5 Days in Taipei and Beyond
Five days is our 4-day plan plus the day that separates a real Taiwan trip from a Taipei-only one: riding the High Speed Rail out of the city entirely. For the deep in-city version with no day trips at all, see our 5-day Taipei itinerary .
Book these before you go:
- Your Taipei hotel : base yourself centrally since every day starts from here
- A guided Jiufen, Shifen and Yehliu day tour : removes the bus-timetable juggling on day two
| Day | Focus | Transit from Taipei |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Land, EasyCard, Elephant Mountain sunset, Raohe Night Market | in-city |
| 2 | Jiufen, Shifen, Yehliu Geopark (the north coast loop) | ~1-1.5 hrs to Jiufen, ~75 min bus to Yehliu |
| 3 | Tamsui: Fort San Domingo, the old street, Fisherman’s Wharf | ~40 min MRT, direct |
| 4 | Beitou hot springs and Yangmingshan’s volcanic trails | Beitou ~30 min MRT direct; Yangmingshan ~30-45 min bus |
| 5 | HSR day trip to Taichung, the real home of bubble tea | ~1 hr by High Speed Rail |
Day 1: Land, get sorted, see the city in an afternoon
Land at Taoyuan (TPE), take the Airport MRT into town, and get an EasyCard the second you’re through the gate. Skip a long observatory queue at Taipei 101 and go straight to Elephant Mountain instead for the sunset skyline shot, free, a steep 20 to 40 minute climb. Dinner at Raohe Street Night Market rather than Shilin.
Day 2: The north coast loop
Jiufen, Shifen and Yehliu Geopark in one long day. Jiufen is a mountain town, about an hour to an hour and a half out by MRT plus the 1062 bus, or by train to Ruifang and a connecting bus. Shifen follows, with its old railway street and the sky lantern releases. Yehliu Geopark closes the loop, about 75 minutes out via bus 1815. A guided combo tour handles all three legs in around nine hours.
Day 3: Tamsui
Tamsui sits at the end of the MRT red line: Fort San Domingo, the old street, and Fisherman’s Wharf for a sunset that earns its reputation. No bus transfer needed, just the MRT straight there and back.
Day 4: Beitou and Yangmingshan, the volcanic day
Beitou via the direct Xinbeitou MRT branch for free foot baths or a paid full soak, then a short bus from Jiantan MRT station to Yangmingshan National Park for the sulfur vents at Xiaoyoukeng and the hiking trails through the caldera. Go on a weekday if you can.
Day 5: HSR day trip to Taichung
This is the day that separates a real Taiwan trip from a Taipei-only one. Taiwan’s High Speed Rail gets you to Taichung in about an hour, and Taichung, not Taipei, is where bubble tea was actually invented, whatever the chalkboard outside every Ximending cafe implies. Spend the day there: it has its own night markets, its own pace, and enough distance from the capital that it stops feeling like an extension of Taipei.
Is it worth pushing further south than Taichung on a five-day trip? Not really, not as a same-day round trip. Tainan and Kaohsiung are both under two hours out by HSR and worth knowing about for a longer trip, but a there-and-back to either from Taipei starts to eat too much of the day in transit. Taichung is the better fit here; save the deeper south for when you have a week to give it.
Back in Taipei by evening, close the trip with dinner at whichever night market or noodle shop earned the best memory this week. Book HSR tickets a day or two ahead during peak season; weekday trains rarely sell out, but weekend departures around holidays can.
Getting around and gotchas
The EasyCard covers city transit and most convenience stores, but keep cash on hand for Jiufen, Shifen and rural bus fares. Typhoon season runs June through October, peaking August and September, and can cancel a day trip outright, so keep some slack in the schedule if you’re travelling then.
One concrete tip
Buy your Taichung-bound HSR ticket at the station kiosk with your EasyCard linked rather than online the night before if your plans are still loose. Same-day tickets are almost always available outside peak holiday weekends.