For a one day tour around the outskirts of Taichung, I’ll recommend booking a driver. We googled and found Mr Liu 劉錦鐘’s website. Based on online reviews, he seems to be a recommended Taichung Driver for the Outskirts. And since it was last minute planning for us, we just went with him whom we could liaise through WhatsApp.

Pricing

He was quick in his reply and quoted us NT3,500 (S$162.70 )for a whole day (approx. 10 hours) in April 2017. The quote would be lower if we had excluded Gao Mei Wetland (高美湿地) from our itinerary.

Our guess is that Gao Mei is a bit out of the way and hence the extra charge. We contemplated if we should head there since its online reviews were mixed and excluding it would give us more time in other spots. But we thought might as well go since we were already there!

Do note that the price does not include entrance fees for 3 out of the 5 places we went to: Carton King, Lavender Cottage, and Flower Garden.

Tour Route

So our final itinerary started from Rainbow Village, then to Carton King, Lavender Cottage, Flower Garden and Gao Mei Shi Di. Lastly, the driver dropped us off at FengJia Market in Taichung City.

Driver

Mr Liu manages a fleet of drivers, so he will either drive you personally or assign a driver to you. The driver assigned to us was Mr Ye, 葉師榮 (+886 933 685 275).

Service of Driver (Mr Ye)

Mr Ye came in his taxi to pick us up around the agreed timing, 9:00am. Knowing we didn’t have breakfast, he brought us to a breakfast place to buy some takeaway to eat in the car. That was a nice gesture.

However, at Rainbow Village, our first stop, he dropped us at the carpark and told us that he would wait there. He didn’t even give us an introduction of the place and left us on our own. At this stop, we took our couple shots with the help of passerby instead of Mr Ye.

Then, at the second stop – Carton King, Mr Ye eagerly asked for the receipt while we were paying for the entrance fee. Perhaps too eagerly and that puts me off. He went further to ask for the receipts we are going to get throughout the day. We actually didn’t mind, and wanted to pass him the receipts we had kept for the past few days. But still, he seemed more enthusiastic in getting our receipts than showing us around. In case you are wondering, he asked for the receipts because of Taiwan’s Receipt Lottery (統一發票中獎號碼) run by the government.

Unlike at the first stop, Mr Ye led us to Carton King’s ticket counter and followed us in to help us take a few couple photos. Such a contrast from before where there was no receipt issued. Anyhow, we weren’t used to people following us around. So after a few photos, we told him we wanted to explore the place on our own.

While inside Carton King, we saw another driver directing his group of tourists to stand in various positions for the best photo angles, and giving them insights like a tour guide. At that moment, I felt that our driver was not doing his job or was not that professional. On hindsight, we probably should have asked him along, since we paid for the service.

Overall, I don’t recommend Mr Ye because of his lackluster service attitude. You could still contact Mr Liu and try your luck with other drivers.

Website: liusir-travel.blogspot.tw

WhatsApp: +886 927 888 032
Email: [email protected]

Cannot find a driver at the last minute? You might want to consider this Klook tour (affiliate link) that goes to Gao Mei Shi Di, Rainbow Village and a few other places. It’s S$44.50 per pax.

In my next post, I will share more of the places we went to in the outskirts of Taichung. Then you can decide if they are interesting enough for you. :) Or read my other articles if you are looking for ways to travel from Taichung to Cingjing or from Taipei to Taichung.

Do you have other drivers to recommend? Or what’s your experience with Mr Liu’s drivers? Leave a comment below. I love to hear from you!

Disclosure: Affiliate link means I’ll get a small commission if you make a purchase. There’s NO extra cost to you. I appreciate your support to maintain this website, so that I can share more of such travel guides. Thank you!