During the September school break, our family enjoyed a week-long stay in Taiwan, where we delighted our two children with visits to animal sanctuaries, indulged in soft toy shopping, and savored the comfort of charming local accommodations (民宿).
Here is my tldr self-drive itinerary for 7 days:
- Shengxing Station walk-around or take the scenic railway
- Flying Cow Ranch is a huge farm with lots of farm activities
- 六福村 is a theme park and also a resort with roaming animals!
- 六福村 water theme park in the morning, rest, then more time in the theme park
- 张美阿妈农场 to feed capybaras, deers, kangaroos, cooking and farming!
- 頭城濱海森林公園 for a 30 min horse riding experience (book on klook)
- Lucky Art Crayon Factory to experience making crayon and other stuff
For more details, read further.
Or watch the video highlights.
Driving
I was a little concerned that driving could take up to 2 hours and involve some mountain roads. Turns out, it was no big deal — we can avoid high mountain areas while driving from Miaoli to Yilan!
At times, there are small winding roads like the drive to Flying Cow Ranch, which took like 30+ minutes. For that journey, my mum was car sick by the time we reach the farm.
All in all, it’s great to self drive. We returned the car conveniently at Taoyuan airport, leaving it in the car park for them to collect back at their own time.
Hotels
All the hotels or 民宿 that we booked were excellent, and I recommend these 3.
六福村 Resort for the huge room with 2 levels, and a balcony that overlooks the animals!
CHECK inn MAGI Kids for being so kid friendly and having a children race track (they drove for 2 days, for countless times).
松之墅溜滑梯親子民宿 has rooms with slides, and lots of other toys.
Things to do
Flying Cow Ranch requires a full day to enjoy. It’s huge so you need time to cover. Unfortunately we didn’t know and only have half a day. But we still manage to did some unique experience like milking a cow!
张美阿妈农场 is well known for feeding the capybaras, deers and kangaroos. On some days they have cooking experience, and I was surprised that my kids enjoy making taro balls. We even went to the farm to pluck some lady fingers, which we brought back to Singapore.
My kids love horse riding. Usually, horse riding is expensive and last only a few minutes. I found on klook this nice place along the beach to ride for 30 minutes, and it didn’t disappoint.
The guide is awesome, and will even let you ride the horse on your own for a while. At one section, he even let the horse pick up speed, and Kate experienced real galloping for the first time!
My younger one is 4 years old, and I can accompanied her for the horse riding. That is double the experience for the price of one, so I highly recommend it 👍🏻 Oh, we can even brag we 在马路上骑马.
Finally, I realized kids enjoy experience more than scenery. I wasn’t keen on Lucky Art Crayon Factory, but they absolutely love the 4 activities.