If you drink whisky, this is worth a morning. If you don't, it's still a good dry place to spend a wet one. The Kavalan distillery (金車噶瑪蘭威士忌酒廠) belongs to King Car (金車), the company behind Mr. Brown coffee, and it started distilling here in 2006, the first whisky distillery in Taiwan. It now makes some of the most decorated single malts in the world, with water from the Hsuehshan range behind it. It's a registered tourism factory, and it's set up for visitors: you walk past the casks and look in on the stills, then finish in the shop and bars of the "castle" (酒堡).
- Hours Every day, 09:00 to 18:00
- Entry NT$200; NT$100 for junior and senior high school students, Yilan County residents and over-65s; free for children under 12 and people with disabilities. You get the full amount back to spend inside (see below).
- Address No. 326, Section 2, Yuanshan Road, Yuanshan (員山鄉員山路二段326號)
- Phone 03-922-9000 ext. 1104 (tours and bookings)
- Getting there A short taxi ride from Yilan Station, or the 752 county bus from Yilan Transfer Station
Tickets: you get your NT$200 back
The distillery used to be free to walk into. It started charging in March 2026, but the ticket isn't really a fee: its full value comes back as credit you spend inside, on a tasting, a coffee or something from the shop. So if you were going to buy a dram or a bottle anyway, entry costs you nothing. The prices above are as reported in March 2026, and the distillery says prices and hours can change, so check at the gate.
Good to know: you have to be 18 to drink in Taiwan, and don't drink and drive. If you came by car, let someone else do the tasting.
The tour
The visit follows a set route, and you can walk it on your own or join a free guided tour, offered in Chinese, English, Japanese and Korean. For an English tour, call ahead to ask when the next one runs.
- The cask corridor, upstairs in the first distillery building, lined with oak casks.
- The production floor, through viewing windows: the mashing, the fermentation and the copper pot stills.
- The maturation warehouse, where the casks sit and age.
Sometimes there's a cask workshop demonstration, shaving, toasting and re-charring old casks, but only when one is scheduled, so don't plan around it.
Tastings and the Whisky Lab
Everything else happens in the castle building at the end of the route. Pick by how much time and money you have:
- The tasting bar (ground floor): single pours, about NT$100 to NT$200 for 10 ml. The easy way to spend your entry credit.
- The Whisky Lab (upstairs): NT$1,800 to blend your own 300 ml bottle. You mix four base whiskies (from bourbon, sherry, port and peated casks), try your blend, and the staff make it up, bottle it and let you label it. This is the one people remember. Book ahead.
- The warehouse tasting room (酒庫品飲室): NT$1,500 to NT$2,000 for three to five cask-strength whiskies drawn from the cask, with small snacks. It opened in July 2024, and you need to book.
To book the lab or the warehouse tasting, call 03-922-9000. There's also a Mr. Brown café upstairs (伯朗咖啡館) for coffee and a light lunch, and the shop sells bottles and gift boxes.
Getting there
The distillery is on Highway 7 in Yuanshan, west of Yilan City, and it isn't near a train station.
- TAXI The easy way: a short taxi from Yilan Station. Sort out your ride back before you go, or ask at the counter.
- 752 Kamalan's county bus 752 runs from Yilan Transfer Station (宜蘭轉運站), by Yilan Station, toward the Yuanshan veterans' hospital. Get off at Yuanshan Farmers' Association Chenggong Branch (員山農會成功分部), and catch it back to Yilan from the Kavalan Distillery stop (金車酒廠站). It only runs a handful of times a day, so check the timetable first.
- CAR National Freeway 5 to the Yilan exit, then County Road 192 to Yuanshan and onto Highway 7. There's parking on site, but see the note on drinking above.
It fits best into a day in Yilan City: the distillery in the morning, then back to town for lunch and an afternoon in the old streets. That's Plan B in our rainy-day plan.
→ Yilan City · A rainy day in Yilan · More things to do
Sources: Taiwan Tourism Administration, Kavalan Distillery (hours, history, address); Taiwan Tourism Factory listing (tour route, phone); XINMEDIA on the distillery (March 16, 2026) (tickets, Whisky Lab, warehouse tasting, bus 752); Kavalan. Checked November 2026.