Taiwan 2024

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I have spent this weekend booking our holiday to Taiwan in a few months. To be honest, I had no idea how difficult it would be to arrange this trip, but this was a challenge, even for me, and I consider myself a pro, when it comes to making travel arrangements. Trying to find half decent accommodation at an affordable price, on an island half the size of Tasmania, was difficult. 23.57 million people live in Taiwan, so as you can imagine, hotel accommodation is at a premium, and the costs can be astronomical.

Like all my holidays, I use Expedia to book my itinerary. I find them to be the best online travel agency, and their customer service is exceptional. They may well be a little more expensive than other similar online companies, but you pay for what you get as they say, and I feel safe using them, to facilitate my travels around the globe.

There will be a lot of travelling involved in this trip. The flight from Perth in Australia to Taiwan is going to take us approximately twelve hours. This was the quickest time we could have possibly got. We are flying with Cathay Pacific, and paying a lot more for that privilege.  However, I would rather do that, than spend thirty hours getting to the island, using one of the cheaper airlines, like Scoot. Once again, you pay for what you get, and I am prepared to pay a premium, to enjoy more time on holiday. Time is obviously the biggest factor for me, when booking annual leave, and I don't want to go on the cheapest flights, for the longest time; sometimes you just have to suck it up and pay more, knowing you will have peace of mind in the long run!

We will initially fly into Taipei on an early morning flight from Australia, arriving in the city just after 12pm. Thankfully, Taiwan is in the same time zone as Perth, despite being situated in the Northern Hemisphere. This should make jet lag a lot easier to contend with, especially when it is something I tend to suffer with every time I fly — it really doesn't get any easier; if anything, the exhaustion has got worse as I have got older!

From the moment we arrive at the airport, to the moment we leave, we will be taking the train all the way. This is unusual for us, but having investigated public transport in the country, it is clear, it is the best way to travel. It is convenient, cheap, and clean and will take us directly to our destination without hassle and overpriced transfers.

From the airport, we will travel to Taipei and our first hotel — The Cozzi Zhongxiao. This four-star establishment near to the train station will give us a base from which to see the city, and travel to the historic city of Jiufen, a place I have wanted to see for years. There is plenty to do and see in Taipei itself, and I want us to pack in as much as we can over the four days we are there.

From Taipei, we will take the Taiwanese bullet train down south to the coastal city of Kaohsiung, and spend a further five days in this historic part of the island at the Han Hsien International Hotel. As yet, we haven't made any firm plans about what to do while we are there, and we hope to do most of it on the superb public transport system, crisscrossing the island.

This is of course in complete contrast to the holiday we recently had in Vietnam. Here, it was virtually impossible to use any form of public transport, mainly because there wasn't the infrastructure in Saigon that there is in Taipei. This was a big disappointment for us, since we were unable to see many of the sites we would have liked to have seen. The hope is, Taiwan will be a very different experience, and we will be able to navigate the system with ease — that, of course, remains to be seen.

Once again, I will be blogging my way around Taiwan, writing as I go. This is another trip of a lifetime for us, and a precursor to our ultimate dream of travelling to Japan. I am told Taiwan is a gentle introduction to a future Japanese adventure, and I look forward to sharing my experiences with you. Thank you as always for your continued support; I look forward to documenting yet another adventure is the unique, endearing, vibrant and colourful part of the world!