A new cycling adventure begins! 🚲 There is a cycle path around Taiwan called ‘Route No. 1’ which runs 940km along the coast. Most people aim to do this in about 10 days but we are giving it 3 weeks, which will allow us to take our time and explore some areas a little. We are also doing it in the heat of Summer so it will be quite hot and often rainy 🌧️ We have rented bikes this time, rather than using our own, as it’s easier than having to check them onto the plane and risk damaging them, which has happened in the past. We used a place called Mathew Bike located in Shilin, who are very good to deal with.
Day 1: Sunday 22 June 2025 | Taipei to Hsinchu
Taipei to Hsinchu / 90km. Our journey begins in Taipei; Shilin to be exact, which is also where Mathew Bike is located where we have rented our bikes. The journey out of town is lovely, following the river amongst many other cyclists before winding through some forest trails, and the first thing we notice is how cycle friendly this country is – bike lanes everywhere, even on the main roads. We eventually make it onto the highway and from there it’s a bit of a slog as the roads are hot and windy with lots of traffic 🚙 Our first stop is Hsinchu where we stay in the biggest hotel room so far this trip (Crystal Business Motel, which is a Taiwanese version of a love motel). For contrast, the bathroom itself is bigger than our entire hotel room in Taipei, where we stayed for 4 nights before starting our cycling. We pick up some food from the stinky tofu place and also Wu Family Noodles, a cheap and cheerful place that is full of locals 🍜 It’s been 7 months since our last cycling trip so we’ll see how our legs pull up tomorrow!
Day 2: Monday 23 June 2025 | Hsinchu to Shalu
Hsinchu to Baishatun 44km, then train to Shalu. Our destination today is about 90km away but we pull up a bit sore and tired from yesterday’s ride and instead decide to cycle part way (56km) then catch a train the rest of the way. However, the headwind is so brutal today that we only make it 43km before calling it a day 🌬️ We make a lunch stop at the local 7-11 before realising the next train arrives in 10 minutes. The train after that is a 90 minute wait so we make a dash for it and sprint the last 1km to the station to make the train bound for Shalu just in time 🚊 The great part about Taiwan is you can take bicycles onto the train, but what we also discover today is that you need buy a separate ticket for your bike. We only realise this when we arrive at the destination, but fortunately the train staff are very forgiving and we only have to pay the cost of the original ticket rather than a fine 🎫 Check-in for most hotels in Taiwan is quite late (usually 5pm or later, with an additional fee for early check-in) so we stop by a nice coffee shop before making our way to our accommodation, 荷村 Motel 🏨 It’s another love motel style place with security garage to lock our bikes up. The staff member even says we will get McMuffins for breakfast in the morning and gives us a menu to choose from. We have dinner at a local ramen joint and head back to the motel to plan tomorrow’s ride 🚲
Day 3: Tuesday 24 June 2025 | Shalu to Yuanlin
Shalu to Yuanlin / 41km. Today’s ride is so much more enjoyable than yesterday. The wind has eased off slightly and as we only plan on cycling 41km to the town of Yuanlin we decide to set off a bit later 🚲 The motel provides us with a McDonald’s McMuffins for breakfast, which we find quite amusing but very satisfying. The route today is mostly highways so we occasionally deviate onto the side roads for a mental break from all the traffic 🌲 It takes about 2.5 hours to arrive in Yuanlin where we park our bikes and take a wander around town. We find a veggie burger place for lunch before checking into our hotel for the night. Dinner is a great little vegetarian place and we find a Taiwanese dessert cafe afterwards 🍨 Tomorrow will be another bike and train day like yesterday, and there has been a few days of rain forecast so we will play it by ear to see how much cycling we can actually get done. That’s the Taiwanese summer for you! ☀️
Day 4: Wednesday 25 June 2025 | Yuanlin to Chiayi
Yuanlin to Chiayi / 61km. The original plan today was to only cycle about 50km to Dalin then catch the train the rest of the way to the town of Chiayi, however we stick to Highway No. 1 and end up cycling the entire way because it ends up being easier than expected 🚲 The weather is still hot but overcast, and rain is forecast from about 4pm although we do feel some drops throughout the day. Despite there being loads of traffic, it’s actually pretty safe cycling on the highway. There is always a dedicated shared lane for scooters and bicycles, and sometimes even a separate lane just for bikes. We make it to Chiayi a little after 3pm and right after we check into our hotel it starts bucketing down with rain…phew! 🌧️ Dinner is a vegetarian buffet nearby which is one of those pay by weight places. We also head to a local dessert place and take a stroll through Wenhua Road Night Market. One thing we have noticed is that no matter where you are in Taiwan it always smells like food, even when you’re cycling down the highway! 🍲
Day 5: Thursday 26 June 2025 | Chiayi to Tainan
Chiayi to Tainan / 68.6km. After yesterday’s ride we decide to stick to Highway No. 1 again, heading to the big city of Tainan. The forecast says rain will hit around 3pm so we decide to leave a bit earlier after a good breakfast at the hotel. The ride feels easy as we average between 24-30km/hr 🚲 As we approach Tainan the traffic becomes more chaotic and we have to stop at traffic lights every 500m or so. The funny thing we notice is that all the traffic lights are in sync along the long straight roads, so no matter how many green and yellow lights you make, one of the red lights will eventually catch you 🚦 We make it in just before the rain hits and drop into a 7-11 for some lunch. There is a small market (Houjia Sunset Market) near our accommodation so we have a browse and pick up some bread, drinks and dessert for later 🧁 Our hotel is a family friendly place with themed rooms. Some of the rooms even have slides or racing car beds in them but we get the sky-themed one which is still very cute ⛅️ We head out in the rain to a place called Crazy Vegan for dinner which is really good. Taiwan not only has an abundance of food at your doorstep, but so many vegetarian places too. You will never go hungry in this place!
Day 6: Friday 27 June 2025. Tainan to Kaohsiung.
Tainan to Kaohsiung / 51km. Today’s plan is 42km along the main highway until we hit the Love River where we will follow the bike path the remaining 10km. The highway is the same as it has been the last few days – hot, fast and flat 🚙 There seem to be a few detours and road closures, including one due to an accident involving two motor scooters which makes us a bit more cautious. We stop by a 7-11 to grab some more drinks before hitting the river path but it’s closed off when we find it. We take a bit of a detour and get a bit lost but start following another guy on a bike who helps guide us in the right direction 🚴🏻♂️ We veer on and off the path as it’s being rebuilt all the way into the big city of Kaohsiung. After checking into our hotel at 3pm we suss out places for a late lunch and drop into a corner stall that has steamed buns and soy milk on display. That evening we head to Ziqiang Night Market which is pumping and full of more delicious things to try 😋
Day 7: Saturday 28 June 2025. Kaohsiung to Fangliao.
Kaohsiung to Fangliao / 53km. This morning we meet with Richard, one of our travel friends who Belinda met in Thailand back in 2012. It was really nice to catch up and share travel stories. Thank you @hourichard for all the travel tips! ✈️ We then set off along Highway No. 1 before turning onto the less chaotic Highway 17, which we have dubbed ‘The Peaceful Highway’. Wide roads, less cars and a small deviation onto the side streets made it a more enjoyable ride today, totalling 53km into the smaller town of Fangliao 🚲 A quick lunch stop at a nearby 7-11 before checking into our guesthouse, which includes two massive king size beds. We find a vegetarian buffet for dinner – it’s only NT$200 (about AU$10) for the two of us but we still think the lady overcharged us as we’re foreigners 💸 There’s also a small family run dessert place nearby so we order a giant shaved ice and mango shake with the help of the English speaking daughter. We have travelled 455km along the west coast this past week and tomorrow will be the first day we start climbing the big mountains, making our way across to the east side! ⛰️
eat bike fly 
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