Taipei, Taiwan 6 Day Itinerary

Taipei 6-Day Travel Itinerary

Taipei has one of the lowest costs of living of any Asian capital, yet it punches well above its weight on food, architecture and public transport. The MRT is cleaner than most European metro systems, the night markets operate until 2 am, and locals are genuinely helpful to confused tourists. Six days is enough to scratch the surface without exhausting yourself.

Getting In

From Taoyuan International Airport, take the Airport MRT directly to Taipei Main Station. Express trains run every 15 minutes and take 36 minutes. The fare is NT$150 with an EasyCard, or NT$160 for a single-journey token. Buy the EasyCard at the airport arrivals hall for a NT$100 deposit plus your first load: it gets you a 20% discount on all subsequent MRT rides in the city. Taxi drivers at the airport have a well-documented habit of refusing the meter; the airport MRT is faster anyway.

Where to Stay

City Hall MRT station (on the blue line in the Xinyi district) puts you within walking distance of Taipei 101 and a short ride from everything else. The W Taipei and Grand Hyatt both sit in this area at the upper end of the price scale. For something mid-range, the Eslite Hotel above Eslite Spectrum Songyan is an interesting choice, genuinely designed with the bookshop aesthetic running through the building.

Day 1: Arrival and Xinyi District

After checking in, walk to Taipei 101. The observatory on the 89th floor gives you the city grid in one sweep and is worth the queue for orientation purposes. Skip the Starbucks downstairs and instead head to the basement food hall for an early dinner, where Din Tai Fung operates one of its flagship Taipei outlets. The xiaolongbao here are the benchmark: thin skin, hot broth, correct ratio of pork to gelatin. Queue early or book ahead.

Finish the evening at Raohe Night Market, a 600-metre covered strip in the Songshan district. The pepper buns baked in clay ovens at the market entrance are non-negotiable. Bartering is normal for non-food stalls.

Day 2: Temples and Yongkang Street

Start at Longshan Temple in Wanhua, the oldest district in Taipei. The temple is an active place of worship, not a museum, so behave accordingly: dress modestly and do not photograph people in prayer without permission. The incense smoke has been hanging over this site since 1738.

Lunch on Yongkang Street, a quiet pedestrian-friendly strip in Da’an district. Yong Kang Beef Noodle at No. 17 is a local institution with decades of continuous operation: the braised beef is properly gelatinous and the broth takes days to develop. Afternoons on this street are relaxed, with good independent coffee shops.

Daan Forest Park is a short walk away for an afternoon circuit among locals doing tai chi, cycling and feeding cats. It is where you see what Taipei looks like when it is off duty.

Dinner at Ay-Chung Flour-Rice Noodle in Ximending: oyster vermicelli in a thick sweet potato starch sauce, eaten standing at the street counter. It costs about NT$65.

Day 3: Yangmingshan and Beitou

An early start for Yangmingshan National Park, which sits in the hills 30 minutes from the city by bus from Jiantan MRT station. The park is a volcanic caldera, and the sulphur vents, hot springs and seasonal flower fields look nothing like urban Taiwan. Go on a weekday: Taipei residents fill the park on weekend mornings and the shuttle buses back up.

Beitou Hot Springs are 20 minutes downhill from Yangmingshan. The Beitou Hot Spring Museum occupies a 1913 Japanese bathhouse and is free to enter. For an actual soak, Millennium Hot Spring is a public facility costing NT$40 per entry, with separate pools at different temperatures. The water is a distinctive milky green from the radium content.

Lunch at one of the hot spring district restaurants. Yen Ji is reliably good for Japanese-influenced hot spring cuisine. Return to Taipei in the late afternoon.

Day 4: Tamsui and Yehliu

Take the MRT Red Line north to Tamsui, the end of the line and a former colonial trading port. Fort San Domingo, built by the Spanish in 1629 and later occupied by the Dutch and British, is modest in scale but the history is layered and the river views are good. The Old Street (Zhongzheng Road) has been tourist-oriented for some years now, but the fishball soup at the end of the strip is worth stopping for.

From Tamsui, buses connect to Yehliu Geopark on the north coast, where 20 million years of wave erosion have produced mushroom-shaped hoodoo formations along a rocky headland. The Queen’s Head is the most photographed formation, and the park can be busy by mid-morning. Go straight there from Tamsui before noon if possible.

Return to Taipei for dinner. The Ningxia Night Market in Datong district is smaller and less overwhelmed by tourists than Shilin. The oyster omelette here, with its scrambled egg and potato starch base, is one of the city’s best.

Day 5: Ximending and the National Palace Museum

The National Palace Museum in Shilin holds one of the world’s most significant collections of Chinese art and artifacts, including pieces moved from the Palace Museum in Beijing in 1949. The Jadeite Cabbage and the Meat-shaped Stone get the most attention, but the bronze collection is more interesting. Half a day is sufficient; the museum opens at 9 am.

Ximending in the afternoon is Taipei’s commercial youth district: covered arcades, street food, comic shops, and cosplay. The shaved ice at Mille Feuille Ice Cream is good. It is loud and fun and nothing like the morning.

For dinner, Ichiran Ramen in Ximending serves single-person booths with a precise ordering form. It is a Japanese chain but the format is worth experiencing once.

Day 6: Last Morning and Departure

Shilin Night Market operates a daytime food section from late morning. If you did not get there earlier in the trip, the giant fried chicken cutlet (ji pai) is the standard souvenir food experience. Buy souvenirs at Taipei Main Station’s underground mall or at a convenience store: 7-Eleven and FamilyMart both stock decent gifts including pineapple cake and sun cake that travel well.

The Airport MRT from Taipei Main Station to Taoyuan Terminal 1 or 2 runs every 15 minutes. Allow 90 minutes before your flight for the check-in queues at peak times.

Practical Notes

Taipei’s MRT now accepts contactless Visa and Mastercard payments directly at fare gates, so an EasyCard is useful but no longer essential. Eating and drinking on the MRT is prohibited and the fine is real. Tipping is not customary in Taiwan and can occasionally cause mild offence. The 7-Eleven ATMs work reliably with foreign cards and the exchange rate is reasonable. Street English is limited outside tourist zones; having the address of your destination written in Chinese characters on your phone is worth doing before you leave the hotel.