About four years ago, we brought N to Taiwan and thoroughly enjoyed our stay at Juhu Farmstay, so we decided to bring the twins and our parents there too. It was our first trip with the grandparents, so we didn’t want to do too much.
Our plan was to arrive in Taipei on Friday night, spend the weekend in Taipei itself, head to Juhu Farmstay on Monday morning, return to Taipei on Friday afternoon, and fly back to Singapore on Saturday morning. We asked Mr Lai (the owner of Juhu Farmstay) to plan our itinerary according to our needs. They call it the “package” deal, which basically covers all our meals, accommodation, and transport, including pick-up and drop-off at Yuli train station.
We flew Eva Air this time round, and the twins got really excited about the Sanrio plane after I told them about the Little Twin Stars. It was the first time we had more adults than kids on the flight (it’s usually just the two of us with the three kids), so we had the luxury of sitting together with only one kid. Meimei was really happy pretending to be an only child, while Didi got plenty of attention from my parents.
Ready to go!
The twins with “the twins plane”
The child meal had a tad too much chocolate for my liking
Meimei pretending to be an only child
Since there were eight of us, we pre-booked our transport via our AirBnB hosts, which was pretty convenient. The kids loved the AirBnB (link HERE), as there was a mini play area in the basement, where our beds were. It was a really nice and spacious place with three bedrooms upstairs, though it would have been more convenient if there were a toilet in the basement too. (Eight of us shared the two bathrooms upstairs!) I would also have appreciated a dryer so that I could do some laundry, but it was a good thing I packed enough clothes to last us till we went to Juhu Farmstay, where Mrs Lai kindly helped us to do the laundry.
Master bedroom
Living room
Dining area and kitchen
Stairs leading to the basement
Where the five of us slept
Play area
Meals were quite easily settled as we were within walking distance of quite a few eateries. C and I would walk out to order takeaway, while the kids played at the AirBnB with the grandparents. We even walked to Yong He Dou Jiang Da Wang for breakfast on Saturday morning, before heading to the National Taiwan Science Eduation Center. We went for the temporary dinosaur exhibition there, and I think it has since ended, but there are other interesting exhibits if your child is into Science. Our kids had fun at the large outdoor playgrounds just outside the science centre, and we had a tough time convincing them to leave.
Yong He Dou Jiang Da Wang
Didi was scared
Pull harder!
KO
Outdoor playground
We wanted to visit a night market that evening, but didn’t want to go to Shilin as we figured it would be crazily crowded, so we went to Tong Hua Night Market instead. The kids kept wanting to try the claw machines, but after a few failed attempts, we convinced them to go for the gachapon capsule toy machines, as they would at least be able to get something out of those. The kids also took turns trying to catch some guppies, and were quite excited about that.
Fascinated by the claw machines
We visited the Taipei zoo on Sunday morning, and rented strollers there for the twins, because there was a lot of walking to be done. We got there pretty early, and our taxi driver told us to take the train up to the top of the zoo before walking down, as he said it would be tiring to walk upslope. It was a really good tip, as the queue for the train was really long by the time we walked down after about one or two hours!
Checking out the pretty bird
Holding a butterfly
The twins fell asleep in the strollers, so C and I brought N to explore the insectarium, while the grandparents sat somewhere with the napping twins. N loves insects, so he was very busy examining the various exhibits, and didn’t want to leave, but we were all quite tired by then, and headed back to our AirBnB to have our lunch and rest for a bit.
We visited Eslite Bookstore to get some children’s books before going for dinner at our favourite Du Xiao Yue. As we were taking a really early train to Yuli the next morning, we went back earlier to pack, and ended up playing Jenga before bedtime. Our AirBnB hosts had very thoughtfully given us the Jenga set, and it was a source of great entertainment for all of us. The twins were surprisingly good at it, maybe because they didn’t think before pulling out each block, and didn’t have shaky hands like the adults.
The first leg of our Taiwan trip was really chill, and it helped that our AirBnB was located in the Da’an district, which was very convenient. We took two separate taxis everywhere we went, as it was easier than making everyone walk to the nearby MRT station, and figuring out which trains and buses we had to take to get to our destinations. We tried that ONCE, and figured we should just save ourselves the stress of having to ensure that all eight of us were on the right train etc.
Next up, the highlight of our Taiwan trip: Juhu Farmstay!