Nantou Tours, Tickets & Activities

Nantou rewards a little planning. The county is big, the mountain roads are slow, and the difference between a good day and a wasted one is usually whether you pre-booked. Below are our picks across every style and budget. Prices are indicative starting points; tap through for live availability.

Attraction ticket from $6

🕒 Valid 1 day 📍 From Sun Moon Lake (Shuishe or Ita Thao) ⭐ 4.2 (9)

Nantou: Sun Moon Lake Ropeway, Boat Trip & Bike Ride Combo

The single smartest ticket at Sun Moon Lake, and the cheapest way to start booking with us. Instead of queueing separately at three counters, you pre-book the ropeway, the round-the-lake ferry and a bike in one go, then redeem each with a QR code. The gondola climbs to 1,044 m for the postcard view over the whole lake; the ferry is genuinely useful transport between the three villages; and the bike path along the northwestern shore is the one CNN famously named among the world’s finest. Buy the pieces you want and skip the rest.

• Ride the Sun Moon Lake Ropeway high above the water for the classic panorama
• Hop-on hop-off boat between Shuishe, Ita Thao and Xuanguang piers
• Bike hire on the lakeside path rated one of the world’s most beautiful

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Guided day tour from $90

🕒 Approx. 12 hours 📍 From Taipei (central meeting point, pickup available) ⭐ 4.4 (219)

From Taipei: Nantou and Sun Moon Lake View Day Tour

Nantou’s single most-booked day tour, and with more than 200 reviews the safest choice if you only have one free day in Taipei. A comfortable coach covers the 220 km each way while a guide fills in the history of the lake, the Thao people who have lived on its shores for centuries, and the Japanese-era hydroelectric scheme that gave the lake its modern shape. You get proper time on the water and at the lakeside temples without renting a car or piecing together three buses. Long day, minimal effort.

• Round-trip coach from Taipei — no driving, no timetable stress
• Time at Sun Moon Lake including the Shuishe waterfront
• Learn the story of the indigenous Thao people, Taiwan’s smallest tribe

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Attraction ticket from $8

🕒 Valid 1 day 📍 From Cingjing Farm, Ren’ai Township

Nantou: Qingjing Farm Green Green Grassland Ticket & Combos

Cingjing Farm is Taiwan’s "Little Switzerland" — rolling green meadows grazed by hundreds of sheep, set on a ridge at 1,750 m with the Central Mountain Range filling the horizon. Pre-booking saves you the ticket-window queue, which on weekends and holidays is genuinely long. The Green Green Grassland is the main event, with a sheep-shearing show by a New Zealand shearer and a Mongolian-style horsemanship display most days. Combo tickets that add the Skywalk are the better value if you are staying more than a couple of hours.

• Entry to the Green Green Grassland at 1,750 m above sea level
• Sheep-shearing show and the daily horsemanship display
• Alpine meadows and sea-of-clouds views over the Central Range

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Attraction ticket from $1.70

🕒 Valid 1 day 📍 From Cingjing, Ren’ai Township ⭐ 5.0 (1)

Nantou: Cingjing Skywalk Ticket with Optional Attractions

At barely the price of a coffee this is the best-value ticket in Nantou, and the easiest way to understand why people call this the roof of central Taiwan. The Cingjing Skywalk is a 1.2 km elevated timber-and-steel boardwalk running along the mountainside at around 1,700 m, suspended high enough above the slope that you walk level with the treetops and look straight down the valley toward Puli. It is completely step-free, takes about an hour at a gentle pace, and is at its best in the early morning when cloud is still pooled in the valleys below.

• Walk the 1.2 km elevated boardwalk — the highest of its kind in Taiwan
• Suspended up to 70 m above the hillside with uninterrupted valley views
• Barrier-free the whole way, so it suits every fitness level

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Day trip with audio guide from $29

🕒 Approx. 10 hours 📍 From Taichung

From Taichung: Sun Moon Lake Day Trip with Audio Guide

If you are already in Taichung, this is the sensible way to reach Sun Moon Lake. Taichung is only about 90 minutes away, so you spend far less of the day on the road than you would from Taipei, and the audio guide means you get the history without being marched around in a group. You are dropped at the lake with a solid block of free time to ride the ropeway, take the ferry to Ita Thao or simply eat your way along the waterfront, then collected for the run back. The best price-to-time ratio of any Sun Moon Lake tour we list.

• Round-trip transport from Taichung, the closest major city
• Multilingual audio guide instead of a fixed group pace
• Free time at the lake to choose your own boat, bike or temple stops

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Guided tour with meal from $109

🕒 Full day 📍 From Sun Moon Lake / Yuchi Township (pickup available)

Sun Moon Lake: Classic Tour with Sky & Lake

The most complete single day at Sun Moon Lake, designed for people already staying in the area who want everything organised. "Sky" is the ropeway that lifts you over the ridge for the full panorama; "Lake" is the boat that carries you between Shuishe, Lalu Island and Ita Thao. A meal is included and a guide ties the day together — the Thao village, the temples on the northern shore, and the trails that most day-trippers never find. Pricier than a bare ticket, but you finish the day having actually seen the lake rather than chased it.

• Both halves of the lake experience — the ropeway above and the boat below
• Lunch included, so no hunting for a table in peak season
• Hotel or pier pickup around the Sun Moon Lake area

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Water activity from $70

🕒 Approx. 2 hours 📍 From Sun Moon Lake (Shuili / Yuchi area)

Sun Moon Lake: Stand-Up Paddleboarding Experience

Sun Moon Lake sits in a bowl of mountains at 748 m, which keeps the water unusually still — ideal conditions for a first time on a paddleboard. Sessions run from a quiet stretch of shoreline away from the ferry routes, with all the kit and a short briefing before you go. The early slots are the ones to book: the lake is at its glassiest just after dawn, mist sits in the folds of the hills, and you have the surface almost to yourself before the tour boats start running. A genuinely different way to see a lake most people only photograph.

• Paddle the calm, motor-restricted water of Taiwan’s largest lake
• Board, paddle, buoyancy aid and a briefing all included
• Sunrise sessions with mist still lifting off the surface

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Private day tour from $40

🕒 Approx. 10 hours 📍 From Taichung (pickup available)

Taichung: Qingjing Farm, Skywalk and Swiss Garden Tour

Getting to Cingjing under your own steam means a two-hour climb up Provincial Highway 14 with more than a thousand metres of ascent and a lot of hairpins — not everyone’s idea of a holiday. This private tour removes that entirely. A driver-guide collects you in Taichung and handles the mountain road while you take in the scenery, then you work through the three headline sights: the sheep meadows of the Green Green Grassland, the elevated Skywalk, and the alpine-flower terraces of the Swiss Garden. Because it is private you can linger where you like.

• The whole Cingjing plateau in one day without driving the mountain road
• Green Green Grassland, the Skywalk and the Swiss Garden
• Private vehicle — your group only, and you set the pace

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Private day tour from $350 per group

🕒 Approx. 9–12 hours 📍 From Taipei or Taichung (hotel pickup) ⭐ 4.6 (9)

From Taipei or Taichung: Sun Moon Lake Day Trip & Boat Ride

A well-judged private itinerary that pairs the lake with the two things most day tours skip: the Hanbi Trail, a short shaded lakeside walk out to the peninsula below the old presidential guest house, and Chung Tai Chan Monastery in Puli — a 150 m tower of granite and glass that is one of the most striking religious buildings anywhere in Asia. Because it is a private vehicle for your group alone, you can start early to beat the coaches to the water and adjust the plan on the day. Priced per group, so it gets sharper the more of you there are.

• Private car and driver-guide from either Taipei or Taichung
• Boat ride on the lake plus a walk on the lakeside Hanbi Trail
• Chung Tai Chan Monastery, one of the great modern temples of Asia

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Private day tour from $450 per group

🕒 Approx. 10 hours 📍 From Taichung (pickup available) ⭐ 5.0 (1)

Taichung: Sun Moon Lake, Cingjing Farm & Skywalk Tour

Sun Moon Lake sits at 748 m, Cingjing at 1,750 m, and the road between them is one of the great mountain drives in Taiwan. This private tour strings both together in a long, full day — the lake in the cooler morning light, then the climb up to the meadows and the Skywalk for the afternoon. It is an ambitious itinerary and you will be in the car a fair amount, but if central Taiwan is a one-day stop on a bigger trip it delivers far more than trying to do either half by public transport. Priced per group of up to four.

• Nantou’s two headline sights — lake and high mountain — in a single day
• Private vehicle, so no waiting on a group at every stop
• Around 1,300 m of altitude change, and the scenery to match

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Private day tour from $320 per group

🕒 Approx. 10 hours 📍 From Taichung (pickup available)

Taichung: Xitou Forest, Lukang and Rainbow Village Tour

The one tour on our list that gets you into southern Nantou’s forest country. Xitou is a former National Taiwan University experimental forest turned nature reserve — a plateau of towering Japanese cedar, a bamboo walkway through the canopy and air that sits a good ten degrees below the plains. Next door, Monster Village is a gleefully strange Japanese-styled resort village built around Taiwanese folk monsters, and a firm family favourite. The day is rounded out with historic Lukang and Taichung’s Rainbow Village. Priced per group of up to four.

• Xitou Nature Education Area — cool cedar forest at 1,150 m
• Xitou Monster Village, Taiwan’s wonderfully odd Japanese-themed street
• Lukang Old Street and the colourful Rainbow Village near Taichung

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Transport ticket

🕒 Round trip, same day 📍 From Taichung (HSR station or city centre)

Taichung: Sun Moon Lake Taiwan Tourist Shuttle (Round Trip)

The purest do-it-yourself option, and the one we recommend to confident independent travellers. The Taiwan Tourist Shuttle runs a dedicated Sun Moon Lake line from Taichung, timed around High Speed Rail arrivals, so you can leave Taipei after breakfast and be on the water by late morning. Booking the round trip in advance secures a seat, which matters more than you would think on holiday weekends when the standby queue at Taichung HSR gets long. From the lake end you are entirely free to plan your own day.

• Official Taiwan Tourist Shuttle service on the Sun Moon Lake route
• Connects directly with Taichung HSR station
• Round-trip seat booked in advance — no queue on busy weekends

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Private transfer

🕒 Approx. 80 minutes 📍 From Taichung city, HSR or Sun Moon Lake ⭐ 4.9 (27)

Sun Moon Lake: One-Way Transfer to or from Taichung City

Public transport to Sun Moon Lake is decent but it is still a bus, with luggage racks that were not designed for large suitcases and a timetable that thins out in the evening. If you are checking into a lakeside hotel — especially with children, bags or a late HSR arrival — a private transfer is the low-stress answer. It runs door to door in about 80 minutes, works in either direction, and consistently earns near-perfect reviews for punctuality. We suggest booking the outbound leg and deciding later how you want to come back.

• Door-to-door private car between Taichung and Sun Moon Lake
• Mandarin-speaking driver and a comfortable vehicle with luggage space
• Rated 4.9 across 27 reviews — reliably punctual

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Private multi-day tour from $999 per group

🕒 2 days 📍 From Taipei or Taichung (hotel pickup) ⭐ 4.0 (6)

From Taipei or Taichung: 2-Day Alishan & Sun Moon Lake Tour

Sun Moon Lake and Alishan are the two things everybody wants to see in central Taiwan, and they are awkward to combine on public transport — Alishan’s sunrise means being in position before 05:00, which no day tour can deliver. Two days solves it. You overnight in the mountains, catch the sunrise above the cloud sea properly, then come down through the tea country to the lake with time to actually stop. Private throughout, priced per group of up to four, which makes it surprisingly reasonable for a family or two couples travelling together.

• Central Taiwan’s two great highlights without a single timetable to read
• Alishan’s famous sunrise above the sea of clouds
• A full stretch of time at Sun Moon Lake rather than a rushed stop

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How to choose the right Nantou tour

There is no single best option — it depends almost entirely on where you are staying and whether you have a car. Use this as a shortcut:

• Staying at Sun Moon Lake? Skip the day tours entirely. Buy the ropeway–boat–bike combo ticket and run your own day; it costs a fraction of a guided trip.
• Based in Taichung? The audio-guide day trip is the best value in this list. Taichung is only 90 minutes away, so you get far more time at the lake than anyone coming from Taipei.
• Based in Taipei with one day? Take the guided coach day tour. It is a long day, but you avoid three transport connections and someone else does the driving.
• Want Cingjing or Hehuanshan? Take a private tour unless you are confident driving mountain hairpins. The climb from Taichung is over 1,500 m of ascent and public transport up there is thin.
• Travelling as three or four? Private tours are priced per group, which usually makes them cheaper per person than individual tickets plus transfers.