Penghu islands are worth a visit: All things you need to know before going
If you want to visit some exotic spot in the near future or just want to be my virtual travel companion, you came to the right place. I will share my experience during my recent trip to Penghu Islands and all you need to know about this beautiful spot. These wonderful islands are just located west of Taiwan and are an attraction for many local tourists. This blog will tell you, why they are so popular and everything else you need to know about this travel gem. You might even discover some things, that you didn’t even know existed.
What are the Penghu Islands?
The Penghu Islands are an archipelago of 90 islands located in the Taiwan Strait. They are situated approximately 50 km west of Taiwan and form the smallest county in Taiwan. You can take a look at the map below to get a better feeling of its size and location. The largest city is Magong, which is, who would have guessed, also located on the island Magong. They first appear in written records during the Tang dynasty (618–907 CE) and have since then been part of historical events. Nowadays, the inhabitants live from the tourism business.
How to get to Penghu Islands?
There are two common ways to get to Penghu Islands: boat or plane. Planes fly from Songshan Airport to one of the three airports on Penghu Islands. The three airports are Penghu Airport, Qimei Airport and Wang-An Airport. If you stay in Magong, you can fly to Penghu Airport for 2000–3000 NTD$ from Songshan Airport in Taipei. The duration of the flight is 1 hour, which is much faster than boat. Boats start from Kaohshiung Harbor or Chiayi to Magong Harbor on Penghu Islands daily at various times. The ticket price is 800–900 NTD$ for a normal one way ticket, but VIP tickets can cost up to 5000 NTD$. There are even tickets that include a bunk bed, where you can enjoy a comfortable sleep while riding on the Taiwan Strait. The boat ride from Kaohshiung is about 5 hours. 5 hours! How to fill those 5 hours? You can buy some snacks from the shop on the board. They serve chips and tofu skin in many flavors as well as some barley and milk tea. People play cards and you can enjoy the ride on a blue ocean and discover some mysterious islands on the way. If you want to save time, you can take the boat from Chiayi, which will be much shorter.
Where to stay in Penghu Islands?
There are many great hotels on the islands, since it is such a hot spot for Taiwanese tourists. I can recommend Full House, which is the hostel we stayed in. It’s a BnB located in Magong quite close to the harbour and comes with everything you need: a great king-size bed, clean bathroom, small balcony, wifi and toiletries. They even provide a small welcome gift: the steamed brown sugar cake famous on Penghu Islands. The price is around 2000–3000 NTD$ per night.
What to do in Penghu Islands?
There is plenty of stuff to do in Penghu Islands. We came with our own car via ferry, so transportation was a given. However, if you didn’t bring any means of transportation, not to worry! There is a scooter rental right off the boat pier after your arrival. Most people get around with scooters, as can be seen by the swarms of scooters running over the islands. And you don’t even need to wear a helmet, so the sea air can breeze right through your hair.
There are various watersports to do in Penghu Islands. You can go surfing, kite-surfing, SUPing, snorkeling and scuba-diving. For surfing, the waves are quite right in October (unfortunately, I came in June and the waves were so shallow QQ). There are plenty of shops offering rental equipment all over the island.
If you are a person who loves sand beaches, Penghu Islands have plenty to offer for you. There are countless sand beaches. The beaches are untouched and super clean. You might have a hard time leaving. And the best thing is, there are only a few people on those beatiful beaches, even less inside the water. It looks like creative tourists found many things to do on beaches apart from dipping into the cold water. People love to take photos and even perform dances and take music videos!! One of the most famous beach is Shanshui Beach 山水沙灘. It’s great to take a dip there to cool down from the blazing sun. You will need that, because the weather in Penghu is always great and the sun is burning. You can wash off the salt in one of the showers besides the beach for 10 NTD$.
During our trip, we always had a blue sky over our heads. We only encountered rain once, which was during the firework festival. Sooo unlucky! Or lucky, since this occasion is so rare to encounter and we were blessed to be there?
Anyway, another beach to visit is the White Sand Beach 白沙秘境沙灘, which is close to Baisha. We didn’t have time to visit, but it’s another place to checkout, if you couldn’t get your cracks full of sand yet.
Our favorite beach to visit was Dream Beach 夢幻沙灘. It is located in Xiyu 西嶼 and quite a ride, depending on where you stay. There are no showers to wash off after your dip, but that does not spoil the experience in a slightest way. See the picture below and take a deep breath of ocean air!
What to eat in Penghu Islands?
Penghu Islands are a heaven for all seafood lovers out there. You will get some of the freshest fish right here! We tried a few shops here, which were all outstanding and some of the best seafood dishes I’ve tried in Taiwan. Many dishes are very unique and can only be found here.
The first shop I can recommend is He Yuan Restaurant in Magong. We had the cactus-fried rice, shrimps with bantiao, seaweed soup with fish balls, various sorts of clams and deep-fried octopus. The clams needed to be removed from their shell with a toothpick, which requires you a lot of patience when confronted with such yummy delicacies.
The second shop that I recommend is a shop that only locals know. It’s been there for forty years and offers a variety of great seafood dishes as well. The name is 赤崁加志魚麵店 and it is located next to the dragon temple 大赤崁龍德宮 in Baisha. We ordered the small fried fish, the fresh squid, the oysters, the red oyster with sauerkraut and a noodle soup with squid and fish each. The oysters and the squid were our most favorite, but the other dishes were not far behind.
The third restaurant I recommend is the restaurant just next to the first one. So if you didn’t get enough seafood after the first restaurant, you can head right over. The place is called 澎湖印地安平價活海鮮, literally translated “Penghu Indian Seafood Restaurant”. However, it has nothing to do with Indian cuisine! It is more of a stir-fry, also known as 熱炒 (rezhao). We ordered a set of 9 dishes for 2500 NTD$. There are many more options. The 9 dishes were just right for a group of 5. We have to highlight though, that we have some very talented eaters in our group. The dishes were a seaweed soup with fishballs, boiled shrimps, fresh oysters which were super yummy, mapo tofu, some green veggies, a clam dish, cuttlefish and a few more yummy stir-fries.
As you have seen above from the fried-rice dish, there is a culinary trend expressed in the form of cactus fusion happening on Penghu Islands. You can find this cactus in many dishes: ice-cream, fried-rice, snacks or in its pure form. So if you ever get lost in the desert, just go eat some cactus. They sell for only 10 NTD$.
Island Hopping on Penghu Islands
There are many islands that you can visit. We decided to go to Jibei, which is the most northern island and can easily be reached via boat. The transfer ticket is 400 NTD$, if you want to also participate in various water sports activities, the total trip will be 1000 NTD$. A scooter is included, which you can use to explore the island by yourself. The water activities include banana boat, various donuts, snorkeling, canoeing and jetski. There is a morning session and an afternoon session. There is a break from 12:30 to 1:30. Depending on how many people are there, you will be able to do around 5 activities, because there is so much queueing. I totally recommend the snorkeling though! There are plenty of fish and corals and you don’t even have to swim. The boat has bars, where you can just hang on and watch the fish, while the boat is driving around. It’s one of the most laziest forms of snorkeling I ever participated, but definitely quite unique.
When you take the scooter to discover Jibei island, you have to keep your eyes open for the man-made constructions on the water, the so-called tidal weirs. They are the walls inside the shallow water, made from numerous black stones. They are a great piece of history and point to the roots of how people were fishing in the early days. Tidal weirs are used to keep the fish in a certain area when water level sinks during ebb. Fishermen can then easily catch the fish since they are trapped inside the tidal weirs. At the opening of these tidal weirs, fishermen put baskets to let the fish swim inside.
One more Secret about Penghu Islands
Since you will have a hot time on Penghu for various reasons, you might want to cool down. One of the best places for this is one of the temples around the islands, which are covered by 100-year old trees. They provide shadow and cool down their surroundings, which already the old fishermen knew. When they came back from fishing, they laid down in the temple facilities to rest and enjoy the shadow after their hard labour. The most famous temple is the one in Baisha, where you must try some of the local snacks like the cactus ice cream or the seafood.
Time to say Goodbye
I hope, you had at least a little bit of vacation feelings when reading my blog. I really enjoyed my trip to Penghu and am happy to share my experience. Penghu Islands are a really unique spot in Taiwan and a great spot to visit. Penghu offers great seafood, a fascinating culture and a lot of watersport activities for curious travelers. If you want to stay tuned and discover other travel gems around Taiwan and the world with me, follow me right here or connect with me on LinkedIn. I also blog about tech, food and some of my other hobbies.
