Flying from Taipei to Taitung

Let me tell you how to fly inside Taiwan

Flying from Taipei to Taitung is the most convenient way to discover this part of Taiwan.

Our 3 day trip to Eastern Taiwan started very early: The buzzer woke us up at 5 am on a Friday! We had to catch the flight at 7:30 from Songshan Airport and since my lady needs a lot of time to get dolled up before a trip, 5 was the latest I allowed her to snooze. After we left our apartment, we took the first MRT at 6 something and reached Songshan Airport MRT station at around 7. There was a possibility to take a plane at 12.30, but because I didn't want to waste time, I thought it's better to reach Taitung City as early as possible. We booked the flights on the airline's website Uniair.com (part of EVA Air) and we paid 1925 NTD per person (around 45 Eur). The tickets are valid for a year, which is awesome, because it means that you control the date of your departure. However, we decided to fly now, because later this year we will be very busy and also because I was eager to escape my stressful job for a little while.

Let me show you in pictures how the flight from Taipei to Taitung looks like:

This is Songshan Airport in the early morning.

Inside was full of people, mostly young ones. Pupils and students have holidays in August.

We had to find Uniair's counter and give our IDs (in my case the ARC). After that we got our tickets and continued to the security check. You need to carry your own luggage.

The line waiting for the security check wasn't too long.

In around 5 minutes we reached the scanner and things went smoothly.

This is the line waiting for the shuttle bus, that brings you to the plane. Here we had to wait longer and when we boarded the bus, it took a lot of time before it moved to the plane.

Photo taken from the bus: Passing by some big birds.

Boarding the plane. It was already 7.45 when we entered the plane.

The plane was very small, 2 rows on the left, 3 on the right.

My legs were touching the seat in front of me. The stewardesses were friendly and served drinks, but no food, because the flight was too short: Only around 40 minutes! It was a pity, that none of us had a window seat. The person next to us could enjoy the beautiful views, we could just a little something from afar. But that's because it's the high season and most of the flights are heavily booked. I hope next time I can sit at the window and take photos.

Landing in Taitung was a bit rough, but still ok. The airport looked very cute.

This telephone caught my attention. Interesting, isn't it?

Taitung County is home to aboriginal Taiwanese and it's felt on every corner.

The small airport is very neat and embellished with local subtropical plants.

Our bed in the homestay was big and cozy.

We decided to stay in a homestay in the northern outskirts of Taitung City, close to the railway station. We paid 1380 NTD for a night (around 33 Eur). The owner Camellia was very friendly, she even picked us up with her own car from the airport and brought us to her house. She also gave us maps and told us where are all the best spots in Taitung County and also spoke excellent English with me. The house is new and big and has many rooms (3 floors I think), which were mostly occupied by young people. The whole neighborhood is peaceful. It's very close to a baseball stadium, though. I'm not sure how noisy it is, when there's a game. The place is called Camellia Homestay, here is their blog and Facebook Page. If you want to stay in Camellia's house, it's best you call her (info on website) and reserve a room. You will need to pay half before and half later, very simple. I highly recommend this places - the prices and the service were top.

After we left the luggage in our room, we decided to rent a scooter near Taitung train station (these shops are only found there). We paid 400 NTD (around 9 Eur) for 24 hours. And then we started to cruise around Taitung City, have our breakfast and at last decided to ride along Taitung County's northern coast all the way up to Chenggong 成功鎮 and Sanxientai 三仙台 (our last destination), which is around 57km away from each other.

I took several photos from the scooter - but kids, don't try this, it's dangerous.

It was a tough ride, we drove several hours and made many stops and the most famous places. In my upcoming posts I will introduce these beautiful spots to you.

Start to read about our Taitung coastal tour 2011 here>>

[My TAIWAN TRAVEL page][All photos by MKL, 2011]