For our Day 3 and last day in Taiwan, we spent in Taichung City located in central part of Taiwan. It was a 2-hour bus journey from Taipei. For this tour, we availed “Taichung Classic Day Tour in KLOOK”. It was worth around P2,000 per person. This blog contains my thoughts in each destination and the tour itself. IS THIS KLOOK TOUR WORTH IT?
Klook Tour link: https://www.klook.com/en-PH/activity/23958-taichung-classic-day-tour-taipei/
I. Tour Itinerary/Content
- 8:45am meet up in front of ICE PAPA near Exit 4 of MRT Ximen Station
- 9:00am depart for Taichung
- Zhongshe Flower Market (50 minutes)
- Park Lane by CMP (90 minutes)
- Miyahara Ice Cream Shop-Fourth Credit Union (50 minutes)
- Rainbow Village (30 minutes)
- Gaomei Wetlands (60 minutes)
- 5:30 PM return to the meet up location, end of the tour
- 5:30 PM – 7: 30 PM Back to MRT Ximen
II. After the Klook Tour
- 7:30 PM- 8:00 PM Train to Xin Beitou
- 8:00 PM-8:30 PM Taxi to Spring City Resort
- 8:30 PM-10:00 PM Authentic Hot Spring experience
- 10:00 PM -10:30 PM Xin Beitou to Shilin Night Market
- 10:30 PM onwards Food Trip in Shilin Night Market
III. Gurezu Reviews: Final Verdict
Also inviting you the tour in action here in my 6-minute VLOG.
Zhong She Flower Market
Piece of advice. If you plan to go to Zhong She flower farm in Taiwan, you better do it by DIY. A klook tour will just give an ample time to be here. And you’ll end up running everywhere. Unless you just want to gaze on flowers, 50 minutes will not be enough.
LUNCH TIME in CMP Park Lane
For our lunch, they took us in a mall with a park in front it. It was disappointing because that mall has little food choice. The park has no food stalls at all. We bought lunch in nearby 7-11 instead. Then bought Milk Tea somewhere far. By the time we already have food and drinks, we only have ten minutes to eat. Though it hurt our tongue because our food was fresh from the oven, we had to endure it. We were hungry and we needed to go back in the meet-up or else the Klook bus will leave us. We really didn’t like the experience. We felt deprived in our first destination, then felt rushed and stressed during lunch time. It affected our mood for the tour.
MIYAHARA ICE CREAM PARLOUR
The most popular ice cream parlor in Taichung, Taiwan. This building was an old bank turned into Harry Potter inspired Ice-cream parlor and restaurant. Although you can’t visit the second floor unless you have reservation.
We didn’t order Miyahara Ice Cream. We felt full from lunch and disappointed with the Klook tour dropping us off in a crowded mall with very few food choices for our lunch. We ended up ordering food in 7-11 (which was delicious btw) and ate our lunch in a hurry because most of our lunch time was spent looking where to eat. So in Miyahara, it kind of affected the mood. But I enjoyed visiting Miyahara because the interior was gorgeous and whimsical. And that means more photo ops. 😛
Rainbow Village
Appreciating this little village drawn and made colorful by one old man who wish to stay in this place when everybody left. And now, people keep going here because of his creation. I hope he doesn’t feel alone anymore.
Easily the highlight of my Rainbow Village tour is to meet the Rainbow Grandpa himself. Aged over 90 years old, he wakes up every 4am to continue painting the village. He is maybe old but he’s still strong and playful. Game for trendy poses like this and Korean heart. It’s free to take a photo with Grandpa but it is advisable to drop donations. He is also selling his sample artworks in bondpapers. Because of his creativity, he saved the village from being demolished. Every year it is estimated that Rainbow Village has at least a million visitors. Even at old age, Rainbow Grandpa saved the small village and even made his neighbor earn more by selling to tourists. Truthfully, it’s not too late to make a difference.
Gaomei Wetlands
For our last destination, we went to Gaomei Wetlands to watch the gorgeous sunset in panoramic view.
Sunset Viewing is the most popular activity in Gaomei Wetlands. But apart from that, this place is a preservation area for exotic birds and crabs. Here they roam free. I was not able to spot any exotic birds maybe because I did not finish the 800 meter walkway. However, the crabs were really plenty. I had fun taking a video of this particular one boring holes in a muddy sand. The wetland is muddy do I didn’t dare walk on it. Thankfully this one roams freely near the walkway. But I still did a risky position to extend my camera on the muddy sand to get a close-up.
I was not able to get through the end of 800m walkway in Gaomei Wetlands because it’s too crowded. But the main concern actually was the time. If I manage to get through, I might not able to go back in time for the Klook meetup time.
After the Tour
HOT SPRING EXPERIENCE in SPRING CITY RESORT
To cap the three tiring days of walking around Taiwan, we spent a relaxing hour in an authentic hot spring resort in Xin Beitou under starry night. Submerging in a hot spring water is not only relaxing but it is known for healing properties and getting rid of toxicities. Beitou is surrounded by hot springs so there is a strings of hot spring resort in the area ranging from simple to five star hotels. There was even a hot spring museum around the area. But we arrived so late to have to time to visit it. Thermal Valley or also known as Hell’s valley where the water constantly release smoke is also in Beitou. Unfortunately, and one of my regrets was I haven’t been able to see it. But enough of regrets. At least I have more reasons to go back to Taiwan next time.
This is the hot spring pool for kids. There are other varieties inside but phones are prohibited. It was quite challenging to submerge in to hot spring pools..because they are HOT! I wonder sometimes if they were really safe. I was so afraid to be cooked alive. Anyway the hottest pool that I managed to endure was 41 degrees Celcius. It was hard at first but once you were there for five seconds you can feel your body adapting on it and it was quite relaxing as promised. But I made unnecessary and annoying noises before I finally get into the waters. I really had a difficult time at first.
Most of the visitors were from other different countries. But a Filipino couple spotted and chit chat with us when they heard we were talking in Tagalog. We met them again in Taoyuan airport when we were about to go home.
Overall it was really fun as this spring resort was so cozy and their amenities looks good. They also have free shuttle service. We booked this through Klook for only P579.00. We chose the “NIGHT” only pass. Other package has different price.
FOOD TRIP IN SHILIN NIGHT MARKET
After hot spring resort, we were very hungry and decided that it would be the best time to return to Shilin Night Market. So for our last activity in Taiwan, we went food tripping in this market where several authentic and exotic street food line up for the night. These are some of the memorable food I consumed. Most fave would be the eight claw octopus. Yum!
Gurezu Reviews Final Verdict
Not Recommended!
- Super little time in Zhong-She Flower Farm
- The tour guide assign that day was not that good in English. Aside from that , he does not wait for all the tourist to come down before walking to the destination. And he did not even look back to check if all the tourists were already in his tracks.
- The lunch time drop-off which was CMP by Park Lane was crowded and has little food choices. We had a hard time looking for restaurant to have our lunch. When we finally bought lunch in a 7-11 (Thanks 7-11!) , we only got 5 minutes left to eat all of it. This definitely spoiled our mood.
There were raving reviews of this tour in KLOOK and checking all of it, they were mentioning the names of their amazing tour guide that time. Maybe we were just unlucky with the assigned tour guide that day. His name did not come up in the good reviews. I prefer not to mention his name. But I hope he’ll improve his skill in the future.
Recommended alternatives.
1. Look for a private charter specially if you’re in a group of 4 or more. You will have more savings and freedom for your time.
2. Do it DIY. You might want to try riding a bullet train going to Taichung as it will take you there for only 45 minutes versus the 2 hours in the bus. There were a lot of amazing Taichung destination that I wished we visited like the Sun Moon Lake and Famous Aboriginal Park. They look great in photos!
3. Or maybe book other Taichung Tours in Klook or KKDay.
If you’re interested, here are my other blogs for this Taiwan Series Adventures
Day 1: The Advantage in Using Taipei Fun Pass Card
Day 2: Taiwan North Coast KLOOK Tour Review
I hope you enjoy reading my tour review blog and hope this helps in deciding your activities in visiting this wonderful country.
Also I would like to take this opportunity to invite you to be my international blogger friend. The idea is to have at at least one blogger friend in each country and build this INTERNATIONAL BLOGGER FRIENDS DIRECTORY. I wanted to diversify the people I follow or interact with through social media so I can see parts or hear anything from different parts of the world. We could do any of the following:
- Simple follow each other in wordpress, blog links or other platform
- Write a blog collaboration!
- Send each other letter or postcards or stickers
- Let’s sing a song as duet in Smule or WeSing!
- Or others we can think of.
And if you’re already in my home country the Philippines, just let me know as I’m also building a directory: BLOGGER FRIENDS IN EACH PH REGION.
If you are interested to be added in my official directory and bond with me , just let me know if the comment section or reach me out via email: tumblingbot@gmail.com or in my IG/FB.
- IG: instagram.com/gurezu
- Facebook: Gurezu Blog
This idea has been playing in my had since last year as I’ve really want to connect more to the world. I hope you would take my invitation. Thank you in advance!
Remember, you are awesome! Don’t let other people tell you otherwise!
GUREZU 