Taipei Destination Guide

The Best Eating City in Asia That Nobody Argues About

Taipei is quietly one of the most enjoyable cities in Asia to spend four nights in, and it gets a fraction of the attention that Bangkok or Singapore attract. It is safe to the point of being remarkable, the metro is clean and simple, people go out of their way to help visitors, and the food runs from street stalls to some of the most serious restaurants in the region without any awkwardness in between. Behind it sits the National Palace Museum, which holds the imperial collection carried out of Beijing, and around it sit mountains, hot springs and a coastline, all within an hour of the city.

The planning decision: how far out of the city you go

Three to four nights covers Taipei itself comfortably. The question is what else. Jiufen and the northeast coast make an easy half day and are best late in the afternoon when the coaches leave. Yangmingshan, the volcanic park on the city's northern edge, is a morning. Further afield, the high speed rail runs down the west of the island and puts Tainan, the old capital and the country's other great food city, within about two hours, and Kaohsiung a little beyond that. Taroko Gorge on the east coast is the country's most spectacular landscape, but access there has been significantly affected by earthquake damage in recent years and the current position needs confirming for your dates rather than assumed.

Autumn, a damp winter and a summer with weather risk

October through December is the best stretch, warm, dry and clear. March through May is pleasant and increasingly humid as it goes on. June through September is hot and heavily humid, and it is also typhoon season, which in Taipei usually means a day or two of disruption rather than a lost trip but is worth building slack around. January and February are cool, grey and damp in a way that surprises people, though the hot springs make more sense then than at any other time. Lunar New Year is the one date to check hard: the city empties, a great many restaurants and shops close for several days, and it can be a strange time to arrive.

Where to base, and how the city is laid out

Xinyi is the modern district, built around Taipei 101, with the malls, the newer hotels and a lot of the polished dining. Zhongshan is the walkable middle, with a Japanese era grid, small bars, bookshops and the best balance of location and character. Da'an is residential and green, with the cafes, the Yongkang Street food strip and Daan Forest Park, and it is where people who live here would tell you to stay. Ximending is young and loud. Taoyuan International sits about forty minutes out with a direct airport rail line, and Songshan sits inside the city for domestic and some short regional flights. The metro reaches everything, and taxis are inexpensive and easy.

Stay strategy in a city with a small but strong top end

Mandarin Oriental Taipei on Dunhua Road is the grandest hotel in the city and the most comfortable of the international choices. The Regent Taipei sits in Zhongshan and remains the local establishment favorite, with a shopping arcade underneath it. W Taipei is in Xinyi with the views over 101. Grand Hyatt Taipei sits beside the tower and is the most convenient for anything in that district. Kimpton Da An is smaller, newer and better placed for walking. If hot springs are the point, an overnight at a Beitou property with private thermal baths is worth doing on its own rather than as a day trip.

When to begin

Three months is comfortable for most of the year. Lunar New Year and the big trade weeks, when the technology industry brings the world to the city, fill hotels across every category and want six months or more, so those dates are checked at the outset. The restaurant scene here books on shorter notice than Tokyo or Hong Kong, but the small counters that matter still want three to four weeks, and a guided morning at the National Palace Museum is worth arranging in advance because the collection is far too large to approach without help.

Four experiences worth building the days around

• The National Palace Museum with a guide, early in the day, focused on a handful of rooms rather than attempted whole.
• A night market sequence through Raohe and Ningxia rather than the largest and most photographed one.
• A Beitou afternoon in the thermal valley, with a private bath and a slow dinner afterwards.
• Jiufen and the northeast coast late in the day, when the tea houses on the hillside are lit and the crowds have gone.

Who this trip suits

Taipei suits food travelers completely, from street level to fine dining. It suits independent travelers and anyone traveling solo, because it is about as easy and as safe as a large Asian city gets. It suits families with children of any age. It suits a first trip to Asia, for the same reasons. It suits business travelers with technology interests. And it suits anyone who wants a four night city stop that is not exhausting.

When another plan may fit better

Taipei is not a beach destination, and the coast within reach of the city is scenic rather than swimmable. If you want sand and warm water, look south or to Phuket. If you want imperial architecture at scale rather than the collection that came out of it, Beijing is where that is. And if nightlife and volume are what you are after, Bangkok operates at a different level entirely.

Plan it with one accountable advisor

Tell us your month, how many nights the city gets and whether the island beyond it is in scope, and we will set the district, the museum morning, the rail and the tables in an order that holds. Our luxury leisure travel planning builds Taipei into a wider Asia itinerary when that is what the trip needs.