Flying Cow Ranch

We stayed three nights, Thursday through Saturday in December. The days were sunny and cool, with colder nights. After a long drive up from sun moon lake, we arrived Thursday evening. A few parts of the final stretch were narrow and winding, but there were so few cars that the drive was still easy. There was plenty of parking on site, and a buggy took us and our luggage to the lodge. Our room was on the second floor. There are no lifts, though it wasn't too bad unless you have very heavy bags. It was already dark by 5, and there weren't any activities that evening. Dinner meant hotpot, which was pretty expensive, about sgd50 for one set plus one extra meat. We were two adults and two children, but small eaters, so we didn't order much. The milk soup was alright. Wintermelon tea, satay sauce and other condiments, and ice cream were included. The lodgers' DIY activity that night was making yuzu cupcakes, which the kids enjoyed. The next morning we did the farm activities. It was pretty empty, so there weren't queues and we got through milking cows, feeding cows, and the duck parade in the morning. They were spaced about 30 minutes to an hour apart, and each lasted around 10 minutes. While waiting, you could feed goats, look at butterflies, or let the kids play in the sandpit. In the afternoon, the kids did four DIY activities, basically everything except making ice cream because mine doesn't like it. We topped up twd 600 since the vouchers only covered two activities. It kept them busy for three hours, painting a coin bank, colouring a bag, baking egg cakes, and putting a note in a bottle. Lunch at the red barn was quite good, though it doesn't open for dinner. Dinner at the cow restaurant was so-so. On Saturday the farm got super crowded. Pony rides and the train run on weekends, but we skipped them. We'd had enough farm time, so we drove a short way to see hobbitland. We spent half a day there and it was not bad. Worth a look if you haven't been to new Zealand or an HP theme park. The room was fine, but the TV didn't have YouTube, so kids might get bored at night. We were glad we'd brought other entertainment. Breakfast was alright, standard taiwanese food. We had hotpot again for dinner, since the only choices were that or the cow restaurant. This time we tried kelp soup, and honestly liked it better than the milk one. It was more like our chicken soup and got flavourful as the ingredients cooked. Dinner was good but expensive. We didn't want to drive out in the dark, and it's at least 30 minutes each way. At checkout, a buggy took us and our luggage back to the car park. We had a good stay, but two nights is probably enough, even for laid-back people like us who take our time at places.