Reporting back on our trip. Had a great time.

Taipei – Hotel Resonance was a great location to get around, nice new hotel right next to the Shandao Temple subway stop. Though a little bit of a dry spot for food after 8 PM, as we would learn on our first night. That said it was very easy and affordable to use Uber Eats to get anything in town delivered – my kids got a kick out of seeing the motorbike making its way to us. As mentioned by ARLT, the Hilton credit is for the Starbucks, which gets pretty busy in the mornings. But from Day 2 on we just got our breakfast and coffee the night before for the next day and it worked well for us (we drink cold – so could put in the fridge).

First day we walked, ubered, and took the subway around town. First stop was the Chiang Kai-shek memorial. From there went over to the Lungshan Temple. There was a great education center by the Bopiliao Historic Block. Walked from there to Ximending and checked out the Lays and Hello Kitty themed 7-Elevens and explored the area in general. Had an early dinner there and then walked north for a while to the Dihua Street area. From there walked to the MTR and headed to Christmastime which was in the Banqiao district. Kids had fun on some of the rides there and it was interesting to see several of the campaign groups walking around and chanting.

To JYSIM’s hope we did see the election all over the island and checking out who was on the big billboards as we drove around, and what numbers they represented, was a big part of the trip for my 7 year old, along with counting how many 7-Elevens we saw!

Second day we did a trip out to the HSR Museum in Taoyuan – mainly for a chance to ride the bullet train since we were driving around Taiwan. After coming back, we visited the Huashan 1914 Creative Arts Park which was not too far from our hotel. Later that night went to the Shilin night market.

Third day we did a day trip to Jiufen, Shifen and Yehliu Geopark which was great. All three were excellent stops. Jiufen and Shifen especially memorable.

On Dec 31st kids really enjoyed going up Taipei 101, and then later that night watching the fireworks shoot off them from in front of Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Memorial Hall. It was crowded but not too bad after, as Zhongziao Rd was closed and pedestrians could walk with enough space – we walked most of the way back to hotel but were even able to catch the MTR for the last part.

New Year’s day had to take an uber cross town to pick up my car. Drive back was interesting because google maps on my phone kept cutting out right before I needed to turn, so ended up seeing more of the city than I planned to. This seemed to be mostly an issue in Taipei and that cloudy day as google maps worked pretty well the rest of the island. After getting back and loading the car, had an uneventful drive to Taroko Gorge. Driving through the very long tunnels was unique.

Taroko Gorge – very glad we choose to stay at the Silks Place. We made good use of the resort-like setup. My kids enjoyed the kids play area (an entire floor really), used the tennis courts and pool, and it was a good location for our hikes each day.

Drive from Taroko to Taitung was a rainy day, so not too much to report. There were a couple cool viewpoints. The container Starbucks and the mall next door was a fun stop. By the time we got to Sanxiantai the wind and rain was really driving -- my family barely made it down the path. I did brave it out to the bridge to get pictures. I am glad we did the east coast drive, but if planning the trip again I could be convinced to head into the mountains from Taroko and go up and down the island on the west side. That said, our quick overnight at the Sheraton Taitung was good. We had a view of the air force base – kids enjoyed that.

Kenting – we enjoyed it. With the short drive from Taitung we got there early enough to visit the point and hike around a bit, make a few other stops, and get back to the hotel in time to make it out to the beach for sunset. My wife is claustrophobic and really struggled with the crowds at the Shilin Night Market. The Kenting market was much more accessible for her and my 7-year-old even tried a few things there. Had a really nice room at the Cesar Park hotel. Could see staying a couple nights in Kenting though could also see doing it as a day trip from Kaohsiung.

From Kenting we headed to the Fo Guang Shan Buddha Museum, which was not on my original itinerary but ended up being a nice stop. After that drove to Tainan and spent the late afternoon and early evening seeing a few places like Anping Fort. Then drove back to Kaohsuing.

Kaohsuing – made a last-minute change to the Intercontinental. Our rooms here were fantastic – highly recommend the IC. Cijin and renting the 4-person electronic family “bikes” was a trip highlight. My family loved the simultaneous great views along the beach and treachery of driving down the bike path clearly not designed for 2-way 4-person bike traffic. Kids also got a kick out of riding the little train at the Hamasen Railway Museum.

Next stop was Alishan. We had a great view of sunset over the clouds from the Alishan Hotel. Unfortunately, next morning it was clear and just a regular sunrise – no payoff for getting up super early and catching the train up to the viewing platform. I was on the fence about including Alishan but glad we went. Others could probably spend a couple days here but it was just enough nature for our family.

From Alishan we stopped at Sun Moon Lake on the way to Taichung. If we had more time a night here would have been worth an additional in and out of a hotel. We had stopped at a the Yuyupas Cultural Park on the drive up to Alishan, which was cool mainly from being able to talk to a few of the folks working there about their perspective. But for our tourist purposes we might have well gone full commercial and made time for the Formosan Aboriginal Culture Village. With our brief time we did not have enough for that, but we were able to make several stops around the lake and walk around.

Taichung – stayed at Le Meridien and had a great view of the train station, which my kids enjoyed. The Earthquake Museum was really interesting. That afternoon went out to Lihpao Land but the roller coaster my son really wanted to do was closed. Luckily we had time the next morning to hit it on the way back to TPE before our flight. Had an interesting moment on the drive back from the Gaomei Wetlands – a presidential notification that a missile had been launched over Taiwan! Turns out it was a mistranslation, and the warning was actually about a satellite China had launched (that said probably with the same intimidation intent before the election). It was a moment I will remember as it was great to get the alert, but no idea what we should do with that information!

So far have not received any speeding tickets, though pretty sure there were several times I missed the camera.

Thanks again to everyone for the suggestions – helped us put the final details on what ended up being a great trip.