Pinglin Tea Tour: Discover Taiwan's Tea Culture

Discover Taiwan’s tea culture with a guided tour to Pinglin Tea Plantation and Thousand Island Lake. Taste aromatic teas and enjoy stunning landscapes.

Duration: 5 hours
Cancellation: 24 hours
Highlights
  • Shihding Ciandao Lake - The tour begins with a visit to Thousand Island Lake, situated in the southern part of Shiding District, New Taipei City.
    The Feitsui Reservoir’s catchment area, encircled by hills, creates a distinctive landscape—a lake with numerous islands, reminiscent of China’s “Qiandao Lake” (meaning thousand island lake) due to their…
What's Included
  • Local tea tasting
  • Professional licensed tour guide (Mandarin / English / Japanese)
  • Local General Liabilities Insurance
  • In-vehicle air conditioning
  • Hotel pickup and drop-off (if private option selected)
What's Not Included
  • Gratuities
  • Food and drink
  • Bottled water
Additional Information

Welcome to the birthplace of the most beloved beverage in the world—bubble tea! Whether you are a seasoned tea connoisseur, or simply love to drink tea, through this guided tour to Pinglin Tea Plantation and Thousand Island Lake, you will get glimpses of the tea culture in Taiwan, and learn about the development of Taiwanese tea.
Pinglin District in New…

Location
Zhongxiao Park
Lane 134, Section 2, Zhongxiao East Road
Group Tour: Exit 2, MRT Zhongxiao Xinsheng Station (BL14 /O07). Please take the escalator to the ground level, your tour guide will be waiting for you near the exit with the tour operator's logo flag (EDISON TOURS). Private Tour: Complimentary Downtown Taipei City Hotel Pick-up
Cancellation Policy

For a full refund, cancel at least 24 hours before the scheduled departure time.

Customer Ratings
4.7
(122 Ratings)
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Victoria_g
Dec 7, 2024
Recommend for tea lovers! - This was Ana amazing tour if you like tea, nature and beautiful views. The tour was very enjoyable and our guide Kiara was very knowledgeable. The visit to the museum is totally worth it and so is the tea ceremony. The only thing I wish we had time to stop for snack but that’s mostly since I didn’t plan. Make sure to bring a snack.
Review provided by Viator
Y7537fhevanb
Nov 30, 2024
Tea Time with Tony - This was one of my most anticipated days out in Taipei and it did not disappoint. As a tea enjoyer, this outing was something that I was rather curious about going into, being able to see the tea cultivation, learn more about the history of tea production, and getting to do a bit of tea tasting along the way. To start it off we were welcomed by our tour guide Tony at the meeting point about 10 minutes early. He guided us to the tour van which had some wonderfully cushy seating. When the third guest arrived, Tony pulled out his little speaker and microphone setup and provided us a quick rundown of the schedule as we made our way. During the ride out we got to see some of the wonderful scenery of the outskirts of Taipei as we made our way into the mountains. During this time we noticed the driver made a wrong turn, and we watched Google maps try to redirect at this point. Tony and the driver had a bit of discussion about it that my girlfriend was able to translate, basically the two of them sounded like an old married couple. Nothing serious though as Tony was able to make the quick decision to reorganize the schedule, and we basically did things in reverse order. This was actually really good for me because it meant we got to the tea tasting earlier (caffeine has a strong reaction for me, so doing this later would've had me wired at bedtime). In Pinglin for both the museum and tea plantation tours, Tony was a laugh riot. On top of that, he knew his material back to front and was able to answer our questions rather quickly in English. As a native English speaker I was incredibly impressed with his vocabulary and quick wit in what would be his second language - honestly better than a fair number of native English speakers I've met. With our smaller group size of just 3 people, we got to the Shenkeng St. marketplace for lunch together as we tried a few Taiwan specialties. My girlfriend lives in Taiwan and was adamant about getting our new friend Michele to try stinky tofu. We had a great time with the lunch break talking about our travels and the tour and our new found love of Tony. After lunch we made our way through the rest of the scheduled tour. As mentioned, Tony's English was quite good but still asked us for a few more words to help him describe some of the history of the area. My personal favorite was going through the etymological history of Maokung where he was trying to learn the word 'porous' to describe the geology of the Maokung river. During the walk, Tony provided some great insight into the different temples of the area and differences in some of the edicts and belief structures of Buddhism and Daoism, while pointing out how these ideals are represented in the temple structures themselves. The last official part of the tour took us on the gondola ride where we got to see Taipei from the mountains and the forest underneath us as we rode in a 'crystal' cabin. Here we all got to reminisce about the tour and discuss more about the details of the modern challenges for tea farmers in Taiwan. We actually ended off getting dropped off outside the Raohe street market since our hotel was nearby. Tony came with us and went through even more detail of the temple outside the market, giving us a small bonus tour of the interior and lore of the temple. We had a great time with this tour overall and would really suggest it for those that are interested in tea culture. While it can be planned for oneself, you would miss out on Tony and his lush knowledge of the history and culture. I think the only downside of this for us was that it was overcast and slightly drizzly all day which cut down on the visuals, but that had more to do with our timing rather than any issues with the tour experience.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Penny_m
Nov 19, 2024
A Beautiful Afternoon Outing - It was a beautiful experience. The guide is great and very knowledgeable. The driver is very skillful and kept us safe on the road as it was raining. Scenery is breathtaking, and tea tasting is fun and educational.
Review provided by Viator
Venture40370792712
Nov 15, 2024
Amazing Tea Experience!!! - Such an amazing trip full of beautiful countryside and culture of tea making! David was an exceptional tour guide. One of the best we've had. His knowledge of tea and Taiwan's culture was exceptional. Not to mention, he was so funny! We loved everything about the tour, especially at the end with Tea masters learning how to make and drink tea. We learned so much and had a great time. We would highly recommend "David" as your tour guide!
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Rivi_b
Oct 28, 2024
An enjoyable afternoon to tea plantations and tasting - This was a great afternoon trip to tea plantation, museum, and tasting, and some lake views. David, the guide, was great - knowledgeable, and with good English. We had some short hikes and many photo opportunities. We enjoyed this tour.
Review provided by Viator
Kathleen_p
Oct 16, 2024
The tour guide was... - The tour guide was fantastic. He had a quiet sense of humor and he danced between languages so eloquently. He was very informative.
Review provided by Viator
Danieldive1
Sep 30, 2024
I love my Tea Experience, Friends 🤗 - Very magical Tour, tea Ceremony is just magical, the lake with Plantations is super Beautiful. Guide very nice & knowledgeable 😊
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Daniel_b
Sep 27, 2024
Super Stunning Tea Ceremony Friends 😅 - Very Magical Tour. I enjoy the Tea Ceremony a lot, the Plantations & Thousand Islands was Awesome Knowledgeable & nice Guide😊
Review provided by Viator
Travel09267194322
Nov 9, 2024
Terrible - Photos are not good to display since the tour guide is not expert in taking pictures. Not worth it paying such an amount in usd. Also we were waiting outside of our hotel for more than an hour, contacting the tour agency but response late, our tour is at 8 am move to 1pm. Feel disppointed.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Dalila_p
Oct 3, 2024
NOT IMPRESSED - not impressed. felt captured to buy the tea. It was not at a tea plantation at all . cant say any more what else do you what me to say. did not like it thats it
Review provided by Viator
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December 2024
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