Bali, Kuta Beach

it's a coral beach. it hurts!!

still beautiful though

Location: google map
Pros: busy, lots of vendors, baby sea turtle release on site, close to lots of shopping
Cons: crowded, lots of corals and hurts to walk barefoot on the beach

We went there for the baby sea turtle release and wanted to play at the beach afterwards, but geez! it hurt so much to walk barefoot on this beach!! Even my boys couldn't stand it and wanted to leave. Although I still saw plenty of family with young children running around on the beach, my boys would rather go back to the hotel and swim.

Miaoli, Mele Hula Campsite 音樂之舞營地

great view

Location: google map
Pros: great view of the lake, relatively easy to get to compare to some other campsites. cabin available for booking.
Cons: mosquitos

We went at the end of May so the weather was already warming up. Also because this place is right by the lake, we got eaten up by mosquitos...!!! With that being said, it is still a pretty good campsite with a gorgeous view. You have one sink, several outlets, and a cabin with a decent shower/bathroom inside. This may be a good choice when the weather is cool.

Hsinchu, Fantasy Island Discovery Paradise 奇幻島探索樂園

"Rope maze"

an employee helping my son with the slide

Location: inside Big City Mall, 7th floor. google map to Big City
Pros: clean, supervision by on site employees, good for rainy days
Cons: no parent seating available, a bit pricey for what it is. *they require you to have non-slip socks to play, which can be purchased at $30 each. (a totally ridiculous policy)
Age: no age limit, but I would suggest parents go in with kids under 5. (unless you have older siblings to watch them)

There are two parts to this facility: the "Rope Maze" and the "Discovery Zone" (that's my literal translation, maybe they have an actual English name?? :)). You have to buy tickets to each separately,  which I believe is $499 for each ticket and it gives you 3 hours. 3 hours is A LONG TIME.....my boys were done with it within an hr and a half. But I guess some parents are comfortable enough to leave their older children here for three hours while they go shopping somewhere else in the mall.

I would not recommend the Discovery zone, because your kid will have to wear a helmet/vest and be strapped on to a safety chord while walking on the beams. It might be worth it to try it once, but I definitely prefer my kids to run around freely.

Hsinchu, Guanxi Township 關西鎮

Ang Gu Noodles

grass jelly alley

egg cake

playground right by the parking lot

Location: here is the google map of the parking lot, and the eateries are few streets down

Parking: the above parking lot is free but extremely small.

Pros: few mins away from Leofoo village. A cheaper option to get food.

Cons: Nothing special...do not go unless you happen to be in the area.

The list of the places we went:

An Gu Noodle: the noodles were pretty sweet. I didn't like it too much. 

Grass Jelly Alley: if you like grass jelly, you'd love this place. Many different combos.

Cantonese egg cake: I'm sure you can get better in hong kong. We got some for kids and they loved it. the playground is right across from the stand

Bali (Kuta), Bali Sea Turtle Society

the line to get a ticket for a baby sea turtle

Location: right on Kuta Beach, google map

Pros: an unique experience

Cons: very crowded

If you plan on doing this, first check their Facebook page to see if they have any upcoming releases. You'll to wait in line to get a ticket to get a baby sea turtle. And they seemed to have a lot of them, so don't worry if the line seems long. 

I do have a mixed feeling about this though - on one hand it's really neat to have this experience and play a part in sea turtle conservation, but on the other hand it is kind of crazy to watch/be part of a huge group of tourists squeezing their way to the release line at the beach to release their sea turtles. On top of it, you have all these people trying to take pictures..and kids who want to get extremely close up to the sea turtles...and I was so afraid that they would accidentally step on one. The whole experience is not as chaotic as it possibly can get, but it is certainly not very peaceful.

Bali (Nusa Dua), Pirates Bay

Location: google map (in Nusa Dua), kind of hard to find - right next to Surf & Turf

Pros: right by the beach, good food, fun for kids

Cons: service a tad slow (but who cares? your kids will be having fun while waiting anyway!)

The beautiful beach is a given, food's great, fun stuff for the kids to do...what else could you ask for? They have several swings and climbing area with ropes for kids, and open spaces for the kids to run around. The whole place is very casual with lots of families with kids. Food is good and average priced. I would definitely recommend checking it out if you are in the area! (We actually went all the way from Kuta to Nusa Dua to come here and check out the beaches on this side.)