I signed up for this tour to see the typical sites as described, particularly Jiufen and Shifen. However, Martin the tour guide decided to take us on a culinary side tour into the mountains to eat yummy noodles flavored with tea oil, nougat that had cicada in it, and Chinese tamale. These were all very good and I'm happy to have gotten a special off the beaten path itinerary! We did also ultimately go to Jiufen and Shifen toward the end of the tour, but I felt it was a bit rushed. I would have liked to have given time to myself to hang and shop around Jiufen. However, it was the last stop and we just basically walked through it. I was a bit disappointed. He had given us an hour at the Yehliu Geopark to ourselves, which we did not even want because it was so bloody hot at that time and there really wasn't much to see there. Hence, I would say although it is nice that he gave us a side tour, make sure your guests want to do those things but only AFTER you have taken them to where they want to go the most and ask where they want to get some personal time and how much time at each stop they want.