First, let’s answer two basic questions:
1. Why choose a self-driving tour?
You can bring lots of stuff without worrying about carrying it all; you can go wherever you want without being limited by public transport.
Our child, Liuliu, has been on various short road trips with us since he was just over four months old and is used to traveling by car. This gave us great confidence to try a long-distance self-driving trip with him.
2. Why choose Taiwan?
Taiwan has long been a highly recommended destination for family travel. Everyone speaks Chinese, public facilities are comprehensive, and the service at hotels, restaurants, and attractions is thoughtful and reasonably priced. But the most important reason is that I visited Taiwan once in 2010 and have been longing for the food there ever since. My teammate, having heard me talk about how great Taiwan is, simply couldn’t resist going.
Taiwan Car Rental: All You Need to Prepare1. How to rent a car?
There are two well-known car rental companies in Taiwan: GetGo Rent a Car and Xiaoma Rent a Car. There isn’t much difference in price between the two — the original price is about 2,500 TWD per day, but there are many promotional offers. The most economical model (which is actually pretty good, a Toyota Vios) is around 1,600–1,800 TWD per day.
The specific process for renting a car is as follows:
a. On the Xiaoma Rent a Car website, submit a car rental reservation form, including your contact information, rental dates, car type preferences, and any special equipment needed (such as a child seat or GPS).
b. The customer service team will then send you a detailed quotation and process instructions. The longer the rental period, the cheaper the price. We rented for 10 days and got a rate of 1,580 TWD per day, including insurance and handling fees, plus free use of a child seat and GPS.
c. After filling out the required forms and exchanging a few emails to confirm the details, the car rental was all set.
2. What documents do you need to rent a car?
The main documents required are your driver’s license, passport, and Taiwan entry permit.
Mainland China driver’s licenses are not recognized in Taiwan. The Xiaoma Rent a Car website mentions two types of driver’s licenses that can be used:
a. An International Driving Permit (IDP). You cannot obtain an international driver’s license in mainland China. Various documents sold on Taobao that claim to be international driver’s licenses, such as IDL (International Driving License), are merely translations and are not officially recognized. Strict rental companies may refuse to rent you a car if you present these.
b. A Hong Kong driver’s license. For information on how to obtain one, please consult Taobao.
The day before departure, Xiaoma Rent a Car sent another email with the contact person’s WeChat ID and phone number, along with a very detailed car pick-up guide.
I chose the Taoyuan Airport branch as the pick-up and drop-off location. After landing, I sent the contact person a WeChat message with my exact location. A Xiaoma Rent a Car staff member came to meet us in their car. Then, we drove to the airport parking lot where the staff inspected the vehicle with my teammate, handed us a folder with various guides, and the car was ours.
When returning the car, we simply drove to the entrance of the airport departure hall, where the staff were waiting for us. There are no toll booths in Taiwan, but ETC records are kept along the roads. Upon returning the car, all highway tolls were calculated, paid, and the handover process was completed in just five minutes.
3. How to choose a self-driving route?
Clarify your travel purpose and the must-visit attractions, then plan the overall route, accommodation locations and duration, and key sights along the way. Since you’re driving yourself, having a prior understanding of Taiwan’s terrain, climate, and cultural attraction distribution can greatly help with planning.
After further researching guides on Mafengwo and Qyer, we learned about some well-known attractions and decided on the cities for overnight stays each day. The general route was thus confirmed.
Here’s a simple diagram representing the general route of our Taiwan trip. Since it’s an island-wide trip, I used a clock layout that closely matches the actual geography to help everyone visualize Taiwan’s overall layout.
The flowers and plants between Hualien and Taitung represent the beautiful East Rift Valley, the wavy line between Hualien and Kenting symbolizes the vast Pacific Ocean to the east, and the little suns near Kenting and Kaohsiung mark two great spots for watching sunsets.
Six Highly Recommended Parent-Child Travel Destinations!1. Taipei: Zhu Ming Art Museum
This was a place recommended to me by Meng Xiaoya. It’s about an hour’s drive from the city center, and you could even say it’s off the beaten path. Yet we ended up spending nearly four hours there and still didn’t have our fill.
Although it’s an art museum, it feels more like a playground heaven—this place was practically designed for kids. Every aspect takes children’s needs into account: there’s a playroom right at the entrance where they can play with LEGO; areas for kids to play with water; spots for them to interact with wood; and sections for ball play. Play and aesthetic education are blended seamlessly together. For more details, you can check out the article on Zhu Ming Art Museum in the Mengya (Sprout) WeChat account~ (Sprout here: click here to watch my ad replay) I can only say that experiencing it in person is even better than reading the article!
Ticket: NT$280 (approx. RMB 56) per person. Lunch inside the museum is around NT$300 (approx. RMB 60) per person.
2 Hualien: Qixingtan (Seven Star Lake)
A wonderful place to enjoy the sea. Even though it was overcast, we were lucky enough to see the blue seawater crashing onto the shore and turning into snow-white waves. In the distance, the mountains are none other than Taroko, which we visited in the morning. The proximity of the mountains and sea is a view you won’t see along the coastlines of mainland China with its vast continental shelf. Aside from the beautiful mountain-sea scenery, this place’s biggest highlight is—its pebble beach. I’ve never seen such a beach before, with smooth, round pebbles of all sizes, making it a paradise for little Luoluo. More importantly, it’s much cleaner than playing in the sand!
Ticket: Free
3 East Rift Valley: Brown Highway (Bolan Boulevard)
Green rice paddies surrounded by mountains, with a road stretching all the way to the foothills in the distance. Here’s how it got its start: Bolan is a coffee brand, and one year they filmed an advertisement featuring rice paddies and mountains so stunning that people were dying to know where it was shot. The Bolan company then revealed the filming location and carried out some basic planning and management, creating the beautiful spot you see today.
Vehicles other than those of local residents aren’t allowed to drive into Bolan Boulevard. Tourists rent bikes at the entrance. We rented two bikes for RMB 30, one of which even had a baby seat (with a safety belt, pretty reliable). Then came the fun part: cycling happily along Bolan Boulevard, touching the rice leaves in the paddies, and taking tons of photos. This was Luoluo’s first time riding on the back of a bicycle—he was a bit nervous at first, but soon relaxed and thoroughly enjoyed it. All in all, it’s a place where the whole family can relax and unwind.
Ticket: Free. Bike rental: RMB 30 for two bikes
4 Kaohsiung: Qijin Bay (Sizihwan)
If there’s any place in Taiwan that made me feel envious, jealous, and a little hateful, it’s National Sun Yat-sen University located in Sizihwan—because it’s just so incredibly beautiful. Unlike Kenting, Kaohsiung is a particularly busy port, with many ships on the sea. Under the glow of the setting sun, the entire sea looks both bustling and serene.
There aren’t many people at Sizihwan, making it a fun place for kids too—you can play in the sand or fly kites. If you don’t want to be by the sea, you can drive up the mountain road along the bay. Not only can you enjoy the scenery within Sun Yat-sen University, but once you reach the mountaintop and gaze at the sea and sunset, it’s a completely different experience.
Ticket: Free.
5 Lukang: Lukang Old Street
Lukang Old Street far exceeded my expectations, offering the tranquility and charm of a traditional old street. Still, because it was Monday, many shops were closed and there weren’t many tourists—but that’s what made it possible to truly appreciate the old street’s vibe. The stone-paved paths twist and turn, lined with shops selling their own goods. There’s no hawking or showmanship—just quiet daily life existing along the old street. Luoluo ran around the street, touching and looking at everything, teasing the shop dogs, and simply refused to leave.
Ticket: Free.
6 Kenting: National Museum of Marine Biology and Aquarium (also known as the Aquarium)
Any attraction with the word “National” in its name is bound to be a classic, historic site with grandeur. The moment I walked in, I was blown away—the entrance features several huge whale statues, and even more impressively, there’s a large shallow pool beneath the whales where people can play in the water even before entering the aquarium. Inside, there are the Coral Hall, Taiwan Hall, and World Hall, and the content is absolutely amazing!!
The Coral Hall has a few small display cases and also houses a massive sunken ship. Different cabins of the ship are designed as exhibition platforms for various marine creatures. Sometimes the sea life is right in front of you, sometimes above your head—you can see beluga whales, giant manta rays, and sharks. The creatures in the Taiwan Hall aren’t as jaw-dropping, but the design is ingenious—you can touch sea urchins and starfish with your hands, and there’s a huge exhibit simulating an intertidal ecosystem. The most fun is the World Hall, which has penguins, seals (feeding time at 1 PM), towering tanks up to ten-plus meters high (divers feed the animals inside at 2 PM), and even 3D movies to watch.
Luoluo loved it here, although he barely looked at any of the animals—he just kept running around like crazy. The aquarium also has lots of cute souvenirs for sale, and the prices are quite reasonable.
Ticket: NT$450 (approx. RMB 90) per person.
For a more detailed self-driving itinerary and food recommendations in Taiwan, you can reply with the keyword “Taiwan Travel Recommendations” in the WeChat public account backend to view the post~
Food Tips
Luoluo was just 17 months old when we went to Taiwan. We didn’t bring any extra food for him—we just fed him whatever we were eating. At home, I don’t add salt to his food, but since we were in Taiwan, I thought it was okay for him to try different foods and flavors. As long as it wasn’t spicy or greasy and had a suitable texture, I felt it was fine for our short trip.
Foods that worked well for him included: lu rou fan (braised pork rice—if it’s too salty, you can scoop out some of the meat sauce), various noodles (Luoluo could eat half a bowl of beef noodle soup), mi tai mu (his favorite meal of the trip), bian shi (so good he sipped the soup carefully spoonful by spoonful), and various fruits (easy ones to carry were oranges and bananas; we also let him try sugar apples, pineapples, and guavas).
Accommodation Tips
1. How to book cost-effective hotels
a. Before booking a hotel, confirm your own needs. For example, if you’re driving, consider parking availability. I anticipated that parking would be difficult in Taipei, so I booked a hotel with parking.
b. Choose a trustworthy platform. My first thought for accommodation was Airbnb, which indeed offers many good options, but you need to communicate with the host in advance. The booking only becomes confirmed after the host accepts, which takes some time. agoda.com also has many homestays, and their prices are quite competitive. However, the deals with the biggest discounts are usually non-refundable, and the actual payment is deducted one week before your stay.
c. Combine accommodation with activities. Taiwan’s hot springs are fantastic, so I directly booked a hot spring homestay. There are other destinations where you can combine lodging and experiences too. For example, the National Museum of Marine Biology and Aquarium in Kenting offers on-site accommodations—apparently, beluga whales swim right past your bed. Or, in Qixingtan, Hualien, there are plenty of homestays right by the ocean, where you open the door to the blue Pacific.
2. How to arrange naps during the day?
Merging two naps into one happened four months ago. But on our first day in Taiwan, I found that keeping to a single daytime nap was a bit challenging.
To align with the little one’s schedule, I generally followed this routine when planning: after breakfast, we’d visit a nearby place and play until around 10 a.m., then head to a farther attraction. The little one would sleep in the car for about an hour. Then we’d play, have lunch, and play again until around 2 p.m. At that point, we’d either get back in the car to go farther or return to the hotel for a solid nap. After that nap, it was almost evening.
4. How to arrange bedtime at night?
We always brought a folding cot for the little one, as homestays rarely provide cribs. When out and about, it was hard to stick to the usual 8:30 p.m. bedtime. Personally, I felt that since we were traveling, some flexibility was okay. Generally, we’d put the little one to bed around 9:30 p.m. Fortunately, the little one doesn’t need someone to stay with them to sleep. Once he’s in his cot, my partner and I could happily hang out in the homestay’s living room.
Taiwan has lots of scooters, and if the homestay is on a street-side, you might hear the clear sound of scooters passing by—which can be a bit disruptive.
Travel Tips
1. GPS works really well. The GPS provided by the car rental company met almost all our needs, with powerful search capabilities—even small shops could be found. The only downside was that estimated arrival times were always overly optimistic.
2. There are way too many traffic lights.
3. Roads are generally not very wide, especially along the eastern coast.
4. Highway tolls are cheap and convenient. There are no toll booths—the entire system relies on roadside ETC devices for tracking. So we had no idea how much we paid for highway tolls until we returned the car, when the rental company checked based on the license plate number. The total came to just 670 Taiwanese dollars (about 130 RMB). Our total mileage was 1,800 km, with at least half on highways. The price is very reasonable.
5. There are plenty of gas stations, and the fuel prices are about the same as on the mainland. 95-octane gasoline costs 4.5 RMB per liter.
6. Rest stops along the way are all thanks to 7-Eleven. There are an astonishing number of 7-Elevens, and outside the highways, they serve as rest stops offering toilets, convenience stores, food, coffee, and more.
7. Except in Taipei and Kaohsiung, parking is very convenient. There are some large parking lots, but more commonly, there are simply marked parking spaces along the road, typically costing about 5–8 RMB per hour. The payment method is unique—we just park in a spot, and parking attendants periodically come by to place a time-stamped ticket on the car. They usually update the duration every 20–30 minutes. When we leave, there's no need to find anyone to pay—just take the ticket to a nearby 7-Eleven to pay. But parking in Taipei and Kaohsiung is very difficult, so when booking hotels, make sure to choose ones with parking spaces.