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When we first decided to enter the Best Trip in the World competition we had two goals.

First we wanted to show people around the world what a beautiful, amazing country Taiwan is and to encourage more visitors to come and experience traveling around this island.

But we also wanted to show everyone how much fun traveling is and how you can do it without spending a lot of money.

On our four day trip we went paragliding, quad biking, river tracing, white water rating, hiking, to hot springs, to an aboriginal tribe and saw much more as well as trying a whole host of different foods. In total, over four days, we each spent less than $7000nt (about $215 US dollars).

We have a full account of our trip written here where you can read in detail what we did every day and hear some of the stories from the trip. This is the abridged version with our own personal highlights.

For a few brief days in July we traveled around this beautiful island.

Our trip was an amazing combination of high adrenaline sports and aboriginal culture.

River tracing in the majestic Taroko Gorge National Park was incredible.

Maneuvering ourselves over the rocks to climb up the spotless river valley

Our guide, Yumi, pointing out the many species of butterfly we encountered on the way.

Seeing the Ami festival, we were astonished by the dancing and the friendliness of the performers.

Aboriginal culture in Taiwan is fascinating and the harvest festival is the visual highlight of the year.

After the festival we made a trip to the night market to eat some tasty traditional snacks.

Day two began early with a short train ride to the middle of the East coast rift valley.

Very tired we arrived at the rafting centre and got geared up in the soaring heat!

Everyone had a great time splashing each other and racing the rafts down the river.

Next time we will remember to hold on when going through the rapid sections!

Thanks to the rafting guys who helped us out a lot and even gave us a ride to the bus stop!

Under the clear night sky we enjoyed watching the water fountain show in Taidong.

Recharged we set out on day four for Gaotai with our ultra-helpful taxi driver - Bai Lang.

Early morning, blue skies, beautiful sunshine ,spectacular views - what more could we want?

Racing the quad bikes around the track, we almost forgot it was time to go paragliding!

Soaring high above the rift valley we looked down on some truly incredible views.

Landing in a field of pineapples wasn’t the softest landing, but it was possibly the tastiest.

Once we arrived at the Bunun Tribe, they were just beginning the song and dance performance.

Very impressed by the show and all the other great work that the Bunun Tribe are doing.

Eating barking deer and betel nut flower was an interesting first for all of us.

The rain finally came on day four but it didn’t dampen our spirits at all.

Although the storm washed the Jinlun hot springs away, we still had a good hike there in the rain!

In Zhiben forest, we saw monkeys, a thousand root banyan tree and a towering waterfall.

What better way to relax our tired, aching bodies than a soothing natural hot spring?

All of the long train ride back to Taipei was spent reciting our highlights of the trip.

Now that it is all over we can’t wait to do it all again!

Ross: It’s funny, you go on a four day adventure trip, packed with excitement, thrills and spills, and yet some of the best bits are when you’ve got a moment just to sit and take it all in.

Hauling yourself up a rocky river, sitting on a rock in the middle of the cascades to wait for your friends and thinking, “this isn’t half bad”. Crashing over the rapids in a rubber boat, before getting a chance to look around you when you hit the calmer waters, and realising that having such a great time means you’re missing some of the stunning scenery. Strapping a bit of canvas to your back and then leaping off a cliff is awesome, but once the adrenaline rush dies down and you’re floating safely on the breeze, you get a chance to look around and really take in what’s going on, what you’re doing, and the incredible place you are doing it in.

There were many high points to our trip, and I surely hope to repeat all again some day, but there was undoubtedly more to it than just pushing ourselves physically. The open, unguarded and welcoming nature of the people we met, their willingness to put themselves out for nothing more than the satisfaction of helping out such obvious strangers in a foreign land, things which I rarely experience back home, made this much more than just an adventure trip.

 

Stu: The highlight for me was definitely paragliding. I’m a little bit afraid of heights and the thought of running off a cliff made me feel somewhat nervous, especially when one person from the group before us landed in the jungle after a freak gust of wind caught them!

However once we were airborne and sailing high above the rift valley my fears evaporated and I enjoyed every moment of it. The instructor even performed some acrobatics on the way down! I would highly recommend everyone tries it once in their lifetime.

 

Neil: Honestly, the whole weekend was the highlight for me. We go out and do things like this almost every weekend anyway, but the contest and making the video got us to do things a little differently. Having to make the video forced us to act a little sillier and talk to more people than we might have otherwise.

If you read our blogs, you’ll see that we’re big proponents of going outside and enjoying nature. Especially if you’re in Taiwan, all these fun things are an easy weekend trip… I can’t understand why so many people sit at home on weekends or stay in the cities. I can’t stress enough how much I think that everyone should plan a weekend like this with their friends. Even if they’re not into the outdoors, just plan a whole weekend with your friends and make a video… You’ll have the time of your life! (like we did!)

 

Phil: I think that the highlight for me was all the interesting people that we met on the trip. The people on the East coast have a much more laid back way of life and are really friendly. We had some interesting conversations with a whole range of different people that normally we would never get a chance to talk to.

We were astonished all the way through the trip by how much people were willing to go out of their way to help us. The breakfast store owner who gave us a lift in his car… the taxi driver who stopped on every journey to allow us to stock up on supplies… the guide at the aboriginal tribe that showed us around… and the paragliding team that drove us around and even cooked food for us!