Transportation
If you are arriving at TPE airport, you can easily get to Taipei via the Airport Metro on the basement level of the terminals. You can take the express train directly from the TPE Taoyuan airport to Taipei Main Station. Once you arrive in Taipei Station, you will be able to transfer to Taipei MRT, which is pretty extensive within Taipei city and the surrounding suburbs.
Taipei city
Food
Breakfast
- Fu Hang Soy Milk 阜杭豆漿 – THE breakfast spot in Taipei but be prepared for a long line all the time. It is full of both tourists and locals!
- Full Want – Excellent breakfast sandwich!
Coffee
- Simple Kaffa Flagship Store 興波咖啡 – Great coffee and atmosphere. They took an old building and gave it a new, hipster vibe for coffee lovers. The owner won some coffee award so the coffee is equally good and highly recommended. If they’re offering Taiwan coffee, I highly recommend you try it! It might be on the pricier side.
Drinks
- Nonsense Cocktail Bar – in the Wenhua district.
- Taihu Brewing Landmark 啜飲室 – Local micro-brewery in Xinyi District. It’s pretty close to Elephant Mountain and Taipei 101. This area has all the malls.
- Wa-Shu Cocktail Bar
- Ounce Taipei Cocktail Bar
- Popular boba chains all over Taiwan:
- Milksha 迷客夏 – fresh milk based
- KEBUKE Tea Co. 可不可熟成紅茶 – tea focused
- TP Tea 茶湯會
- 樺達奶茶
- 麻古茶坊
- Sprino Tea 三分春色
Snacks
- Deep Fry 初炸小食店 – Modern fusion with traditional Taiwanese popcorn chicken
- Sunny Hills Minsheng Park Store – World famous pineapple cake brand! This store offers free tasting with tea. I also recommend their new banana cookie. This neighborhood also has a lot of cute little shops and Americanized coffee shops nearby.
Night Markets
- Shilin Night Market (h) – The biggest night market in Taipei and the most tourist friendly. Closest MRT station: Jiantan MRT Station.
- Ningxia Night Market (f) – This night market has a really good rice ball dessert soup, but anything in the night market is delicious!
- Gongguan Night Market (c) – This night market is known for having new great stuff for young people. It’s the closest to Taiwan University college town, so there are a lot of students nearby.
Travel by district areas
Older historic district – west of the Taipei Main Station
Dadaocheng 大稻埕
This side of town is one of my favorite areas to visit in Taipei. It borders the river, which used to be full of merchants, traders. This is also known as the new year’s shopping street for lunar new year.
- Lin Hua Tai Tea 林華泰茶行 – the back of the building had their tea roasting site. Tea here is okay, but it’s a fun way to see how it’s done historically. You can get it by the kilogram.
- STARBUCKS RESERVE Bao’an Shop – one of the couple locations in Taiwan where Starbucks revived old buildings.
- Stores on the Dihua Street Cultural District
- FU Coffee 孵咖啡-孵珈琲洋行(咖啡專賣）
- Yong Le Market 永樂市場
- Traditional sticky rice – 林合發油飯店
- Dadaocheng Wharf Container Market
- Feel free to ask the visitor center and get their recommendation for Taipei as well Dadaocheng Visitor Center
Wanhua / Ximen
- Bangka Longshan Temple – This is right next to the MRT station. This is one of the two most popular/visited temples in Taipei.
- Beigang Sweet Soup – Traditional dessert soup with rice balls, and if you can find hot grass jelly, you should try that!
- The Red House – Historic theater building.
Newer hip district – East of the Taipei Main Station
East district
Yongkang Street
This is the district where Din Tai Fung started from. There are now multiple stores around Taipei.
In Taiwan, Din Tai Fung offers more customizations, you are allowed to request the exact number of servings you need of each menu item, you do not have to order 10 pieces at a time like in the US.
- Tian Jin Onion Pancake – Google reviews are not that great, but it tasted pretty good from what I remembered years ago!
- Yongkang Beef Noodles – This is a very popular spot. If there is no line and you happen to be hungry, I would check it out. Otherwise, I don’t necessary recommend you waiting in line for this since there are tons of other great beef noodle options in Taiwan!
Xinyi/Da-an
- Hiking: Elephant Mountain
Nearby Taipei Main Station
Zhongshan MRT Station – This is a neighborhood with hidden gems to walk around. I recommend exploring Chifeng St, and explore all the small boutique shops, art studios, coffee shops, and restaurants.
North of Taipei Main Station
Tamsui – suburb at the end of the red line. This is is perfect for a half day visit!
- Fort San Domingo – This historic building was built by the Dutch during the colonial period. It’s on top of a little hill with a great view of the ocean.
- 新建成餅店 – Traditional pastry shop.
Yangminshan 陽明山
Hot spring area right next to Yangminshan
Essentially it’s the volcanic water from the mountain and accessible via Taipei MRT New Beitou Station
- Beitou Hot Spring Museum
- Beitou Public Hotspring
- If you want to do hot spring in Taipei, it’s pretty common to get hot spring ticket only at the hotel or hot spring resort without spending a night there.
Tourist spots to check out around Yangminshan:
Hiking trails
Here is a list highlighting some of the best trails in the area. I recommend checking out the visitor center (Yangminshan National Park Visitor Center) and ask the park rangers for their recommendations. A lot of the areas are pretty spread out, so they might have shuttle info available to provide as well.
| Trail | Distance | Elevation | Time | Difficulty |
| Qixingshan Trail | 5km | 584m | 2.5 hr | moderate |
| Menghuanhu Lookout | 3km | 168m | 1.5 hr | easy-moderate |
| Qingtiangang Circular Trail I’ve been to this one and there are cows along the trail | 2.4km | 74m | 1 hr | easy |
| Datunshan Trail | 1.6km | 247m | 1 hr | easy-moderate |
| Xiaoguanyinshan Trail | 5.5km | 275m | 4.5 hr | moderate-hard |
| Tianmu Historic Trail | 2.8km | 180m | 1.5 hour | easy |
| Pingding Ancient Canal | 2.3km | 100m | 1 hour | easy |
More info: Yangmingshan Trail – 8 beautiful secret spots worth visiting
Northeast – New Taipei City
Day trip route #1: Jiufen – historic mining town
Must try traditional food:
- Taro chewy balls 芋圓 (sweet) – there should be tons of options for this, so feel free to pick any store you like. Here s a store reference of what this food would look like: 賴阿婆芋圓 Lai Ah Po Taro Balls
- Tsingtuan / 草仔粿 (savory green exterior dough with bamboo filling) – here is a store as reference: 阿蘭草仔粿 . Essentially I think any of these you see near the old street would be good.
- One of the oldest shops standing, Amei Teahouse, is a great place to enjoy some local tea with an amazing view of the village!
Fusion food option:
- Fusion food and reservation only. Shipi 23 Snack Bar
- Tea ice cream: Day Eat Tea House &
Other great spots to check:
How to get there:
Day trip route #2: Pingxi and Houtong
Here’s another route option that I recommend, people usually go to these two places together for a day trip. When you transfer at the Ruifeng train station into the local train branch, these are on the same rail line.
- Pingxi Station – Pingxi is known for setting the red wish lantern up into the sky! You write the wishes onto the lantern and let it go like a hot air balloon.
- Check out the first sky lantern store in Pingxi Old Street, and make sure to compare pricing if you want to try this in the area!
- There’s a (relatively) small old street to walk around as you’d like
- Houtong Cat Village – right next to the Houtong train station.
How to get there:
Day trip route #3: Ruifang and Shifen
- Ruifang train station is the main transfer point when you get into this area. There’s also a Ruifang Old Street right across from the train station to walk around.
- Shifen Station – there is a waterfall in this area. This is the train station stop between Houtong and Pingxi.
How to get there:
