Taiwan with children: what works, what does not, and what we change

What makes a Taiwan family trip fail is not the country. It is the month, and it is the mountain days.

The three rules we apply

One: no more than three or four hotel changes in ten days. Our family route holds to three deliberately.

Two: rail wherever rail goes. Taipei to Kaohsiung is about 220 miles (350 km) and under two hours on the high speed line, and children who are bored in a car are usually happy on a train with a window and a lunchbox. The east coast line from Taipei to Hualien is around three hours and it hugs the coast for much of it.

Three: one mountain day, not three. The car days are the ones that go wrong: five hours of winding road, altitude, and a viewpoint that means more to adults than to a seven-year-old.

What genuinely works

The night markets. This is the best evening in the country with children and it is also dinner. Small portions, everything visible, everything cheap, and a child can choose. Raohe is compact and covered, which matters when Taipei is wet, and it has the pepper buns, which are pulled blistered off the wall of a clay oven while you watch. What to order at each market is in Taipei night markets.

The trains, taken seriously as an activity. The high speed line, the Alishan forest railway climbing up from Chiayi on narrow gauge, and the Pingxi branch line in the north-east. The Pingxi line comes with a caution: the sky lanterns released there are a genuine litter problem and we will tell you about it before you buy one, and many families end up choosing not to.

Beitou. Hot springs inside the Taipei metro system, with a hot spring museum, a green library, and family bathhouses with private rooms where swimwear is worn. Half a day, and it does not involve leaving the city.

Taipei’s museums and towers. The National Palace Museum has a children’s gallery. Taipei 101 has the observatory and the damper, an enormous steel ball that keeps the tower still in a typhoon, which is a better piece of physics teaching than any classroom.

The east coast. Whale and dolphin watching from Hualien in season, rice terraces at Chishang, a river swim, and Highway 11 with the Pacific alongside. This is the part of the trip children remember.

Bicycles. Taiwan is one of the best cycling countries in Asia, with a signed round-island route, good rental networks and one-way drop-offs. The western shore of Sun Moon Lake before nine in the morning, or the East Rift Valley, are both flat, safe and a genuinely good family morning.

Convenience stores. Not a joke. There are tens of thousands of them, they have hot food, cold drinks, toilets and cash machines, and with children that solves about six problems a day.

What does not work

Summer, more than anything else. Taipei in July and August runs to around 95F (35C) with humidity that makes it feel considerably worse, and Tainan and Kaohsiung are hotter still. Add typhoon season, which peaks in August and September and can cost a day or two of the trip. If school holidays lock you into August, we will say plainly that it is the hardest month and we will build the trip around altitude, water and early mornings rather than pretending. The full calendar is in Taiwan month by month.

Long mountain days. The high road over Hehuanshan reaches a pass at about 10,745 feet (3,275 m) and it is five hours of driving with stops. Some children are travel sick on it and altitude affects small children more than adults. One night at Alishan at around 7,200 feet (2,200 m), reached by the forest railway rather than only by road, is the version we build instead.

Sun Moon Lake at midday. It is beautiful and it is very busy, and the queue for the ropeway on a Saturday afternoon is the memory nobody wants. Stay overnight, cycle early, be elsewhere in the middle of the day.

Jiufen on a weekend afternoon. Stepped lanes, no space, and a pushchair is impossible. Go early on a weekday or leave it out.

A full temple programme. Two temples across a trip, chosen well and visited at the right hour, beats seven. Longshan at dusk when it is full of people praying is the one that holds a child’s attention.

Taroko as a promise. The magnitude 7.2 earthquake off Hualien on 3 April 2024 caused severe rockfall and structural damage through the gorge, and the national park has been reopening in stages, with the position still changing. We confirm what is genuinely open at the time we quote and we do not put a day in a family itinerary that may not exist. Mugua River Gorge and the Sanzhan river south of Hualien are a good alternative on the same coast, with river swimming that children prefer anyway.

By age

Under five. Very manageable, and Taiwan is one of the countries we would recommend for a first Asian trip with a toddler. Metro-accessible Taipei, Beitou, one east coast stop, and a pool. Pushchair access is good in the cities and poor in the old lanes.

Five to nine. The sweet spot. Taipei, the east coast, one mountain or lake night, one southern city. Trains between all of it. Three hotels.

Ten to fourteen. Now the walking opens up: the roadside peaks at Hehuanshan, where Shimen Mountain is forty-five minutes return on steps and boardwalk for one of the best views on the island, Alishan’s forest paths, cycling days, and snorkelling at Green Island if the sea allows. Permits are not an issue on any of these, which is the point.

Teenagers. Taiwan is unexpectedly strong here. Independent metro travel in Taipei, night markets, bubble tea, a serious cycling day, and a genuine hiking day at altitude. Teenagers who have already done Thailand notice that this is a country where they can be trusted to go and get dinner.

The practical notes that matter with children

Food. Easy. Rice, noodles, dumplings, fried chicken, congee, fruit, and plain versions of almost everything on request. Ask for it not spicy and it will be. Vegetarian is unusually easy because of a strong Buddhist vegetarian tradition.

Health. Excellent. Hospitals are good, pharmacies are everywhere and hygiene standards are high. Tap water is generally treated to a high standard and most residents still boil or filter it, and we would do the same.

Earthquakes. Taiwan is seismically active and buildings are constructed for it. It is worth explaining this to children calmly before you go rather than at two in the morning, and following the instructions in the hotel room.

Getting around. The stored-value card works for the whole family on metro, buses and bikes. Taxis are cheap and metered. Child seats are not standard in taxis and we arrange them in the private cars.

Rain. From roughly late October the north-east monsoon can make Taipei grey and drizzly for days at around 63F (17C). Covered night markets, museums, hot springs and the aquarium exist for exactly this.

Would we send a family to Taiwan?

Yes, more readily than to most of the region, with one condition: not in August if there is any alternative.

Compared with its neighbours, Taiwan has better trains than Vietnam, easier food than Japan for fussy eaters, lower cost than Japan overall, and fewer beach resorts than Thailand. It is the best country in Asia we know for a family that likes cities, trains and eating and does not need a beach. Our Asia with children article puts it side by side with the others.

Plan this trip

Tell us the ages of your children and the dates you are tied to, and a Taiwan specialist will build a route around the trains, with the heat and the weather planned for rather than hoped away. Free first outline, no obligation.

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Keep reading

• Taiwan: the complete guide to planning your trip
• Taiwan with children, 10 days
• Asia with children, country by country
• Taipei night markets, and what to order
• Taiwan month by month
• All our Taiwan trips

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