One of the most common emails I get as the owner of Pedal Taiwan is something like: “I really like the look of the site. I’m interested in this trip, and I’m a bit of a beginner to cycling. Do you think this trip would be suitable for me?”
Even though we know the tour inside out, this is actually a pretty hard question to answer. What it means to be a beginner can vary so much from person to person. When someone says they’re a beginner, it doesn’t necessarily mean they’ve only just learned to ride with the training wheels off. How someone thinks of themselves as a cycling beginner can be really different.
For anyone who’s done even a little bit of cycling and has a reasonable level of fitness, we have a way to show you Taiwan on the bike that will be suitable. That said, it’s not true to say that all of our cycling trips are suitable for all levels of cyclist. Taiwan is an incredible place to cycle, but it’s not always a beginner-friendly place to cycle. It’s basically one massive mountain sticking out of the Pacific, so when we design cycling trips for you, we really try to understand what you’re looking for in a cycling trip and what your previous experience is from riding, so that everybody has the best time possible in Taiwan.
What “Beginner” Actually Means Here
The word beginner does a lot of heavy lifting on a cycling site. We’re not really writing this for someone who bought a bike last week, because that person isn’t the one researching Taiwan tours. The cyclists who come to us for a first guided trip almost always fall into one of three rough groups.
The regular weekend rider, who can knock out 40 to 60km on a Sunday without much trouble, has done a sportive or two, and has never strung more than a long weekend together on the bike. Mallorca or the Lake District is the high water mark.
The partner or friend of a serious cyclist. The trip is being talked into them by someone who reads KOM forums on a Tuesday night, and the underlying worry is whether they’ll be the one holding everybody up.
The cyclist coming back after a long break. The legs were strong once and will be again, but they want a holiday that forgives a few months off the bike rather than punishing them for it.
As I mentioned before, it’s hard to define what it means to be a beginner at cycling. My recommendation is that since all of our trips are multi-day, everyone who joins a tour should have some experience riding the distances they’ll be covering.
For example, if you’re on a tour with 80- to 90-km days, you should be comfortable riding at least that far in a day. The best preparation for a multi-day trip is to ride two or three days in a row at those distances, because it makes a big difference by the third day. You’ll be tired, but you can keep going and push through the distance.
That said, the trips are designed to be enjoyed by everyone, and we have a support vehicle on every trip we’ve ever run. You’ll get the most out of it if you’re comfortable with the distances, but it’s also a very safe environment to test your capabilities on the bike, knowing there’s a support vehicle available to pick you up and transfer you part of the way on some days if you feel like you’ve had enough riding for that day.
Which Tour to Pick for a First Taiwan Trip
We’ve got four tours and they sit on a fairly clear ladder of ambition. For a first guided trip there’s really only one obvious answer.
The 5-Day East Coast Rift Valley is the one. The days are 60 to 90km on gently undulating Pacific coast road and through the East Rift Valley, with modest climbing and plenty of stops at cafes and 7-Elevens. The terrain is the friendliest the island has to offer, the support vehicle is with the group all day, and the food along this stretch is genuinely some of the best in the country. We usually break the route up with an overnight in Chenggong, which specialises in the freshest swordfish sashimi anywhere in Asia, and another in Ruisui, where we take every single group to the same little family restaurant we’ve been going to for years. Couples where one rider has been off the bike for a while pick this combination every season and it works almost every time.
The 14-Day Discover Taiwan tour is the next rung up. End to end it’s a moderate trip, but a KOM day lands in the middle of the week, and on that day the less confident riders use the van for some or all of the climb. If you’ve got a few multi-day cycling trips on the legs already and want a proper loop of the island with the big climb thrown in, this works really well. We wouldn’t recommend it as a first guided cycling tour for someone whose only riding so far is club Sundays.
The 7-Day King of the Mountains and the 16-Day Full Island Tour aren’t beginner trips. They both reward riders with proper training and back-to-back endurance miles in the legs. Save them for trip two or three.
What a Beginner Day on the Bike Actually Looks Like
The whole rhythm of a Pedal Taiwan day is built around the support vehicle that rolls along with the group, all day, every day.
Most mornings start at the breakfast table of a small Taiwanese hotel or mingsu (which is basically a B&B run by a local family, and almost always our preferred place to stay outside the cities). Bikes come off the van, tyres get checked, water bottles get filled. The first ride leaves at a relaxed pace, with the van rolling along somewhere behind in case anyone has a mechanical, needs a layer dropped in, or fancies sitting out for an hour.
In the middle of the morning, there’s usually a place to stop for coffee and a snack. Taiwanese coffee is surprisingly good compared to a lot of places in East Asia, and Taiwanese snacks (sweet or savoury) are everywhere and are a big part of the country’s tea and coffee culture.
Lunch is usually somewhere your guide has eaten ten times already, often a place no foreign tourist would ever walk into on their own (mostly because there’s no English on the menu, no sign in pinyin, and the place can look from the outside like somebody’s front room). Afternoons are usually shorter than the mornings; the group rolls into the next mingsu in time for a shower, a beer and, if you’re lucky, a wander down whatever little night market is happening locally.
And if the day’s going wrong (a flat that won’t stay fixed, a leg that won’t loosen up) the van’s just there. Most of our groups have at least one day where somebody uses the van for a stretch, and on a first trip that’s totally normal, not a failure. The vehicle’s there for a reason.
The Anxieties First-Timers Bring (and the Honest Answers)
Five questions come up in almost every enquiry we get from someone planning their first trip.
If you can ride a reasonably lumpy 60 km at home, the routes on our 5-day East Coast tour should be fine. If you have ridden a couple of 60 km and felt that was about your limit, the 7-day KOM might be a step too far. It is about having a sense of where your riding ability is and matching that to the tours we offer as best we can.
The language one is the next one. Outside Taipei almost nobody speaks much English, and the menus are usually only in Chinese characters. On a supported tour this stops mattering pretty much inside the first day. Your guide orders, translates, books the rooms, sorts the bills, and runs interference everywhere it’s needed.
Beyond cycling, Taiwanese food is one of the best reasons to visit the country. It’s clean, healthy, and an absolutely delicious fusion of Chinese and Japanese cooking, and it’s also safe. We’ve very rarely had any issues with stomach bugs, which isn’t something you can say about every destination in East Asia.
The tap water is drinkable almost everywhere on the island, and while the restaurants may not always be as plush as what you’d get in North America or Western Europe, they take food hygiene very seriously and food is one of the things clients consistently say is an absolute highlight. Unless it’s stinky tofu. We’ve had lots of people say they didn’t like stinky tofu. And to be fair, neither do I.
Taiwan is very well set up for cyclists, and it’s a really suitable place to ride. One of the main reasons is the network of bike paths, especially the river paths in the cities. In Taipei, the river paths are used as floodplains during typhoon season, so in the spring and autumn months there’s a wide, tarmac network of paths that are completely separate from the roads. These paths are a fantastic way to get in and out of the city, and especially to ride out to places like Yangmingshan National Park or the Maokong tea plantations.
Outside the cities, the bike paths tend to run alongside the road, but many roads still have a dedicated bike lane on the side of the road, used only for bicycles and mopeds. In the countryside, especially around Hualien and Taitung County, these bike lanes are often fantastically maintained because there are so few mopeds between the cities. Even when you do encounter a four-wheeled vehicle, it stays in its own lane and gives you plenty of space as it passes.
Overall, drivers in Taiwan are generally very considerate of cyclists. They’re aware of two-wheeled vehicles on the road, which is often not the case in Western Europe and North America, and they’re patient and accommodating. In my years of riding on the island, I’ve been offered food and water far far far more often than I’ve been honked at.
Taiwan’s best riding seasons are spring and autumn. The weather is generally warm but not too hot or humid, and these seasons also get the least rainfall, especially in the areas we tend to ride.
Winter can be a great time to ride, especially in the south and on the east coast. Winters are usually dry, although you may get an occasional week of rain. The main downside is that some high-mountain roads may close if ice and snow develop, which can disrupt riding in those areas (e.g., the Wuling Pass is over 3,000 metres, and it can get icy and snowy in midwinter).
Summer is also possible, and it can be particularly nice if you ride in the high mountains, since you avoid the heat and can enjoy more pleasant temperatures. The main drawback is that riding on the plains can be very hot and humid, and once July and August arrive, you are entering typhoon season. If you are on a multi-day bike trip and a typhoon hits the island, there is not much you can do beyond hunkering down for a couple of days and waiting for it to pass, which can obviously disrupt your trip.
Practical Prep for Your First Taiwan Cycling Trip
The best advice I can give anyone preparing for a cycling trip to Taiwan, whether they are a complete beginner or an incredibly experienced rider, is to get as much training in as you can.
Everybody leads busy lives, and it is always difficult to get all the training you would like before a trip. In an ideal world, you would try to train at similar distances and elevations to what you will be riding in Taiwan. The elevation thing can be very difficult for a lot of people, depending on where they live, since Taiwan has a lot of elevation and not all countries do.
That said, I would not worry too much about training. Just get as much in as you can, and you will always ride yourself into a bit of fitness on the tours anyway.
Pack for the mountains even if your tour is mostly flat. The East Coast Rift Valley sits low for most of the route, but on a cold spring morning you’ll be grateful for a light layer and a wind shell. The packing guide is the full list, and honestly most first-timers still over-pack.
Have a look at the e-bike option before you decide. The bikes sit on every tour as an upgrade, and on a first trip they’re one of the cleanest ways to close a fitness gap or take the worry out of a long day. The e-bike guide goes through the honest tradeoffs and the cost.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Taiwan a good country for a first cycling tour? Yes. The roads are quiet once you leave Taipei, the food and rest stops are excellent, and Taiwan has more than 4,200 kilometres of dedicated cycle routes. On a supported tour the language barrier and the logistics stop mattering inside the first day, and the East Coast Rift Valley loop is one of the friendliest first-trip rides anywhere in Asia.
How fit do I need to be for my first Taiwan cycling tour? Fit enough to finish a hilly 60-kilometre Sunday ride at home without crawling back. That’s the right base for the 5-Day East Coast Rift Valley, which is the tour we recommend for almost every first-time visitor. The bigger tours need real training, which our training guide covers in detail.
Which Pedal Taiwan tour is best for beginners? The five-day East Coast Tour is the easiest trip for beginners. Taiwan doesn’t have much flat land, so most of the island involves a lot of climbing. The Rift Valley is one of the few rural flat stretches, and it runs north-south through Taitung and Hualien, so we focus our easier trips around that area.
Can complete beginners ride the Taiwan KOM? The Taiwan KOM is considered one of the toughest single-day bike rides in the world. My honest advice is that I would not recommend it for a complete beginner, even on an electric bike. On a regular road bike, it is probably a step too far.
That said, it is a gorgeous ride, and the bottom section through Taroko Gorge is absolutely stunning. We have had several clients come with their partners who are more experienced cyclists, and they are fine with riding the first 30 to 40 km through the gorge and then hopping in the support vehicle for the rest of the climb. That is completely fine, too.
Do you need to speak Mandarin to cycle in Taiwan? Not on a guided tour. Almost no one in rural Taiwan speaks English, but on a Pedal Taiwan trip your guide orders food, books rooms, and runs interference at every stop. Self-guided riders need basic Mandarin or a lot of patience with Google Translate, which is part of why most first-time visitors come with an operator.
What is the best month for a first cycling tour in Taiwan? February to May in the spring and September to November in the autumn. The weather’s dry, the temperatures are manageable, and the typhoon risk is low. July and August are hot, wet, and prone to typhoons, so they’re the months to avoid. Our best-time-to-cycle guide has the full month-by-month picture.
Thinking about your first Taiwan trip? Drop us a line with a note on your recent riding and what kind of holiday you’ve got in mind, and we’ll come back with a tour and dates that fit. The 5-Day East Coast Rift Valley is the one most first-timers end up on, and it’s a great place to start.