Taipei is where you land. The island starts an hour up the coast.
Which Jiufen and Shifen day trip actually stops at the waterfall. What the Taipei 101 sunset slot costs. Whether Taroko justifies the ride to Hualien. Reviews of every tour you can book in Taiwan.
Shifen, Taipei 101, a table of small plates, and the road to Taroko.
The four bookings a first week in Taiwan is built around. What each one costs, and what the people who took it say.
01The north coast dayYehliu, Jiufen, and Pingxi Day TourWind-carved rock at Yehliu, a lantern let go on the Pingxi tracks, Jiufen tea houses after dark. One minibus, three stops.
02The first eveningTaipei 101 Observatory Deck Entry TicketThe observatory deck at dusk, when the city switches on and the daytime queue has gone to dinner.
03The eating nightThe Award-Winning Private Food Tour of Taipei: The 10 TastingsTen tastings through the lanes with somebody who orders in Taiwanese. Come hungry and skip lunch.
04The Hualien dayPrivate Taroko Gorge Day Tour from Hualien with Local ExpertMarble walls, a river running jade green, and the cliff road down to the Pacific. The one argument for leaving the north.
Yehliu, Shifen, Jiufen: the day nearly every Taiwan trip books first.
An hour out of Taipei the coastline turns into wind-carved rock, a waterfall you can walk behind, and a hill town lit red after dark. Three ways to take it, and what it costs to get on each one.
Taipei first, then the coast, the gorge and the lake.
A capital of temples and night markets, a headland of wind-carved stone, a hill town under lanterns, marble walls above a jade river, a lake in the middle of the island and a harbour city of pagodas. Six starting points, and the best day out in each.
The days out Taiwan books solid.
Every Taiwan tour review →These fill their minibuses first, week after week, and the reason is different for every one of them.
1
Shifen, Jiufen, and Yehliu Guided Day Trip
Travel from Taipei to Shifen, Jiufen, and Yehliu Geopark in about nine hours. You’ll release a wish lantern, see Shifen Waterfall, sample Jiufen street food, and spot the Queen’s Head rock. Shared tours meet at Taipei Main Station, while private tours include hotel pickup. Guides may speak English, Chinese, or Japanese.
From · $31
Read our review →
2
Full-Day Private Custom Taipei City Tour
from $126
3
Yehliu, Jiufen, and Pingxi Day Tour
from $65
4
Jiufen Night View and Shifen Day Tour
from $31
5
Taipei 101 Observatory Deck Entry Ticket
from $19
6
Full-Day Private Northern Taiwan Tour from Taipei with Pickup
from $126
7
The Award-Winning Private Food Tour of Taipei: The 10 Tastings
from $90
8
5-Day Best of Taiwan: Sun Moon Lake, Tainan, Kaohsiung, Hualien
from $715
Taiwan eats late, cheap, and standing up.
Beef noodles at a counter, xiaolongbao pleated in front of you, a stall at Shilin that has sold one thing since the sixties. Book the walk that orders for you, or the class that sends you home able to do it yourself.
Taipei: one temple, one tower, and four hours of night market.
The city is flat, humid and forgiving. Mornings belong to the Palace Museum and the memorial gates, the afternoon to a hot spring at the top of the red line, and the evening to whichever market you can walk home from.
- 1Shifen, Jiufen, and Yehliu Guided Day Tripfrom $31
- 2Full-Day Private Custom Taipei City Tourfrom $126
- 3Yehliu, Jiufen, and Pingxi Day Tourfrom $65
What a Taiwanese day out really costs.
Every tour on the site, grouped by what it costs. A good number of the best Taiwanese days come in under the price of the ride from the airport.
Old-town walks, temple mornings, market crawls and the observatory ticket.
The full-day standards: the north-coast circuit, Sun Moon Lake, a food walk, a cooking class.
Private drivers, Taroko with a guide out of Hualien, and the round-island runs.
Three things that only happen in Taiwan.
Hot water and mountain tea turn up all over Asia. A paper lantern released over a working railway line, a Japanese bathhouse valley twenty minutes from a capital, and the terraces that grow Wenshan Baozhong do not.
The sky lanterns at Shifen
The old coal line up the Keelung river valley carries visitors now, and at Shifen the track runs straight between two rows of shops. You brush a wish onto a paper lantern, the shopkeeper lights the fuel cell underneath, and the whole thing lifts over the rails and away up the gorge. Each colour is supposed to stand for something; nobody minds if you choose the one you like the look of.
- 1Yehliu, Jiufen, and Pingxi Day Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · 892 reviews
- 2Small-Group: Yehliu, Jiufen & Pingxi Day Tour from Taipei★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 463 reviews
- 3Private Tour to Jiufen, Yehliu Geopark, and Pingxi★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 435 reviews
A hot spring valley on the metro
Twenty minutes north of Taipei Main the ground starts steaming. The Japanese built a bathhouse town in this valley a century ago and the habit stuck: a public pool stepped up the hillside, a green sulphur lake too hot to go near, and hotels that pipe the water straight into the room. The wooden bathhouse at the bottom of the hill is now a museum and free to walk into.
- 1Beitou and Yangmingshan National Park Day Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.6 · 307 reviews
- 2Beitou and Yangmingshan Day Tour from Taipei★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 92 reviews
- 3Taiwan TST : Private Tour Taipei, Yangmingshan, Beitou, Tamsui★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 32 reviews
The tea mountains above Taipei
An hour southeast of the city the hills are terraced to the ridge line with Baozhong. Pickers work the rows in sleeves and straw hats, the leaves are withered and rolled the same afternoon, and the tasting at the end is poured five or six times from the same small pot until the flavour finally gives out. Thousand Island Lake sits below it, and most tours take both.
- 1Thousand Island Lake and Pinglin Tea Plantation★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · 519 reviews
- 2Pinglin Tea Culture and Maokong Guided Day Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 104 reviews
- 3Tea of Taipei: Small-Group Tour with Taipei City Sightseeing★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 63 reviews
Four Taiwanese bookings that will not wait.
Most of this island can be arranged over breakfast at the hotel. These four run on timed slots, train seats and a festival calendar that takes no interest in when your flight lands.
- 01Taipei 101 Observatory Deck Entry TicketEntry is sold by time slot and the hour either side of sunset goes first. Arrive without one and you queue twice, once for a ticket and once for the lift.
- 02Half Day Private Tour to Jiufen, Shifen Waterfall & Pingxi Sky LanternAround the Lantern Festival the Pingxi valley fills completely and the small-group seats are gone weeks ahead of the date.
- 03Private Taroko Gorge Day Tour from Hualien with Local ExpertThe gorge runs on the east-coast railway, and the Hualien seats sell out before the tours do. Book the day out and the train in the same sitting.
- 045-Day Best of Round Taiwan Island TourA round-island run commits a week in one go: rail seats, hotels and a driver. It is not something you assemble the night before.
Taipei rains sideways from May, and the Keelung side gets the worst of it.
The plum rains arrive in May, typhoon season carries through to October, and the north coast can be soaked while the capital stays dry. The answer is indoors and it is one of the better parts of the trip: a bathhouse valley, a covered market, somebody’s kitchen, a museum with four thousand years of China in it.
By place — the capital, the coast and the island south
By kind of day — street food, hot water, marble or rail
Taipei, the north coast, the gorge, the lake, then down to Kaohsiung.
Just added to the Taiwan list.
More new Taiwan reviews →
Vintage Taipei – Best of Taiwan and Sunset Walking Tour
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8 Hours Private Day Tour in Wulai with Benz Vito
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Keelung Shore Excursion: Xiangshan Hiking & Classic Taipei Culture Private Tour
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Alishan Day Tour from Chiayi (Incl. Park Entrance)
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Yilan 1-Day Private Tour to Kavalan Whisky & Cultural Gems
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Private Yangmingshan National Park Hiking Day Tour from Taipei
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Keelung Shore Excursion: Private 6H Natural Wonder & Seafood Tour
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