Zhubei, Family Pizza 手工柴燒窯烤比薩

Location: google map

Pros: nice atmosphere, children's books, blocks

Cons: drinks are kind of expensive. $50NT for a can of treetop apple juice?!

It's kind of an interesting place, you order at this little hut and then go next door into this building for seating. They have a lot of special flavors like stinky tofu pizza...(which we've never tried) but also the more normal ones like margherita and pesto & cheese. The pizzas are not to die for, but decent enough. Each pizza (about 8 slices?) is around $200~$250. For our family of 5 we ordered three and it was just right.

Hsinchu, Miller Breakfast & Brunch

Location: google map

Pros: it opens early - everyday!!

Cons: it's basically a glorified taiwanese breakfast joint

Breakfast and brunch is sort of a big deal in our household, and we are always struggling to find places that open early (before 8am) on the weekends. This place is new, clean, and the food is decent. But their food is basically like any of those Taiwanese breakfast places you find on the street. A little bit better? Maybe. But the main difference is that you can sit down at a place that's furnished and air-conditioned while you eat your breakfast instead of sitting on a cheap metal chair. 

Hsinchu, Confucius Temple Park 孔廟旁小公園

Location: google map (Corner of Dongshan Street  & Shipin Rd.)

Pros: three different play structure, big open area on the side in front of the temple

Cons: hard to find parking on the weekends after 12pm

This is a nice playground to come especially if you want to stay into lunch to visit the market nearby on the weekends. But that is also why the parking is HORRIBLE in the afternoon. There is an underground parking garage on Shipin Rd, and street parking is also available. So come here early if you want to check it out, and hit the food stands after! :)

Taichung, Miyahara 宮原眼科

many options for chocolate ice cream

Location: google map, Zhongshan Rd #20, Taichung City, Central District

Pros: beautiful architecture, beautifully packaged souvenirs

Cons: TOO CROWDED!!!

This place is huge! It is mainly a gift shop (cookies, pineapple cakes etc) and there is a restaurant upstairs (not sure if they have real food or just afternoon tea). We had to wait in line for ice cream for about a good 30 minutes on a Saturday afternoon. Was it worth it? hmm...it was good ice cream, and you certainly can get some unique flavors and toppings, but there was really no place to eat it. We stood outside the shop holding the ice cream cups while trying to dodge the many people walking by. If you are pushing a stroller, you certainly would have some trouble getting around. Plus there is nothing around to do (with kids). But if you happen to be in the area, it might be worth it to swing by and take a look.

Okinawa, Araha Beach & Pirate Park

pirate ship playground with a zip line

beach

shower/feet washing station

ice cream vending machine!!!!

Location:google map

Parking: the entrance to the parking is this small alley way between a restaurant called Grapachina and Poco a Poco, it's free!

Pros: clean, restrooms/showers available, drinks/ice cream vending machine, toddler playground and big playground

Cons: the beach has a lot of shells, be careful walking around barefoot

The pirate ship playground is probably good for age 3 and up, depending on your child's climbing skills. But there is a smaller playground not far from it (we didn't go there) for little kids. The beach closes at 5:30pm (not sure if the time changes with season), but also do some research online first as I've read beaches might not open during certain seasons. 

Okinawa, Okinawa World and Gyokusendo Cave

Entrance

Cave

Location:  google map
Website: Okinawa World
Parking: parking lot available
Pros: cave, LOTS of gift shops, dancing and drum show
Cons: very touristy, not really a place to learn about Okinawa's history
Tickets: check their website for different packages, children's tickets are for ages 4 and up .

We bought the ticket package (Cave+Kingdom Village) and got there around 9:30 or so. We went straight to the cave and that took about 30+ mins. There were many steps on the way down and they were wet, so that was a bit scary (scarier than the cave itself lol). If you have a stroller, about 95% is strollable, just the beginning getting down part has lots of steps. I would not recommend this for kids under 4. If we didn't have the older brothers, I would not have brought just my 4 yr old here. It is a long walk for kids and there is literally nothing else but the cave. I had read about this online so I brought lots of snacks/candies to help them on the way as they got restless. But from an adult's perspective, the cave is really neat to see. After the cave we walked straight to catch the drum show at Eisa Plaza at 10:30am, and that lasted about 30 mins as well.

There was quite a bit of talking (in Japanese) during the show,  but overall I think it is worth the 30 mins to enjoy the traditional Okinawan performance. There were lots of other activities in the village that you can pay additional to try. We left Okinawa World right after the drum show to get to a restaurant for lunch.

Okinawa, A&W Fast Food Restaurant

Breakfast menu

about the only decent thing here

nice playground with sand

Location: A&W Makiminato 牧港店
Parking: its own parking lot
Pros: nice playground, flea market in the morning
Cons: food is subpar

Is it an American thing to crave REALLY good breakfasts? We certainly were at a lost finding decent breakfast spots in Okinawa. We were excited to try this since I don't even know if there is an A&W store in the U.S., but this just didn't do it for us. The only kind of exciting thing was that they have curly fries (which you can't find in Taiwan), but even that wasn't that good. But the kids enjoyed it, since they got to have root beer for breakfast!!!! and playground!!