Sun Moon Lake and Formosan Aboriginal Culture Village

Even though one of the most well-known tourist spots in Nantou County (and possibly Taiwan in general) is Sun Moon Lake (日月潭), I only went for the first time during my last trip to Taiwan. The lake itself is quite nice. There should be places where you can rent bikes or scooters to go around, though I didn't see any where I was. There's also a ropeway that connects the lake to the Formosan Aboriginal Culture Village (九族文化村), which is an amusement park with museums, roller coasters, shows, games, and lovely trails. It's a great place to learn about Taiwanese aborigines.

I hadn't heard of the amusement park before, so I only planned a one-day visit of the lake and we spent half the day in each place. I think that the amount of time to see both places was about right since our itinerary was already pretty full, but it wouldn't have been boring to stay longer either.

One reason I finally decided to go this time is because my dad was also back in Taiwan and he drove us. It should be pretty easy to get there by bus, though. There are pretty clear English instructions on the official Sun Moon Lake site (note that the airport it mentions is the Taichung one, though, not Taipei! So if you're coming from Taipei you might want to take the high speed rail down first).