Taiwan
Taipei
Night markets, the imperial Chinese art collection and volcanic hot springs, all inside one exceptionally easy and exceptionally safe capital.
Taipei is Taiwan's capital, a dense city in a river basin ringed by green mountains, with Taipei 101 standing over the middle of it. It may be the easiest big city in Asia to fall for: night markets in every district, a metro that runs like clockwork, incense-thick temples between office towers, and hot springs and hiking trails inside the city limits. The National Palace Museum holds the imperial Chinese art collection carried off the mainland in 1949, which makes the city a cultural heavyweight as well as a place to eat.
Suggested stay
3–5 days
Language
Mandarin Chinese
Currency
TWD
Timezone
UTC+8
Why you'll love Taipei
The eating Night markets, beef noodle shops, soup dumplings and the bubble tea Taiwan gave the world - some of the best and cheapest eating anywhere, at almost any hour.
The mountains Elephant Mountain's steps put Taipei 101 head-on at sunset, and Yangmingshan's volcanic ridges, sulphur vents and grass domes sit half an hour from downtown on a city bus.
Hot springs Beitou is a sulphur-steaming valley at the end of a metro branch line, with public pools, a Japanese-era bathhouse and private tubs along the creek.
How easy it is The metro is clean and signed in English, the streets are safe late at night, and strangers will walk you to where you are trying to go.
Best time to visit
Apr, Oct-Dec
Warm spring · 21-28° days
25.038° N, 121.564° E
UTC+8 · Asia/Taipei
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Weather & when to go to Taipei
Month by month: typical highs and lows, rainfall and rain days.
✓ Best Apr, Oct-Dec
Conditions Jan Cool & damp · Feb Cool & humid · Mar Warming up · Apr Warm spring · May Plum rains · Jun Hot & wet · Jul Peak heat · Aug Typhoons · Sep Typhoon peak · Oct Autumn starts · Nov Dry & mild · Dec Cool & dry
Watch for Jun, Aug-Sep monsoon flooding risk · Jul-Oct typhoons risk
Cards tinted by verified verdict · big number = typical daily high, small = low · hover for conditions
When to avoid Taipei
May to September is the sticky half of the year: plum rains in May and June, then heat, humidity and the typhoon season through to September, when a big storm can shut the city for a day. February is cold, grey and drizzly - which is exactly when the hot springs and the Yangmingshan cherry blossom are at their best. October to December is the reliable window.
Top things to do in Taipei
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Taipei 101 - the observatory and the giant damper
scenic culture arts 👍 PopularFor six years the tallest building in the world, and still the thing you navigate the city by. Lifts climb to the indoor and outdoor observatories in well under a minute, and the star turn is the enormous gold tuned mass damper hanging in the shaft, which keeps the tower steady through typhoons and earthquakes.
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National Palace Museum - imperial China's art collection
culture arts history 👍 PopularWhen the Nationalists lost the civil war they shipped the imperial collection out of the Forbidden City, and it ended up on a hillside in Shilin: bronzes, Song ceramics, jade, painting and calligraphy, far more than can be shown at once, so the displays rotate. Go early, and go for the jade cabbage and the meat-shaped stone.
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Shilin Night Market - the biggest of them all
food shopping 👍 PopularThe largest and most visited of the night markets, with a basement food hall under the covered building and a grid of stalls spilling out around it. Come for oyster omelette, fried chicken cutlet the size of your face, stinky tofu, sausage and shaved ice. The eating is the point; the shopping is filler.
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Elephant Mountain - the short climb to the skyline shot
hiking scenic ⭐ Highly recommendedA steep flight of stone steps behind Xiangshan station, twenty hard minutes up, that delivers the postcard: Taipei 101 rising straight out of the city at eye level. Go an hour before sunset and stay for the lights coming on, and expect company on the boulder platforms.
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Beitou hot springs - volcanic sulphur water on the metro
wellness nature wildlife ⭐ Highly recommendedThe end of a short branch line north, where steam drifts off the milky green water of Thermal Valley and the whole village smells of sulphur. There are public pools, a beautiful Japanese-era wooden bathhouse now a museum, and private tubs in hotels along the creek. Winter is when it makes most sense.
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Longshan Temple - Wanhua's crowded working temple
culture arts historyFounded in 1738 in the city's oldest quarter and rebuilt after fire and wartime bombing, this is a genuinely busy place of worship rather than a monument: moon blocks clattering on the flagstones, evening chanting, incense thick under the carved roofs. The old streets and herb shops around it are worth the walk.
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Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall - the changing of the guard
history culture artsA vast white hall under a blue octagonal roof at the top of eighty-nine steps, facing the National Theater and Concert Hall across an enormous plaza. The hourly guard change is the set piece; the exhibits below, and the long public argument over what the place should become, tell you plenty about Taiwan.
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Raohe Street Night Market - pepper buns at the temple gate
food nightlife musicA tighter, better-tempered market than Shilin: one straight lane running from the ornate Ciyou Temple gate. The queue at the first stall is for black pepper buns slapped onto the wall of a clay oven, and the lit Rainbow Bridge over the Keelung river is a few minutes' walk away.
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Maokong Gondola - tea houses above the city
scenic foodA cable car climbs from Taipei Zoo over forested tea terraces to Maokong, with glass-floored cabins if you are willing to queue for one. At the top, hillside tea houses serve pots of local Tieguanyin with the whole basin laid out below, best in the late afternoon and after dark.
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Dadaocheng and Dihua Street - the old tea and herb quarter
history shopping off beaten pathThe riverside street where the nineteenth-century tea money was made, lined with Fujianese and baroque-fronted shophouses that now hold dried-goods traders, herbalists, fabric sellers, tea merchants and design shops. Late afternoon light on the facades is the reason photographers keep coming back.
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Ximending - the pedestrian grid west of the centre
shopping nightlife musicTaipei's youth quarter: street performers, tattoo parlours, cinemas, cheap clothing and the Red House, an octagonal Japanese-era market building with a bar strip behind it. Loud until late, and right on the doorstep of the old walled city and Longshan Temple.
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Beef noodle soup and xiaolongbao - eat the city's own dishes
foodBeef noodle soup is the dish Taipei argues about most, braised or clear-broth, with an annual competition to settle it. Around that sit soup dumplings steamed in bamboo baskets, gua bao, scallion pancakes, braised pork over rice, and a tea shop shaking bubble tea on every second corner.
Best areas to stay in Taipei
$ Budget $$ Mid-range $$$ Premium
Zhongshan
First-time visitors $$Leafy avenues and Japanese-era backstreets
Explore hotels in Zhongshan →
Xinyi
Shoppers and nightlife $$$Towers, malls and Taipei 101
Explore hotels in Xinyi →
Da'an
Food and slow travel $$Tree-lined lanes, cafes and Yongkang Street
Explore hotels in Da'an →
Ximending
Budget travellers $Neon pedestrian grid, young and loud
Explore hotels in Ximending →
Beitou
Hot spring stays $$Hot spring valley at the line's end
Explore hotels in Beitou →
Live nightly prices from Booking.com, Agoda and others, centred on Taipei
Getting to & around Taipei
Getting there
Fly into Taoyuan (TPE), then the Airport MRT to Taipei Main Station in about 40 min.
Flight
Taoyuan International Airport (TPE)
About 40 km west of the city. The Airport MRT express reaches Taipei Main Station in roughly 35 min and the commuter service takes longer but stops more; coaches run to Taipei Main and other city stops around the clock, and a taxi takes 45-60 min. Songshan Airport, handling domestic and a few regional flights, sits inside the city on the metro.
Train
Taipei Main Station
The high-speed line runs down the west coast from Nangang and Taipei Main, reaching Taichung in about an hour and Kaohsiung in under two, with reserved and unreserved cars.
Train
Taipei Main Station
Conventional railway services curl around the east coast to Yilan, Hualien and Taroko, the scenic way into the mountains; book ahead on holidays, when they sell out.
Coach
Taipei Bus Station
Intercity coaches leave day and night for cities down the west coast and over the mountains, often cheaper and slower than the train.
Cruise
Keelung
Ships berth at Keelung on the north coast, right beside the Miaokou night market, with trains and buses into Taipei taking around 40 min.
Getting around
Metro
Clean, frequent and signed in English, covering nearly everywhere a visitor goes including Beitou, Tamsui and the zoo. Eating and drinking on board is banned and enforced.
TBC
City buses
Fill the gaps the metro leaves, including the climbs up to Yangmingshan and out to the museum. Routes are far easier with a maps app open.
TBC
YouBike
Public bike share with docks almost everywhere, best used on the flat, mostly separated riverside paths along the Tamsui and Keelung rivers.
TBC
Taxis
Yellow, metered, plentiful and straight-dealing, hailed on the street or through ride-hailing apps. Few drivers speak English, so show the address in Chinese.
TBC
Walking
The centre is flat and walkable, and covered arcades over most pavements matter more than you would think in both the rain and the summer sun.
Free
Day trips from Taipei
Jiufen and Jinguashi
Full dayHillside tea houses
A former gold-mining town stacked up a hillside above the sea, its stepped lanes strung with red lanterns and tea houses looking down the coast. Neighbouring Jinguashi has the mine museum and Japanese-era ruins. Go on a weekday or late in the day, because the crush on the main lane is real.
Getting there
train | bus | tour
About 1 hr 15 by train and bus via Ruifang, or direct coach
Pingxi Branch Line
Full daySky lanterns and waterfalls
A single-track branch line that rattles up a river gorge through old coal towns. At Shifen people write wishes on paper lanterns and release them over the tracks, Shifen Waterfall is a short walk on, and Houtong at the junction is a village overrun with cats.
Getting there
train | walk
About 1 hr 30 by train, changing at Ruifang
Yehliu Geopark and Keelung
Full daySea-carved rock formations
A cape of wind-and-sea-carved sandstone on the north coast, full of mushroom rocks and the much-photographed Queen's Head. Pair it with Keelung, the working port half an hour east, for the Miaokou night market and its stalls of thick crab soup and tempura.
Getting there
bus | car | tour
About 1 hr 30 by coach from central Taipei
Tamsui and Bali
Half dayRiver-mouth old port
Where the river meets the sea: an old-street food strip, Fort San Domingo with the red-brick British consulate beside it, and a waterfront built for sunsets. Small ferries cross to Bali for the riverside bike path or run out to Fisherman's Wharf.
Getting there
train | ferry | walk
About 40 min to the end of the metro's red line
Wulai
Half dayGorge and hot springs
An Atayal village in a forested river gorge south of the city, with a waterfall, a little log-cart tram, riverside hot spring pools and indigenous food on the old street - millet wine, mountain vegetables and rice steamed in bamboo tubes.
Getting there
train | bus | car
About 1 hr by metro to Xindian, then bus
Yangmingshan National Park
Half dayVolcanic park on the rim
Volcanic country on the city's northern edge: the sulphur vents at Xiaoyoukeng, the grass dome of Qixing Mountain, silvergrass turning the slopes white in autumn and cherry blossom in late winter. Hot spring hotels sit on the road up.
Getting there
bus | walk
About 1 hr by metro and bus from Jiantan or Shilin
A little history of Taipei
Taipei fills a flat river basin the Ketagalan people worked long before Han settlers arrived. Migrants from Fujian founded Mengjia, today's Wanhua, on the Tamsui river in the early eighteenth century, and when Tamsui opened as a treaty port in 1860 the tea trade made the wharves and shophouses of Dadaocheng rich. A walled city went up between the two, and in 1887 the Qing made Taipei the capital of their new province of Taiwan.
Japan took the island in 1895 and rebuilt Taipei as a colonial capital, pulling the walls down for boulevards and putting up the red-brick government buildings still in use, the Presidential Office among them. Japanese rule ended in 1945; four years later the defeated Nationalists moved the Republic of China's government here, along with the imperial art collection, and ruled under martial law until 1987. Then came the manufacturing boom, the metro, and a loud democracy.
Fujianese settlers open up the basin; Mengjia grows into a river port.
Tamsui opens as a treaty port and the tea trade enriches Dadaocheng.
Taipei becomes capital of the new Qing province of Taiwan.
Japan takes Taiwan and remakes Taipei as a colonial capital.
Japanese rule ends and the island passes to the Republic of China.
The Nationalists retreat to Taiwan and govern from Taipei; the imperial collection comes with them.
Martial law is lifted after thirty-eight years.
The metro opens and Taiwan holds its first direct presidential election.
Taipei 101 opens as the tallest building in the world.
Know before you go
Payment
Cards & cash mixed
English
Limited
Wifi
Reliable
Power
Type A / B
110 V, 60 Hz
Dialing
+886
Monsoon flooding risk in this window; check current conditions before you go.
Typhoons risk in this window; check current conditions before you go.
The months our climate read flags to avoid: the wettest, lowest-rated weather of the year.
Mobile network & SIM card
Get an eSIM before you fly
A Taiwan eSIM installs in minutes and works the moment you switch off flight mode. No SIM swap, no roaming bill.
FAQs about Taipei
▸ When is the best time to visit Taipei?
October to December is the window: cooler, drier and clear enough for the mountain views. April is the other good month. May and June bring the plum rains, and July to September is hot, humid and inside the typhoon season. Winter is mild but grey and damp, which suits the hot springs.
▸ How many days do you need in Taipei?
Three days covers Taipei 101, a couple of night markets, Longshan Temple, the National Palace Museum and Elephant Mountain at sunset. Four or five lets you add Beitou's hot springs, a Yangmingshan hike, and a day out to Jiufen or the Pingxi line without rushing any of it.
▸ Is Taipei expensive?
It is one of the better-value big cities in East Asia. Hotel rooms and imported goods are the expensive part; the metro, night-market eating and museum entry are all modest, and you can eat extremely well for very little if you stay away from hotel restaurants.
▸ Is Taipei safe?
Exceptionally, by any standard. Violent crime is rare, women travelling alone report feeling comfortable walking at night, and lost wallets have a habit of coming back. The real hazards are scooter traffic at crossings, summer heat, and typhoons, which are well forecast and taken seriously.
▸ Is English widely spoken in Taipei?
Signs, metro announcements and station maps are bilingual, and younger people in the centre often speak some English. In night markets, taxis and older shops it thins out fast. Nobody minds: pointing, a translation app and a great deal of patient goodwill get you through everything.
▸ Where should I stay in Taipei for the first time?
Zhongshan, for hotels at every price, two metro lines and quiet backstreets full of coffee and small restaurants. Xinyi suits shoppers and anyone who wants Taipei 101 out of the window, Ximending is the cheap and noisy option, and Beitou trades a longer ride for hot springs.
▸ What should I eat in Taipei?
Beef noodle soup first, then soup dumplings, gua bao, scallion pancakes, braised pork over rice and a bowl of shaved ice. At the night markets go for oyster omelette, fried chicken cutlet, pepper buns and, if you are brave, stinky tofu. Bubble tea is everywhere and non-negotiable.
▸ What happens if a typhoon hits while I am there?
Between roughly July and September it is a real possibility. Forecasts are accurate and warnings are given days ahead; when a typhoon day is declared, offices, schools and attractions close, transport winds down and flights are cancelled. The sensible move is to stay indoors for the day and rebook.
▸ Do I need a visa for Taiwan?
Most Western passports get a generous visa-free stay on arrival, and the process at Taoyuan is quick. Rules differ by nationality and change, so check your own passport before booking. Note that Taiwan runs its own immigration system entirely separate from mainland China's.