The roads in Taiwan are perfect, the geography second to none. Volcanoes, earthquakes, and tectonic plates—but good weather, excellent food, and very affordable. The people are extremely friendly and outgoing. In every direction, there's a route that anywhere else would be world-famous. I don't understand why Iceland is so hyped, so revered—the bikepacking holy grail. Still, if you want the Iceland experience, Taiwan does have lines of Chinese people waiting for the same photo of a waterfall, if that’s your thing.
But here, the cars wave, everyone goes out of their way for you. Lean your bike anywhere—hell, even bring it inside a business. We never locked our bikes, never felt guilty for being sweaty, smelly, and dressed in lycra at a restaurant. Somehow, biking is cool here. Even people who don’t ride still love that you do.
So yeah. We didn’t finish the whole island, I stupidly didn't bring a spare derailleur hanger. But we got a good chunk of it. We found tea houses, rode jungle cliffs, and ate more calories than we burned…I’ll be back again. Next time, maybe not even bikepacking—perhaps just a trip with a bike, epic day rides from different hotels, working my way through the list of Taiwan’s climbs.
As luck would have it, while we were there, GCN dropped a video of their own Taiwan ride, and they said basically the same thing.
Taiwan really might be the best place in the world to ride a bike.
by EyeSaaSee