Introduction
The Goal: Cycle from Hua Lien to Kenting ~400km cycling tour through Taiwan’s East Coast via scenic mountain and coastal route.
- 50-60km/day
- Staying mostly at hostels through airbnb
- Take and complete the scenic route 193, 9, 197, 199
- Reach the southern most point of Taiwan
- Take a taxi to Kaohsiung and return the bikes
- Back to Taipei by 12/26/2015
Maps (click to enlarge):
Equipment Check List:
- Helmet
- Cycling Shorts
- Sandal
- Shoe/Cycling Shoe
- Clothing
- Camera
- Rain Jacket
- Electronics - phone, charger, etc
My bike setup with lights, trip meter, and GoPro.
We rented our bikes directly from Giant store in Hua Lien. The rental is slightly more expensive than other offerings from other companies, however the pros of renting from Giant is that you can rent it in point A and return it in point B (another Giant rental store). Our plans were to pick up the bike in Hua Lien and return them in Kao Shiung. My friend contacted the store a few weeks in advance to book our bikes, since we opted to get a road bike instead of the standard mountain bike. The rental rates were 500NTD/day per bike for the first 3 days, and 200NTD/day afterwards. Our total for the bike rental was 2500NTD per bike for the 8 days duration of our trip, which is about 83-85 USD. Sweet!
My Giant FastRoad SLR rental bike setup
The bike we got was a 2014/15 Giant FastRoad SLR bike, it has pretty relaxed geometry with flat handle bars. The rental includes (2) medium/large size waterproof pannier, a cable lock, small pump, multi-tool, set of lights and a trip computer.
Express Train Information:
I recommend for travelers to take the express train to Hualien from Taipei. This means that there are less stop and you will arrive at Hualien in about 2 hours. The tickets are a little tricky to get, they sell out really fast and is only available 2 weeks prior to the date. The catch is to wait for people who didn't complete their payment as the website will only hold the tickets for 24-48 hours. My friend managed to score us the tickets by constantly checking for available seats that other people dropped. More info once I can get the info from my friend.