A day trip from Taipei, Yilan County 宜蘭縣 is actually worth spending several days in if your Taiwan itinerary can afford it – from the region’s natural hot springs to fun family attractions, Yilan County has a lot to offer.
The natural landscapes in Yilan County are the perfect backdrop to attractions like Kavalan Distillery and Zhang Mei Ama’s Farm or national parks like Taipingshan – plus Luodong itself is home to one of the best night markets in Taiwan.
For a rewarding and relaxing time in Yilan County, you can also stay in Jiaoxi, which has many natural hot springs plus affordable modern hotels with their own hot spring bath tubs.
Here is our ultimate guide to Yilan County including the towns of Jiaoxi, Luodong and Wujie – we last visited in February 2026.
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How to get to Yilan County, Taiwan
Yilan is a large rural county in northeastern Taiwan and many visitors will journey there from Taipei.
The majority of Yilan’s popular hotels are located in the three main towns in Yilan county – Yilan City (the capital of Yilan County), Luodong and Jiaoxi.
Getting to Yilan by train
The TRA train from Taipei will take you to all three of these main towns along Taiwan’s Eastern Line. You can depart from either Taipei Main Station, Songshan Station, Nangang Station or Banqiao Station.
Trains are fairly regular and depart every 20 to 30 minutes and take between 1 to 1.5 hours depending on the train type (Puyuma Express is the quickest). Train fares are between NT$200–220 one way – make sure to book your seats in advance, especially for travel on weekends and public holidays.
You can book train tickets at station ticket counters / machines, online or at convenience stores kiosks (7-Eleven / FamilyMart).
Getting to Yilan by bus
Alternatively you can take a direct intercity bus from Taipei to all three major towns in Yilan along the National Highway 5 and the Hsuehshan Tunnel.
Several companies operate routes from multiple bus stations including Taipei Bus Station, Taipei City Hall Bus Station, Nangang Exhibition Center Bus Station and Banqiao Bus Station.
Buses are also fairly regular and depart every 15 to 30 minutes, and take between 55 minutes to 1.5 hours to reach Yilan. Book online via Klook, or you can purchase tickets at the station using an EasyCard or cash – fares are roughly between $NT120 to $NT150 one way.
Private Car
Private car transfers from Taipei to Yilan are also available to book on Klook and will take you straight to your hotel! Click here to book >
Where to stay in Yilan County
When visiting Yilan we prefer to stay in the hot spring town of Jiaoxi as there are so many wonderful accommodation options. Most of the hotels in downtown Yilan City are quite old and the best option there is likely Silks Place Yilan (the only 5 star hotel in Yilan City itself).
Jiaoxi has many new and more modern hotels at reasonable prices (well, compared to Taipei) many of which have access to shared or private hot spring baths.
After much research, we stayed at the following two hotels in Jiaoxi in early 2026:
Orient Luxury Hotel – Jiaoxi (Mid-range to expensive)
We booked a ‘Superior City View’ room which was huge and had a private hot spring bath on the balcony!
The room had a lovely view of Yilan (but also a view of a residential block too) – however there is a blind that covers your balcony view for more privacy. You can also book ‘Mountain View’ rooms which are more private (they were sold out of that room type when we booked).
Everything else in the room was great (comfy bed, decent sized TV, modern bathroom).
Their breakfast buffet had a big selection of food and hotel facilities include outdoor pools, a restaurant, bar and cafe, plus a foot hot pool and water slide on the rooftop (which is closed during winter sadly).
You can check rates and availability for Orient Luxury Hotel – Jiaoxi on booking.com, agoda.com and expedia.com.
Yunoyado Onsen Hotspring Hotel Deyang (Mid-range)
This hotel was conveniently located in central Jiaoxi with a good Taiwanese style breakfast and an afternoon happy hour with free snacks.
Our bathroom had a hot spring bath but we did find our particular room a little small and dark compared to Orient Luxury Hotel. However the price and location are great if you mainly plan to explore all day then soak your aching limbs in your own private hot spring bath.
You can check rates and availability for Yunoyado Onsen Hotspring Hotel Deyang on booking.com, agoda.com and expedia.com.
Other highly rated hot spring hotels in Jiaoxi include Wellspring by Silks, Vivir Jiaoxi Hotel and Mu Jiao Xi Hotel.
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We’ve divided our guide into the following separate sections (you can click on each to take you to the relevant parts).
- Things to do in Yilan City >
- Other things to do just outside of Yilan City >
- Things to do in Luodong and Wujie >
- Things to do in Jiaoxi >
Yilan City things to do
Jimmy Park and Yilan Train Station
As you leave Yilan train station main exit, be sure to turn around and look back at the frontage, as it is covered in huge zoo animals – it must be one of the most unique train stations in Taiwan.
This fun theming is carried on across the road at Jimmy Park 幾米公園 (map), which has a children’s playground and huge magical train complete with characters created by Jimmy Lao 廖福彬, a locally born Yilan artist who is famous across Taiwan for his amazing illustrated works.
Jimmy Park is always full of families and we saw weekend markets held here – in fact as well as the fun cartoon train carriage, you’ll see Jimmy Lao’s characters across all of Yilan, from cultural parks to bus stop displays.
Red Lantern at Silks Place Yilan
One of the most famous and traditional restaurants in Yilan, Red Lantern 紅樓中餐廳 (map) is located on the 6th floor of the 5 star Silks Place Yilan hotel.
It is a must visit Yilan Chinese restaurant that’s famous for its Cherry Valley roast duck!
The chef brings the freshly roasted duck to your table and prepares a multi-course set menu experience with “one duck, five ways” including dishes such as crispy-skin nigiri, duck inside scallion pancakes, 3 cup duck and duck soup.
The food was really good, and the crispy skin nigiri was highly unusual, but we enjoyed it! We washed it down with a chilled vinegar drink which was surprisingly refreshing (it aids digestion) and a classic Taiwan Beer.
Every table was taken so we highly recommend you book in advance. Check out room rates at Silks Place Yilan on booking.com or agoda.com.
Yilan Distillery Chia Chi Lan Wine Museum
A former working distillery in Yilan that was built over 100 years ago, Chia Chi Lan Liquor Museum (map) is now more of a cultural park and old fashioned complex, with lots of food stalls, shops and historical distillery artifacts to see.
There are several ‘big’ things to pose with like a huge can of Taiwan Beer and large bottles of Yilan liquor and wine, plus massive stores selling Yilan produce like frozen scallion food products and oysters.
Free to visit, you can also try the local alcohol here plus there is a cafe selling different types of beer.
Dongmen Night Market
A quick mention of downtown Yilan’s downtown night market, Dongmen 宜蘭東門觀光夜市 (map) – very small in scale and mainly frequented by locals, this is several streets of food stalls and restaurants which pop up under and around a huge flyover bridge.
Very atmospheric given the close proximity of stalls (and mopeds), but it is nowhere near as big as Luodong Night Market so we wouldn’t say it is worth a special visit, or combine it with a trip to Black Drongo Brewing nearby.
It sells all the usual Taiwan night market fare, from stinky tofu and sizzler steaks to Yilan green scallion pancakes and shaved ice / chopped fruit.
You might like – Our guide to the best Taiwanese street food to try >
Black Drongo Brewing Co. 烏鶖啤酒
Another reason to enjoy Yilan is their craft beer scene – cheers to Black Drongo Brewing Co. 烏鶖啤酒 (map) opposite Yilan Dongmen Night Market; they have around 20 draft beers on tap including 15 which they brew themselves.
Most cities have independent craft beer bars and breweries and we’ve noticed craft beer strength in Taiwan is generally quite high – for instance, the lowest ABV here (other than the Radler) is 5.7% and the majority of beers are over 7% ABV, so it makes for a fun night!
Prices vary greatly too between cities and breweries but Black Drongo is one of the less expensive ones we’ve been to with 500 ml / large beers costing around $NTD 200 to 230 (around £5 / $6USD / $9 AUD).
After visiting Luodong night market and the smaller Dongmen night market (which is steps away from this bar), we enjoyed having a couple of beers after a long day of walking.
Yilan Cultural and Creative Park
Most cities in Taiwan have cultural parks, housed in former warehouses or train stations – Yilan is no different and has its own ‘Yilan Cultural and Creative Park 蘭陽原創館’ (map).
We visited one week day afternoon and it was fairly quiet with just a handful of shops and activities going on but we believe it gets busier at weekends and often hosts special events.
We saw several families having a nice time here making and sewing Yilan indigenous themed handicrafts plus there was a cafe and several craft and fashion stores – it often hosts flea markets and pop-up events plus there are several selfie spots with cartoon statues.
Things to do outside of Yilan City
Yilan County is very spread out so we made full use of Yilan’s extensive Uber and taxi network to visit several sites away from the regional train stations including:
Kavalan Distillery
One of the best (and booziest) things to do in Yilan, a trip to Kavalan Distillery 金車噶瑪蘭酒廠 (map) will likely result in high ‘spirits’.
From learning about the production process to tasting or even blending your own unique Kavalan whisky, this is a treat for curious travellers or seasoned whisky connoisseurs.
Yilan was chosen as the location for the Kavalan distillery due to the region’s clean water supply from the snow mountains which is used in the brewing process.
Visitors can see the production process up close, take part in various activities or just enjoy some food and drinks in the splendid Spirit Castle.
From making your own whisky to the rather excellent gift-shop (plus free souvenir ink stamps), raise your glass and check out our guide to Kavalan Distillery >
Check out this Yilan Winery day tour (Kavalan Whisky/Jim & Dad’s Brewing Company/Yilan Distillery/Shenkeng Old Street) on Klook >
Jim & Dad’s Brewing Company Yilan
A beer fuelled visit to Jim & Dad’s Brewing company (map) in Yilan County – talk about brews with views! We dropped by this gorgeous craft beer taproom located in an old gravel warehouse in the rural Yuanshan Township of Yilan.
Jim & Dads was founded by a father-son team and opened in 2015. The brewery has a large tasting hall, outdoor seating and a five-story observation tower overlooking the Lanyang Plain (which was closed due to poor weather during our visit).
We sampled many of their wonderful beer flavours that use local Taiwanese ingredients including passionfruit, Lil’Kumquat and Lemony Sip, plus we snacked on burgers (juicy!) and fried platters from their food menu. We even tried their current seasonal asparagus flavoured beer! Which actually tasted really good!
The brewery offers guided tours and tastings which need to be booked ahead, but please note they don’t offer English speaking tours.
Zhang Mei Ama’s Farm
One of the of most asked about Yilan things to do in our Taiwan Travel Tips TTT Facebook group is Zhang Mei Ama’s Farm 張美阿嬤農場 (map) and whether it is worth a visit.
There has been a bit of controversy recently in early 2026 about the son of the owner of Zhang Mei Ama’s Farm so we will leave you to Google this and make your own decisions – we weren’t aware of this at the time and visited in early January 2026, getting a taxi from Yilan City.
Admission price to Zhang Mei Ama’s Farm in 2026 costs NT$200 each which includes animal feed, entry to the animal enclosures and a free ‘human’ snack after (there is choice of scallion pancake, wheel cake (red bean or cream) or an ice-pop – other snacks are available to buy.
In 2026, Zhang Mei Ama’s Farm consists of two animal enclosures, a small gift shop and an eating area.
Popular with families, we encountered capybaras, goat, sheep, chicken, wallabies, alpacas and llamas – some of the animals were a little aggressive rushing after the food (and don’t wear good clothes as some of them will leap up on your pants).
This isn’t somewhere we would return to again but it is one of the most popular family Yilan activities and we sure have huge coach groups here too.
Check out these top things to do in Yilan with Klook including Yilan Zhang Mei Grandma Farm Tickets.
Things to do in Luodong and Wujie
Luodong Night Market
Open daily from 4:30pm until approximately midnight.
The biggest and tastiest night market in Yilan District, Luodong Night Market 羅東夜市 (map) is massive, taking over several streets all centered around Luodong Zhongshan Park (you’ll see lots of Yilan locals snacking in the park at sunset, with food bought from the market).
A world away from tourist heavy night markets like Raohe and Shilin, this lively Yilan Night Market is best known for dishes featuring Yilan’s speciality, scallion / green onion cakes.
In fact, one of the busiest stalls we encountered and ate at was 七巧味三星蔥多餅, located on Google Maps here.
This scallion pancake stall at Loudong has been around since 2009 and charges just NT$45 per scallion and pork pancake – so do yourself a favour and just grab two as you will love it and you won’t have to queue again.
Other popular dishes here include pork scallion skewers, stinky tofu, Taiwanese kimchi, mutton soup and and Luodong’s Dragon Phoenix rolls (like sausages with fish paste and cabbage).
We also spotted a popular ice-cream roll stall at Luodong Night Market that had a specialty of frozen Taiwanese caramel milk pudding rolls – delicious!
Yilan National Center for Traditional Arts
What was meant to be a quick trip to the National Center for Traditional Arts 國立傳統藝術中 (map) in Yilan turned out to be a whole afternoon – there is so much to see, do and shop there.
Costing only NTD$150 admission (and even cheaper when booked in advance on Klook), this vast cultural park and outdoor museum has everything from craft workshops to live performances, fascinating exhibitions and even a lake you can walk around or take a boat and visit the Dongshan River Water Park.
One of the main attractions is a recreation of an old Taiwanese street which is packed with traditional art shops, artisan stalls and food stalls.
We went on a Saturday afternoon and it was PACKED with local families, with children enjoying puppetry and traditional theater – all included as part of the admission price (such good value).
Luodong Forestry Culture Park
A free to visit Luodong attraction, Luodong Forestry Culture Park 羅東林業文化園區 (map) is a short walk from the train station (in fact, you get a great view of it as you arrive on the train from Yilan Station).
A former timber processing site with many of the original buildings still intact, here you can climb aboard old railway carriages and logging trains, or walk around the huge lake at the center of the park.
There is much to enjoy here with nature trails and huge forest canopies which local families picnic under. Luodong Forestry Culture Park also has gift shops including lots of products made from local wood (and Wooderful Life souvenirs) as well as a cafe onsite.
Bei Men Milking
We discovered this bubble tea and drink shop quite by chance – Bei Men Milking 北門綠豆沙牛乳大王-羅東店 (map). Whilst walking around Luodong Forestry Culture Park, we noticed pretty much every other family had brought in drinks from this nearby shop.
Bei Men Milking opened its first stall in Yilan city and now has several branches, which are very popular locally. Famous for their papaya milk and mung bean milk, we went rogue and bought a special avocado oreo milk drink – it was so good and we still mention it every so often, yearning to go back to Luodong to try it.
We joined a big queue and ordered via a kiosk outside (which has an English language setting) – your drink is made quickly and handed to you from the kiosk. We are now big fans of Bei Men Milking and will seek it out again when we return to Yilan County.
Things to do in Jiaoxi
One of Taiwan’s best known hot-spring and spa towns, Jiaoxi is an easy day trip from Taipei with lots of affordable hotels with their own private hot-spring baths (and actually cheaper accommodation than say Beitou).
Most recently, we spent four nights in Jiaoxi in February 2026 staying at Jiaoxi Orient Luxury hotel and Yunoyado Onsen Hotspring Hotel Deyang, both of which had in-room large baths with natural hot spring water.
In fact, our Orient Luxury personal hot spring bath was on our balcony, the hotel was very modern plus the room wasn’t too expensive either.
Jiaoxi Public Foot Pools
Natural geothermal water flows right through the town and you’ll find loads of free public foot pools all over Jiaoxi, often populated with elderly locals.
The biggest and best Jiaoxi free public foot pools are the ones around Tangweigou Hot Spring Park / 湯圍溝溫泉公園礁溪路側免費泡腳池 (map) in the center of town, which has several areas to soak your feet.
At night, it lights up with thousands of neon lights and becomes a kind of carnival of callices and corns, as people soak their feet and ailments in the natural spring water.
Next to Tangweigou Hot Spring Park, you will also find lots of fish pedicures and carnival games for children. It is a popular thing to do in Jiaoxi at night.
Other popular Jiaoxi public foot pools include Jiaoxi Hot Springs Park 礁溪溫泉公園 (map) which was very busy in the day-time with school groups and elderly groups, and handily located next door to Jiaoxi Tourist Service Center and the main bus station.
In the day-time, we also enjoyed using the free foot pools at Jiaoxi Landscape Square 礁溪地景廣場 (map) which also lit up in the evening with goldfish lights.
Chili Hunter ice-cream
It isn’t just the natural springs that are hot here! Chili Hunter 葉家香 (map) in Jiaoxi specialises in hot chilli products and peeled pepper sauces.
However we were here to try their famous Jiaoxi chilli ice-cream known as Scorpion Naga, which costs NT$100 per portion as of early 2026. Chili Hunter had 7 normal flavors and 7 chilli based flavors which increase in Scoville intensity.
However, in the end, we ended up buying a slightly chili based peanut ice-cream with the owner also letting us try a little bit of the scorpion naga. F*ck, it was hot! We don’t mind spicy foods but that was too much – be sure to pack the indigestion pills after.
Rakuzan Ramen
Our favorite lunch-stop in Jiaoxi was Rakuzan Ramen 樂山溫泉拉麵二店.
We obviously went here for their ramen but also to try the famous Jiaoxi green beer (flavored with spirulina). There are two locations for Rakuzan Ramen but you can find the more popular hot-spring foot bath location here.
This is some seriously good ramen, especially the Tonkatsu ramen – and you can add extra scallions/ spring onions which Yilan is so famous for.
Rakuzan Ramen used to be famous for the fact that you eat whilst dipping your toes in the rejuvenating Jiaoxi hot spring waters but that appears to have stopped now based on our experience and recent Google reviews.
Ordering is easy via an electronic kiosk and food is well priced – tasty tonkatsu ramen is $180NTD, spicy garlic ramen is NT$210 and the local green craft beer NT$170 – all Rakuzan Ramen prices are correct as of our visit in February 2026.
Jiaoxi Green beer is actually pretty good if you like your wheaty craft beers – we plan to try more of this at night during our Jiaoxi stay!
Forest Bath
One of the best known attractions in Jiaoxi, Forest Bath 森林風呂 (map) is a Japanese style onsen and hot springs located in gorgeous grounds.
Even if you don’t fancy a nude bathing session (admission to the baths is NT$250), the grounds here are free to visit and well worth an explore, complete with ponds, streams and lots of ducks and geese.
Located in Jiaoxi Hot Spring Park, the hot springs here are single sex and clothing free – well apart from a swimming cap (tip – we found the cheapest swimming caps in Jiaoxi at the Poya chain store, starting from NT$60 upwards).
Inside, there are several pools of different temperatures all surrounded by bamboo and nice nature views. You cannot take photos inside so our photos are of the external gardens.
Check out this Jiaoxi Hot Spring Forest Baths ticket / Kimono Yukata experience on Klook >
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