One island, every kind of day.
Night markets in Taipei, sky lanterns on the Pingxi line, marble gorge in Hualien and tea terraces an hour from the metro. Here is what each one is like, what it costs, and where to book it.
Seven days you will not want back.
First visit or fifth, these are the bookings that hold a Taiwan itinerary together: the coast road to Jiufen, ten tastings through Taipei, and the morning somebody else drives.
Full-Day Private Custom Taipei City Tour
Private custom Taipei day tour with hotel pickup, air-conditioned car, and smart stops from Longshan Temple to Taipei 101.
From $126 per person
Read the review →
★ 4.7The one everybody booksFrom Taipei: Yehliu, Jiufen, and Pingxi Day TourFrom $65892 reviews
★ 4.6Leaves before the coachesJiufen Night View and Shifen Day TourFrom $31870 reviews
★ 4.6Six seats, not sixtyTaipei 101 Observatory Deck Entry TicketFrom $19847 reviews
★ 5.0Good first day outFull-Day Private Northern Taiwan Tour from Taipei with PickupFrom $126782 reviews
★ 5.0Books up in seasonThe Award-Winning Private Food Tour of Taipei: The 10 TastingsFrom $90716 reviews
★ 4.7Rain or shineFood Tours w/ Top 10 Taiwan Food (Breakfast/Dinner)From $44517 reviews
The coast road does the heavy lifting.
Wind-carved rock at Yehliu, a lantern written on and let go over the Pingxi railway, then Jiufen’s lantern-lit stairs once the coaches have gone. One loop, three landscapes, back in the city for a late dinner. This is the day most first visits build the rest of the trip around.
You have one day out of Taipei. Which way?
Taiwan is narrow enough that the choice is really a compass point. North puts you on the coast and in Jiufen by dark. East is the gorge and a longer day. Inland is the lake, and it repays a night. Pick a direction and everything behind it is already priced.
Half a day each way
North, to the coast
9 hours · from $31 · 1,654 reviews
Yehliu’s mushroom rocks in the morning, a lantern released on the Pingxi tracks at lunch, Jiufen for the stairs and the tea houses at dusk. Buses leave Taipei from around eight and most versions are home by nine. It is the busiest day out on the island for a reason, and the small-group runs stay well ahead of the coach parties.
Compare the coast trips →
Long day east
East, to the gorge
from $180 · 214 reviews
Taroko is marble cut three hundred metres deep, with a road and a footbridge threaded through it. From Hualien it is a comfortable day; from Taipei it means an early train and a late one back. Private cars get you to Swallow Grotto and the Qingshui cliffs before the tour buses arrive.
See the Taroko days →
Better with a night
Inland, to the lake
from $715 · 578 reviews
Sun Moon Lake sits in the middle of the island, ringed by tea slopes and temples, and it is worth the drive. Single days from Taipei are long. Two-day versions add Nantou tea country and Alishan, and give you the lake at first light when the mist is still on the water.
See the lake trips →
Taiwan eats standing up.
Shilin fills first, Raohe queues for the pepper buns, Ningxia keeps the oyster omelettes coming until midnight. None of it has an English menu worth the name. Go once with somebody who knows which stall is the good one and the rest of the week you can order for yourself.
The food tour is the city tour.
Beef noodle soup, braised pork over rice, a pepper bun straight off the clay oven wall. Taipei explains itself faster over three hours of eating than it ever does from a coach window.
Oolong grows an hour from the metro.
The terraces above Pinglin and Maokong produce tea that gets shipped worldwide, and the growers will sit you down and pour it properly. Gondola up, a long slow tasting, a walk back down through the leaves.
The tea trade built these streets.
Dihua Street still sells dried scallop and herbal medicine out of shophouses put up for the tea merchants, and Longshan Temple has been crowded since 1738. The old quarter is ten minutes from Taipei Main Station and almost nobody walks it without a guide.
Every region is a different trip.
Taipei for the markets and the tower. Hualien for the gorge. Nantou for the lake. Chiayi for the sunrise above the clouds. Tainan for temples and shaved ice. Kaohsiung for the harbour and the road down to Kenting.
Start from what you feel like doing.
Twelve tiles, twelve kinds of afternoon. Open the one that sounds like yours and every option behind it already carries a price and a write-up.
Taipei is an hour from almost everything.
Hot springs on the north edge of town, a geopark of wind-carved rock past Keelung, tea terraces up the Beishi river valley. The trains are cheap, the buses are frequent, and the return leg is part of every ticket below.
Three days that get it right.
Taiwan does not fit into one trip, but the opening three days almost plan themselves. City, coast, gorge, in that order, with the longest travel day last.
Day 1
Start in the old quarter
Longshan Temple while the incense is thick, Dihua Street for the dried-goods shophouses, then Taipei 101 at dusk and a night market after. Short distances, no early alarm.
Plan day one →
Day 2
Take the coast loop
Yehliu first thing, the Shifen waterfall and a lantern on the tracks by lunch, Jiufen for the stairs at dusk. Book the small-group version and you stay ahead of the coaches all day.
Plan day two →
Day 3
Go east for the gorge
Early train down the coast to Hualien, a car through Taroko to Swallow Grotto and the suspension bridge, the Qingshui cliffs on the way back. Check the road status the night before.
Plan day three →
The reviews we just finished.
★ 5.01-day Tour to Sun Moon Lake from Taipei by High Speed RailFrom $48511 reviews
★ 4.5Round Trip Sun Moon Lake Private Tour from TaipeiFrom $30011 reviews
★ 5.0Private Keelung Food Tour with Local Markets & TastingsFrom $30011 reviews
★ 5.0Private Cruise Tour from Keelung: Trip to TaipeiFrom $21011 reviews
★ 4.0Alishan One Day Tour from TaichungFrom $8011 reviews
★ 4.9Yangmingshan, Shifen, Jiufen & Yehliu Private TourFrom $21111 reviews
★ 5.0Taipei Private Walking Tour with a LocalFrom $4811 reviews
★ 4.7National Palace Museum and Taiwan Aborigines MuseumFrom $1511 reviews