Kaohsiung, Taiwan By Jason Rupp w/ Carla Marie Rupp

There is a misconception Taiwan isn’t a budget-friendly destination. People think of Taiwan having prices like South Korea or Japan, but when traveling there, you will find that the prices really aren’t much more expensive than Thailand. Hotels for the week right in the city are on average about 1,000B ($30 USD). So we decided to take a last-minute family trip out of Thailand and chose Taiwan’s third biggest city Kaohsiung as the destination, due to a cheap deal on Thai Lion Air out of Bangkok’s Don Muang Airport, with tickets costing just under 6,000B (round-trip per person). The catch? A 5 a.m. airplane out of DMK. I used AI to ask where would be a good place to stay in Kaohsiung that has a local feel but is also central. AI came back to me with Yencheng.between the city center and the big seaside port. It was our three-year old son Fitzroy’s first international trip and we wondered how it would work out.

Luckily he loves buses, so we chose the 10 p.m. Pattaya Airport bus out of Jomtien, and then the little-known free connecting bus from Suvarnabhumi Airport to Dong Muang Airport. You can only take this free bus if you are able to show that you have a departing flight from the airport that you want to take the bus to. We simply showed our tickets and passport and got on. The bus connection was really easy. Fitzroy enjoyed looking out of the window. We were all excited. Thanks to Noochi for her packing skills, we were pretty sure we had everything we needed for a fun and successful Taiwan experience trip.

Kaohsiung is a huge port city where we chose to spend a week. It has a population of 2.4M and is in southern Taiwan. It has also has plenty to offer in the way of parks, relaxing areas along the Love River, shopping malls and a night market:Liuhe, in the center, and Ruifeng, not far from Lotus Pond, a beautiful area where you can see colorful, ornate temples. These include the famed Dragon and Tiger Pagodas, perfect for photographing. The city is also known for children’s playgrounds, amusement areas, sculptures, great coffee shops and delicious food in its many restaurants.

The plane from Bangkok went smoothly, and Fitzroy had a lesson in buckling his seatbelt. He did so well on his first airplane ride that to make the plane ride more fun, we walked up and down the aisles. But then he wanted to enter the cockpit door, thinking this would be the best way to get off the airplane. The flight attendant found this cute and before he got to the front she brought out a stack of travel themed stickers that they offer to kids on the plane. Fitzroy decided the stickers would look good on my face and I let him put them all over my face to keep him happy 

Hotels are plentiful in Kaohsiung. Hotel Yam Lagom (in Yencheng) & FX Hotel Kaohsiung (in the city-center) worked out perfect for us. From this base, we went out each day. Pier 2 Night Market on Saturday evenings which we loved because it has all the local foods, an antique train for toddlers, and of course lots ot tea stalls. I even found a street massage here in the middle of this market. A 10-minute strong-man session cost only about $6USD. Other top night markets: Lingya/Ziqiang Night Market and Liouhe Night Market, were open really late until 2 -3 a.m.. These markets are full of local foods, such as fresh nougat, dumplings, seafood, fresh fruit smoothies, and as always in Taiwan, lots of tea shops.

 The coffee shops we enjoyed were MARS MU, a workshop-style restaurant and a spacious place with old interior decoration. Also Ruh Cafe No.2 at a wet market with specialty coffee beans, even some from local Taiwanese farmers, One place we really liked was Kansya, a Japanese matcha green tea shop. Of course as a family, we also found lots of toy stores and fun places to play in parks. We found an outdoor art venue with beautiful sculptures that provided backdrops for our photos.

At one area in the park, Jason found a street massage for a Jason Rupp YouTube video as well as a barbershop for haircuts, shaves, and styling.

This city turned out to be a great place for a family trip both by night and day. The night markets were exciting and Fitzroy loved the children’s attractions. Plenty of local children wanted to play or talk with him. During the day there were great malls all around the city to cool off, and we went to a lot of interesting shops. In one, Fitzroy had a chance to try out a ukulele — and liked it! We saved the National Science and Technology Museum for the last day, and it was full of fun and educational activities for kids of any age. As adults, we even found it fun and learned something. There are a lot of interactive exhibits that Little Fitzroy enjoyed. Of course we  also had to include the Children’s Science Museum and a  favorite activity for our toddler was the airplane experience. It was perfect, leading up to actually heading to the airport to board an actual plane. Lion Air took us safely back to Bangkok.

Taiwan was a good choice for our family trip. There is no civil unrest. It feels safe and it is  peaceful because there is not mass tourism in this city. People are so kind, helpful, and friendly. Taiwanese hospitality reminded me of  the world-famous Turkish hospitality, with kind and friendly faces everywhere. A bonus is that in Kaohsiung, you can also eat local food for the same price as in Thailand. In fact everywhere prices felt similar to Thailand, a city bus costs 15 Baht. The underground MRT costs 20 Baht, and the city trams cost 20 Baht. To make life easy, there is also an MRT from the airport into the city center. 

We can really recommend Kaohsiung for a quick getaway for a solo trip, for couples, for friends, but especially for a family. It turned out to be a really nice trip for us as a small family. Fitzroy was so well-behaved and loved exploring with Noochi and me. He found other children to play with at playgrounds as we supervised. We think he will be ready for another family trip in the near future.

Getting back to Bangkok was an easy flight on Thai Lion Air. We arrived a bit tired, yet happy after a successful trip, especially since three-year-olds like to be carried around – but it’s all worth it!

Jason Rupp and Carla Marie Rupp are freelance travel journalists.

They run a large Youtube channel called Jason Rupp, covering all things “Travel & Pamper.”

Emails: [email protected] & [email protected]