The BETTER Taroko Gorge Tour

Excellent tour into the uncharted!

Was fortunate enough to visit Hualien sights after the rain and had private tours with Bruce and Daniel. They were fun, witty and we spoke about anything under the sun. Great knowledgeable guides and we were able to beat the crowd into some of the trails. Will definitely be back for more for the river adventures!

We visited Taroko with Island Life in May and had an outstanding time. Our guides from Island Life (we also did their Zhuilu and Mugua tours) were all very pleasant and knowledgeable. 5 out of 5!

Fantastic… totally recommend these guys!
What can I say….thought my brother and I would book a last min trip to Taiwan ( 2 days before travelling) found this company on the internet. We gave them a call to get some advice on what we should do whilst visiting the East coast. Bruce was really informative and sounded very experienced. We decided to use this company for 3 days and we weren’t disappointed. Bruce managed to get us trekking passes within 3 days (usually takes a month) which was a fantastic experience. The other guides were just as good and they couldn’t do enough for you! If you are travelling the East Coast Of Taiwan You would be a fool not to contact these guys for a tour of a life time. We couldn’t have never seen the places we did without these guys!

My brother and I made such lovely memories thanks to Bruce, Chad and Dan and they even sent you photos from the days adventure!

Great tour. well planned and really maximized our time in the park. Well worth the money.

Great tour with excellent guide!
I contacted Island Life via email and communicated with Bruce to organise a tour to Taroko gorge. On the day, he picked me up from my hotel and then we went to pick up some other people and headed to Taroko. Bruce was very knowledgeable about Taroko and Hualien and happy to answer all our questions. The tour itself was great, just the right balance between walking on our own and going between key sites by car – very convenient. We also got in early so we missed the crowds! Kudos to Bruce for knowing the right timing. A few of the people on our Taroko tour wanted to do another activity with Island Life, so we arranged a Coastal tour the next day. Even though it was arranged at short notice, Bruce handled it professionally. We got to see really nice scenery on the coastal tour, and Bruce knew the good places to eat!

I would recommend Island Life to anyone thinking about doing a tour in Hualien!!! Especially for Taroko Gorge as you get to see way more than taking the public bus (and much less waiting!)

Highly Recommended!
Booked 1 day tour to see Taroko Gorge in eastern Taiwan. The communication with Bruce went smoothly and he’s very helpful answering all my queries. On the day of the tour we were guided by Simon who as well is an excellent guide! Knows a lot about the history of the places! This people are beyond just doing business but they ensure you enjoy the place and experience it the best way! Will surely contact you guys again when we’re back in Taiwan!! 🙂

Best tours in Hualien!
I looked for tours on internet for a while…nothing was very well written or presented. Finally I came across Island Life and decided to make my tours with them. Website was clear, they were very responsive, professional and with a very personalized service.

The tours themselves were great! Bruce is very knowledgeable and passionate about the area and showed us beautiful spots and gave us great recommendations of where to eat, what else to see and do! Very friendly as well!

BEST TIME IN HUALIEN!!!!
As we arrived in Hualien it was raining, nobody seemed to speak english, we were quite lost on how to move around and how to visit Taroko National Park. We searched on the internet and find Island Life Taiwan Adventures & Experience!!! We couldn’t have been luckier!!!!
Bruce was super nice, took us in for the next tour in the morning and made our day!!! He knew every spot of the park, took us to all the places we wanted to see even though it meant to be late on the way back!
He helped us beyond his duty in everything we needed for our trip through Taiwan!!
Recommend Island Life Taiwan to everyone, you will have the BEST TIME!!

Thanks again for everything!! Hope to be back soon and do another tour with you guys 🙂

One of the greatest places I have visited ever! Mind blowing natural beauty with tons of trees and wild animals. Few of them really crossed our path on the way! Love this place and Island Life truly delivered. I have visited twice and would love to visit once more, definitely with Island Life.

My daughter and I booked two tours for our two days in Hualien. When I first made contact with the company, I corresponded with Bruce. When it was time for our tours, we worked with Daniel and the transition was very smooth. The first day we visited the Taroko Gorge and the next day we did a shortened East Coast tour as we had a flight to catch.

Daniel is very knowledgeable of the area. He is easy going and has a good sense of humor, which made it comfortable spending two days with him. He answered a lot of questions, made numerous bathroom stops, bought us lunch and even took pictures and emailed them to us. While he was very engaged, he also gave us time alone and didn’t rush us. He really provided a good balance of guiding and allowing us to explore. I appreciated that Daniel was very conscientious of our time constraints on the second day and even dropped us off at the airport!! When he learned my daughter loves hush puppies, he ordered her some from a local restaurant and picked them up on our way to the airport!

These two days were the highlight of our two weeks in Taiwan and I wish we had stayed longer in Hualien and booked another tour with Island Life Taiwan. I highly recommend this company and both Bruce and Daniel are great!

Taroko Gorge
We went out with Simon our guide in a small group of 5. Our daughter is 9 and we were concerned that it would be to much walking. Simon kept her engaged and she ended walking over 10km and did every trail! We had excellent weather and Simon was very knowledgeable about the history of the park along with aboriginal Taiwanese culture.

Great Staff, great tour!
All the staff were super friendly and accommodating. The tour itself was breathtaking!
Although our tour was a little more expensive than some of the others, lunch was included and I was shown some hidden gems!!! (The kind only locals know about!)
Highly recommend!

Awesome guides, places, tours to experience Hualien’s hidden natural beauties
I did two tours with them, what was great with Daniel was that I really did appreciate that he tried to join in with other people’s interested dates as I was travelled solo and wanted to meet other fellow nature buffs. Had fun and they took some amazing photos of us too! No need for a selfie stick to get your epic pic.

I did the Better Taroko Tour was with Simon which was very fun and an early start tour. Pick up between 7:30-7:45am is really worthwhile to avoid all the tour buses and having to compete with other people to get that picture of the gorge. You might still see a few tour buses or people as the day goes by but that’s only natural because it the main attraction of Hualien. We did some short hiking trails which was nice instead of just hopping in and out of a car to get pictures.

The other tour I did was half day at the Mugua River Gorge. It was a bit more customised as I was again doing it solo but that didn’t mean less fun. Got to explore places that wouldn’t have been able to DIY and well swimming in these gorgeous pools was such a fantastic way to cool off from the humid summer heat in Taiwan. Daniel also gave me some food recommendations which was great, didn’t have to think too much about where to get the best eats around Hualien city

Hope to come back to Hualien in a month’s time or so and go check out the other places I haven’t been to yet! Thanks guys!

Really enjoyed the trip to Taroko Gorge with Island Life. Simon was a great guide; knowledgeable and friendly and took us to some lovely spots away from all the tourist traffic. Daniel was also very friendly and helpful at coordinating and answering questions and giving advice about Hualien. I wish I’d stayed a bit longer so I could have taken another tour with them. Highly recommended!

My mom and I had the most wonderful experience at Taroko Gorge with our friendly and helpful guide Bruce. He took great care of my mom throughout the entire private tour and catered the trip based on her needs as she couldn’t walk that much. Nevertheless, Bruce took us to all the beautiful spots at the gorge. I must commend on Bruce for taking the extra mile to send us back to our B&B which was not easy to locate. Thanks Bruce for your hospitality. I definitely recommend this trip to anyone who is looking for a personalized tour.

The trip was wonderful and it is really a beautiful country. We had a great time and it certainly met and often exceeded our expectations. Iris, our guide, was fabulous!

Two words: Freaking Awesome
Taroko itself was stunning, but this tour made it so much more fun. Iris our guide was hilarious and loved to challenge us to have more fun. Great day.

All the highlights in one day!
Daniel was very helpful in organizing our tour, as well as answering questions before the trip regarding transportation, etc. The tour was great – we saw all of the highlights of the park and it was a good balance of driving, hiking, and taking photos. Daniel was very knowledgeable about the history and features of the park, as well as giving us lots of information about life in Taiwan.

Gorge(ous) day in Taroko National Park
We just finished an incredible tour with Daniel and Laura as our guides. We stopped at about 10 beautiful viewpoints and did two short (1 to 2 mile) hikes. On the hikes, they taught us about local and national history, entomology, geology, and the botanical wonders of the gorge. We had a truly wonderful day. Thanks!

Great tours
My boyfriend and I took 2 tours – I had first emailed the company telling them how many days we have got, asking about the Zhului Old Trail hike and requesting another suggestion as well, and they suggested some tours of which we took Zhuilu & the Taroko tour. Bruce (super nice dude from Vancouver and very considerate: asked us if we wanted extra water, brought toilet paper and umbrellas etc) drove us around in the park to all the main stops, which is great because you don’t have to rent a car yourself, nor look up the way or plan anything. We liked the fact that it was not just driving – there was enough time to do several shorter hikes (10-30′) if you want to, such as climbing up vista points, and we never felt rushed. This way you get to move a bit, which we liked very much! This tour also includes lunch at a local restaurant, and nothing comes in more handy than a guide who can translate what you want to eat. At the end of the day, we had time to go for a swim in a secret spot, which was the perfect closure to a very humid day. Big thank you to Bruce for a wonderful day!

A nice unexpected “present” is that the guides take pictures of you during the tours which they will send to you via google drive afterwards – for free! We appreciated this, thanks!!

Great tour, excellent guides
Bruce and Laura showed us a great time around Taroko Gorge and the Zhuilu trail. Our guides were both very knowledgeable about Taiwan and the region and thoughtfully answered our many, many questions. The trip and early timing allowed us to maximize our time while avoiding an traffic/ large tour groups. The latter is highly recommended and worth the effort.

Four Days of Natural Splendour. We arranged our Taroko Tour through Island Life Taiwan. I cannot speak highly enough of the proactive and professional service we received. Emails were answered quickly; information was clear and helpful and the staff friendly and obliging. Mother nature did the rest. What a magnificent part of the world and walking is a great way to experience it. I highly recommend the Taroko Tour and the best thing you can do is get the The Island Life Adventure Company to organise it for you.

Service from Island Life: excellent. Overall satisfaction: excellent. All guides were good or even excellent. We enjoyed this trip so much that we are thinking of visiting again! Highly recommend Island Life.

Everything done to accommodate. Just finished the Taroko Gorge Tour. This company was professional, helpful and flexible. The whole experience was wonderful, and when bad weather forced us to change plans it was done with ease. Everything was very thorough. Staff pleasant.

A marvelous time with an Excellent Guide!
We did the Taroko Gorge tour with Iris and had an unbelievable day. There were only about 6 of us so we could move through the park easily and see sooooo much. Contact with the company was smooth and the photos they sent after an excellent surprise. Overall a perfect day. Highly recommended!

Great Day In The Park
Taroko gorge is one of the most beautiful places we’ve been in our travels, and Island Life really helped us see the most of it. This tour is well conceived and executed perfectly. Thank you Island Life and Iris!

Gorge walking. After a failed attempt to do this two years ago due to too much rain we finally made it and it was well worth the wait. Great fun was had and we were very well looked after (and encouraged) by our guide. Remember to book ahead though if you fancy this as it is very popular, although the guys were very accommodating and squeezed in a session just for us. Thank you – we will be back on our next trip.

Loved the Gorge. A brilliant experience with great scenery and a brilliant guide! Would highly recommend it to anyone looking for a bit of adventure on a relatively quiet island! Having been to Taiwan every year, pretty much, since i was born, i can safely say it is one of the best things i have done there.

This place is unbelievable and we had an amazing time with Island Life.

Fantastic time even in the rain. What a great adventure. Fantastic scenery. Top quality service. Excellent guide. Superb afternoon of wet and wild fun. Totally recommend to anyone – give it a go. So worth it.