Taiwan Trip Summary, Tips & Guide: Taipei & Taichung
During last Chinese New Year, my mom, sister and I went for a 8 days 7 nights trip to Taiwan. We covered Taipei and Taichung during this trip and hopefully we'll return next time to visit the other cities. I'll be summarising my trip in this post and I'll also share some tips which might be useful for your next visit to Taiwan! I'll write about some attractions in more detailed in separate posts.
Where To Visit
DAY ONE
We arrived at Taoyuan International Airport in the afternoon and then took the MRT to our Airbnb at Zhongshan. I was very sick during my first day in Taiwan so we only went Ximending for dinner then stayed in our accommodation for the rest of the evening.
DAY TWO
I think this is the most typical-touristy-day out of all 8 days. Our first destination of the day is Liberty Square, a public plaza and home to National Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall, National Concert Hall and National Theatre. After that we had lunch at the original Din Tai Fung Restaurant at Xinyi Road and headed to Taipei 101, the tallest building in Taiwan. We wanted to get a nicer view of the building so we walked to National Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Memorial Hall. Then, we hiked up Elephant Mountain for a sunset view of the city. For dinner, we had street food at Shilin Night Market then we shopped a little before heading back to our Airbnb to rest.
DAY THREE
On the third day, we visited Shifen Old Street and Shifen Waterfall. We hopped on the wrong train and only arrived in the afternoon so our initial plan to visit Jiufen after that was cancelled since it was already getting quite late. Later at night we had street food for dinner at Raohe Night Market.
DAY FOUR
We visited Jiufen Old Street on our fourth day. I think this was one of my favourite places in Taiwan. It has an old town atmosphere and the whole place looks like a film set. There are many interesting shops selling local food and souvenirs. It can be very packed during weekends or holidays so it would be best to visit during weekdays to get nice pictures of the sceneries without getting photobombed by other tourists. After visiting Jiufen, we took the train back to the city and went to Tamsui Old Street to watch the sunset and have dinner.
DAY FIVE
We left our luggages in a hotel in Ximending in the morning before we headed to the bus terminal station to get to Taichung. We forgot to book our tickets in advance so the queue was extremely long due to CNY and we had to wait for almost 2 hours before getting on the bus. The bus ride was 2 hours and then we took a taxi to get to our homestay. Since it was CNY eve, almost every shop was closed and we spent half of our day wandering in the empty city T^T At night we went Fengjia Night Market for dinner, but half the stalls there weren't opened :'(
DAY SIX
We booked a local tour from a Facebook page since public transportation in Taichung isn't very convenient. Our first destination of the day was Carton King, a park where almost everything is made of cardboard. Since it was spring, the time where flowers bloom, our tour guide brought us to Muxinquan Leisure Farm which was filled with many beautiful pink cherry blossom trees. After that, we stopped by the Mushroom Farm to take a look at how mushrooms are grown and harvested. Then we visited Qianhua Garden, a beautiful garden where a few idol dramas had filmed at. Before heading back to our homestay, we had taro balls from one of the most famous shops among the locals. We went Fengjia Night Market again for dinner, and this time it was super packed we couldn't even walk without our shoulders hitting on other strangers.
DAY SEVEN
Before leaving back to Taipei, we went Miyahara for their famous ice cream which was amazing. The queue was very long but definitely worth the wait! We took a bus back to Taipei and spent the rest of our day in Ximending walking around and mostly eating. At night we just watched street performances and enjoyed the cooling weather.
DAY EIGHT
On our last day we queued for an hour for breakfast in Ximending then left to the airport since our flight was in the afternoon and we didn't think we have enough time to visit other places anymore.
How to Get Around
Public transportation in Taiwan is pretty convenient, especially in Taipei.
MRT: The easiest, fastest and most convenient way to travel around in Taipei. They arrive very often so you don't have to wait too long for the next train to come. You can download the app Go! Taipei Metro which provides the route map of Taipei Metro, station exit information, estimated arrival time, station facilities and many more. There are a few lines in the MRT system so it can be quite confusing to get from one place to another if you have to transfer but this app has a journey planner which tells you where to get off to transfer.
TRA: This is the main railway service in Taiwan. Tourists take the TRA to visit destinations such as Keelung, Ruifang (transfer to Jiufen & Shifen), and Hualien. You can get on the train from Taipei Main Station, Songshan Station or Nangang Station. It's important to check the time and arrive early or you'll end up getting on the wrong train like me because the system can be quite confusing since they don't display the information in detail like the MRT. You can download the app 台鐵e訂通 which shows you the time, price and which track to board the train.
HSR: High-speed rail line which connects major cities such as Taipei, Taoyuan, Taichung, Tainan and Kaohsiung in the west coast of Taiwan. It's faster than the TRA but also more expensive. Tickets can be bought online or at the train stations.
Public Bus: Taiwan's public bus system is well developed especially in Taipei where it covers most places in the city. You may download BusTracker Taiwan for bus information and bus journey planner.
Taxi: Taking a taxi can be expensive as compared to other modes of transport but in cities like Taichung where public transport is less accessible, it could be the only way to get to your destination.
I would recommend getting an Easy Card, something very similar to Touch'n Go in Malaysia. You can use it to conveniently ride the Taipei MRT, TRA, buses and many more in Taiwan without having to constantly take out your wallet to pay for your ticket. You can easily buy one from most convenient stores or at MRT stations and you'll be able to refund your balance at MRT stations before you go back.
How to Get to Taichung from Taipei:
There are a few ways to travel to Taichung from Taipei and back. HSR is the fastest but also most expensive. TRA is fast too but still not as fast as HSR, but it is cheaper. We took the bus, which is the cheapest but slowest way to get to Taichung. There are a few bus companies that service the Taipei-Taichung line, including UBus, Kuo-Kuang, Aloha, Ho-Hsin and many more. We took Kuo-Kuang since they come around most often. You can purchase your ticket and get on the bus at the Taipei Intercity Bus Terminal.
How to Stay Connected
Most places in the cities have free wifi but if you're on the streets, you won't have access to the internet to help you navigate to your destination or to check your bus route or train arrival time. I rented a portable wifi device from Travel Recommends which gave me unlimited access to stable internet connection when I was in Taiwan. It allows you to share it with up to 5 devices and it's very affordable, with daily rates starting from only RM15. Besides Taiwan, Travel Recommends also provide rental services for other countries such as Vietnam, South Korea, Thailand and Europe. Rent your own portable WiFi router here now!
Where to Stay
During my whole trip in Taiwan I stayed in a total of 3 different places.
On our first four nights in Taipei we rented a room with two queen sized beds through Airbnb in Zhongshan. The place is not walking distance from any major attractions in the city but its 6 minutes away from the MRT station so it's still pretty convenient for us. The room is clean and nicely decorated with a lot of space to open up our luggage, not to mention it's quite affordable. The only downside is that it can be noisy at night since there's a club upstairs but the host warned us about it and provided us with earplugs. We paid a total of RM808 for 3 person for 4 nights. More details here.
While we were in Taichung we stayed at a homestay we found on Facebook. It's near Fengjia Market so it was convenient for us to walk there in the evening for dinner. When we arrived, the door was locked and we had to wait for the host to come and get us. Apparently there were some complications between the host of the homestay and the owner of the building so they locked the building. The host brought us to another building which was also his but it wasn't as nice so we only had to pay the original price for our stay instead of the increased price (since it was CNY). The host even bought us dessert as an apology for the inconvenience. I wouldn't recommend this homestay since I'm not sure whether the host has resolved this problem, but if you're interested you can contact him through his FB page here.
On our last night we stayed in a triple deluxe room in a hotel located right in Ximending. The room is quite small, we couldn't put our luggage on the floor but it was clean and neat. I'd say it was the most comfortable stay since it's the only hotel we stayed in. It was very convenient for us, we could go shopping around in Ximending then go back to our hotel to leave our stuffs before continuing to shop for more. You can check for availability and book a room here.
I'll be posting more about the places I visited in separate posts soon so stay tuned!
