Tripool taxi: Taiwan budget travel technique

Do you want to save on taxi fares in Taiwan?  Do you want to visit places like having your own private car but don't want to spend so much? Do you find it difficult to talk to drivers in Chinese? If you answer is yes, then you are reading the right page.  Introducing tripool taxi. Your private point-to-point transportation.

Brought to by roundTaiwanround, a legit and officially recognized travel agency in Taiwan.  They have created a legal and licensed product called tripool taxi that lets you visit the thousands of tourist attractions on the island at a fraction of a cost of a taxi fare.  Check the web app and see for yourself how it works (https://www.tripool.app/?utm_source=luomuji).

Believe me (and the luomujie blog, of course. Haha!), you will really save money with this service.  Having been to many places on the island since the first day I arrived in this beautiful country, I have a lot of experiences in riding Taiwan's public transportation system from trains to buses and taxis.   I'm a budget traveler and sometimes I also board taxis to reach my destination faster.  You really can't travel in Taiwan without them.  But sometimes cab drivers charge too much and this post is to help you develop a wise technique on how to reduce your taxi fares by as much as 40%.

Yehliu Geopark

at Jiufen Old Street.  Red lanterns light up this narrow alley.

A group of children getting ready to release their sky lantern at Shifen Old Street

Ahmei teahouse in Jiufen Old Street.

So how does tripool taxi let you save money?  Let's have a real-life example.  Imagine you are in Yehliu Geopark and you want to go to Shifen or Jiufen.  But it's your first time in Taiwan and you have read somewhere that it is a hassle to travel by bus and train from Yehliu to Shifen or Jiufen.  You don't speak Chinese and you want to maximize your time because you are only in Taipei for a few days.  You are in a hurry until a taxi driver approaches you and offered a taxi ride to the land of sky lanterns and Spirited Away for a price of NTD 1,200 and NTD 1,400 respectively. Deal or no deal?  Let's compare the cab fares (See Table 1) of a general taxi against a tripool taxi from Yehliu to Shifen or Jiufen to see which taxi method is cheaper.

Table 1. Price comparisons of a general taxi vs. tripool taxi from Yehliu Geopark to Shifen or Jiufen

Pick-up point	Destination	Distance (km)	Travel time	General taxi (deal offer)	Tripool taxi estimated fare
				# of passengers
				2	2	4	5
Yehliu Geopark	Shifen Old Street	31.3	49 min.	NTD 1,200	NTD 690	NTD 761	NTD 1,361
	Jiufen Old Street	34.1	51 min	NTD 1,400	NTD 715	NTD 787	NTD 1,385

Looking at Table 1, it is very clear that you can save lots of money by choosing tripool.  Why spend NTD 1,200 if you can only pay for NTD 690 for a ride from Yehliu to Shifen with two passengers on board.  Traveling alone? No problem.  The price is still the same for two passengers. tripool web app: https://www.tripool.app/?utm_source=luomuji

The price increased in tripool with more passengers?  Remember the saying “the more, the merrier”.  As more people hop on the tripool taxi, more friends are willing to share the cost of the fare which translates to savings.  You can see from Table 1 that the tripool taxi fare doubled when the passenger number was increased to five.  This happens because a bigger car will be used to accommodate the larger number of passengers in a vehicle.  Do you want to squeeze yourself in a five-seater car if there are six people that are going to board? Haha!

The picturesque Gaomei Wetlands during sunset

Enough of the tourist traps in the suburbs of Taipei.  Let's go to Central Taiwan. To Taichung, the gateway of Sun Moon Lake and the home of the famous bubble milk tea.  I bet you have heard of its popular attractions like Gaomei Wetlands.  I dare you to visit there on weekends especially during holidays and let yourself get drowned by the sea of people after the sun has finally set.  Bwahaha!

Everyone is waiting for the bus going back to Qingshui Station until an unknown man approaches you in the middle of darkness and ask you to hop in his taxi.   For a woman, it might be scary to go with a stranger.  With tripool taxi, you are assured of your safety because after you booked a car, you will receive an e-mail about the driver's name, car plate number, and contact number.   So you know who is going to be your personal driver for the drive back to downtown Taichung.   

Now let's have an example in Taichung ala Yehliu-Jiufen (See Table 2).  How do people go to Xinshe Castle and Zhongshe Sight Seeing Flower Market from Taichung Station?  For Xinshe Castle, tourists on a tight budget usually board Bus 91 from TRA Fengyuan Station up to Zhongxingling terminal stop.  Then, a cab will take them to the Summit Resort area for NTD 200.  Sounds good, but cash-rich tourist like those from Singapore would probably ride a taxi from Taichung Station for NTD 800 (their minimum offer based on my experience) and they will arrive in the place in less than 40 minutes.  In a tripool taxi, visitors will only have to pay NTD 578 (for 2 passengers) to get to Xinshe Castle from the train station with no hidden charges.  Just schedule your ride based on your arrival time in Taichung Station.

Table 2. General taxi vs tripool taxi in Taichung. Comparison of cab fares (computed for two passengers) in going to Xinshe Castle and Zhongshe Sightseeing Flower Market from the train station. tripool taxi web app: https://www.tripool.app/?utm_source=luomuji

Pick-up point	Destination	Distance	Travel time	General taxi fare (deal offer)	Tripool taxi estimated fare
Taichung Station	Xinshe Castle	19.3 km	38 min.	NTD 800	NTD 578
	Chungshe Tourism Flower Market	34.5 km	41 min.	NTD 700	NTD 662

pink tulips in Zhongshe Sightseeing Flower Market

Zhongshe Sightseeing Flower Market.  This place is popular every spring because of its tulips festival.  How to get here had long been demystified by the luomujie blog by just walking from TRA Tai'an Station. You entered the garden and you had lots of fun.  Then it's time to go back to Tai'an Station.  Sounds easy to do but going back to the train station by taking a stroll for two kilometers will take a lot of time for many.  So the best way is to board one of the cabs waiting at the entrance of the flower garden and ask the driver to take you to TRA Tai'an Station.  Not to mention that you will still have wait for the local train going back to downtown.  But beware! Taxi drivers in Taichung have a dirty habit of deciding for themselves which place they will drop their passengers.  Sometimes, instead of taking you to Tai'an Station, the driver will take you Taichung Station which means a higher taxi cost for about NTD 700.  Are you ready to pay that sum of money?  Imagine going to Taiwan as a tourist and then end up feeling robbed.  Been there, done that.  

The price difference of tripool and a general taxi for the Taichung Station to Zhongshe Sightseeing Flower Market is almost the same (See Table 2).  But in tripool, you don't need to talk to the driver in Chinese because the destination and pick-up point had already been set during booking.  Once your reservation is confirmed, you are guaranteed a hassle-free trip unlike talking to taxi drivers and being denied to board the car because of disagreements of not using the taxi meter.  

at Hehuanshan

Now let's go higher to Nantou province.   I have two point-to-point examples in Table 3 where tripool shows its convenience for travelers in Taiwan.  The first one is going to Hehuanshan from Taichung Station. Going by taxi is a common technique for people with thick pockets. But it doesn't always give the results that you want.  Two of my past Travel Buddies who have tried to go on an adventure in Hehuanshan have experienced horror instead of bringing home beautiful memories.  They boarded a cab from Taichung Station for a roundtrip price of NTD 8,000.  The plan is, the driver will take them to the mountains and then will come back for the return trip.  However, the “kind” taxi driver didn't return and another driver (the "kind" driver called his friend to do the job for him) fetched them from Hehuanshan.  Upon reaching Taichung they were charged NTD 4,000 for the return trip.  So that's NTD 12,000 for a roundtrip Taichung – Hehuanshan taxi ride.  Tsk..tsk..tsk... 

Table 3:  Taichung to Nantou cab fares in a general taxi vs tripool taxi. tripool web app: https://www.tripool.app/?utm_source=luomuji

Pick-up piont	Destination	Distance	Travel time	General taxi fare (deal offer)	Estimated fare in tripool taxi
Taichung Station	Hehuanshan	113.1 km	2 hrs and 29 mins.	NTD 4,000*	NTD 1,680*
Cingjing Farm	Puli Station	34 km	58 mins.	NTD 900**	NTD 761**

*two passengers, **three passengers

So what happened to my friends? They did not give the extra NTD 4,000, so the taxi driver called a policeman.  But the officer could not speak English, so the foreign affairs ministry of Taiwan was asked for help.  Sigh! These things should not be happening to visitors in this country.   

And this is one of the reasons why tripool taxi was invented.  To move people to tourist spots in Taiwan without hidden charges.   For a Taichung Station to Hehuanshan point-to-point tour, you only need to pay NTD 1,680 (one-way trip) instead of the dubious NTD 4,000 offer of taxi drivers in Taichung.   Let's say you want to explore the mountains and wanted to come back to the city after wandering in the rolling hills for three hours.  So you book a return trip using tripool again to set your desired pick-up time.   Your tripool car will probably stay in Hehuanshan in your agreed meeting place and will wait for you as you enjoy the beauty of Hehuanshan.   It is so convenient for backpackers without the worry of being overcharged.  Yehey! 

A flock of sheep in Cingjing farm.

Going back to Taichung from Cingjing Farm by bus? Not so fast.  It is not as easy as what you think.  Although there are public buses that service the winding road in Cingjing Farm down to the town of Puli, the bus drivers have a weird way of just bypassing the bus stops even with people waiting at them.  I have experienced this last winter.  At that time, a thick fog shrouded Cingjing Farm and most buses don't want to stop.  It was a good thing that two Taiwanese women were standing beside me and we just decided to board a taxi to the town of Puli.  We haggled for the price per person and it was agreed to be NTD 300 each.   But in tripool, the Cingjing Farm to Puli Station itinerary costs only NTD 761 for three passengers which makes the budget for each person down to NTD 254 only.  The difference was only less than fifty Taiwan dollars but we waisted one hour of our life trying to catch a bus that doesn't want to make a stop.   With tripool taxi, you won't experience these things.   You just schedule your trip one day before, the car arrives at the meeting point and takes you to your destination.  

But have I tried tripool taxi before?  Yes, of course!  When I went to the Sun&Green sunflower farm together with my girlfriend, I booked a car in tripool with the web app (https://www.tripool.app/?utm_source=luomuji).  

The sunflowers in Sun&Green farm. 

The tourist attraction was located in Guanyin District in Tayouan and there is no bus that directly stops at the flower farm.  The nearest bus stops are within two kilometers away and I was not even sure if the public buses passing by near Sun&Green were as frequent as the buses in downtown Taoyuan.  Tripool helped me solve my problem and within 40 minutes I arrived at my destination.  

How to book a car via the tripool web app using your smartphone? Just follow these steps:

• 

  Step 1a:  Visit tripool app. Fill in pick-up point, destination and # of passengers.

• 

  Step 1b: Click "Search" and get the price of the service. Click the "Reserve ..." button.

• 

  Step 2: You will be asked to set your desired pick-up date and estimated time of departure

• 

  Step 2a: Choose the date first

• 

  Step 2b: Then select the estimated pick-up time

• 

  Step 3: Fill-in the passenger details and then pay online using your ATM credit/debit card. Wait for the confirmation e-mail.

taxi time, shuttle price

As you enjoy your trip with this private point-to-point transportation, don't forget to remember the tagline of this service.  Tripool taxi:  taxi time, shuttle price.    But I will give my own version, the luomujie way.  Tripool taxi: Taiwan budget travel technique. 

THINGS TO DO IN TAIPEI

Sakura Series - Taiwan

2024 Forecast

Taipei 101 first flowers

Tianyuan Palace backyard

Taipei Flower Test Center

Pingjing St. Lane 42

Broadwood Park

Sunshine Sports Park kawazu sakura

Wuling Farm (武陵農場)

SYS kawazu sakura

Formosan Aboriginal Culture Village

CKS Memorial Hall

Shibafen Yoshino Sakura

Hope River

Dongfang Temple

Tianyuan Palace

Neicou Stream Trail

Orange Garden Cafe

Yangming Park Visitor Information Center

Yangming Park Service Center Bus Stop

Huashan Road

Qianshan Park

Zhongshan Hall Entrance

Tenglong Sakura Farm

Flower Test Center Shōwa Sakura

Neihu Creek Trail

Shulin Land Office

Xióng Kōng Cherry Blossom Forest

Lung Yen Sakura Forest

Yangming Park cherry stream

Yangming Park fountain

CKS Memorial Hall Tairyō sakura

Wugu District Tianyi Road

CKS Memorial Hall yaesakura

Loving Farm

Yong Long Farm

Zhongbaling Sakura Road

Sun Link Sea

Tai'an Police Station

Cherry Hill Slope

Hsinchu Park

Taipei 101

Kāng Gào Kēng Creek

New Garden City

Broadwood Park

Tianyuan Palace backyard

Pingjing St. Lane 42

Alishan Ranger Station

Alishan House

Alishan Police Station

Alishan Forest Railway

Alishan Station

Alishan Entrance

Alishan Gou Hotel

Alishan Magnolia Garden

Wulai tour

Wun Chang Elementary School

Bishanyan

Sanzhi Sansei Trail

Sakura Series - Taiwan

Nei Cuo Stream

Orange Garden Cafe

Sansei Trail

Tenglong Sakura Farm

Yangming Park Cherry Stream

Yangming Park Fountain

Flower Test Center

Broadwood Park

New Garden City

Yinghua Park

Pingjing St. Lane 42

Yangmingshan Visitor Center

Taipei 101

Tianyuan Palace backyard

Sakura Series - Japan

Kamonyama Park

Near the Nippon Maru Memorial Park

Shinko Park

Minato-mirai 21 area

Tokyo Tech Suzukakedai Campus

Onda River

Tenryuji

Byodoin

Kiyomizudera

Himuro shrine and Yakushi-ji Temple

Hōryū-ji Temple

Nara Park attractions

Tokyo Tech Ookayama Campus

Sumida River

Tsuruma Park

Gion

Maple Series

Taipei Aowanda

Shimen Dam

Alishan

Aowanda

Shanlinxi

Taoyuan Valley Garden

Fushoushan Farm

Yehliu to Jiufen? Yehliu to Shifen? Cheaper than yellow taxis

The "Taipei kong mahal" (My beloved Taipei)

Always in my heart

MRT birdman

Valentine's Day

Tulips Festival

2018 Taipei Lantern Festival

City of Azaleas

Linji Huguo Temple

Nanjichang Night Market

Gudetama Chef restaurant

Dalongdong Bao'an Temple

Shilin hollyhocks

Ningxia Night Market

Ximending graffiti

Discovery Center of Taipei

Chunghwa Postal Museum

Double-Decker Bus

Shilin Cold Balls

Jingimoo

GomanMango

mud volcanic ice

Fire and Ice Dumpling

Opium Fen-Yuan

Ichiran Ramen

Liu Shandong Beef Noodles

hydrangea flowers

National Palace Museum

Other attractions in Taipei

Taipei on a budget

Japanese buildings

Dāoxiāomiàn beef noodles

Presidential Office Building

Yongkang St. and Elephant Mountain

CKS and SYS Hall

City tour

Beitou ramen

MRT Monopoly Game

Winter city tour

Zhicheng Park

Shilin Plum Blossom

Art museums

Shopping in Taipei

Summer desserts

Qingtiangang

Qixingshan hiking

2015 Calla lily

2016 Calla lily

Beitou tour

Beitou-Zhuzihu tour

NTU

Confucius Temple

2015 Dadaocheng Festival

Puppet Museum

Fantasy Ice World

2016 Bread Show

Strawberry picking

2015 Rose Garden

Modern Toilet

Shilin Night Market

NASA Exhibit

Raohe Night Market

Longshan Temple

2013 Taipei Zoo

Maokong Gondola

Lupin flowers

Taipei 101 day visit

Taipei 101 night visit

Tiger Mountain

Din Tai Fung

Taipei Story House

2014 Flower Show

Chrysanthemum Show

Miramar Ferris wheel

Miniatures Museum

Archery

1600 Pandas

Wulaoguo hot pot

Upside Down House

2016 101 Fireworks

New Taipei

Pingxi Sky Lantern Festival

Elephant Rock SUP/kayaking

Meteor Garden school

Tamsui Pumpkin Tunnel

Shifen Waterfall

2017 Sand Sculpture

Dragon Caves

New Taipei tour

2016 Kite Festival

Pingxi Crags

Bitou Cape

2016 Sand Sculpture

2015 Christmasland

Juming - Jinshan

Houtong - Pingxi

Sandiaoling Waterfall

Jiufen foodtrip

Guanyinshan hike

Yehliu Ocean World

2014 Kite Festival

Pingxi Rail tour

Jinguashi tour

Vigor Kobo Pineapple

British Consulate

Yehliu Geopark

2014 Sand Sculpture

Paragliding

2014 Christmasland

2014 Pingxi Lantern

firefly watching

Yingge Ceramics Street

Jiufen tour