My family and I (2 adults, 2 boys ages 13 and 7) are visiting Taiwan over the upcoming winter/holiday break. Having trouble making a final decision on one part of our itinerary – whether to drive down the east coast from Taroko Gorge to Kenting in 1 day or 2?

My original plan is 2 days with an overnight in Taitung following the route #2/Highway 11 option from this post: https://www.nickkembel.com/east-coas...itung-kenting/.

The option to stay at a Sheraton in Taitung that has family connecting rooms was also appealing. But now thinking that we are going to get to Taitung late afternoon and be ready to just drive the extra couple hours to Kenting – which would allow us one less hotel change and more time on the west coast (I.e. time to explore Tainan vs. just a quick drive through, or perhaps an overnight in Sun Moon Lake).

Google drive time is 6.5 hours. I would budget close to 10 hours with stops along the way. We would definitely need to be up and out early to spend most of the drive in daylight. Assume the last hour we would spend on Rt 26 coming down from where Rt 9 crosses over and connects to the west coast would be ok driving at night – we would be heading back that way in daylight a couple days later to see what we missed.

But really have no idea what the driving is like. Any advice is appreciated!

Here is the current overall planned itinerary for reference where these days fit in – also in case anyone has other suggestions for our trip.

Flying LAX – HKG – will have 2 nights 1 day in HKG before heading to TPE

Day 1: Arrive Taipei early evening from Hong Kong. Staying 5 nights at the Hotel Resonance Tapestry Collection.

Days 2-5 Taipei (includes any day trips and New Year's Eve)

For the 4 full days, have 2 tentatively allocated for Taipei proper and 1 for a day trip to Jiufen, Shifen, and Yehliu Geopark. We may use the other day for a high-speed rail day trip to Taichung – even though we are staying there 2 nights later, looking for a chance to ride the HSR since we are otherwise driving around the island. Plus, my son wants to visit Lihpao Land which we might do with the later day in Taichung.

Day 6: Get rental car on New Year's Day, drive to Silks Taroko Gorge. Still researching what will be open on New Year’s Day along the way (i.e anything worth visiting and will be open in the Jiaoxi/Yilan area)

Day 7: Taroko Gorge

Day 8: Taroko Gorge to Taitung – looking to book the Sheraton but not open for reservations yet – this has also been an odd thing to me that some hotels only take reservations a few months in advance – 2 others I have booked just opened for January.

Day 9: Taitung to Kenting – will either do an AirBnb or Cesar Park Hotel (also not open for reservations yet) or maybe Howard Beach Villas

Day 10: Kenting

Day 11: Kenting to Kaohsiung – have reserved the Marriott for now but might move to the Intercontinental. Short drive from Kenting to Kaohsiung so assuming we will have the whole afternoon to see sites around town – several cool things we are interested in.

Day 12: Kaohsiung to Alishan – staying at the Alishan Hotel. Goal is to get in by sunset, which will be in the 5:00 hour (though I think we have to park somewhere and transfer to the hotel, so it might need to be closer to 4:00). Plan to drive through Tainan and spend a few hours there on the way. Though if we do the east coast drive in 1 day, that creates an option to stay 2 nights in Kaohsiung and use the time to explore Tainan as a day trip (or move to a Tainan hotel but I like the idea of reducing our hotel changes even if we backtrack an hour).

Day 13: Alishan (get up early – do the train and sunrise platform) and then on to Taichung via Sun Moon Lake. Staying at Le Meridien Taichung.

In the case we have done the east coast drive in 1 day, a second alternate option for that recaptured night is an overnight at Sun Moon Lake. There are several nice places to stay there, but after my research so far, I think we will be good having an afternoon there and then driving to Taichung. It is like my thought on Taitung – I think we can reach Sun Moon by noon from Alishan and when it gets to be about 4:00 we would have seen it and be ready to go to the hotel – and it is only a 90 minute to Taichung and we get a 2-night stay vs. 1 + 1.

Day 14: Taichung

Day 15: Taichung to TPE airport (where we are returning the car) for early evening flight to Seoul (we have 6 days in Seoul before heading back to LA).

Again, appreciate any thoughts on the east coast drive or the itinerary overall.