Great driving roads?

[Lo Bo To]

I'm looking for some great places to take a sports car for a nice drive. i.e. good twists and turns, some nice straightaways, light traffic

I know the especially the latter will be difficult but any suggestions will do. As I stated in another post, I drove up and down the Chiayi-Alishan #18. Don't go near it on the weekends but during the week it's a nice drive. Also, the road up to Rei Li has a great road with 30 or so hairpins along the way that are marked with numbers. And a lot of the turns have quite visible entry and exits (you can see around the turns if there are cars coming).

Anyone know of others (especially in the south) that are a nice drive?

[tommy525]

I thought the East West Cross Island is a great drive, although its split in two now. The section from Fengyuan up the hills to Kukuan i liked too.

The drive from Danshui to Ginshan and then to Keelung (Jilong) and then to Yilan on the coast is a nice drive. So is going from Ginshan up to YMS. 106 is nice to Fulong. Highway 9 is a nice drive from Xindian to Yilan (if the traffic is not too bad, lots of turns, blind mostly tho).

Taiwan has tons of great driving roads !

[petrarch1603]

Not exactly what the OP is looking for, but Lanyu is a great place to zoom around on a scooter.

[Ducked]

Strange. You seem to be associating "twisties" with driving pleasure.

Its true I can vaguely remember a similar association, from driving in the Highlands of my home country, but I've been here long enough now to mostly associate "twisties" with oncoming vehicles on "my" side of the road, and consequent rage, contempt, and fear of sudden death.

Have I been here too long, or not long enough?

[mabagal]

Strange. You seem to be associating "twisties" with driving pleasure.

Its true I can vaguely remember a similar association, from driving in the Highlands of my home country, but I've been here long enough now to mostly associate "twisties" with oncoming vehicles on "my" side of the road, and consequent rage, contempt, and fear of sudden death.

Have I been here too long, or not long enough?

"Happiness isn't just around the corner. It is the corner."

OP, Google Maps is your friend here. Put it in hybrid-mode and look for curvy roads in darker areas of the satellite with few other roads sticking out of it. The darker areas typically denote forest. I found a whole lot of lesser-known driving roads this way back around Mt Rainier, Seattle and it should probably also work here.

[urodacus]

driving head on into a small blue farm truck is always enjoyable, no matter what the map says will be around the corner. It's Taiwan, mate: simply not a place for fast driving.

[tommy525]

Yes I have met one such blue truck coming head on into me in my lane on one such mountain road. I was seat belt less and went up against the windshield. I could just stop and put my car into neutral. My Cortina went back 12 feet but putting it in neutral may have saved my life.
The car didnt make it but i did. Yeahh !!

[superjACK]

I thought the East West Cross Island is a great drive, although its split in two now. The section from Fengyuan up the hills to Kukuan i liked too.

The drive from Danshui to Ginshan and then to Keelung (Jilong) (Jilong) and then to Yilan on the coast is a nice drive. So is going from Ginshan up to YMS. 106 is nice to Fulong. Highway 9 is a nice drive from Xindian to Yilan (if the traffic is not too bad, lots of turns, blind mostly tho).

Taiwan has tons of great driving roads !

hey tommy525, I'm totally intrigued by your description of this road. since I'm haven't been back to Taiwan in over quarter of a century, care to share that with a google map or google earth map for that matter? oh and btw, I'm a newbie on this forum too. thanks in advance!

[tommy525]

Lordy 25 years?? Wow you aint gonna think its even the same place you left !!

I was away for ten years and for days it all felt so foreign , familiar yet foreign to me.

Welcome to the forum by the way. And I actually mentioned several different drives here.

1. East-West Highway used to have several branches. The main one was from Fengyuan (just north of Taichung) to Kukuan ( a very quaint hot spring town) and then onwards to Lishan (midpoint) and then on to Hualian on the east coast. It was a fab drive of about 7 to 8 hours with about 3000 twists and turns and climbing up as high as almost 10,000 feet near lishan. There was another branch from past Lishan (going from west to east) that went up to Hehuanshan (and that part of the road exceeded ten thousand feet if memory serves) and onwards down south. Then there was the unmade road from Lishan down to Luodong that was not hugely scenic but still pretty. Now you can not go from Kukuan further on the road west as that section is GONZO and never coming back in most likelyhood. Destroyed by the 921 quake and later typhoons. And just past Lishan , coming from the east the road stops as well for the same reason. There is local traffic past that beautiful techi dam but not open to the general public it seems. All that area is a super nice drive basically.

2. A simple drive to do living in Taipei is to go up to Danshui and then continue on the north coast highway along the coast to Jinshan and onwards to Keelung (Jilong) and staying on the coast down the PingHai coastal road to Fulong and down on to Yilan and go back to taipei on the number 9 (the killer stretch from chiaoshi I believe up the hills to Xindian). That killer road 9 is very scenic but challenging and is a killer road worthy of its name, so be careful.

3. From Jinshan its also a very nice drive up towards Yangming Shan, stopping at the several simple hotspring places is a treat too. And from YMS itself the road to Beitou is small and scenic, another scenic small mountain road connects to the national palace museum past the EARTH STATIONS or you can just go down the main drag , the YANG TEH DAH TAO>

Iv never done the southern cross island but everyone says its awesome or was.
And the number 7 from Taoyuan to the east coast (the north cross island) is also nice. Iv been on part of it but a landslide blocked me.

Theres tons more.

[superjACK]

Lordy 25 years?? Wow you aint gonna think its even the same place you left !!

I was away for ten years and for days it all felt so foreign , familiar yet foreign to me.

Welcome to the forum by the way. And I actually mentioned several different drives here.

ya hey thanks tommy, it'll be totally weird for me I'm sure, perhaps a complete total culture shock too. I'm looking to spend a good amount of time there, so I'm pretty sure I'll have some time to head up for a drive. I'll definitely refer back to this thread and pick one of those places you've mentioned for a good drive. though i imagine I'll have to really change my driving style once I'm there..