We completed this itinerary from March to April 2026. While documenting it, I also wanted to share with everyone how we thought about a trip like this, along with its pros and cons.

Why Melbourne This Time?

The reason was actually pretty personal and didn’t have that much to do with Melbourne itself.

Mainly because we’d already been to several of Australia’s major cities, like Brisbane and Sydney on the east coast, and Perth on the west coast. We really do love Australia, and Australia is just so big. The north (such as the Great Barrier Reef region) and the central desert area (Alice Springs) are relatively harder to reach, so we ended up choosing a destination that was easier to get to first, and that became Melbourne.

Of course, the way you visit a place shapes your impression of it.

As people who love the countryside and dislike city-heavy itineraries, we still liked Brisbane’s urban character quite a lot, and absolutely loved Perth’s almost-empty chill vibe even within the city itself. This time, though, almost everything on the itinerary was outside the city. Compared with the city proper, Melbourne was really just the starting point and ending point of the trip.

Before setting off, we expected this trip would include:

• Lots of wildlife watching in natural settings (wombats, emus, koalas)
• Two coastlines, three mountains, and all the rich, beautiful scenery that comes with them
• Interesting walking trails

That’s also why this kind of trip works so well in a motorhome:

Most of the sights are outdoors, and your accommodation moves with the attractions. Hotels aren’t necessarily convenient, while a camping setup can actually make the whole trip easier.

After Sorting It All Out: The Three Main Highlights Around Greater Melbourne

Wilsons Promontory National Park

This spot lies southeast of Melbourne and is about as far south as you can go. Once you cross the strait, Tasmania is on the other side.

Maybe it’s precisely because it’s so far away that it has managed to keep its natural character so well. Driving there from greater Melbourne, you really feel like you’re leaving the city behind and heading into the countryside.

Here, the things I expected to do included:

• Wombats: one of Australia’s signature animals. They have the body shape of a small bear, short legs, a square butt, and square poop, and the way they walk is genuinely adorable. If you really want the highest chance of spotting wombats, Tasmania is probably the top place. But Wilsons Promontory is the closest point to Tasmania on the mainland. At the park’s only camping accommodation, Tidal River Campground, you have a chance of seeing them right on the grass, and we did see them this time.
• Scenery and hiking trails. The view from Mt Oberon is comparable to the Glass House Mountains (internal link). But maybe that’s just Australia, with grand mountain-and-water scenery everywhere. There are also smaller fun spots, like Squeaky Beach.

Great Ocean Road

The Great Ocean Road is a classic travel route. It’s long enough to make it especially beloved for road trips. Along the way, you see all kinds of road-trippers in touring cars, motorhomes, motorcycles, and big bikes.
I’d roughly divide the Great Ocean Road into an eastern side and a western side, and we drove it from east to west.

• Eastern coastline: a road carved along the coast, with cliffs right beside you. In concept, it’s a bit like Taiwan’s Qingshui Cliffs on the east coast, just much longer and more extensive.
• Western coastline: huge rocks, unusual landforms, and all kinds of oddly shaped stone formations. This is where the Twelve Apostles are.
• Wild koalas: this was the stretch where we found wild koalas. You can also see my other post, Looking for Wild Koalas in Australia: Spots to Observe Them Along Melbourne’s Great Ocean Road.

Grampians National Park / Halls Gap

There doesn’t seem to be that much information about this national park in Chinese-language travel circles.

But the days we visited happened to be Easter, and the entire park was absolutely packed. It really looked like a standard holiday park destination west of Melbourne for locals.

• Hiking: there are lots of different trails here, and many of them are genuinely fun. If you have enough time, you can choose a full loop, but at the time we just took one of the shortcut routes uphill. The Pinnacle Trail doesn’t require any hand-over-hand scrambling, but it’s a very three-dimensional route, with narrow passages, side sections, piled rocks, and so on. It’s a very enjoyable trail to walk.
• Scenic lookouts: there are two lookouts, Boroka Lookout and Reed Lookout, and you can drive straight to both of them, which greatly reduces the need for extra climbing.

Itinerary Planning

Taiwan’s Long Holiday Weekend

This trip spanned Taiwan’s Tomb-Sweeping Day holiday from April 3 to April 6, plus the week before that, when we took four days off. Including flights, it was a 10-day trip; excluding flights, it was designed as 8 days on the ground.

If you want enough time to settle in and travel slowly, Australia probably really does require a slightly longer trip. The one thing you can try to save is avoiding a transfer via Singapore if possible. We’ve written separately about whether you should transit through Singapore on the way to Australia (internal link).

Australia’s Easter Holiday

If I could choose again, I would definitely say this: if you can avoid this holiday period, avoid it.

In 2026, Easter fell from April 3 to April 6. Unfortunately, that lined up exactly with Taiwan’s Tomb-Sweeping Day long weekend.

We didn’t notice this when we bought our flights. It wasn’t until three or four months before departure, when we started planning campsites, that we realized places were already almost fully booked for that period. Caught between not being able to book and having to compromise, we tried hard and in the end had to choose an unpowered campsite for the final night.

In practice, Easter really did affect us a little during those days.

One issue was Good Friday, when all the supermarkets were closed. We genuinely hesitated that day, wondering what our next meal was going to be. We had originally planned to buy supplies that day, but because everything was shut, we couldn’t, and it ended up delaying our packing schedule a bit.

Also, the campsites during those few days were truly overflowing with people. They were so full that even the marked camping spaces inside the park weren’t enough, and operators had cordoned off a huge extra area outside and basically said, just pitch your tents wherever, XD. You could really tell this was peak season for locals.

Of course, there were happy people everywhere, sitting around campfires, singing and chatting. It did create a lovely feeling of celebrating the holiday alongside them. But if I had the choice, I’d still try to avoid it, because the extra cost of the crowds, like queueing time, peak-season prices, and so on, is pretty high.

Easter is not fixed on the same date every year.

If I’m planning another April trip in the future, I need to remember to avoid the Easter holiday period.

Climate Analysis

We went during the seasonal transition when Melbourne was shifting from summer into autumn.

Overall Climate

According to statistics from Weather Spark,

• The best time to travel to Melbourne is from January to March, which is their summer. This is also the period with the best weather and the lowest chance of rain.
• Winter, meaning June, July, and August, is the time when the weather is most noticeably rougher, rain is more likely, and temperatures are at their coldest.

As we’ve mentioned before, whether or not you run into rain is ultimately just a matter of probability beforehand. All we can do is choose the most suitable odds in advance as best we can.

But in the moment, when you’ve come all that way and the weather turns bad, that reality is still very real.

We were very lucky on this trip and almost never ran into rain bad enough to bother us or force us to stop the itinerary.

The only thing that was a little harder to deal with was the day-night temperature gap. Around noon it felt like summer at over 25°C, but when we got up early in the morning, it was really only about 8 or 9°C outside.

Daylight Analysis

Daylight affects the amount of time you actually have available to do things.

• We were there before April 5, and we all felt that the sun still wasn’t setting even at 7:30 or 8 p.m., while sunrise in the morning felt very late. If you arrive after April 5, once the time change has passed, it should probably feel more in line with expectations.
• The amount of daylight during that period was roughly 12 hours. But in high summer it reaches 14 hours, while in winter it drops to only 9 hours, so the difference is actually pretty big.

Itinerary Table and Total Distance

This was our actual route. After plotting it with GPS, I used an AI tool together with the Google Maps API to calculate it, and the total distance came to about 1,247.5 km. That still wasn’t as far as our round trip north from Perth to Nature Window.

Overall, I think it was quite manageable. There wasn’t a single day where the driving felt especially brutal.　

Actual Itinerary Table

Day	Route	Driving Time	Overnight Stay	Main Activities
1	Melbourne Airport → Tidal River	3h23 (244km)	Tidal River	Arrival, pick up the motorhome, supermarket supplies
2	Trails inside Wilsons Prom	—	Tidal River	Summit Mt Oberon, look for wombats at dusk
3	Wilsons Prom → Mornington Peninsula	2h38 (190km)	Mornington Peninsula	Winery, hot springs
4	Mornington Peninsula → Torquay → Apollo Bay	3h (with ferry in the middle) (189km)	Apollo Bay	Bells Beach, start of the Great Ocean Road
5	Apollo Bay —> Twelve Apostles → Port Campbell	1h27 (96.6km)	Port Campbell	Look for koalas at Kennett River
6	Port Campbell → Halls Gap	2h32 (204km)	Halls Gap	Enter the Grampians, watch kangaroos at dusk
7	Grampians trails	—	Halls Gap	Pinnacle, Reed Lookout, Boroka
8	Halls Gap → Melbourne Airport	2h47 (252km)	—

The Mornington Peninsula Ferry: How to Take the Ferry from Sorrento to Queenscliff

Coming from Melbourne’s southeastern corner and trying to get to the Great Ocean Road on Melbourne’s western side, the thing I hesitated over most was whether to drive all the way across greater Melbourne or just take the ferry directly.

My conclusion was this: when you factor in time efficiency, cost, and driving distance, the ferry offers very high overall value.

My reasoning was:

• The ferry ride itself takes about 45 minutes, but if you go around via Melbourne city, it takes roughly 4 to 5 hours. In terms of time efficiency, the ferry is far better.
• As for budget, when we booked it, the fare was about AUD 150 to 170. When I traveled, it happened to coincide with oil prices surging because of the U.S. attack on Iran. If we had really driven around Melbourne city instead, the fuel cost might actually have been pretty similar.
• Going through Melbourne city significantly increases the driving risk.
• Driving your vehicle onto a ferry is a pretty special experience in itself.

The ferry company is called Searoad Ferries. It’s a ferry that carries both passengers and vehicles.

A few things to note:

• There are some discounts if you buy your ticket online in advance. I’d recommend booking ahead directly. When I bought ours, though, the website wasn’t very user-friendly. If you can, try a few different browsers.
• The ferry runs once an hour, but if your timing is flexible, you can try showing up and seeing whether you can get onto a sailing one hour earlier. I don’t recommend an open ticket, though. Having a specific sailing time gives you at least some guarantee.
• If you’re boarding with a motorhome, the driver’s fare is already included in the vehicle price. So if two people are traveling in the same vehicle, you should buy “one vehicle” plus “one adult ticket,” not “one vehicle” plus “two adult tickets.”

Choosing a Motorhome and Things to Watch Out For

I’ve already written a full comparison of the logic behind motorhome rentals in A Lazy Person’s Guide to Renting a Campervan in Australia and New Zealand. Here I’ll just add a few extra points that are specifically interesting for this route:

Pickup Locations: Fewer Rental Depots Near the Airport Than in Perth

Maybe I just didn’t search carefully enough, but when I rented through Motorhome Republic, I found that there were fewer rental depots near Melbourne Airport than near Perth Airport.

And in Perth, some of the rental locations are even reachable by metro or train.

By comparison, there isn’t really other public transportation around Melbourne Airport for this purpose, so Uber is the more convenient option.

In other words, install Uber before you leave.

This time we rented from Jucy / Star. The depot was about a 10-minute Uber ride from the airport.

Jucy is the small green vehicle company that’s fairly well known in Australia and generally considered one of the more budget-friendly rental brands. This time I rented from Star, their higher-end brand under the same company, and the vehicle was a FIAT (Fabbrica Italiana Automobili Torino, which means the Turin-based Italian automobile manufacturer, though honestly I had no idea what that was before I looked it up).

My driving impression was this: compared with the Mercedes motorhome we drove in Perth, there really was a noticeable difference in responsiveness.

But if you want one of the big-name brands, you may have to go a long way out, probably around 20 km from the airport, just to pick it up. When I thought about that, I decided convenience still mattered a lot.

Star’s Polaris 2

Of course, different vehicles naturally come with different interiors and layouts.

Beyond the driving responsiveness, I thought this vehicle itself was pretty interesting. Here were our impressions:

Pros:

• It came with reversing sensors and a backup display. Because the rear camera is mounted fairly high, it takes some getting used to in terms of angle, but having it is still definitely better than not.
• It has an electric drop-down bed. That means you don’t need to put the bedding away at all. Just raise the bed and the space underneath becomes something like a living room area, which is where we ate all our meals.
• There were quite a lot of charging ports for phones and other devices.

Cons:

• This vehicle really had too many corners and edges inside, and we kept banging our heads. Things we hit included the lower edge of the electric bed, the edge of the cabinet above the cooking area, and the TV mounted above the entryway… We used our heads to hit all of these things constantly, and there wasn’t much protection.
• The bathroom door wasn’t very easy to open and close.
• The mirror is inside the bathroom, which means you have to open the bathroom door to use the mirror. By the same logic, whoever is using the toilet keeps seeing themselves in the mirror too. A very literal “watching yourself while using the toilet” experience.

In Central Melbourne, Public Transport Is Still Better

We went into central Melbourne on our last day, and I came away with just one thought:

Thank goodness we didn’t drive the motorhome into the city.

There were simply too many people in the city center, the road layout was complicated, and there were trams as well.

Driving would seriously reduce your flexibility for getting around in the city, and then you also have to think about parking fees, where to park, and all the rest, which just doesn’t feel necessary.

This was very different from Perth. Perth had fewer people, and the whole place was chill enough that you could even park relatively close to Elizabeth Quay. In Melbourne, though, we gave up on that idea. Walking gave us far more flexibility than driving would have.

Choosing Campsites

Wilsons Prom Tidal River

Inside Wilsons Promontory National Park, this is basically the one campground option.

This is a public campground, and you absolutely must reserve it through the official website before departure. When booking, you can choose both your site and your dates.

If I remember correctly, there was a period earlier on when public campgrounds may have been free. Later, once more people started using them, they began charging, though I think it was still half price for a while so more people could use them. Whatever the price, though, this is the main large campground inside Wilsons Promontory National Park, and there are almost no other real alternatives.

Being able to book it is the most important thing. If you can’t, you’ll have to stay outside the park, which could add up to an extra hour of driving round trip.

Along the Great Ocean Road

There really are quite a few chain holiday parks along this route: Big4, Discovery Parks, NRMA, and so on.

I’ll just talk about the two we stayed at this time.

Great Ocean Road Park

Great Ocean Road Park looks like a private company at first glance, but it is actually publicly owned by The Great Ocean Road Coast and Parks Authority. It wasn’t until we noticed the same green logo at other attractions that we realized this was in fact a government-run campground.

Great Ocean Road Park offers accommodation in several places along the full route, and we stayed at the Apollo Bay location.

Overall it was okay, but there was still a bit of a gap compared with private campgrounds.

For example, the Apollo Bay site at Great Ocean Road Park didn’t have a shared kitchen. Then again, maybe that’s just one difference between public and private campgrounds? The earlier campsite at Wilsons Prom was public too, and it also didn’t have a kitchen.

Still, since we were in a motorhome and had cooking equipment with us, it wasn’t much of a problem.

NRMA Port Campbell

Although I’d seen some negative reviews of this place online, we had a very good experience here.

Besides being clean and tidy and having a shared kitchen, it also sits beside a river, Port Campbell Creek. There’s a suspension bridge in the middle, and after climbing the nearby hill, you get some elevated views looking down. The campground itself is a lovely place for a casual wander.

Grampians Halls Gap

When choosing a campground in this area, there are roughly three strategies:

• Pure nature option: no electricity, farther from the small town area. Borough Huts Campground is one place to consider, but it’s very small, so it’s also hard to book. It’s a public campground.
• Campgrounds close to the town area of Halls Gap. The biggest advantage is that once you’re out, you don’t need to drive or worry about parking.
• On the northeast side of Halls Gap, a little farther from the town center, in the valley between the two mountains, there are a few campgrounds such as Breeze and NRMA.

But for us, it just so happened to be the official Easter holiday, and the entire national park was full of people. At that point, being able to book any campsite at all already felt pretty good. In the end, we stayed at Breeze.

Final Thoughts

In practice, this itinerary turned out to be entirely doable, and it matched our expectations quite well.

If you asked me how I’d adjust this trip next time, I’d probably make it a little richer, for example:

• I’d add a bit more wildlife-searching time, because honestly, animals are the kind of thing you never really get tired of watching.
• There were also some typical ticketed attractions that we ended up skipping because of timing or because we arrived on days they weren’t operating. For example, Melbourne’s heritage railway and the Mornington Peninsula hot springs would both have added more of an experience element.

But overall, if what you want is to experience the natural side of greater Melbourne, I think this is a fairly complete direction for planning a trip.

Campervanning is one of our favorite ways to travel, especially in Australia and New Zealand where nature is the main attraction.

These are the lessons we’ve learned from our campervan trips. After each adventure, we add whatever new insights come to mind.

There’s a packing checklist at the end — don’t forget to read all the way through!

Key Advantages of Campervanning

Cost Savings

From our experience: the longer the trip, the more money you’ll likely save with a campervan.

The most common alternative would be renting a regular car plus paying for accommodation along the way. A conservative estimate looks something like:

• Car rental: ~NTD$1,500/day (roughly USD$50)
• Accommodation: ~NTD$3,000/day (roughly USD$100)
• Fuel: average

A campervan looks roughly like this:

• Campervan rental: ~NTD$3,000/day (roughly USD$100)
• Campsite fees: ~NTD$1,000/day (roughly USD$33)
• Fuel: slightly higher than a regular car

Of course, the details depend on the quality of the campervan and accommodation you choose. I wouldn’t say there’s a dramatic difference, but overall, saving about NTD$500 (USD$16) per day is realistic. The longer your trip, the more the campervan-plus-campsite approach should come out slightly cheaper.

Getting Closer to Nature Than Hotels Ever Could

This is the biggest advantage of campervanning: compared to staying in hotels, you get access to natural spots you simply can’t reach without camping.

That said, these nature-focused destinations naturally attract outdoorsy people. If you’d rather stay in a town center and spend your days visiting restaurants and indoor attractions, a campervan really isn’t going to be a good fit.

I think campervanning suits people who are at least open to outdoor activities (hiking and walking) and enjoy being self-sufficient.

Nature rewards you with its beauty.

The Two Main Types of Rental Vehicles

The vehicles you’ll typically find for rent are either campervans or motorhomes. Let’s break down these two options.

Campervan

A campervan is essentially a converted van — a regular van that’s been fitted out for camping.

These vehicles are usually smaller, with the rear section converted into a bed (along with various other functions).

Once you’ve parked for the night, you need to set up the bed configuration.

During the day, you fold the bed away, and that space transforms into a table, a spot for the mini fridge, or general storage. Our luggage normally sits in the back, but once the bed is set up there’s nowhere for it — so it ends up on the driver and passenger seats.

Campervans typically don’t have external power hookup. Even when they do, it usually only provides a kettle and microwave — no heating or air conditioning.

Motorhome

A motorhome is literally a “mobile home” — it’s a home first, just one that happens to move.

Motorhomes are significantly larger than campervans.

Price and Tier Considerations

The general hierarchy goes like this:

• Tier: Motorhome with external power + A/C > Motorhome with external power > Motorhome without external power = Campervan with external power > Campervan without external power
• Price: roughly the same order

Here’s what I think offers the best value:

• If you need heating or A/C, rent the cheapest motorhome with external power + A/C you can find (highly recommended — absolutely worth the money)
• If you don’t need climate control but still want decent space, go for a motorhome without external power (I find that paying extra for powered sites and a power-capable vehicle just to get a kettle and microwave isn’t great value — second choice)
• If you don’t need climate control or external power, don’t mind the extra effort, are happy to sort everything out at the campsite, and want to access self-contained-only wilderness campsites, rent a self-contained campervan (third choice)
• If you don’t need climate control, don’t need external power, and are totally fine handling everything at the campsite, then the cheapest campervan will do

How Vehicle Size Affects the Driving Experience

Anyone who tells you vehicle size makes no difference at all is lying.

You’ll definitely feel nervous and unfamiliar at first, but it helps to break down exactly why:

• The vehicle itself
• Local traffic rules (which side of the road, roundabouts, etc.)

So it’s not just about the vehicle. I’d recommend familiarizing yourself with local traffic regulations before you arrive.

Campervans don’t make much of a difference — there’s less to worry about with the vehicle itself.

Motorhomes are a different story. Their orientation guides boil down to three things:

• Avoid driving at sunrise and sunset
• Watch the vehicle height clearance
• Have someone get out and guide you when reversing

“Watch the height clearance” and “have someone guide you when reversing” are absolutely critical.

Always check the height limit at tunnels, toll gates, shopping center barriers, and parking garages. Never try to squeeze through.

Even in less crowded Australia and New Zealand, you’ll still need to reverse in parking lots.

When driving a motorhome, whenever you need to reverse, make it a habit to have someone get out and guide you.

Some of these vehicles are so long that even the person spotting for you can barely hear you shouting — attempting it without a spotter is a fast track to an insurance claim.

I’d suggest writing down your vehicle’s dimensions. You’ll be asked for them when registering at campsites.

Since you’ll be using the same vehicle throughout but potentially checking in at seven or eight different campsites, having the dimensions handy saves a lot of hassle.

The Three Most Important Questions When Choosing a Campervan

1. How Many People Are Traveling?

The one non-negotiable rule: the vehicle’s certified passenger capacity ≥ your group size.

Campervans feel spacious, but when the vehicle is moving, everything needs to be properly secured.

A single turn can send unsecured items toppling — even things already on the floor will slide dramatically from side to side.

If that happens to objects, imagine what it means for people.

The number of certified passengers matches the number of seats and seatbelts. When the vehicle is in motion, everyone must be seated and buckled in.

There’s no scenario where a two-person vehicle carries three people with one lying on the bed. That’s not only illegal — it’s genuinely dangerous.

Every vehicle has a certified passenger capacity. Your group size must not exceed it.

2. Do You Need Heating or A/C While Sleeping?

The key factors are: the climate during your travel season (winter vs. summer), and your vision for the trip.

Even in summer, nighttime temperatures in Australia and New Zealand rarely get uncomfortably hot enough to need air conditioning.

The main demand is usually for nighttime heating. This becomes especially obvious in winter camping — when it’s 10°C (50°F) outside

and you’d like the cabin to stay around 23°C (73°F), heating becomes pretty essential.

This isn’t really about safety — sometimes it’s just about comfort and the kind of trip you envision.

Even in winter, with the thick duvets provided by the rental company, you’re not going to get dangerously cold.

The sensation is more like a cold Taiwanese winter night — freezing outside, warm under the blankets, absolutely not wanting to get out of bed.

If you want a comfortable, vacation-like experience rather than roughing it in a foreign land,

having cabin climate control makes a huge difference in travel comfort.

The technical requirements for sleeping with heating/A/C:

• The vehicle must have climate control equipment. In the vehicle specs, look for 240V external power capability, and the main cab section should mention air conditioning, reverse cycle, etc. Anything listed under the “Driver” section doesn’t count — this is crucial. The driver’s cab heating/A/C stops when the engine is off, and you obviously can’t idle the engine all night just for climate control.
• You need to book a powered site at the campground. These cost a bit more than unpowered sites. You’ll find a power outlet next to your parking spot, and you run a cable from the outlet to your vehicle’s external power inlet.

Because of this, having climate control means higher travel costs:

• Vehicles with cabin climate control are inherently more expensive to rent.
• Powered campsites also cost more than unpowered ones.

Whether you need heating while sleeping is worth careful thought, because it directly affects which price tier of vehicle you’re looking at.

Beyond the standard setup, some rental companies offer a diesel heater as an add-on, which provides cabin heating.

We haven’t tried this option ourselves — hopefully someone with experience can share their thoughts.

Also, the duvets provided by rental companies are usually thick enough that you don’t need to bring a sleeping bag — even without heating.

On our first campervan trip, we were so worried about the cold that we brought a sleeping bag from home to use as a blanket.

It wasn’t a problem per se, but it took up a lot of luggage and cabin space. We never brought one again after that.

Seriously Consider: Is Climate Control Really Necessary?

This one really depends on the person.

In spring 2026 (autumn in Australia), we went on another trip and accidentally gained new insight on this question.

You can actually tell whether neighboring campers are using heating just by listening — the units make a noticeable sound.

From what I observed of locals camping in Australia and New Zealand, even when morning temperatures drop to 5–8°C (41–46°F), almost nobody uses heating. This means that unpowered sites work perfectly fine most of the time.

During peak camping season, locals seem more willing to spend money on campfire gatherings than on powered sites.

Our first trip was in a campervan, and because of the large day-night temperature swing, early morning lows could hit around 5°C (41°F).

Temperatures that low genuinely make sleeping uncomfortable — you wake up repeatedly from the cold, and sleep quality suffers badly.

So on that first trip, going fully unpowered, we bought a sleeping bag from Decathlon and brought another one from Taiwan rated for temperatures down to 5°C.

After that experience, we switched to motorhomes with powered sites. In most cases, we’d run the heater at a low setting (around 20°C / 68°F), which was more than enough to handle the early morning cold and virtually eliminated sleep disruption.

But on our most recent trip, we hit Easter peak season and couldn’t book a powered site. We went with an unpowered site, and all the old nightmares came flooding back. XD

• Early morning temps around 5–6°C (41–43°F)
• Woke up multiple times from the cold during the night

Bottom line: every piece of gear and every decision ultimately comes down to solving the problem of sleeping in cold temperatures.

You can skip the heater, but you absolutely must be prepared for the cold —

whether that means a sleeping bag rated for low temps, or at least wearing layers to bed instead of loose pajamas.

3. Do You Need a Toilet?

The key factors are: whether campsites require it, and whether you actually want to use one.

A campervan equipped with a toilet is called “self-contained.”

Paid campsites generally don’t require your vehicle to have a toilet. But some free, nature-adjacent campsites only allow self-contained vehicles.

For example, the campsite at Lake Pukaki is free, right on the lakeside, and restricted to self-contained vehicles only — meaning no power hookups either. But it’s right there in nature, and preserving that pristine environment is a shared responsibility.

So why do we love this campsite?

Because it has public restrooms. (Ha!)

In other words, it’s a campsite that requires your vehicle to have a toilet, but you don’t actually have to use it.

Free, close to nature, waking up to a view straight out of a painting — that’s what makes this campsite so special. We even completed our DIY wedding photoshoot for just NTD$5,000 here, because the natural scenery was simply too beautiful.

The technical requirements for a toilet:

• The vehicle specs must include a toilet. Smaller campervans might have a portable travel toilet, while larger motorhomes often have a full bathroom with shower.
• You need to be able to transport the black water (waste) to a dump station for disposal.

And here’s the thing — having to deal with black water disposal is what puts a lot of people off.

The thought of carrying your own waste to a designated disposal point is an understandable mental hurdle for many.

But it’s actually both responsible (handling your own waste so nature doesn’t have to) and surprisingly easy. All those fears about contact with waste? They’ve never materialized for us. As long as you add the chemical tablets correctly and operate the system properly, it’s a non-issue. No smell, no alarming colors.

Overall, operating the toilet isn’t difficult, the technical barrier is low, and it doesn’t add much to the cost.

Unless you’re on a really tight budget, I’d recommend treating the toilet as standard equipment. Whether you actually use it can be decided later.

A Higher-Tier Campervan Means a Better Overall Experience

Let me start with the conclusion: at a campsite, you can handle all daily living needs regardless of your vehicle.

Having a better campervan just makes things more convenient.

Convenient for staying in the vehicle when it rains, avoiding cold wind, keeping your feet off sandy ground.

At free campsites or unpowered sites, you’re limited to whatever the vehicle itself provides.

In that scenario, even a basic motorhome is noticeably different from a campervan. A motorhome lets you cook and shower inside the vehicle. In a campervan, cooking is often done from the rear conversion — requiring you to step outside — and showering inside is essentially impossible.

Where to Book a Campervan

We’ve booked through Motorhome Republic both times.

Both bookings went smoothly with no issues — easy pickup and easy return.

I think Motorhome Republic’s biggest advantage is aggregating different rental brands and models onto one platform.

It’s really helpful during the initial research phase. If you need more specific details, you can always dig deeper from there.

Powered Campsites: What Extra Equipment You Can Use

Whether to book a powered site depends heavily on what equipment your vehicle’s cabin offers.

The two are interrelated, but it ultimately comes down to what kind of experience you want.

Cabin Climate Control

Cabin air conditioning requires 240V external power — no exceptions.

Having indoor climate control is the main reason (and luxury) for booking a powered site.

However, some vehicles have a 240V external power inlet even without cabin A/C.

In that case, the question becomes what else you can power.

Microwave

The microwave is the second appliance that only works with 240V external power.

In other words, if your vehicle has a microwave, it should also have an external power inlet — and you’ll need a powered site to use it.

The upside of having a microwave: you can buy ready-to-heat meals from the supermarket for dinner, instantly expanding your food options.

240V Outlet Devices: Kettle, Dual-Voltage Travel Hair Dryer (BYO)

With external power connected, the vehicle’s 240V outlets become usable.

The kettle advantage: you can prepare hot water-based food and drinks in the vehicle (soup, tea, coffee, hot chocolate, etc.).

The hair dryer advantage: you can dry your hair after showering.

In Australia and New Zealand, the proportion of campsites that provide hair dryers is quite low. Australia is even worse than New Zealand in this regard.

Bringing a dual-voltage compact hair dryer is a lifesaver for anyone with long hair.

Refrigerator

Because a fridge needs constant power, any vehicle equipped with a fridge also has a battery.

Without external power, the fridge runs on battery charged while driving. So the engine needs to run long enough to charge the battery sufficiently — otherwise the fridge won’t stay cold for long. If your driving distances are short, the fridge’s cooling performance degrades significantly.

Conversely, with external power, the fridge keeps running even when the engine is off, and the battery gets charged directly from the mains.

Fridge performance with external power is vastly better than without it.

Water Supply: Washing Things in the Vehicle

Water supply doesn’t affect campsite pricing. A campervan’s water system involves three types of water:

• Fresh water (Clean Water – Inbound): Fed into the vehicle from an external tap, available for use anytime.
• Grey water (Grey Water – Outbound): Wastewater from general washing.
• Black water (Black Water – Outbound): Toilet waste.

Your rental will come with hoses for fresh water and grey water. Don’t mix up the two.

Water Level Sensors

Larger vehicles have water level sensors for both the fresh water and grey water tanks.

Fresh water is straightforward — just connect the hose between the vehicle’s inlet and the tap, turn it on, and you’re good.

When the tank is full, it simply overflows onto the ground.

Grey water is a bit trickier.

First, the grey water sensor on rental vehicles should be taken with a grain of salt. Since previous renters may have washed dishes in the sink, small food remnants can accumulate in the tank. The sensor detects these residues and thinks the tank still has water, when in reality nothing comes out. So if you’ve followed the correct grey water drainage procedure and nothing flows, the tank is simply empty.

Second, grey water should be dumped at designated spots. Besides the dump station, some campers dump it beneath the fresh water tap at their parking spot — that location is generally acceptable too.

Washing Dishes

Without fresh water and grey water plumbing, you have to carry all your dishes to the campsite kitchen to wash them — heavy and quite a chore when you have a lot.

Being able to wash dishes inside the vehicle is probably the best quality-of-life improvement that comes with having a water system. You wash, dry, and put everything away right there — no more hauling heavy loads back and forth.

Showering

We haven’t actually tried showering inside the vehicle yet — we’ve always used the campsite bathrooms. XD

If you have gas, the orientation guide mentions you should heat the water about 30 minutes before showering. It’s technically doable.

Gas: Cooking and Showering

The gas supply varies with the vehicle size.

Campervans usually come with a small gas canister and a portable stove for outdoor cooking. Motorhomes, on the other hand, have a small LPG cylinder stored in a ventilated compartment, feeding three outlets:

• Stovetop (inside)
• BBQ grill (outside)
• Hot water for showering (inside)

Always turn off the gas valve before driving.

Packing for a Campervan Trip: Small and Multiple, Not One Big Suitcase

Unlike locals who drive their campervan to a trip, international travelers face a unique challenge: we have massive suitcases.

Since we might pack six or seven days’ worth of clothes, it’s natural to stuff everything into a large suitcase and check it in. (For more on flights from Taiwan to Australia and transiting through Singapore, check out this post.)

But a campervan has nowhere to store a suitcase that big.

Packing advice for campervan trips: pack into the smallest bags possible across multiple pieces — not one big suitcase.

Not one big suitcase.

NOT one big suitcase!

Moving the Suitcase Every Single Day

On our first campervan trip, we rented a campervan and brought a 29-inch suitcase.

The suitcase fit in the cabin while driving, but at the campsite, that space needed to become the bed.

Every single day, we had to haul the suitcase out, open it up on the grass to organize things, then close it and heave it onto the driver’s seat.

(Because at that point, the cabin had already been converted into a bed, leaving no room for luggage.)

Doing this daily was like a gym workout. The annoyance was secondary — it was the time it ate up that really hurt.

Small and Varied

Our eventual solution: one small-to-medium suitcase (~10 kg), plus two clothing bags (~5 kg each).

Small clothing bags are incredibly practical — one for clean clothes, one for dirty.

Each day, you pull out what you need from the suitcase and put it in the clean bag.

Take the clean bag to the campsite showers.

After showering, toss worn clothes into the dirty laundry bag. This bag can go straight onto the plane at the end of the trip.

How Vehicle Size Affects Other Aspects of the Experience

Vehicle Size Determines Whether You Make the Bed Daily

There’s a major difference between campervans and motorhomes: whether you have to make the bed every day.

Because campervans are smaller, you generally need to pull out the bed boards, lay the mattress flat, and put on the sheets every night. In the morning, you fold it all back up for driving. Setting up and packing away takes about 15 to 20 minutes each time.

Motorhomes don’t have this problem: the bed stays as a permanent bed while traveling.

This difference significantly impacts the experience: honestly, making the bed every day gets really tiring. Beyond the time you need to budget before departure and after arrival, doing it in the rain is genuinely miserable.

Drop-Down Electric Bed?

In spring 2026, we rented a motorhome for the first time that had an electric drop-down bed at the rear.

During the day, the space below looks like a small living room. When it’s bedtime, there’s a switch that lowers the bed down.

It’s not bad, but climbing onto the bed can feel a bit high.

Also, this type of vehicle interior has more edges and corners, making it a bit easier to bump your head — which can be painful.

Dining Table Setup

Within the limited cabin space, both campervans and motorhomes include some form of dining table design.

I’ve never actually set up the dining table in a campervan — the space is just too small. Getting it into table-and-chairs mode requires moving too many things around. I’d rather grab a camping chair and sit on the roadside.

Some larger motorhomes have a dedicated dining area. This is genuinely convenient — just set up the table leg, place the tabletop, and you instantly have a space to eat and chat.

Choosing a Campsite: Pick Where You Want to Be

Campsites Are Essentially Hotels — They Appear Along Major Routes and Near Attractions

Campsites are basically hotels, and hotels are located for a few key reasons:

• Transport: along major highway routes, serving as stopovers during transit
• Attractions and cities: near major towns or tourist spots

Generally, choosing campsites based on attractions is more common. For example, Queenstown itself is an attraction, so a campsite within Queenstown makes sense. Or if Mt Cook is your destination, a campsite at the base of Mt Cook would be the logical choice.

The campsite should be an extension of the attraction.

But because road trip distances and driving times can be punishing — say, six hours between your last attraction and the return city — and you don’t want to drive at night, your campsite choice might simply come down to the farthest point you can reach before sunset.

Add Variety: Spend a Night or Two at a Nature-Focused Campsite

While powered campsites are great, after a while you’ll notice the facilities all feel pretty similar.

I’d recommend mixing in some nature-adjacent campsites to experience what it’s truly like to be immersed in the outdoors.

These nature-focused campsites often have excellent reviews, some are even free, and you’ll need to arrive early to grab a spot.

Waking up right next to a lake or inside a national park, watching kangaroos hop around — that’s an experience of a different kind. If you’re in Australia, I’d also recommend trying the Gold Coast Tree Top Challenge.

Making the campsite selection itself part of the experience adds a whole different layer of fun.

Campsite Reservations

Unless your itinerary is absolutely set in stone, most campsites don’t need to be booked too far in advance.

I usually book about a week out when finalizing the itinerary, and at the latest, two days before arrival.

The reason for booking later is that you need a feel for driving distances. Sometimes you end up choosing a campsite based on logistics — how far you can realistically drive before sunset takes some firsthand experience to gauge, which is why bookings come a bit later.

Campsite Reviews

I’d recommend checking campsite reviews, but don’t take them too seriously.

Common things campsites get reviewed on: how hot the water is, water pressure consistency, laundry and dryer quality, staff attitude…

Whatever people complain about with hotels, they complain about with campsites too.

But honestly, none of these things leave much of an impression.

Some campsites are beautifully maintained — hand-painted murals in the bathroom, rock-steady water pressure — and I’ll rate those highly. Others have inconsistent water pressure that drops when someone else turns on the hot water, but it’s still manageable. These are tiny details in the grand scheme of your campervan life.

Keep your expectations for campsite services modest, and you won’t be disappointed.

My one non-negotiable requirement for a campsite is cleanliness.

If reviews mention dirty toilets or bathrooms, I’ll consider switching to a nearby alternative. But cleanliness depends on many factors — the number of users that day, weather conditions — so as long as you can take care of basic needs, don’t expect too much.

That said, I’ve never encountered a paid campsite with facilities worse than a typical public restroom in Taiwan.

Office Hours and Late Arrivals

Many smaller campsites are family-run operations that close around 4–5 PM. Anyone arriving after that counts as a late arrival.

In our experience, better-run campsites will email your booking address with late arrival instructions. Some simply leave a small lockbox outside the office where you find an envelope with your name on it.

Most campsites will give you a map of the grounds with your driving route highlighted, and guide you to your parking spot.

That’s really all you need.

Where to Find Campsites

My go-to apps are CamperMate, Gaspy, and thl.

Gaspy is great for checking fuel prices in New Zealand.

Recommended Packing List for Campervan Travel

While campervans come well-stocked, cultural differences mean some things you might take for granted aren’t provided. Between the vehicle and the campsite, there are always gaps. Here’s a list of items that can significantly improve your trip.

Showering

• Hair dryer (check voltage and current — needs to be 220V compatible. Since you’ll also need a plug adapter, and hair dryers are power-hungry, make sure the adapter can handle the current draw.)
• Water-friendly sandals (like basic flip-flops, though higher quality is certainly fine)
• Towel (the campervan usually provides one, but I always prefer bringing my own)
• Toiletries

Cooking

• Cooking oil (buying locally means getting a huge bottle you can’t bring home. If you cook at the campsite, you’ll see everyone trying to borrow oil from each other — just bring your own. XD)
• Salt, sugar, pepper, and basic seasonings (same logic as above)
• Korean-style microwaveable instant rice (I spotted Korean campers bringing these in 2026. The main challenge with campervan cooking is preparing a starch — you often end up relying on instant noodles, which gets old fast. These microwave rice packs are actually a great alternative if you don’t mind them)
• Paper towels (a pack of thick ones for wiping water or surfaces. Most campsites have them, but they’re useful when you’re not at a campsite.)
• Small roll of cling wrap (for sealing food)
• Dish soap (because sometimes neither the vehicle nor the campsite has any)
• Sponge (for dishwashing — if you forgot, paper towels become the fallback)
• Small garbage bags (for keeping the vehicle interior tidy)

Sleeping

• LED strip lights (if you want a cozier ambiance in the campervan — USB-powered)
• Sleeping bag (if your cold-weather assessment deems it necessary)
• Eye mask, earplugs

Frequently Asked Questions

What are the benefits of campervan travel?

For longer trips, total costs can be lower than renting a car plus hotels, and you get much closer to nature. Choosing a higher-tier vehicle means you can cook, shower, and hang out inside even on rainy days — making the overall experience more convenient.

How do I choose the right campervan?

Start with three questions: how many people, do you need sleeping climate control, and do you need a toilet? Then choose between a campervan and a motorhome. If you want climate control, you’ll generally need a vehicle with external power capability. From experience, a motorhome with external power + A/C offers the best value.

How do I find a suitable campsite?

Choose campsites near attractions or along major routes based on your itinerary, and mix in nature-focused free or wilderness sites. Book about one week to two days before arrival, check reviews with a focus on cleanliness, and use apps like CamperMate to search.

Do I have to book a powered campsite?

Not necessarily. You’ll need a powered site if you want cabin climate control, a microwave, kettle, or hair dryer. External power also helps with fridge performance and battery charging. Nature-focused free campsites typically have no power at all.

What extra items should I bring?

A dual-voltage hair dryer with plug adapter, water-friendly sandals, towel and toiletries. Small bottles of cooking oil, paper towels, dish soap, a sponge, and small garbage bags. For a cozier sleep setup, consider LED strip lights.

Australia is home to the koala.

When visiting Australia to see koalas, most people first think of zoos or accredited wildlife sanctuaries where you can hold one. The up-close experience is certainly memorable. (According to those who’ve held a koala, they have a distinctly “bear-ish” smell.)

But that’s not how they naturally live.

What makes Australia truly special is that you can see nature in its raw, original form. Koalas belong in the wild — in their own trees, living life on their own terms.

Wild, untouched, with minimal human interference — that’s what I’ve always found most captivating about New Zealand and Australia.

Koalas Are Wild Animals — Keep Wildlife Wild

Keep Wildlife Wild

Wildlife observation in Australia follows one essential principle: Keep Wildlife Wild.

You’ll see this reminder everywhere you go. Don’t feed them, don’t touch them, and don’t get too close just for a photo.

Don’t disturb them being who they are.

In a way, this is exactly why seeing animals in the wild is so much more appealing than seeing them in a zoo:

• They’re not put on display for you — they’re just being themselves.
• Which means they’ll most likely defy your expectations.
• And when something unexpected does happen — a sudden movement, a shift — it leaves a much deeper impression.

When we spotted a wild koala in a tree, it was about ten meters up — just a grey ball of fur nestled in a fork between branches.

No movement, no eye contact, probably sleeping. If it moved at all, it was only for its own needs — like eating.

But that’s nature. It was just there, being itself.

In that moment, I genuinely marveled at how amazing nature is — that such a creature exists in this world.

Keeping wildlife wild, letting animals be as they naturally are — that’s one of the most joyful parts of traveling in Australia.

Koala Size and Spotting Tips — What Are You Looking For?

The most common challenge when searching for wild koalas is simple: you can’t find them.

Following the Keep Wildlife Wild philosophy, not finding them is completely normal. It’s really about how much time you’re willing to spend looking — you need considerable patience. After all, they’re wild animals. They’re not there to be found by us.

Some people might have a natural gift — eagle eyes that can spot koalas among a sea of trees. We couldn’t really find them on our own and relied on other kind visitors to point us in the right direction.

That said, here are a few tips that might help you spot them more easily.

Koalas Are Actually Tiny Compared to the Trees

When you hold a koala at a zoo, it’s roughly the size of your torso — a chest-sized bundle.

But when a koala is perched ten-plus meters up in a eucalyptus tree, it looks about the size of a coconut. A grey, fuzzy coconut stuck to the trunk.

If you’re standing at the base of a tree looking up expecting to see a “bear,” you might be in for a surprise — what you’re actually searching for is a roughly 30-centimeter grey blob wedged somewhere in the tree.

Adjusting your expectations is the first step to finding them.

Look at Tree Forks and Treetops — Where They Hang Out Most

Since they look like an “extra growth” stuck to the tree, the best way to spot them is to look for:

• Whether the tree’s shape looks “right” XD

But trees don’t have a “correct” shape to begin with. Sometimes you think something looks off about the tree’s silhouette, only to realize after a closer look that it’s just a tree burl, not a koala.

That’s pretty much the experience throughout the entire search.

Still, here are a few actually helpful pointers:

1. Tree forks: The Y-shaped junction where two branches cross is a koala’s favorite resting spot. Keep your eyes on the Y-shaped spots.
2. Treetops: Sometimes they climb really high (and I mean really high). Unnatural swaying can be a clue. But koalas in the treetops are harder to spot than those at forks — your line of sight has to pass through layers of thin leaves, and the movement and obstruction make them much harder to identify.

Best Time to Observe

We always went in the late afternoon — after 3 PM is a good starting point, and around 4 PM might be even better.

While I’d say after 3 PM is a reasonable time to head out, the search itself can take quite a while. If you end up searching for an hour or two and still need to factor in driving time, insisting on going only near dusk isn’t necessarily ideal either.

In Australia, to avoid the risk of hitting wildlife at night, we made it a strict rule never to drive after dark (for more on our self-driving experience in Australia, check out our campervan travel guide).

Observation Spot #1 on the Great Ocean Road: Grey River Rd Near Kennett River

Location

Along the Great Ocean Road, heading southwest from Melbourne toward Apollo Bay, you’ll pass through the small town of Kennett River about 2.5 hours into the drive. Search for Kafe Koala (a small café) on Google Maps.

There are a few parking areas next to the café, all free of charge, plus some roadside spots available.

Walk into Grey River Road right next to Kafe Koala — this road itself is the observation area. Follow the gravel road inward, and the eucalyptus trees on both sides are koala habitat.

Grey River Road doesn’t have a dedicated trail — it’s just a road, and you can drive up it to look for koalas too.

How Long to Search

A lot of information online says you can spot koalas within the first 200 meters, and most visitors only stay in that area since they can’t be bothered to walk further (understandable — it’s a serious uphill climb).

But we spent just over an hour here, and I absolutely don’t think the first 200 meters would have cut it.

We walked for about 30 to 40 minutes, trekking quite deep along the road, before spotting our first koala. In this area, we saw a total of three — one curled up sleeping, and two feeding up in the treetops.

The Scenery

After the first uphill stretch, the road curves and climbs again. The deeper you go, the denser the surrounding forest becomes.

The scenery is actually stunning — even without spotting any koalas, it’s well worth the walk.

Fellow Visitors Will Kindly Share What They’ve Seen

I have to say, they’re genuinely hard to find. Every bit of koala intel we gathered actually came from other visitors.

On this stretch, we spotted two groups. One was sleeping in a Y-shaped fork, and the other two were discovered by a couple who pointed them out in the treetops as we were heading back down.

So keeping an eye on what other visitors have noticed is actually a really important clue.

Observation Spot #2 on the Great Ocean Road: Near Aire River Bridge

This is a spot we stumbled upon on Google Maps along the Great Ocean Road, and I found it much easier than the first one.

Location

Aire River Bridge is right on the B100 — the main route of the Great Ocean Road. You’ll pass it after going through Apollo Bay, past Maits Rest Rainforest Walk (a lovely, easy rainforest trail), heading toward the Twelve Apostles.

Since it’s on the “main road,” parking is admittedly trickier — pulling over on the roadside isn’t ideal. But the upside is that the parking spots are extremely close to the eucalyptus trees and koala habitat — you can practically see them the moment you step out of the car.

How Long to Search

We stepped out of the car, looked up, and this time we spotted them almost immediately — barely any searching required.

Searching for a Tiny Grey Presence in the Trees

So is searching for koalas actually an enjoyable experience?

I’d say it involved a lot of time scanning the trees until my eyes were bleary, walking a fair distance, and physically it was pretty exhausting.

On the other hand, finding them instantly at Aire River almost felt too quick and convenient.

Easy or hard to find — that’s just the way nature works.

Having the chance to see wild animals as they truly are, without disturbing them — at most taking a few photos, or picking up a souvenir at the gift shop — that’s really all you need.

What we take away are the memories and the experience.

FAQ

Where in Australia Can You Hold a Koala?

Queensland is currently one of the few Australian states that still allows holding koalas. One popular spot is Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary on the Gold Coast — we’ve been there (see our Gold Coast TreeTop Challenge post). Victoria (the state where Melbourne is located) has already banned holding koalas.

Where Else Near Melbourne Can You See Koalas?

Besides Kennett River and Aire River along the Great Ocean Road, Cape Otway Lightstation is another well-known observation area — specifically the road leading to the lighthouse entrance. The trees there are shorter, and koalas sometimes sit very close to the ground, giving you a much shorter viewing distance.

So why didn’t we go to Cape Otway Lightstation? Mainly because the location is off the main Great Ocean Road route — it’s about 10+ kilometers south each way, adding over 20 kilometers round trip. It was a scheduling decision.

How Much Extra Time Should You Budget for Koala Spotting on the Great Ocean Road?

Ideally, 45 minutes to 1 hour (including parking, walking, and observing). Seeing wild koalas simply can’t be “booked” or “planned” — if you don’t find them, you don’t find them. But at least taking the time to stop and look gives you a chance. Slowing down and being patient is what creates the opportunity.

So, how much am I actually worth?

To keep track of my asset growth, I used to pick a fixed day at the beginning of each month to calculate my total net worth. The whole process would take about an hour to arrive at a single number. After I started using n8n, it runs automatically at a set time every day, calculates my total assets, and sends me the result via push notification.

The biggest advantage? Data density. What used to be a monthly snapshot is now a daily one. Changes in my assets become much more granular. And it saves me a massive amount of calculation time.

Calculating Total Assets: Adding Up Different Asset Categories

The hardest part of implementing n8n is breaking down the workflow. That’s why understanding how we originally did things manually is so important.

I have four to five main types of assets, including:

• US stocks (denominated in USD)
• US dollar cash
• Taiwan stocks (TWSE)
• TWD deposits across different bank accounts
• Other assets (including negative values like loans, insurance, and real estate)

On the day I do the calculation, I take a snapshot at that moment, writing down the total value of every asset into a spreadsheet like this.

In the image above:

• 1 is US stocks (sorry, can’t let you see what we used to hold!)
• 2 is USD cash
• 3 is Taiwan stocks
• 4 is total TWD in bank accounts
• 5 is other assets
• 6 is the calculated grand total
• 7 is the exchange rate

One crucial number here is the exchange rate. Since I use TWD (New Taiwan Dollar) as the base currency for total asset calculation, all USD-denominated assets — US stocks and US dollar cash — need to be converted to TWD at the current exchange rate.

This entire process has been converted into the following n8n workflow. Let me walk you through how it works.

Using n8n HTTP Requests to Fetch US Stock Quotes via API

For US stocks, I use the API provided by Finnhub.

Once you sign up with Finnhub and get your own API token, you can read the stock ticker symbols from your spreadsheet and pass them into the API call. The response returns the current stock price, including opening and closing prices.

I use the closing price, which gets written back to the Price cell. The Value is simply Price multiplied by Quantity.

Using n8n HTTP Requests to Fetch Taiwan Stock Quotes via API

For Taiwan stocks, I use the API provided by Finmindtrade.

Unlike US stocks, the Taiwan stock API requires both the stock ticker and a specific date as input parameters. One important thing to watch out for: some ticker symbols start with leading zeros, like 006208 or 0050 (these are popular market-cap-weighted ETFs in Taiwan). When passing them as strings, you need to make sure those leading zeros are preserved. This needs to be set up properly in the spreadsheet beforehand.

Same as before — the closing price gets written back to the Price cell, and Value is Price multiplied by Quantity.

Using n8n HTTP Requests to Fetch Exchange Rates via API

Since the final total is calculated in TWD, all USD-denominated assets need to be converted to New Taiwan Dollars.

For this, I need to fetch the current exchange rate. The API I use is:

• https://api.exchangerate-api.com/v4/latest/USD

Calling this API directly returns the current USD exchange rates against all other currencies.

I simply pick out the TWD rate and write that number to a separate cell.

Adding Up All Assets

Finally, we can fill in all the cells in the spreadsheet.

Some cells require additional calculations — for example, the “US stocks in TWD” cell needs the USD total multiplied by the exchange rate. After all the calculations are done and every cell is filled in, you get your total net worth.

And that’s your net worth for the day!

You might notice a “Wait” node in the middle — that’s a 30-second pause. The workflow makes multiple Google Sheets operations from left to right, and too many requests in quick succession would cause errors. Adding a brief pause in between solved this rate-limiting issue.

Getting Notifications on Telegram via n8n

I have the workflow scheduled to run every day at 7:00 AM. At that hour, the US market has just closed and the Taiwan market hasn’t opened yet — it’s a relatively stable moment for asset valuations. The notification tells me the day’s Fear & Greed Index score along with the status of all my assets.

As for how to set up Telegram notifications in n8n — there are plenty of tutorials online about this. The key steps are creating a Telegram bot and obtaining the chat ID.

Development Cost and Benefits of This Solution

Cost: About 4 Hours

The main challenges during development and setup were:

• Configuring the APIs for fetching US and Taiwan stock prices
• Writing the calculation formulas
• Setting up the Telegram bot notifications

Even so, the entire setup took no more than four hours.

Benefit: Knowing Your Total Assets Every Morning and Spotting Changes Instantly

From a purely technical standpoint, since this number is now available every day — and it used to take an hour each time I calculated it manually — I’m effectively saving an hour every single day. Because of all this saved time and the fact that the computer runs it automatically on schedule, the data density becomes incredibly high.

A number I used to see once a month, I can now see every single day — along with exactly how it changed.

When You Trade: How to Adjust the Numbers?

When you buy or sell stocks, the cash balance and share quantities obviously change.

Since these trades happen through the brokerage’s app, they aren’t automatically synced with this system yet. In 2025, whenever I made a trade, I still had to manually go back to Google Sheets to update the numbers. Each adjustment takes about 3 minutes. Compared to the old process, it’s still a massive time saver — and absolutely worth doing.

In 2026, I upgraded the process: I now send a screenshot of the trade confirmation to Telegram. Telegram passes it to n8n, which then calls an AI tool for image recognition. The AI extracts the trade details and sends them back to n8n, which automatically updates Google Sheets.

Many challenges that were previously unsolvable can now be handled with the help of AI tools.

All you need is proper token budget planning and the right AI tool integrations configured.

The Core of n8n: Letting Computers Handle Your Routine Work

For me, the most important thing about n8n is the process of building these systems.

We take our everyday workflows, break them down into understandable, step-by-step execution details, and then hand off the repetitive, mechanical parts to the computer.

The prerequisite is:

• These workflows already existed before n8n came along
• These workflows are mechanical and can be decomposed into discrete steps

n8n — and all AI tools for that matter — are not magic money trees. They can only improve upon what we already have in place.

This is us recording a moment when we were genuinely having a really wonderful time.

For this DIY pre-wedding shoot plan, we set ourselves a budget of only NTD 5,000 (about USD 160): renting a men’s suit jacket for NTD 2,500 and buying something vaguely wedding-dress-like for NTD 2,500. Will we actually pull this off?

Why a DIY Pre-Wedding Shoot?

The obvious reason is simple: our budget was limited.

On New Zealand’s South Island, the mainstream way to do pre-wedding photos is to join a shoot tour organized by a Taiwanese photographer, who takes the group to New Zealand once enough people sign up. That’s the high-budget version: airfare for the photographer, shooting fees, retouching, and so on, in exchange for genuinely high-quality photos. A relatively cheaper option is to hire a local photographer there. Depending on the number of shooting hours and photos, that usually costs around NTD 50,000 to 100,000, with hair, makeup, and outfits charged separately.

I think that service is absolutely worth the price. A lot of people would say these are the kind of photos you only take once in a lifetime. If a friend asked me whether New Zealand is a good place for pre-wedding photos, my answer would still be yes.

But I kept having a few doubts in the back of my mind.

If We Shoot It Ourselves, Is It Really Impossible?

I kept looking over finished photos from professional photographers, and this question kept coming up because these were all outdoor photos.

People go to New Zealand for photos because New Zealand is beautiful. Capturing that kind of beauty doesn’t require elite photography skills, and it isn’t that dependent on gear either. Even someone who doesn’t really know photography can tap an iPhone once and get an amazing shot. These breathtaking landscapes don’t require spending a lot of extra money to have them: most of the important and beautiful things in life are free.

We’re standing right inside that scenery.

But after looking at other photographers’ pre-wedding work, I was also sure there were some things we simply wouldn’t be able to recreate. The reasons include:

• Composition: pre-wedding photos often use a wide range of compositions, like close-up shots, long shots, low angles, and so on. We’re limited by two things here. One is the photographer’s understanding of composition itself. A photographer’s sense of framing, cleanliness, order, angle, and how near or far to place the subject is exactly where their value lies. The other is that when we’re shooting ourselves, we also have to be in the frame. That means the viewing angle is constrained by wherever the tripod can be fixed, and some angles just aren’t possible.
• Movement: some pre-wedding photos have a sense of motion, like the couple moving through the frame, running by the sea, that kind of classic wedding-shoot image. To capture that feeling, you need to catch the exact moment in motion. We were shooting with a tripod and a countdown shutter, so realistically, we were not getting that shot.

So if the question is whether you can do a DIY pre-wedding shoot yourself, the answer is: yes, but there will be limits if you don’t hire a photographer. In terms of composition and movement, you won’t get the same richness a professional can create.

Does It Matter If We Can’t?

But does it really matter if we can’t produce photos at that level?

That depends on how you think about pre-wedding photos in the first place.

Thinking back on our experience with photos, which ones feel the most vivid when Google Photos or an iPhone surfaces them as a memory? For me, the best photos are the ones that bring the whole scene back. For example, I have a short video where I toss a Taiwanese shrimp snack into the air, the seagulls in Busan come for it, and I end up getting chased by them:

I absolutely did not plan to get chased by seagulls, but that moment when I turned and ran was exactly the feeling of, ‘I cannot do this anymore, there is a whole flock of seagulls hovering there and staring directly at me for food.’ I can still remember the smell of the sea and the sound of them shrieking behind me. It looks funny, but at the time it really felt like fleeing for my life.

On the other hand, highly prepared photos are often genuinely beautiful, but somehow leave almost no memory behind.

Studio shoots are a good example. In a studio, everything is ready for you and you do not have to worry about lighting or backgrounds at all. After one or two sessions you may still remember what you shot, but after more than that, you realize you just borrowed an artificial set. I once took family photos there after a long gap, and what I remember is basically, “That studio was nice, and there was a decorative tree next to it, but you had to move the tree carefully because it was unstable and might fall over.”

We didn’t have much of a connection to that place.

The photos I love most are the ones where a strong connection between you, the place, and the people in it gets caught by the camera in a single moment.

Maybe I don’t actually want pre-wedding photos in the traditional sense, where the shoot feels like checking off a task.

I want Google Photos to show me one of these later and for me not to say, “Oh, that is just a pre-wedding photo,” but instead, “That was when we…”

If that’s what I want from a photo, then all those bits of movement and composition we can’t create without hiring a photographer…

maybe they aren’t all that important after all.

After all, you can’t have everything at once.

Spend the Right Amount, Get the Best Life Experience

When I asked my partner what he thought about all this, his answer was very practical too:

“If we hire a local photographer, then I’ll want hair and makeup too, and outfit changes, and once you add all of that up, we could probably come to New Zealand a second time instead.”

Money is part of it, yes, but when it comes to travel, the goal I’ve always held onto is this:

To spend the right amount of money in exchange for the best possible life experience.

New Zealand is already not a cheap trip, and the most beautiful thing it offers, the scenery, is completely free.

So with that in mind, if we could spend an amount we could actually afford and still get a beautiful life experience out of it, then yes, let’s try doing the pre-wedding shoot ourselves.

Technique and Gear

Even for a ‘DIY’ pre-wedding shoot, I think some preparation is still necessary. These were the tools and considerations we came up with.

Clothes

The style of pre-wedding photo that first drew me in was the one taken from a high mountain viewpoint, with the shattered-looking lake scenery below and both people dressed in full formalwear.

For a while, I wondered whether we could change clothes on the mountain. But that would mean carrying a suit jacket, shirt, pants, shoes, and even a full large bridal-style skirt. Was that really possible?

After looking into how those photos were actually taken, I realized the answer: people were fully dressed first, then flown straight up the mountain by helicopter for the shoot. In other words, they did not hike up there.

Strictly speaking, hiking clothes and photo-shoot clothes are different by nature. Hiking up in wedding wear is basically impossible.

So in the end, we adjusted our plan a bit.

• For the men’s outfit, we kept it relaxed: pants in a color that matched the suit jacket, a white T-shirt, and the jacket itself.
• For the women’s outfit, it was a white one-piece dress with more functional layers underneath for warmth and sweat-wicking. On top of that went a hoodie or other easy outer layers, basically a full onion-layer setup. Then when it was time to take photos, I could peel off some of the outer layers and switch into the photo look.

Experience Level

By experience level, I mean photography experience.

The challenger in this case, aka me, has about three years of experience using a full-frame camera. I switch between M mode and A mode, and handling ISO, aperture, and shutter speed for proper exposure is not a problem.

Overall, that means I know just a little more about taking photos than the average person.

And I do mean only a little.

Camera and Lens

This time, the camera setup was a Sony A7C full-frame body with a TAMRON 24-200 lens.

That combination was basically fine, but my biggest mistake was not buying an ND filter. Without one, the camera really struggled in bright light. If you have one, I recommend bringing it.

Also, I still don’t know how to use HDR on the A7C. If I did, I think it would have helped in a lot of ways.

Tripod

Compared with the lens and photography skills, the tripod actually had a huge impact on whether this would succeed.

More importantly, a camera plus lens is definitely not light, and mountain wind is no joke, so you really need a tripod you trust. If the wind knocks it over and damages the camera or lens, that cost… will definitely be more than hiring a photographer.

But of course, the more stable a tripod is, the more trustworthy it is, and the heavier it gets. The heavier it is, the more weight you have to carry uphill. So heavier is not automatically better. You still need a balance.

The tripod we used on this trip was from Marsace.

When to Shoot

If you take color and exposure into account, the ideal time is still golden hour, early morning or late evening.

In New Zealand summer, the daylight lasts a very long time. Golden light is roughly the hour around 7 a.m., and again the hour around 7 p.m. If you want evening photos, you can even come after dinner and still have a decent chance at good light. Before planning the shoot, I strongly recommend checking the sunrise and sunset times for that season first, then building a workable itinerary around them.

Apple’s built-in Weather app can show sunrise and sunset times, which is useful as a reference.

Why Roy’s Peak?

Our target this time was Roy’s Peak. The trailhead is only about a 5 to 10 minute drive from the town of Wanaka on New Zealand’s South Island.

Why were we looking for a mountain in the first place? It goes back to my first impression of New Zealand pre-wedding photography. So many of those photos are shot on mountain tops, and while looking for a summit that felt realistically possible, I found Roy’s Peak.

Roy’s Peak itself is a mountain that runs along the lake. Even the drive to the trailhead follows the edge where the mountain meets the water. Once you start hiking and gradually gain elevation, the lake beside you starts to become three-dimensional, turning into layered scenery with mountains rising out of the water. That layered landscape, plus the way the Lookout lets you see the trail stretching toward its end from behind, is the most captivating thing about Roy’s Peak.

On several hiking ranking sites, Roy’s Peak is listed as the third-best trail in New Zealand, with a 4.8/5 rating from 5,089 reviews, behind only Hooker Valley in the Southern Alps and the Tongariro Alpine Crossing on the North Island. I have not been to those North Island spots, so I cannot comment on them, but in my own mind, Roy’s Peak is far beyond Hooker Valley in both trail difficulty and scenic beauty.

In our whole itinerary, Roy’s Peak was the top priority. We gave this hike an entire day.

Trail Conditions and Risk Control

Distance and Elevation Gain

Trail distance: 8 km one way, 16 km round trip on the same route.

Vertical elevation gain: 1,228 meters.

Fee: 5 NZD. There is a box at the trailhead where you can drop the money in. (At the moment, cash only.)

There are toilets near the start and again near the upper end of the route. These are small cylindrical structures with ventilation on top. We did not actually use them, but I assume they are basically back-to-nature pit toilets, we had tried a similar one at another free campsite. They look like normal toilets, but below is just a deep void, and there is usually no water for hand-washing or flushing. Still, when you need one, you need one.

More importantly, the Lookout is right by the upper toilet area.

In other words, if you mainly want the view, 7 km from the trailhead is already a very good stopping point. Whether you keep climbing after that is really up to personal preference. We met hikers who continued upward, but we stopped there.

How Long It Took

The official website says 5 to 6 hours round trip, and in reality that was pretty accurate.

We were a two-person team in our 20s to 30s, one man and one woman. We had hiking experience, but we do not train regularly.

• During the hike, every time we stopped to take photos, we spent about 10 minutes at one spot, and we did that quite a few times.
• There were also stretches where we hurried a bit because the light was getting brighter and we kept saying, “Come on, sunrise is almost here, we need to move faster.”
• At the top section, we only went as far as the Lookout and did not continue higher.

Under those conditions, here is our timing record for reference.

Estimated Difficulty

According to the official website, this is an “Easy: Walking Track” but it also requires “Fitness Required: High” and has a “gradient: Steep.” Some trail-planning sites simply classify it as Hard.

At first glance, that sounds a bit like conflicting advice: “an easy trail, but actually very hard.”

My take is that the ‘easy’ part means anyone can walk it, but the hard part is the long uphill climb. A roughly comparable hike in Taiwan might be Matcha Mountain (抹茶山), a popular trail in Yilan. That trail is 5.27 km one way with 800 meters of elevation gain and takes about 3 hours one way. Roy’s Peak is a bit longer and climbs a bit more, but the overall difficulty feels similar.

Put simply, this trail has no technical mountaineering challenge. You do not need any special tools. If you can walk, you can do it. The hard part is physical: gaining around 1,000 meters over a 7 to 8 km one-way climb. That is what makes it demanding.

Besides fitness, there are two other risks to think about:

Risk 1: Unshaded Sun Exposure

Roy’s Peak is grass the whole way up. There are no trees at all.

A few days before Roy’s Peak, we had done Hooker Valley Track in the afternoon. Even with full physical sun protection, proper hiking hats, and sunscreen on our hands and faces, we still came back slightly red. Prolonged sun exposure and heat do not just make you tired, they also raise the risk of heat exhaustion and heatstroke.

If we only thought about photography, hiking in the afternoon and shooting at sunset would have been the preferred option. But that would not avoid the high heat from long sun exposure. If we switched to a sunrise departure to reduce the hottest hours, we probably would not reach the summit area until around 10 a.m., when the light would no longer be good for photos. We asked a staff member at the campsite whether they had any suggested hiking plan, and they said hiking times vary a lot by person, but some people do start in the middle of the night.

Right, starting in the middle of the night!

It had not even occurred to me as a realistic option, mostly because the trip was already tiring enough and I had not seriously considered waking up that early.

But night hiking comes with its own challenges. First, the route needs to be reasonably safe, so we went to the trailhead the day before to check the path conditions. Second, you need a headlamp. A phone flashlight can work, but to reduce the chance of falling and keep both hands free, a headlamp is the better tool.

Luckily, we had one.

So the plan changed: wake up at 3:00 a.m. to get ready, and start from the trailhead at 4:00 a.m.

Essential item for night hiking: a headlamp.

Risk 2: Hypothermia

The second risk is hypothermia. The official website says, “Hypothermia is a real risk even in summer.”

When you are preparing down on flat ground, the risk of hypothermia is often hard to notice. It shows up when you reach the top, stop doing heavy physical work, the temperature is low, and the wind is strong. From a few hikes, including Roy’s Peak and the summit of Mt. Fuji, I can say that if you are not properly prepared for this, all you feel at the top is that you are freezing and want to get down immediately. You usually cannot stay long.

The temperature on the ground can be deceptive, and it makes it very easy to underpack warm layers and heat-generating gear.

If you’re starting before dawn, bring enough jackets. Be properly prepared for the cold.

Trip Log

Trailhead

The trailhead is a parking lot.

When we came to scout the place at 4 p.m., there were barely any cars here, but after one night, the whole place was packed. The only light came from car headlights. There are no streetlights, so watch out for little wild rabbits suddenly darting across the road on the drive in.

Once we had done a bit of prep, we started walking. It was very dark, and the only light was our headlamp.

Because it was so dark here, we dropped a phone onto the rocky parking lot and lost one phone screen in the process. Value: NTD 15,000. Pain.

But because a lot of people really do hike it at night, if you looked up the slope, you could see the trail traced by other hikers’ headlamps. It was not as dramatically visible as the night climb up Mt. Fuji, but it was enough to know that night hiking here is feasible if you are properly equipped.

Once you start, you just keep moving forward.

Compared with the crowds on Mt. Fuji at night, there were far fewer people here, and we only ran into other hikers now and then.

When the Light Slowly Arrived

When you’re actively hiking, you actually don’t feel cold. (Which is exactly why hypothermia can sneak up on you later.)

Even in the dark, if you looked down, you could make out the shape of the lake because water reflects differently from land. As we climbed higher and the sky lightened a little, the changing perspective from the elevation made the lake’s shape more and more obvious.

But as the daylight became more obvious, my anxiety ticked up too. I started wondering whether we would fail to reach the top around sunrise and miss that light entirely. So I had this backup idea in mind: if we could not make it in time, we would stop somewhere earlier and at least take a few shots there first.

Near the Top

At around 7 a.m., the light had already started becoming ideal, but we still had not reached the top.

According to our earlier plan, this meant we needed to take a few photos first, just so we would have something workable. But this was also the point where we ran into a problem we had not fully anticipated:

Thin white dress-type clothing is really, really cold.

When we were planning, we kept thinking the photo part would only take a moment. We would just take off the extra layers, shoot quickly, and put everything back on. But with 1,200 meters of vertical gain, and using the rough rule that temperature drops 0.6 degrees Celsius for every 100 meters climbed, it was at least 7 degrees colder up there than on flat ground. Add the wind that only really hits near the top, and honestly, not shaking was already an achievement.

So what started as a white-dress look gradually turned into a cute solid-color look instead. (At that point it was too cold to remove any more layers.)

At the Top

Once we reached the toilet area and the Lookout, we were no longer climbing higher, so our activity level dropped and the perceived temperature suddenly felt much lower.

The cold was intense. We could not take off a single extra piece of clothing anymore XD, and the wind was really strong, so in no time at all the shoot turned into hiking photos instead.

The front edge of the Lookout is a small rocky point. The view from that rock is fine, but I think shooting toward the rocky point from the toilet side captures the feel of the path better and is actually prettier.

But because it was so cold, we could not stay there long. Proper cold-weather gear really matters. Do not forget the risk of hypothermia.

On the Way Down

On the descent, the sun was already too high, which made the contrast too harsh and not especially good for photos anymore.

But by then, the problem of not being able to maintain the original styling had been solved by the cold for us, so overall, we still got a few photos we really liked.

Conclusion: Did the DIY Pre-Wedding Shoot Succeed?

If I compare these with the polished pre-wedding photos friends show at their weddings, then… no, these probably do not quite count as that.

If I’m being strict, they would probably need a reshoot.

But I really do love these photos.

When we’ve spent real effort and truly lived through an experience, it becomes a deep memory.

And those memories connect us to that land and that landscape.

The photos left behind are just a reminder: we were there, together, and we had something really wonderful.

Is it worth flying from Taiwan to Australia via Singapore, trading time for a cheaper ticket? Here’s my conclusion:

• If you’re departing or arriving during a national holiday period, when vacation days are precious and direct flights don’t operate daily, a connecting flight can help you cover more holiday dates — making the layover worthwhile for maximizing your time off.
• If the connecting flight is noticeably cheaper than a direct flight by NT$8,000 or more, I’d consider going with the connection.

While I fundamentally believe travel is about experiences — and that those experiences don’t need to be expensive — time also has value. The decision is actually quite complex, so here are my recommendations based on careful consideration and personal experience.

Direct Flight Options from Taiwan to Australia

EVA Air

Perhaps because the Australian market hasn’t been a strong revenue generator, EVA Air has never treated Australia as a priority market. For years, EVA has only served one Australian destination — Brisbane — and the schedule is designed to optimize aircraft utilization rather than passenger-friendly timing:

• BR315 TPE0910-BNE2000
• BR316 BNE2215-TPE0505+1

Only three flights per week (Monday, Thursday, Saturday).

This kind of schedule — departing during the day, arriving at night despite an overnight flight, with only the return leg having an ideal time slot — is relatively inefficient compared to China Airlines. You could achieve a similar result through a connecting flight.

In short, when it comes to schedule design alone, EVA Air isn’t a great option compared to China Airlines.

If Scoot flew to Brisbane, EVA probably wouldn’t even be in the consideration set.

China Airlines

China Airlines operates three Australian destinations: Sydney, Melbourne, and Brisbane — with the Brisbane flight continuing onward to Auckland.

Taipei–Sydney (SYD) 

• CI51 TPE2330-SYD1045+1
• CI52 SYD2210-TPE0540+1

Taipei–Melbourne (MEL)

• CI57 TPE2330-MEL1040+1
• CI58 MEL2150-TPE0530+1

Taipei–Brisbane–Auckland (BNE-AKL)

• CI53 TPE2355-BNE1035+1, BNE1255-AKL1800
• CI54 AKL1930-BNE2105, BNE2250-TPE0540+1

All three of China Airlines’ Australian routes depart around 23:30 Taipei time, arriving in Australia the next morning between roughly 10:30 and 11:00. The aircraft stays on the ground in Australia for about 12 hours before departing back to Taipei late that night.

The Sydney route has the highest frequency, with near-daily service. Melbourne and Brisbane essentially operate on a complementary schedule — most likely alternating one day MEL, one day BNE.

Compared to EVA Air’s emphasis on aircraft utilization efficiency, China Airlines sacrifices some of that efficiency — but the trade-off clearly results in passenger-friendly timing: late-night departure, morning arrival.

A good time slot is the real advantage of a direct flight — otherwise, a connecting flight can achieve the same thing.

Simply put, if you value the benefits of flying direct, China Airlines is the clear choice over EVA Air.

Flying Scoot via Singapore

Scoot is the most significant low-cost carrier (LCC) operating medium- to long-haul routes across East and Southeast Asia. For connecting to Australia, it’s also one of the more viable options.

Scoot currently serves three Australian destinations:

1. Perth
2. Melbourne
3. Sydney

In principle, there’s at least one flight per day, and sometimes multiple flights on the same day. Since daily service is the baseline, let’s look at the schedules.

Perth (PER)

Perth is the closest Australian destination to Singapore, with a flight time of about 5 hours and 15 minutes.

• Outbound (TR16): SIN 15:40 → PER 20:40
• Return (TR17): PER 21:55 → SIN 03:25 (+1)

Melbourne (MEL)

Flight time is approximately 7 hours and 45 minutes.

• Outbound (TR18): SIN 11:30 → MEL 22:15
• Return (TR19): MEL 23:45 → SIN 05:10 (+1)

Sydney (SYD)

Flight time is approximately 8 hours.

• Outbound (TR12): SIN 10:25 → SYD 21:10
• Return (TR13): SYD 22:25 → SIN 03:55 (+1)

Of course, the usual caveats apply:

Scoot is a low-cost carrier, so all the typical LCC limitations — delays, service levels, meals, seat selection, in-flight boredom syndrome… — are all possibilities.

But Singapore is Scoot’s home base, so overall I’d say its operational reliability is reasonably high.

As for everything else, well, you can always pay extra to solve those issues.

Scoot’s Transit Characteristics

Scoot’s Australia-bound flights typically depart Singapore in the morning to midday, arriving in Australia in the evening. To connect with these flights, the key characteristic of a Scoot transit is that you’ll usually depart Taipei around midnight (approximately 00:00).

You’ll arrive in Singapore around 4:00 to 5:00 AM local time, followed by a fairly long layover of about 6 to 8 hours.

So, when connecting through Singapore to Australia via Scoot, here’s the typical pattern:

• You can head to the airport after work and catch the late-night flight
• You’ll spend about 6 to 8 hours in Singapore
• You’ll arrive in Australia that same evening

The Extra Costs of a Singapore Transit — and Why I Don’t Think They’re Necessarily Downsides

So the obvious drawbacks of transiting through Singapore on the way to Australia are roughly:

• An extra night of accommodation, costing about NT$3,000 to NT$4,000.
• Compared to a direct flight, you lose an afternoon-to-evening’s worth of activity time. I’d estimate the value of that time at about NT$3,000 to NT$4,000 as well.

But are these really downsides? Honestly, I don’t think so. In my experience, booking a hotel for the night you arrive is actually quite nice, because:

1. It means you have a full day to work with the next morning
2. You can get all the hectic arrival logistics out of the way on day one
3. Some car rental companies won’t let you rent on the day you arrive, due to jet lag concerns
4. Flying is tiring — a proper rest is always a good thing

During my own trip to Perth, I woke up the next morning to find a little lake right outside the hotel. That morning, I leisurely strolled to a nearby brunch spot, felt the autumn air, and it was a genuinely lovely experience.

The Advantages of Flying Direct

• You get a longer block of sleep on the plane, since you sleep through one continuous flight.
• With China Airlines’ schedule, you effectively save on accommodation costs for both the outbound and return trips.

I actually really love when a long-haul flight arrives the next morning — it genuinely saves a lot of time and helps enormously with adjusting to the time difference.

When we were leaving Melbourne on Scoot, China Airlines happened to be departing around the same time. China Airlines would be back in Taipei by 7 or 8 AM the next morning, while we didn’t arrive until nearly 5 PM. That alone shows the advantage of flying direct — and the extra time is great for things like unpacking and getting settled.

Things to Do During Your Singapore Layover: Three Options Depending on Your Time and Mood

After several Singapore layovers, I’ve tried a few different approaches. Here’s my takeaway:

If it’s your first time in Singapore and you’d like to get a taste of the city during your layover, entering the country is a viable option.

But only if it’s truly convenient and hassle-free.

If you’ve already visited Singapore a few times, there’s absolutely no need to enter the city just for the sake of “seeing one more place.” Your real destination — in this case, Australia — should remain the priority.

When transiting through Singapore, the goal is simply to get through the layover safely and comfortably, ensuring you make your next flight.

Option 1: Join the Official Transit Tour

The Singapore Tourism Board partners with Singapore Airlines to offer free city tours for transit passengers.

For details, check the Changi Airport Free Tour official page.

We’ve joined a few of these tours, and the guides do provide thorough explanations — the program is legit. But the hidden costs are significant.

My first transit tour experience was actually in Istanbul with Turkish Airlines, and that one left a strong impression on me.

These kinds of tours never let you see a city in full,

but they’re designed to leave you with the feeling that you haven’t seen enough — that the city deserves a proper visit — so that the next time you’re planning a trip, this destination is more likely to come to mind.

Singapore’s tour, in my opinion, doesn’t quite achieve this goal.

But that’s not the program’s fault — it’s the nature of Singapore as a city: it’s fundamentally a commercial metropolis.

As such, what the city sells is shopping and large-scale theme parks — achieving the kind of cultural beauty you’d experience in a few hours in Istanbul is difficult here.

And if you want to experience theme parks and shopping in just a few hours, you’re better off exploring on your own.

On the practical side, the extensive waiting — waiting for people, buses, queues — is a significant hidden time cost. The tour needs to gather passengers from various flights, and between assembling everyone, boarding and deboarding the bus, and queuing at attractions, a huge amount of time is consumed. Additionally, some stops (like the Chinatown Heritage Centre) require separate admission fees — so the “free” tour still has paid components.

The biggest advantage of this option is that it eliminates the hassle of planning transportation — there’s a preset route, bus transfers, and you won’t miss your flight. But the trade-off is that your entire layover gets locked into someone else’s schedule.

If you have plenty of time, it’s worth considering. If your time is precious, I wouldn’t really recommend it.

Option 2: Take the MRT into the City Yourself

Singapore’s MRT is excellent — no question about that. The only thing to keep in mind: it takes about an hour from the airport to the city center. That’s two hours round trip, and once you add immigration time, the window for actually exploring the city is smaller than you’d expect.

So don’t cut it too close.

I think this is actually a bit of a paradox.

For first-time visitors to Singapore, the risk is a bit too high — because your connecting flight won’t wait for you.

The time pressure of potentially missing your flight will eat away at the joy of having a few hours to explore the city.

It’s more of a mini-adventure within the journey.

Option 3: Airport Shopping and Jewel After Immigration

Of these three options, my personal favorite is browsing the airport shops and heading to Jewel after clearing immigration.

Singapore’s Changi Airport is probably one of the most transit-friendly airports in the world. Accommodation, rest areas, lounges, and immigration procedures are all straightforward. Plus, there’s an entire Jewel shopping complex connecting the terminals — complete with an indoor waterfall, restaurants, and gardens.

For a short layover, you don’t even need to leave the airport area to pass the time.

One important note: Jewel (Jewel Changi Airport) is surprisingly easy to get lost in — one side doesn’t have a third floor, while the other side does.

To get to Terminal 2, you need to go up to the third floor and cross via the sky bridge.

Resting at Changi Airport in the Middle of the Night

Scoot operates out of Terminal 1 in Singapore, and flights from Taipei typically arrive between 3:00 and 5:00 AM. The layover is neither long nor short, but overall, the overnight portion of the outbound trip tends to be more exhausting than the return.

Here’s why:

• Insufficient flight duration for sleep: The Taipei-to-Singapore leg is under 5 hours. After subtracting takeoff and landing prep, the actual sleep window is only about 3 to 4 hours.
• Core sleep disruption: Since this falls during your core sleep period, being forced awake creates a higher level of fatigue.

After arriving in Singapore, we usually find a place to lie flat and catch another 1–2 hours of sleep.

Some people might wonder: how can you just lie flat and sleep in an airport? Wouldn’t that bother other people?

I can only say — it’s a personal choice.

After years of travel, sleeping flat at airports is perfectly normal. Outside of East Asian airports, as long as there’s no curfew, you’ll find signs of overnight sleepers everywhere. One that left a strong impression was Oslo Airport — the warm tones of its wooden flooring made the whole experience feel surprisingly cozy.

The airport’s facilities and the general vibe of its passengers naturally influence how comfortable travelers feel about lying down to rest.

Hong Kong Airport, for instance, is not very accommodating — the seats are connected with armrests in between, making it impossible to lie flat.

Singapore’s Changi Airport is interesting: it’s actually quite lively in the middle of the night, yet it’s probably one of the most sleep-friendly airports in the world.

You can spot travelers sleeping in virtually every corner of the airport.

Since Scoot operates from Terminal 1, my preferred resting spot is near the lounges.

Next to the SATS Lounge in T1, there’s a large area of sofas where you can rest.

Walk a bit further, and there’s an open area in a circle where people also rest.

These two spots are where I’d recommend resting.

Some useful items to bring:

• Eye mask (the lights never go off at night. Light has a powerful sleep-suppressing effect, so an eye mask is absolutely essential.)
• Earplugs (if you’re noise-sensitive)
• Sleeping pad (we bring one because our trips are primarily camping-focused, so we always have one on hand)

The JCB Lounge

If you hold a Taiwanese JCB credit card (Platinum tier or above), you can access airport lounges at several designated airports.

For details, check JCB’s official promotion page.

The SATS Lounge in Changi’s Terminal 1 is an excellent perk. This lounge operates 24 hours, except for occasional deep-cleaning sessions, usually between 2:30 and 5:30 AM. The services are quite comprehensive, primarily covering rest, food, and showers.

I have nothing but gratitude for this lounge. We’ve visited it four times total. Just a few things to keep in mind:

• JCB card holders get 3 hours of lounge access, but the layover is often longer than that. My suggestion is to enter around the time you want a meal — usually breakfast. Go in around 5:30 AM and leave around 8:00 AM.
• If you want to take a shower, remember to ask the front desk first — they can provide fresh towels.
• This lounge gets very crowded, so sleeping inside is quite difficult. Personally, I’d rather grab a random chair outside to rest.
• The hot food is generally good. They have a noodle station where you can cook your own — just remember to blanch the ingredients in hot water before adding the broth.
• The food has a Southeast Asian flavor — nice touch!

But in a city as expensive as Singapore, having an excellent lounge that serves breakfast at no extra cost?

All I can say is: thank you, JCB. Seriously, thank you, JCB.

(Credit card perks really have changed over the years, though. I still remember the days of chasing the Hua Nan JCB combo deals — those glory days are long gone.)

Things I Enjoy Doing After Clearing Immigration

After getting some rest, if we still have extra time, we usually clear immigration and head to Jewel for some shopping.

JEWEL (Jewel Changi Airport)

Jewel is essentially a massive integrated shopping complex, and it’s actually a great place to browse. Here are a few of my impressions:

• The waterfall runs from 10:00 AM to 10:00 PM. After it shuts off, the ground-floor garden area is closed off to visitors.
• Half the building has a 2F–4F layout, while the other half has a 3F. You need to be on the 3F side to reach the sky bridge connecting to Terminal 2.

Song Fa Bak Kut Teh at Jewel (B2 Food Court)

• This is a very popular spot that always has a queue. Grab a queue number first, then watch the screen and head over when your number is approaching.
• They open at 9:00 AM, but braised dishes aren’t available until after 11:00 AM.
• We usually order one large bak kut teh plus mee sua (vermicelli). The soup is refillable for free.

Compared to the peppery style, I personally prefer the herbal-style bak kut teh. But Song Fa makes what I consider the best peppery version — a solid option for getting quality bak kut teh near the airport without having to venture into the city.

Chagee at Terminal 2 Departure Level

• A standout bubble tea brand across Southeast Asia, particularly known for its milk tea offerings.
• This outlet is right next to the departure level of Terminal 2 (Singapore Airlines’ home base). Under normal circumstances, there’s barely any queue.

Final Thoughts

So after all this, would I regret choosing a Singapore transit to get to Australia?

Purely from a budget perspective, connecting flights are definitely cheaper. But as I get older, the value of time keeps increasing — and if a direct flight can buy back that time, it’s actually a great option too.

Which brings us back to the original question:

• Since direct flights don’t operate daily, a connecting flight can cover a wider range of dates
• Or if there’s a significant price difference that substantially lowers the cost of the trip

Transiting through Singapore to reach Australia remains a solid and viable option.

But even when transiting, remember — the destination is what matters. Just pass through Singapore in a comfortable and enjoyable way. If you’re planning a trip to Australia, you might also want to check out my guide to renting campervans in Australia and New Zealand, as well as my Gold Coast TreeTop Challenge experience.

The Travel Proposal series is all about documenting and sharing the moments when we truly had a great time at those places.

In recent years, we’ve particularly enjoyed visiting mountain trails with beautiful scenery. As long as the timing is right, the effort of climbing is rewarded with wonderful views granted by nature alongside your travel companions. This time, we introduce the old Nakasendo trail from Magome-juku to Tsumago-juku.

Magome-juku to Tsumago-juku Trail: Easy Difficulty, a Blend of Culture and Nature

The Nakasendo is a historic route through the scenic Kiso Valley from Japan’s Edo period connecting Tokyo to Kyoto. At that time, transport was reliant on human and animal power, and the entire Nakasendo was quite long. Therefore, inns known as “juku” were available along the route to provide rest and supplies to travelers. On this journey, we are traversing “Magome-juku” (Magome-juku) and “Tsumago-juku” (Tsumago-juku), two of the post towns along the route.

Why is this trail worth visiting? Here are two reasons:

The Trail is Moderately Easy, and You’ll Reach the End if Time Isn’t a Constraint

• You climb about 200 meters from Magome-juku to the Magome Pass (in Japanese, “toge” is read as とうげ, meaning the peak of the trail before descending). From the pass, it’s a gentle downhill of about 400 meters to Tsumago-juku. The trail doesn’t present any particularly challenging elevation differences.

• The trail condition is excellent. It’s entirely a walking path, with thorough separation from vehicles. The mountain trail is fully pedestrian, and even when parts of the route cross roads, there are designated walking spaces. The path from Magome-juku to Magome Pass is paved, while the route from Magome Pass to Tsumago-juku is a stone path through tall coniferous forests, with no strenuous climbing or difficult terrain. The signage along the way is very clear, and even if you can’t read Japanese, it’s almost impossible to get lost.

The Trail Combines Cultural and Natural Scenery

From Magome-juku to Tsumago-juku, the nearly seven kilometers of scenery maintain consistently high quality—something that seems achievable only in Japan.

• Magome-juku and Tsumago-juku preserve many old buildings from the Edo period. If you’re interested in ancient wooden structures, markets, and small streets, Magome-juku and Tsumago-juku offer a rich experience of Edo-period Japanese street flavor.
• Aside from the cultural and historical buildings, the mountain path integrates well with nature. However, it’s worth noting that since Japan is in the Northern Hemisphere, the sun shines from south to north, meaning the landscape before and after the Magome Pass is different. From Magome-juku to the pass, there’s ample sunlight, and maple trees, shrubs, and viewpoints are more common on this side. Beyond the pass toward Tsumago-juku, the area is mostly shaded, resulting in a predominance of tall coniferous forests.

Best Times to Visit Magome-juku and Tsumago-juku: Autumn and Winter

As you’ll be outdoors for extended periods, good weather is a crucial factor. It’s important to plan your trip with flexibility, aiming for days with clear skies and no rain. The season is also an important consideration, with the climate in the nearby city of Nagiso being as follows:

You can see that summer has many rainy days, with about a 50% chance of rain each month. October through April or May the following year is more suitable, especially November, the season for autumn leaves, and April for cherry blossoms. We particularly recommend the autumn foliage season in November. Although the Magome-Tsumago trail isn’t a famous spot for autumn leaves, the sunlight means there are many maples and ginkgo trees to enjoy from Magome to the Magome Pass. Beyond the pass to Tsumago-juku, there are mostly coniferous forests.

Transportation to Magome-juku or Tsumago-juku

Transportation is the most effort-intensive part of the planning. Magome-juku and Tsumago-juku are located about 100 kilometers northeast of Nagoya City. Here, we introduce three ways to get there: (1) seasonal direct buses, (2) train transfers, and (3) the easiest way: join a day tour.

Seasonal Bus

Meitetsu Bus offers a direct bus from Nagoya to both Magome and Tsumago. These buses run seasonally, for example, they typically operate every weekend and during the estimated peak autumn foliage season from late October to late November, directly from Nagoya Station’s Meitetsu Bus Terminal to Magome and Tsumago.

• Pros: 1. Relatively low cost (for example, a round trip costs approximately 6000 JPY per person, about 1200 TWD, which is considered inexpensive compared to other transport methods). 2. No need to transfer, saving effort in transportation planning. 3. You can rest well on the bus. 4. If you’re not keen on walking the entire Nakasendo, you can simply enjoy the Edo-era street atmosphere by hopping between Magome-juku and Tsumago-juku on the bus.
• Cons: 1. Traffic jams may occur, but departure times are fixed. For instance, the estimated travel time is 1 hour and 50 minutes, but in our experience, the journey took 20 minutes longer each way. This reduces the time in between, increasing the pressure to move quickly along the trail. 2. While you can complete the trail in the available time, the time to leisurely enjoy the streets of Magome and Tsumago may feel tight.

• Ticket Information: Check the Meitetsu Bus official website

Train (JR) and Bus

Using trains and buses involves checking timetables and considering connections, which can be challenging for those not familiar with Japan’s transit system. However, it’s still doable.

• Pros: 1. Unlike seasonal buses that are limited to entering at Magome and exiting at Tsumago, arranging your trip allows for a plan to enter at Tsumago and exit at Magome. 2. When there are no seasonal buses and you don’t want to join a day tour, this is still the only method.
• Cons: 1. More planning is required for transportation, and transfer times may lead to more time wasting compared to buses, although costs might not differ much.

When planning with JR and train resources, the key stations are JR Nagiso Station to the north and JR Nakatsugawa Station to the south.

Planning steps:

1. Use JR Odekake to find your train route to Nagiso (enter Tsumago) or Nakatsugawa (enter Magome).
2. Check the bus schedules to ensure you can make your connections. (Please refer to the latest bus timetables.)

For bus schedules, start with those from Nagiso to Tsumago-juku and Nakatsugawa to Magome-juku. Below are some example timetables, but the latest schedule must be checked on official websites, and this step is indispensable.

• Nakatsugawa to Magome: Kitaena Transport
• Nagiso to Tsumago: Tsumago-juku Official Website

Tsumago-juku to Magome-juku Day Tours

If you encounter the following two factors:

• Due to seasonal limitations, there might be no direct buses available.
• Challenges with language and transportation arrangements make public transit too difficult.

I would recommend opting for a day tour. For example, KLOOK offers a day tour design, providing 4 hours and 30 minutes from Tsumago-juku to Magome-juku, which is considered a well-planned schedule.

• 12:00 Tsumago-juku
• 12:45 Nakasendo Trail
• 15:45 Magome-juku
• 16:30 Depart on the bus back from Magome-juku

A guided walking plan through a day tour adds value. Therefore, whether to choose a day tour depends on the following conditions:

• (Ticket price – Transportation costs) = The value of time saved by taking public transit + The mental effort saved by not doing public transit homework

Considering KLOOK’s day tour package, given the limited holiday and mental capacity, I think it’s a viable option.

Local day tour itinerary: KLOOK

Luggage Transfer Service

One of the most convenient services for hikers is the luggage transfer service between Magome-juku and Tsumago-juku. Simply drop off your bags at the tourist information center in either town before 11:00 AM, pay around 1,000 JPY per item, and your luggage will be waiting at the other end by afternoon. This service typically operates from mid-March through November, allowing you to hike hands-free and enjoy the trail without heavy bags on your shoulders.

For the latest availability and booking details, visit the Nakasendo Luggage Transfer Service official website.

Time Planning for Magome-juku to Tsumago-juku

From Magome-juku to Tsumago-juku, travel guidebooks state that the entire distance is 8.3 kilometers, with a recommended one-way time of 2 hours and 10 minutes. We actually completed it in just that time, 2 hours and 10 minutes, but everyone’s walking speed and needs differ, so here’s our group composition:

• Walking group: One male, one female, able to hike but not exercising regularly.
• This time doesn’t include exploring Magome-juku and Tsumago-juku, only from the highest point in Magome (Uchimachi Observation Deck) to the entrance of Tsumago-juku (at the power plant).
• Because of the pressure of catching the return bus, if the bus leaves before we arrive, we’ll be stranded, so we walked briskly.
• No restroom breaks (we didn’t really need them).
• We spent extra time setting up a tripod for photos at each chosen spot (about five minutes each).

Here is the actual time spent walking:

12:39 Uchimachi Observation Deck (Magome Observation Deck)

13:07 Tenpoin Shrine

13:21 Magome Pass

13:33 Ichino-sawa Tea House

13:48 Entrance of the Road Pass

13:52 Major Crossroads

14:17 Koshin-zuka

14:22 Otsumago

14:43 Entrance to Tsumago-juku

14:49 Omata

Total: 2 hours and 10 minutes.

Points of Interest and Trail Features from Magome-juku to Tsumago-juku

Magome-juku

At the Magome-juku bus stop, you will immediately see a sign that reads “Nakasendo Magome-juku.” This spot is 80.5 ri from Tokyo and 52.5 ri from Kyoto, marking the midpoint of the Nakasendo.

The entrance to Magome-juku. It’s really quite busy with people.

The entire Magome-juku is basically on a hillside, with stone-paved paths in between, and wooden houses from the Edo period on either side. It’s very atmospheric in the sunlight.

The water wheel with the name of Magome-juku inscribed on it.

Magome-juku and Tsumago-juku are known for their local specialty: chestnuts. Here, you can find various chestnut-based products, among which the red bean pancakes are our favorite. Enjoying chestnuts, a seasonal treat, on a sunny, crisp day is indeed a wonderful experience.

Pro tip: Stop by the Magome Tourist Information Centre near the bus stop and pick up a Nakasendo Stamp Card for 300 JPY. You’ll get your first stamp in Magome, and can collect another in Tsumago when you complete the trail—a fun keepsake of your hike.

Uchimachi Observation Deck (Magome Observation Deck) 12:39

By continuing uphill from Magome-juku, you’ll reach the highest point: the Uchimachi Observation Deck (Magome Observation Deck). At this vantage point, you’ll have a clear view, and if the weather is good, the visibility is excellent, offering a refreshing experience. We captured some memorable photos here.

As previously mentioned, we arrived at the Magome bus stop around 11:30. After walking uphill through Magome-juku, trying chestnut pancakes, and having a simple lunch, it was already 12:39. We hesitated a bit, worrying whether we’d be able to complete the trail in two hours and catch the return bus to Tsumago-juku on time. Of course, the backup plan was to head straight down the mountain to catch a bus to Tsumago-juku.

Ultimately, we decided to go for it. After all, the main reason for coming was to walk this trail, wasn’t it?

The Adventure and Exploration of Traveling: Even if adequately prepared, anxiety persists. Trying despite the anxiety often results in the most memorable experiences.

(In hindsight, we could have spent less time in Magome-juku. It’s easy to lose track of time while exploring, especially if there’s pressure to walk the trail, but Tsumago-juku is also worth exploring for a long time.)

Tenpoin Shrine (Uphill Section) 13:07

Once you decide to start climbing, there are plenty of signs to help you find the right direction. Finding the path won’t be a problem.

Although the trail from Magome-juku to Magome Pass is mostly paved and less surrounded by tall coniferous forests, in the early stages, you occasionally find yourself in such a forest. However, the path is a stone road, very easy to walk on.

Here, you can see how the trail and the road are separated and cross each other, and you’ll notice that this entire route is very well maintained.

A view along the path, a water wheel and trail. (We’ve only walked 0.9 kilometers, but the signs along the way will indicate how much remains if you need to estimate time.)

On the path from Magome-juku to Magome Pass, an important element is the maple and ginkgo trees. Since this is the southern side of the mountain, it receives plenty of sunlight, resulting in a more colorful forest landscape than the section towards Tsumago-juku. Visiting in autumn is worthwhile, and you should take time to appreciate it.

Finally, you reach the Tenpoin Shrine. It’s 1.5 kilometers from Magome-juku. Next to it, there’s a restroom, making it a potential rest stop. However, we were too anxious about missing the bus, so we continued onward without stopping.

Magome Pass (Magome Toge) 13:21

The issue with bears is always a possibility in mountainous areas like this. On the descending mountain paths, you’ll periodically encounter bells set up to deter bears. If needed, you can also bring your own or rent a bell, making noise to ensure mutual respect between humans and bears.

Magome Pass (Magome Toge) is 790 meters above sea level and 2.2 kilometers from Magome-juku, marking about 1/3 of the entire trail, and it is the highest point on the trail. This small mountain peak doesn’t offer much of a view, nor are there shops nearby; it’s just a small pass. After parting ways with the vehicle track, the path leads to Tsumago-juku.

Magome Pass and my cup noodle hat.

Ichino-sawa Tea House (Tea House) 13:33

After passing Magome Pass, you’ll begin a continuous downhill section. This downhill stretch is primarily composed of forest paths, and while not paved with stones or asphalt like the uphill, the forest paths are still quite easy to walk.

Continuing onward, you will encounter the Ichino-sawa Tea House. It is 3.3 kilometers from Magome-juku, and the estimated walking time is about 70 minutes. We were walking faster than expected, reaching it in 60 minutes. On the exterior wall, you’ll see today’s date (our visit date: November 24) and the names of the countries visitors have come from. You can draw your country’s flag there.

This section of the old Nakasendo near Magome-juku is more internationalized than I imagined, attracting many foreign tourists.

Odaki and Medaki Waterfalls

Shortly after the tea house, keep an eye out for a side path leading to the Odaki and Medaki Waterfalls (Male and Female Waterfalls). Odaki plunges powerfully down about 30 meters, while Medaki flows in a more delicate cascade beside it. These twin waterfalls are considered one of the highlights of the Nakasendo trail. The detour takes only a few minutes and is well worth the stop—though we missed them on our time-pressured hike, so don’t make our mistake!

Entrance of the Road Pass 13:48

As you continue downhill, you’ll encounter the most common scenery: towering conifer forests. The trees stand straight and tall.

When you include a person in the frame, it looks like this. (It’s a great spot to take photos—just be sure to prepare your clothing, and have your jacket ready XD)

I call this spot the Road Pass because it’s the only place where we took a wrong turn due to the absence of other markers, as the trail crosses a road here. On the downhill toward Tsumago-juku, when encountering a road, the Nakasendo continues on the opposite side of the road. There is no need to walk alongside the road like in Taiwan, where you sometimes walk dangerously close to traffic. There’s no risk of getting hit by a car on this trail.

If in doubt, wait a moment, and you’ll see travelers climbing from Tsumago-juku to Magome-juku, which will guide you on where to go next.

Koshin-zuka 14:17

The scenery on the way to Tsumago-juku is quite consistent, full of tall coniferous forests. Along the path, you’ll find many bells; just ring them to keep bears at bay.

At the Koshin-zuka, you’ll have walked 5.5 kilometers from Magome-juku, leaving 2.2 kilometers to Tsumago-juku. At this point, we’ve been walking for 1 hour and 38 minutes. By now, the tall coniferous forest landscape is mostly behind us, as we prepare to enter the town. There’s not much to note here; just try to save time for Tsumago-juku.

Otsumago 14:22

Continuing from Koshin-zuka to Otsumago, you’ll start to see many inns offering overnight stays, providing an experience of Edo-period life. Spending a whole day here would be very comfortable, but unfortunately, the lack of vacation time prevents that… (just kidding!)

This is the display at the entrance of one shop, which is very cute.

Here, “Otsumago” is simply the “big” Tsumago next to Tsumago-juku. It’s humorously labeled just like that…

But this area is basically urban scenery, so let’s quickly move on to Tsumago-juku.

Tsumago-juku 14:43

When you see the large sign for Tsumago-juku, you’re officially within the city limits. By this time, it’s 14:43, and our bus is scheduled to depart at 15:20. Realistically, there’s about 20 minutes to wander and shop in Tsumago-juku, with the remaining time reserved for walking and restroom breaks. The bus stop is on the outskirts of the town, requiring additional time to get there.

The urban scenery of Tsumago-juku, like Magome-juku, retains the overall look of wooden houses. However, compared to Magome-juku, Tsumago-juku is distinctly quieter, and due to the late arrival time (though two in the afternoon can’t be considered late), many items might have sold out.

Even though our time was short, we must mention this shop. It’s called Wachinoya, and specializes in manju, located next to the Tsumago-juku post office. They incorporate chestnut filling into the buns, creating a very authentic chestnut-flavored sweet bun, which is incredibly tasty. After a challenging hike, enjoying a sweet bun like this is highly satisfying.

What to Bring for the Hike

The Magome-Tsumago trail is well-maintained, but a few items will make your experience more comfortable:

• Comfortable walking shoes with good grip. About 60% of the trail is paved, but the stone paths beyond Magome Pass can be slippery, especially after rain.
• Water and snacks. There are limited vending machines and rest stops along the way. The tea house at Ichino-sawa is a good mid-point refreshment stop, but don’t count on it being open every day.
• Rain gear. Mountain weather can change quickly. A lightweight rain jacket is worth carrying.
• Camera or phone. The scenery, especially during autumn foliage season, is exceptional.
• Cash. Many shops and food stalls in Magome-juku and Tsumago-juku only accept cash. ATMs are rare in the area.

Where to Stay: Accommodation in Magome and Tsumago

If your schedule allows, spending a night in either Magome-juku or Tsumago-juku is a wonderful way to fully experience the Edo-period atmosphere. These post towns are quietest in the evening after day-trippers leave, and the traditional wooden streets lit by lanterns create an unforgettable scene.

Tsumago-juku has a handful of traditional inns. Matsushiroya Ryokan is a particularly atmospheric choice—a 200-year-old inn where rooms preserve the feel of the Edo period, without clocks or TVs. Most stays include dinner and breakfast, which is recommended since restaurants in the area are scarce.

Magome-juku tends to have slightly more availability on English-language booking sites. Options include traditional minshuku (guesthouses) such as Tajimaya and Magomechaya. Expect to pay around 10,000–15,000 JPY per night with meals.

Book early, especially during the autumn foliage season in November—these small inns fill up quickly.

Conclusion

In terms of travel experience, the Nakasendo trail from Magome-juku to Tsumago-juku through the Kiso Valley is one of the best day hikes you can do from Nagoya.

• Simple Route: Short distance (up to three hours), easy difficulty (no steep climbs), and clear paths.
• Beautiful Scenery: Rich with historical vibes from Edo-period wooden towns, maple leaves, ginkgo trees, and tall coniferous forests, offering a high scenic diversity.
• Delicious Food: Various chestnut-flavored products are unforgettable.

If you have the chance to visit Nagoya, I highly recommend planning a hiking trip from Magome-juku to Tsumago-juku. As long as the weather cooperates, there’s a high chance of having an excellent travel experience.

[title] Build a Personal Task Management System with n8n + Telegram

[content]

n8n + Telegram is genuinely a great combo. Let’s walk through how to use n8n + Telegram to build a task management system—by handling tasks through an auto-reply bot.

How to Think About a Task Management System

The Core Components

Whether you call it managing attention or managing time, when it comes down to implementation, it usually boils down to two components:

• A to-do list
• A calendar

In Getting Things Done, David Allen suggests you only put the following on your calendar:

• Time-specific actions (e.g., 1/1 19:00 dinner with friends)
• Day-specific actions (e.g., 1/2 register for an exam)
• Day-specific information (e.g., 12/25 is a holiday, even if it’s not actually for Christmas)

He strongly recommends NOT putting “what I need to do today” to-dos on your calendar!

For a long time, calendars were paper-based. My old-school brain still hasn’t fully transitioned to Google Calendar—so the bad habit of writing my to-do list directly onto the calendar stuck around for years. This time, I’m separating them completely.

What a To-Do List Is For: Free Your Memory—Don’t Use Your Brain to Store Small Stuff

Before everything became digital, to-do lists were often an underappreciated approach, especially because you couldn’t just “put it in an app”:

Writing lists on “whatever workspace” using “the blank backside of an A4 sheet”

Advantages:

• Write down anything anytime you think of it

The downsides are obvious:

• Tasks end up scattered everywhere
• Some tasks don’t have a scheduled time but still need to be remembered. As the papers pile up and get scattered, some items eventually stop getting tracked at all.

The busier and more fragmented things become, the more pressure you feel from not being able to remember everything—and the heavier the mental burden gets.

So, a digital task management system should have a few basics:

• When I remember something I need to do, I can immediately dump it into the to-do list and deal with it later
• I can access it anytime—both for inputting and retrieving information

Time Buckets in a Task Log: Now, Today, Tomorrow (and the Stuff You Don’t Need to Do at All)

In the book Do It Tomorrow, the author provides an important categorization:

For the purpose of time management, I divide urgency into three levels: now, today, tomorrow.

Now: Only something that requires dropping everything and focusing immediately qualifies as “now.” It’s usually emergency response.

Today: Something that must be completed today, but when you planned your day in advance, you couldn’t put this in. This is the situation we hate the most.

Tomorrow: Most things are “tomorrow.” These are the items you can plan ahead for—your default mode.

So in a workflow, the ideal situation is:

• When something comes up, add it to the work list and don’t do it today
• Minimize the number of things added to “today” at the last minute
• When planning tomorrow’s work, move items from the work list into tomorrow’s work list, then draw a stop line underneath
• The next day, tomorrow’s list becomes today’s list—then complete everything on it one by one

“Today” in the Task Log — Only Do What’s Above the Stop Line

Do It Tomorrow introduces a key concept: the stop line.

Because there’s only so much you can do in a day, once you draw a stop line in your list, anything added afterward belongs to tomorrow. That means what you do today includes only:

• Work already scheduled to be handled today
• Work collected the day before
• New items added below today’s stop line due to “must be done today” urgency

In this system, we pull open items into “Today,” and in the day’s workflow we “clear out” the items under “Today”—that’s the intended outcome.

Do Important Things “Tomorrow” — Progress Is Finite

Before each day ends, you review items that are still OPEN as well as anything added today, then move what you’ll do tomorrow into tomorrow’s work list. That lets you draw a new line again.

Overall, this approach has many advantages:

• A closed list
• A systematic way to handle incoming work
• Fewer interruptions
• Easy day planning

We’re going to implement this structure in n8n.

Features

User-Triggered Features

• Add a task: type a sentence (e.g., “Schedule interview”) to add a task
• Complete a task: type the task number (e.g., “134”) to mark it as completed
• Query tasks: type /all to list all tasks currently on the to-do list
• Query today’s completed tasks: type /D to show tasks completed today
• Assign to Today: type D + number (e.g., D134) to add a task to today
• Assign to Tomorrow: type T + number (e.g., T134) to add a task to tomorrow

System-Automated Features

• At 00:05 (or any specified time): move unfinished tasks from Today back to the to-do list, and convert the pre-assigned Tomorrow tasks into Today tasks

Why Telegram?

Because sending messages on Telegram doesn’t incur extra costs—LINE does.

Also, Telegram works across devices such as computers and phones. It’s very friendly for cross-platform usage, which is convenient for people who frequently work across different interfaces.

Database Structure

The data tables are built in Google Sheets. There are three sheets in total: Open, Close, and IDGet.

Open Sheet

This contains all unfinished items—the most basic form of a to-do list.

It simply adds a Status column: Open means unscheduled, Today means to be done today, and Tomorrow means to be done tomorrow.

Close Sheet

All completed items are moved into this sheet.

One column that matters here is the completion time. When querying what was completed today, this is the field you’ll look at.

IDGet Sheet

This simply makes it easier for the system to retrieve a unique event number. If you can manage n8n variables properly, you may not even need this sheet.

How Can You Get This as Fast as Possible?

• Have an AI tool (e.g., ChatGPT) read this webpage
• Ask the AI tool to design the n8n workflow logic based on the page and export a JSON file
• Import the exported JSON into n8n, then adjust connection/auth settings as needed. That’s the fastest way—don’t build it yourself!

n8n Architecture

The basic architecture is:

User types → n8n parses the command → determine task operation type → update Google Sheets → reply on Telegram with confirmation

Add a Task

User types

→ Telegram input: Schedule interview

n8n parses the command

→ Telegram Trigger receives message text ($json.message.text)

→ Goes into Command Switch (determine text type)

Determine the task operation type

→ Command Switch rules:

• Doesn’t start with /...
• Isn’t purely numeric
• Isn’t D\d+ or T\d+ → go to fallback (i.e., the “add task” flow)

Update Google Sheets

→ Get Last ID: read the current last global ID from the IDGet sheet

→ Get Existing Open Tasks: read existing tasks from the Open sheet (used to calculate the next IdentID)

→ Calculate New IDs: compute nextId and nextIdentId

→ Create New Task Data: combine the task content + new ID into one row (including a Taipei timezone timestamp)

→ Append New Task: append the new task into the Open sheet

→ Update IDGet: write the latest nextId back into the IDGet sheet

Reply on Telegram to confirm

→ Send Add Acknowledgement: reply “Added to to-do list: xxx (ID: #IdentID)”

Complete a Task

User types

→ Telegram input: 134

n8n parses the command

→ Telegram Trigger receives text

→ Command Switch determines it’s “pure numbers”

Determine the task operation type

→ Command Switch matches rule: ^[0-9]+$

→ Follow the “complete task” branch

Update Google Sheets

→ Get Open Tasks For Completion: first read all rows from the Open sheet

→ Prepare Completion Data: in a Code node

• Find the row where IdentID = 134
• Create a row to write into the Close sheet (Status=Close, ClosedAt/UpdatedAt=Taipei timezone) → Append to Close Sheet: append completion data into the Close sheet → confirmRow: look up the row in Open by ID (to retrieve the task name for the reply) → Update Open Row: delete that row from the Open sheet (operation=delete, using row_number)

Reply on Telegram to confirm

→ Send Completion Acknowledgement: reply “Completed: Task (ID: IdentID)”

Query Tasks (All: /all, Completed Today: /D)

User types

→ Telegram input: /all

n8n parses the command

→ Telegram Trigger receives text

→ Command Switch detects “starts with /”

→ Goes into Switch (dedicated to determining /all vs /D)

Determine the task operation type

→ Switch matches: /all

→ Follow the “list tasks” branch

Update Google Sheets

→ Get Open Tasks List: read all rows from the Open sheet (including Open/Today/Tomorrow statuses)

Reply on Telegram to confirm

→ Format Task List: group + sort the three statuses and compose the text

→ Send Task List: send the formatted list back to Telegram

Assign a Task (Today: D+number, Tomorrow: T+number)

User types

→ Telegram input: D134

n8n parses the command

→ Telegram Trigger receives text

→ Command Switch matches rule: ^D\d+$ (go to the “D/T assignment” branch)

→ Goes into Command Switch1 (determine whether it’s D or T)

Determine the task operation type

→ Command Switch1 matches: ^D\d+$

→ Edit Fields: split D134 into targetIdentId=134

Update Google Sheets

→ Get Task By IdentID: query the Open sheet with IdentID=134 (mainly to get the task name)

→ Update Status To Today: perform appendOrUpdate on the Open sheet

matchingColumns=IdentID

• Update Status to Today
• Write UpdatedAt with a Taipei timezone timestamp

Reply on Telegram to confirm

→ Send Add Acknowledgement1: reply “✅ Added to today’s plan: #134 task text”

Automated System Cleanup

Today Task Handling (Move Unfinished Tasks Back to Open)

→ n8n starts on a schedule

→ Filter tasks in Google Sheets where Status = Today

→ Update those tasks’ Status to Open

→ Write UpdatedAt as the current time

→ (Optional) include them in the cross-day cleanup report list

Tomorrow Task Handling (Convert Tomorrow Tasks into Today)

→ n8n starts on a schedule

→ Filter tasks in Google Sheets where Status = Tomorrow

→ Update those tasks’ Status to Today

→ Write UpdatedAt as the current time

→ (Optional) include them in the cross-day cleanup report list