Jiufen, Shifen, Gold Museum, and Jiufen Day Trip by Chartered Car (Hotel Pick-up & Drop-off)

There was a language barrier as the driver does not know how to speak english but we enjoyed and taken care of during the tour.

pickup at the hotel is good, small group , total of 7pax. manage to clock a few places. 1.5hoours for jiufen is slightly too short

Visited many places in one day. Convenient hotel pick-up. The guide/driver shared many stories along the way. Highly recommended.

very good if you just want a driver that drops you off at different destinations and you explore by yourself. the driver was very efficient, communicative and professional. I wish the itinerary was slightly different (maybe spent less time the gold museum)

Our drivers are very kind and they always open the doors for us. This is highly recommended. Book now!

Touch and go a few places to take photos. Tour covers a good proportion of places of interest nearby.

Let me explain first, the reason why we are joining the one-day tour with hotel pick-up in Taipei is because there are two elders over 75 years old among our travel companions, and we hope to reduce the physical burden on them. There were only two groups of guests in this tour, a total of seven people. The car arranged was very new and spacious, the driver drove very safely, and we visited all the attractions described in the itinerary. So this time the issue is not about mismatch between product and service, but the overall travel experience. 1) The driver and tour guide provided basically no information about the attractions. Except for the part about Yin Yang Sea and Golden Waterfall, where the tour guide mentioned the introduction of minerals and said that there was gold collection inside the Gold Museum before arriving at it, the tour guide basically just said the name of the attraction and the boarding time at each point, and hardly spoke during the entire trip. It was also up to the guests to suggest where to arrange lunch. Basically, guests can only explore the features of each attraction by themselves or get off the bus to read the introduction board. The Gold Museum is an outdoor museum covering a large area. The main hall is at the very back of the park, but we didn’t know that the most worthwhile collections were in the main hall. Also, because the elders walked slowly, we didn’t have enough time to get to the main hall after staying in the outer hall for a while. If the tour guide had introduced it in advance, we would have gone directly to the main hall according to the time. Now the elders can’t help but feel regretful. 2) The weather was very bad on the day of the tour, and it rained heavily. Of course, the bad weather was force majeure, but the tour guide did not consider the needs of the tourists under the previous circumstances. There is a distance between the parking lots of some scenic spots and the scenic spots, such as Shifen Old Street. In fact, the tour guide could drive the car a little closer to the scenic spot and then go back to park. We checked the road conditions and it was allowed, but the tour guide asked us to get off directly in the parking lot and then walk a distance to the scenic spot in the rain. We knew that parking was not allowed near Jiufen Old Street, so we also understood that we had to walk up and down the slope in the parking lot. There was no other way. However, the wind and rain were very strong when we were about to gather and leave. We stood at the entrance of the outdoor parking lot waiting for the car (see attached photo). Both of our groups of guests arrived 15 minutes early, and then we WhatsApped the tour guide to see if he could pick us up earlier, but the tour guide did not read the message, so the two groups of guests, including two elderly people and a child, were soaked in the wind and rain, and the tour guide arrived a little later than the agreed time. When the car arrived, it did not stop near the passengers (we saw that other groups' cars were parked near the passengers), but asked us to walk to the car in the wind and rain! In fact, the guests in our group are very responsible and will arrive early. In addition to Jiufen, there have been cases where guests arrived early but the driver did not at other attractions (see attached picture). Of course, it is not a matter of course that the driver arrives early, but what is the point of opening a communication group and not responding to the guests at all? I have participated in many one-day tours in Europe, America, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan. This experience was definitely the worst. I might as well just call Uber at each point and not have to wait so long.