went up Hehuanshan, the previous there was some light snow. By the time I was there it was in the afternoon, most of the snow had already melt. But the scenery there and Wuling was [thumbsup][thumbsup][thumbsup] .

 

With this snow, you will need wheel chain for the tyre already. I don't car in TW are fitted with winter tyre.

 

They don't use winter tyres. Usually if it is snowing on top, halfway up there will be roadblock and you will need to install your snow chains. If you buy the snow chains on the way up, it will cost about TWD2,500 compare to about TWD1,000 if you buy it in cities.

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Not sure what you mean by "Taiwan is not known as a road trip country like OZ, NZ and US" .. known to whom ? ang moh ?

 

Taiwan is a great place for road trips. Now it is even easier as they have started using pinyin in recent years, for most road signs, like the mainland.

 

 

What i meant is, it's more common to find tourist going on self-drive trip in OZ, NZ, US (and lesser extent, Europe). Hardly heard of self-drive in Taiwan, due to the fact that public transport, even to rural areas, are excellent.

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What i meant is, it's more common to find tourist going on self-drive trip in OZ, NZ, US (and lesser extent, Europe). Hardly heard of self-drive in Taiwan, due to the fact that public transport, even to rural areas, are excellent.

 

 

yah the train goes to almost every small town. I was also thinking of taking train trip to tour around taiwan next year.

 

but after reading here, i thought i could do some driving but will not travel far, just a casual and relax drive to few places. Will skip hualian, been there and dun really fancy the mountain.

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yah the train goes to almost every small town. I was also thinking of taking train trip to tour around taiwan next year.

 

but after reading here, i thought i could do some driving but will not travel far, just a casual and relax drive to few places. Will skip hualian, been there and dun really fancy the mountain.

 

If you're a petrolhead, can pick up the car at hualien, and take route 11 down south to taitung.. return the car there (one way fee is about SGD 40). I read that the road is excellent for cruising.

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Taiwan is not known as a road trip country like OZ, NZ and US.. Probably because many westerners are afraid of not recognising the road signs (which are mostly in Chinese)

 

But but but.. Since most of us have no problems reading/understanding basic chinese (even in traditional script), why go the conventional way (of taking trains or hiring cars with drivers)?

 

Just rent a car, and off you go.. enjoy driving on roads you can't find in SG (or even Malaysia). And their road condition is very good, even for rural roads.

 

At this moment, i have this route planned.. 500km, with good mixture of highways and winding roads

 

https://goo.gl/maps/1lBpb

 

Anyway, for mountain roads, a saloon may be better due to the lower CoG.. safer to corner

 

That's a great route. You will be travelling on su hua gong lu on the way from yilan to hualien. The scenery is beauiful along the way. Look over the other side of the road is the vast pacific ocean. [;)]post-113260-0-51469900-1411116220.jpg

Edited by Xiaoyuer86
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If you're a petrolhead, can pick up the car at hualien, and take route 11 down south to taitung.. return the car there (one way fee is about SGD 40). I read that the road is excellent for cruising.

 

Yes, the route are very close to the coaster near Pacific ocean. I have not drive that route yet, but previously take bus from Yilan to Taitung.

A bit like boleh land driving on route 3 to Kuantan driving beside south china sea.

Edited by Tohto
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I rent from this company, I think they are the AD for Toyota car. Their car are all Toyota.

You can pick up the car at airport, Taipei main station or Taichung train station.

 

 

https://www.easyrent.com.tw/English/Car_Rentals.html

is Taiwan only this car rental comapny?

everyone recommend the same comapny, and even more expensive than Singapore,

Altis S$135/day, Singapore can get at S$75/day

Camry 2.0 S$160/day, Singapore S$100/Day

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Taiwan is not known as a road trip country like OZ, NZ and US.. Probably because many westerners are afraid of not recognising the road signs (which are mostly in Chinese)

 

But but but.. Since most of us have no problems reading/understanding basic chinese (even in traditional script), why go the conventional way (of taking trains or hiring cars with drivers)?

 

Just rent a car, and off you go.. enjoy driving on roads you can't find in SG (or even Malaysia). And their road condition is very good, even for rural roads.

 

At this moment, i have this route planned.. 500km, with good mixture of highways and winding roads

 

https://goo.gl/maps/1lBpb

 

Anyway, for mountain roads, a saloon may be better due to the lower CoG.. safer to corner

 

how about going around by high speed rail and then rent a car or a bike to explore each town?

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is Taiwan only this car rental comapny?

everyone recommend the same comapny, and even more expensive than Singapore,

Altis S$135/day, Singapore can get at S$75/day

Camry 2.0 S$160/day, Singapore S$100/Day

 

This are the publish rate. The actual rate is slightly lower. My rental Altis 1.8L is about $550 for 5D 6hr.

This around the market rate there. Their car is almost brand new, the Altis I rent only about 2000km on the meter.

Car rental is not popular in TW, even Hertz is not there. Big player only Avis around.

 

Those $75/day car here are all more than 5yrs. You try check with Hertz or Avis which mostly are new car and see the price.

 

how about going around by high speed rail and then rent a car or a bike to explore each town?

In Town, using public transport like mrt, bus or taxi is better.

Car rental are more for accessing country side and place that public transport not convenient.

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how about going around by high speed rail and then rent a car or a bike to explore each town?

 

Better to rent car for intra-city travel, and go public in the city area. Especially since parking is difficult to find in big cities.

is Taiwan only this car rental comapny?

everyone recommend the same comapny, and even more expensive than Singapore,

Altis S$135/day, Singapore can get at S$75/day

Camry 2.0 S$160/day, Singapore S$100/Day

 

$135/day for Altis is very expensive.. Avis quoted me $400 for 5 days for Ford Focus 1.6...

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Turbocharged

For all you petrolheads out there...

 

1901256_10152479961657749_52637610337880

 

One of the best driving road in Taiwan. Their version of OZ's great ocean Road. In fact it's better, because you don't have to keep watching the speedo for fear of exceeding the speed limit.. (I've had lorries overtaking me on 2 straight section of the road at 100km/h)..

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For all you petrolheads out there...

 

1901256_10152479961657749_52637610337880

 

One of the best driving road in Taiwan. Their version of OZ's great ocean Road. In fact it's better, because you don't have to keep watching the speedo for fear of exceeding the speed limit.. (I've had lorries overtaking me on 2 straight section of the road at 100km/h)..

Bro,

Which road is this? Which city you are driving from /to?

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Bro,

Which road is this? Which city you are driving from /to?

Should be the eastern coast around Hualian. I went from Hualian back to Taipei, the road is a lot more interesting in terms of scenery and engineering difficulty than Great Ocean Road (Melbourne to Port Campbell) - which I still don't get it what is "Great".

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Yup. that's the highway i took from Taoyuan to Keelung..

 

Spent the 1st night at Keelung, 2nd night at Shifen, and then drove down 苏花公路 down from Shifen to Hualien, via Yilan... ^_^

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Where is Shull?

Post some nice road trip photo leh..

 

Came back from Taiwan on Monday.. shot around 50GB of pictures, all in raw format, so need to do post processing to convert to JPEG..

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