Green Island
Diving on Green Island in shoulder season. Is it worth the effort?
Posted by: Josh, 16 January 2026
Green Island’s peak diving season runs from April to the start of October, when seas are at their clearest and calmest.
For me and Liz, the rewards of getting to Green Island were worth the challenges – but is a trip right for you?
This is a guide to help you decide.
Contents
Diving on Green Island
Green Island is a year-round diving location, though some dive centres will close outside of peak season.
We arrived at the start of November and the majority of dive centres in the town closest to the ferry harbour were still taking bookings.
We booked with Islands Dive, having seen their spotless 5-star rating on Google, and stayed in their on-site accommodation. They were very friendly and helpful, and even took pictures and videos of our dive for free which they sent to us after we were back on dry land.
The water was perfectly clear, and still warm too, with the water temperature 27 degrees Celsius on the day of our dive.
As a total novice to scuba diving and with Lizzie, a certified diver, several years removed from her last dive, we both went for the try diving experience with 1:1 instruction throughout. Even limited to shallow depths, there was still a huge number of fish and the corals were healthy, full of colour, and full of life.
We met an American couple while exploring the rest of the island, one of whom had more than 20 years diving experience. She'd also really enjoyed her experience diving here, although it didn't quite top some of her favourite diving spots off the coast of California.
Other things to do on Green Island
Diving is the main attraction, of course, and had I known how much I’d enjoy my first taste of scuba diving I’d have wanted to stay much longer on Green Island.
But even in the windy season, Green Island is a beautiful place to explore by bike. A regular pedal bike cost us 300NT$ each per day (just over £7), but electric scooters are also available to hire.
Parts of Green Island are hilly – those who don’t cycle regularly might want to take a couple of breaks on some of the slopes – but the scenery is incredibly rewarding for your effort. We spent around three hours on our bikes after diving in the morning, enjoying long stretches of empty coastline and encountering a herd of wild goats outside Zhaori Hot Springs at the Southern tip of the island. This is one of only three salt water hot springs in the world and is a great spot to relax and admire the ocean views.
On the opposite side of the island to Nanliao is the White Terror Memorial Park, which is open Tuesdays to Sundays outside of peak season. It’s free to explore the memorials, prison complex and associated buildings if you want to learn more about this period of Taiwan’s history.
And just beyond the park is Niutou Hill, which has a reputation for being one of the better spots to watch sunrise or sunset on Green Island.
Where to eat and drink
Read our tips on food and drink in Taiwan on our What to Know Before you Go post
Outside of peak season, restaurant options are pretty limited – particularly for any vegetarians. Vegans, I really hope you like the instant ramen at FamilyMart.
Many places will close once the peak season ends, but there are still some options available. Rely on your eyes for what looks shuttered as you explore the town in the daytime, or you might be surprised come dinner time – we found that Google Maps’ opening hours couldn’t be relied on while we were on Green Island.
We were given breakfast vouchers by Islands Dive and used them at Little Aunt breakfast in the Nanliao harbour area on day one, and then at Green Island Happy Breakfast Bar, on the other side of the island a few minutes from the airport (search 綠島好樂早餐吧 on Google Maps) on day two. Of the two, Happy Breakfast Bar had slightly more choices.
For dinner, there were still a number of options near Nanliao Harbour for meat eaters, though nothing that stood out to us as a must-visit. There are a couple of burger places if you’re craving meat and carbs after a dive or a bike ride, as well as some more typical Taiwanese dishes in other restaurants. Crazy Fried, where we stopped on night one, offered a plain vegetarian fried rice and a much larger range of meat and fish dishes.
If you are vegetarian or vegan and struggling to find good food, like me and the American couple I mentioned earlier, consider stopping at Green Thai, again in Nanliao Harbour area. While they had no vegetarian options on the menu, their staff were extremely patient as we battled through translation apps together to work out what was and wasn’t suitable, and made a nice green Thai vegetable curry with rice specially for me.
If you’re on a budget, there is a well-stocked Family Mart and a 7/11.
Does it Ding Go?
There is a Ding Go bubble tea store on the island’s main high street, conveniently across the road from 7/11 and FamilyMart. I recommend ordering a brown sugar latte and drinking it while gazing out over the ocean and contemplating how sweet life (and Ding Go) is.
Getting there
Read more about public transport in Taiwan on our What to Know Before you Go post
You can get to Green Island by ferry or by plane. In late October, wind speeds pick up and the sea becomes bumpy enough that the journey feels a bit like a 50-minute rollercoaster ride.
There are three ferries a day. If you're travelling from Hualien or Chishang, take the train to Taitung station, then a bus to Fugang Fishery Harbor where you can catch the ferry. You should have plenty of time to leave in the morning in time to make the 1pm boat.
Taxis from Taitung to Fugang Fishery Harbour are around 300NT$ (£7.20) and take around 20 minutes. There are also several buses which run from outside Taitung station to outside the ferry terminal at Fugang, costing around 25NT$ (60p).
You can also fly to Green Island, taking a 19-seater propeller-engine plane, but only until the start of November. The journey takes around 20 minutes, but costs more than a ferry trip at 1100NT$ (around £26) and is often booked up in advance according to Taitung Tourism’s advice.
About that ferry journey...
The ferry ride will be bumpy. The boats are large, modern, and air conditioned, but there’s only so much you can do to make a fast boat journey on rough seas feel cosy.
We strongly recommend taking seasickness medication before you travel to Green Island – and to find it before getting to Taitung, if you’re going straight from station to ferry harbour. We did not find anywhere to buy medication in the station area. It took nine minutes from departing on the approximately 50-minute-long ferry journey for the first person to be sick – and by 30 minutes in, I’d guess around 30% of the passengers had done the same.
While neither Lizzie nor I usually suffer from seasickness, we were both grateful to get to dry land.
If you haven’t taken seasickness medication before travelling but decide you need it on the way back, there is a pharmacy on the island which sells it. It’s provided in unlabelled plastic bags and because of the language barrier, we can’t guarantee what the medicine is.
Each bag has two stamped white tablets (from looking up the stamp, we think that these were likely Meclizine) along with one unmarked white tablet and two unmarked orange ones. Ultimately, it’s up to you whether you are comfortable taking the medication. Liz did take it for the journey back and found it worked wonders – she was able to relax and even doze off, unbothered by the sound of dozens of people retching nearby. Anxiety guy here decided against it.
The American couple I mentioned earlier had decided to fly to Green Island. Their flight was cancelled three days in a row, but they said they’d had a good experience when they finally travelled, so that might be a better option if you're prone to severe seasickness.
What if the ferry is cancelled?
The strong winds mean both ferries and flights to the island can be cancelled. We booked our ferry from Taitung through Klook, who promise to notify you of a cancellation at least 24 hours in advance, meaning you have enough time to make alternate plans.
Our dive centre assured us that we would be refunded for our dive and accommodation bookings if a ferry cancellation prevented us getting to Green Island. It’s worth checking that any dive centre you book with has the same policy before paying.
Where to stay if the journey to Green Island is cancelled
If you have the time and flexibility to plan a trip around possible cancellations, and if you’re keen to dive in Taiwan’s waters, we've thought of a few options that might help you have a good time - even if you're delayed getting to Green Island.
Spend some time in Hualien or Chishang
The amount of scenic spots to see in the Hualien region means you could almost certainly spend a couple more days exploring there, even if your ferry ends up being rescheduled multiple times. There was a good range of accommodation available here at short notice.
If you’ve read our guide to Chishang, you’ll know we found it to be an unmissable part of any trip to Taiwan. You could happily spend a couple of nights here while waiting for the wind speeds to ease a little.
Explore Taitung
We didn’t get the chance to visit Taitung on our travels, but this would probably have been our move if our ferry had been delayed. Read Taiwanderers' guide for inspiration on what to do there.
Stay in Taipei
With the one-day notice of ferry cancellation, you could decide to stay in Taipei until you know your trip is going ahead. Trains from Taipei to Taitung take just under four hours, meaning you could take an early train from the capital and still be in time to take the 1pm ferry. If there’s any delay to your ferry, explore more of the capital and its surrounding areas.
Useful tips
-
You cannot withdraw money with a foreign bank card on Green Island. Withdraw more money than you think you might need before arriving because, as mentioned above, food prices are slightly higher here than in many other parts of Taiwan.
-
There are Sika Deer on Green Island, but our experience was that their treatment can be poor. Near Nanliao Harbour was a Sika Deer shop at which a deer was kept chained in an extremely small space – seemingly 24 hours a day. We reported the shop to the Taiwan Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in hope that they would investigate and try to educate this business owner – and, well, it might take more than one person emailing, so we’d encourage you to do the same.
-
We passed a similar scene further south on our bike ride to the East coast of the Island. While we loved our short stay on Green Island, these sights have stuck with me since. Compared to the care and love we saw for animals and nature elsewhere on our trip, this experience stood out for the wrong reasons.
-
If you’ve already been to the island and seen the Sika Deer Ecological Park, please let us know your experience in the comments. Taiwan Tourism advertises night-time tours of the park, which seems to offer a safe and spacious natural environment for deer… but it also advertises the shop above.
-
Our experience while diving was, fortunately, very different. Our instructors made no attempt to interact with the fish or corals in any way that may cause them harm.
Final thoughts on Green Island
Liz's final thoughts
Although we visited outside the peak season, Green island was still beautiful, and it was a great spot to dive (especially for a beginner). That being said, it was difficult to find food options at times and as you can see from the photos the weather was hit and miss, although it was still hot. I imagine it gets a lot busier during peak season - the ferry we took to Green Island in November was full of people, but we still saw some restaurants and bars that were shuttered up for the winter.
If you do go, I recommend preparing better than we did and coming armed with sea sickness medication.
Josh's final thoughts
If you don’t want to go diving, Green Island in the shoulder season won’t be worth the visit.
I’m glad I went to Green Island when I had chance. The diving instruction we had was exceptional, and all other considerations aside it would be somewhere I'd want to go back to for my open water certification.
But you can't just ignore every other challenge. If your only chance to visit is in late October or early November, and if you're comfortable knowing you're in for an uncomfortable journey, it's worth doing. But if you get very seasick, I'd wait until you have chance to visit in the spring or summer months.
Related posts
