Excursion d'une journée à la gorge de Taroko au départ de Taipei en train

Nous avions pris un train pour y être, appx. 3 heures, à l'aise. Malheureusement, certaines routes et certains tunnels ont été fermés en raison de glissements de terrain. Ce site vaut la peine d'être visité, trésor du monde, il doit être protégé par l'UNESCO, mais Taiwan n'appartient pas à l'UNESCO.

Josephine ne devrait pas être décrite comme un guide touristique. Elle a passé tout notre voyage à diviser son attention entre son téléphone portable et son petit-fils. Nous avons à peine pu passer du temps à Taroko Gorge, même si c’est le point de mire de la tournée. Nous n'avons même pas eu le temps de nous rendre au bout du chemin avant d'être obligés de faire demi-tour. Les autres visites consistaient en "vous disposez de dix minutes" sans aucun contexte pour ce que nous voyions, pourquoi c'était important, etc. Nous avons même posé des questions, elle a dit qu'elle ne répondrait pas car les gens se plaignaient de leur donner trop d'informations. Toute l'expérience était ahurissante. Josephine ne fait aucune tentative pour prétendre garder trace de quiconque dans le groupe. À un moment donné, notre chauffeur de bus a heurté un poteau sur le bord de la route. À l'heure du déjeuner, Joséphine ne prêtait aucune attention au groupe, malgré le fait que nous ayons à demander plusieurs fois de l'eau. Nous avons passé la majorité de notre visite dans une fabrique de pierres précieuses, ce qui était clairement une arnaque. Un gaspillage d'argent, un gaspillage d'un jour précieux à Taiwan.

Nous sommes venus nous chercher à 5 h 30 et notre chauffeur est arrivé encore plus tôt que prévu, alors nous avons été conduits à la gare avec nos billets et nos instructions. En arrivant à Hualien, Joséphine était une abeille bien occupée et nous avions tous réservé sa visite de Taroko Gorge. La légère bruine n'a pas; t amortir nos esprits alors que nous explorions la beauté de la gorge. Le déjeuner était superbe. Josephine a très bien chronométré tous nos arrêts et elle a veillé à ce que personne ne soit laissé derrière du début à la fin de la tournée. Ce fut une grande finale pour notre premier aperçu de Taiwan.

The day started horrible when the driver dropped us off on the wrong train platform. We were then meet by a loud and thick accent tour guide in Hualien. Although we signed up for an English speaking tour but the tour guide constantly shouting in poor English, Japanese and Taiwanese. On our return to the city the bus broke down and we had to take the public transit bus which was packed with dirty and smelly hikers. The biggest scam is the misleading description of this tour, the itinerary failed to disclose that a high sales pitch shopping trip to a marble factory store is part of the tour!

This was a great trip. All the arrangements were very slick and cleverly thought out. There were clear plans where to wait once we got off the trains and the guide/driver found us in seconds. Our guide for the day Josephine was great fun - a ball of energy and enthusiasm and she will remain in our memory for a long time to come. Lunch was really good - far better than I was expecting. This trip has an early departure but it is well worth it.

We had a wonderful day and Josephine was superb making it fun and very informative. We were dropped at the station both ends but they made sure we were on the right train. The driver was excellent getting the coach through some very tight situations.

Enjoyable day... the Queen of Taroko brought us to several sites not usually included in the tour! the suspension bridge walk was amazing!

If you have a day to do this one, do it. Amazing place and guides looked after us all the way. Great lunch at the 5 star hotel at the gorge!

It was good organized and I felt comfortable traveling alone. The landscape is absolute mine and I liked the relaxed atmosphere on the train

Five star scenery, five star lunch, five star driver between our hotel and the train station, four star bus. Barely half a star for Josephine, the host. And zero stars for the accuracy of the tour description!! The write-up implies a fully guided tour lasting from about 6:30 am until 7:30 pm. Well, don't get your hopes up! They pick you at the predetermined time, and were bang on there, with a quick trip to the train station. The driver then walked us to the platform and there we were to wait for 30 minutes until the train came. He then left. We sat there and it was not exactly warm until the train came. We road the semi-fast train about 2 hours to the destination. We had expected a guide explaining things along the way - should have brought our guide book to read it ourselves. We were met as expected by Josephine who told us she knew everything so we would not stop at the gorge's visitor/info centre. Well, she told us about five things the whole tour. The scenery was spectacular, and we are glad we went, but this was not a guided tour. And to top it off, she hustled us along as usual with these tours and then we stopped at another train station so SHE COULD BUY TICKETS FOR HER HOLIDAY!! we waited on the bus about 10 minutes for this, which was not long, but still...and the last place, she described as a jade factory, was the usual high priced, high pressure sales of jade and other jewelry. To be fair there was about 5 minutes of information about jade, granite, etc., but then the pressure sales. Despite their assurances of the best prices, I had bought a bracelet at Taipei 101 a few days earlier for about half the price they had it at. One of the guys on our bus said he haggled and got a small figurine for half of the starting value, so maybe that could work? We did not buy anything there.