Flying Cow Ranch 飛牛牧場

Flying Cow Ranch is a popular attraction ranch located in Tongxiao, Miaoli. It is one of the more popular farmstays in Taiwan and there are many child-friendly activities for little ones to take part in. K can’t wait to feed all animals there. This not so little baby K try to read the map and decided where we are going first.

We took a train (Taiwan Rail) from Taipei to Tong Xiao Station (通霄) around 2,5 hours, then take a taxi which will cost about 325 TWD. Check out the schedule of the train, as the frequency is about every two hours.

We arrived at Flying Cow at noon around lunch time and since the room was not ready yet, we decided to get a quick lunch in their fast food restaurant before starting our exploration.

The variation menu to choose from burgers (pork, beef, chicken, mushroom veggie) and the usual fast food such as crispy chicken, nuggets, french fries, sweet potato fries, salad, etc. For a price of 189 TWD for beef burger set that includes the burger, five nuggets and a Coke, the prices were fairly considering it was such a touristy attraction. Forget to take a picture of the crispy chicken because we are so exciting to move quickly to see the animals.

The food court, restaurant and dairy product shop here sell many dairy products and foods for visitor.

The signature activities include parade of ducks, milking of cow, feeding of calf. They displayed a signboard on the grass patch to let all the visitor know the activity time so you won’t miss it.

Who wants to hand milking the cow? Me! The small kids should be accompany by adult. Queue before the activity time to make sure you got a spot since it's limited only. For the milking the cow activity, we were told before that it resembles squeezing a tube of toothpaste but not to pull out to hard. Milking the cow was not as easy as I thought, even though I was breastfeeding mum! Little K just try at the beginning then scare away.

Now it's time for feeding the little cows! This was our first time feeding a calf. I must say it had a really strong suction and I almost lost it when I help K to hold the bottle. That big calf only 1 month, can’t you believe it? It drank the milk so fastt!!

A duck parade? Yes, it's really a duck parade. Not only do you get to see them dashing towards the bell, you also get to close to them and petting the ducks. But don’t try to take grain from the floor said the instructor or they will thinking you try to take their food and they will peck you.

In here they are plenty activities, Kay had fun time feeding the goats, sheep, and rabbits. The feed is not free, we paid 50 TWD for a small bottle of goat baby's milk, 10 TWD for each bag of grass or grains for feed for sheep and rabbits. Just put the money into the box if you took any of the food for the animals. We easily spent a couple hours here to feed any animals. K also get some mosquito bites from this area but those didn't really affect her much.

When there is ton of milk then there must be a fresh milk ice cream. The milk flavor ice-cream is yummy! The fresh ice cream cone cost 60 TWD but the stall only open on weekend, but don't worry you can buy the cup one 55 TWD every hour in the gift shop!

This farm looks nice in the up hill where the skies are blue and the air so fresh. K enjoy every corner of this farm and so happy with it :)

Don't worry you won't get lost, many sign and map everywhere!

A pony ride for Kay, she is riding real ponies for a short time but so happy. Many kids queue for this attractions cost 100 TWD for 2 cycles ride.

K also had a great time at the sand play area!

Finally we crash into our room after long afternoon playing. We stayed in a standard room for four which has a cosy area of 26sqft and consists of two double beds. The amenities are quite basic like TV, kettle, fridge, hair dryer, toiletries (with fresh milk as an ingredient!), mineral water, coffee, tea, standing shower etc. The beds was comfy, it’s all we need tonight after having been out the whole day playing around in the farm.

Flying Cow has not one, but four restaurants to cater to your dining needs. We had tried the fast food restaurant for lunch, so tonight we decided to try the milk hot pot. K love soup and rice so we thought the hot pot would be the natural and ideal choice for our dinner in this cold night at Cow's Hot Pot (犇牛牛火鍋餐廳). Everything at our table just seemed so appetizing and we couldn't wait to get started. I loved how the restaurant felt so cosy and homely. We ordered one set of milk hot pot with pork shoulder (350 TWD) and one set of original hot pot with chicken slices (350 TWD). You should try their taro ice cream for dessert so good too!! Mommy ate 2 bowl of taro ice cream :)

You can take a look for other restaurant menu too! Red Barn Restaurant 紅穀倉 which serves western and Japanese style food.

Flying Cow Restaurant 飛牛餐廳 served Chinese food some hot pot and there is also an ala carte menu and all the prices are stated clearly beside the items.

Aftre dinner, we wen directly to other our DIY activity tonight. It was fun we made some macaroon from scratch, which is already included in our accommodation package (at 8 p.m.). We add one by one the ingredients to made our own dough using flour, sugar and eggs. It was a good activity since after dark not much you can do in the farm and K enjoyed this activity pretty much. It was a good one hour family bonding time for sure instead being potato coach in our room. Her favorite part was making meringue and eating the cookies once it was done 😂. While waiting our cookies being baked, we were also tasked to wash all cutlery and bowls, this also the part I like the most because we were made responsible for our own mess. Our DIY cookies, surprisingly taste not bad at all. They didn’t look pretty, but they tasted yummy! We ate almost everything for late night snack 😋

There are other paid DIY activities you can check out with the counter. I think every season might changes.

No blue Monday if you spend it in nice cozy farm in the quiet morning like this.

Red Barn Restaurant 紅穀倉 is where we had our breakfast, there was congee, noodles and some side dishes like fried egg, bacon and stir-fried vegetables which sufficed to meet our simple needs. You also got milk steamed bun, yogurt and milk for sure. Dairy product also one way to fatten up your toddler as part of a healthy diet 😋

We paused for a family shot when we saw the beautiful quiet morning in the spacious farm when nobody there just us. It was a reminder for us to take it slow, cherish every moment we had together and just enjoy the surroundings, which is what a farm stay is about.

Does all kids like bunnies? K sure do and she loves to feed those fluffy, long-eared animals. She will said come, come and get your food! The Rabbit's Home full of different breeds of bunnies and visitor get to feed them too after buying 10 TWD bag of veggies. We visited last afternoon but the bunny seems full already so better visit them in the morning when they are hungry 😀

We visited some animals again and feed them before going back to Taipei.

The food and beverage at the ranch was reasonably good. And of course you got many dairy product and milk for sure 🥛. When you check in, you will be given vouchers to exchange for bottles of milk for the family. You have to try their 'Malt Milk' and it tasted yummy and fresh, K even asked for it again this morning. The best milk malt I ever taste, the yakult not bad too. Their cheese cake was on the point too 😋. A nice ending to our farm journey, it was one of the best times we had as a family and being close to mother nature, we definitely look forward to more farmstays in future.