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Travel advice for Taipei, Taiwan
I'll be visiting Taipei for a little over a week in mid-January. I'm going to attend a conference, but have most evenings free and will be staying a few days after it ends too. Looking for good recommendations on activities in the city (museums, sights, etc.). I've heard Taipei has a very good nightlife, but unfortunately I don't know if I'll be able to experience much of that due to with whom I'm traveling.
Just got back from Taipei. A couple of things.
Make sure to get plenty of it though Taipei is incredibly cheap to eat. Line pay is also common so if you have that, set it up before you go in case a place doesn't accept credit cards and you're short on NTD. For some reason, we ran into issues getting money from ATMs operating at banks but you know what worked? 7-11 ATMs.
Speaking of which, the government is giving away money to travelers via something called Taiwan Lucky Land. I forgot exactly how it works but it's a pretty quick registration and you just check to see if you win at the airport. Easy stuff and worth the 3 minutes of work to potentially win some free money.
Take the public transit as much as possible as it's fast, reliable, and cheap. Note the bus drivers can get a bit wild so brace yourself when you're inside. Also unlike some transit systems, you tap your card when you enter and leave a bus. Uber is also an option as is their national taxi service. In my time there, we only took ride shares to and from the airport.
I don't know how strong your mandarin skills are but between my child level mandarin skill and a decent number of English speakers, I didn't feel too lost navigating/ordering my way around. Not a specific Google Translate situation but I also found using general observation skills (aka observe what others are doing) + Google Translate got me through 95% of situations.
Shilin is the most famous one but Raohe I genuinely enjoyed. If you're brave, get some fried stinky tofu but if not, get a black pepper bun, some fried chicken, and skewers. You really can't go wrong with what's being offered there. If there's a line, it's worth a try.
A dan-bing in the morning + fresh soy milk , a couple of sheng jian bao for lunch with some more soy milk, a bowl of tomato beef noodle soup for dinner will cost you like under $10 USD. Also wax apples were plentiful so go ham on those. Street vendors and small stalls are also great and we found places that had English or pictorial menus that helped a ton.
I wish I had time to go to the coastal city of Tamsui (1hr away) or spent more time in hot springs in Beitou (30 min north). The next I'm in Taiwan, I'd really like to explore the outdoor stuff which may not be possible if you're only there for a week.
On a personal note, I loved the specialty coffee scene in Taipei. Simply Kaffa, Normal, All Day, and Kinokaffe were excellent and some use Taiwanese coffee, which is also fantastic.
I've been living there for the past almost-five-years and I definitely have my recommendations. First of all when you get to Taiwan, you'll probably be coming into the Taoyuan airport. Take the MRT to Taipei main and make sure you take the express (purple) as it only has about 4 stops instead of stopping at each station. There are busses that will be just as fast and will take you to specific areas but getting the ticket usually has a bit of a knowledge/language barrier so I'd recommend take the MRT. Taipei main is pretty centrally located + there are lots of transportation options to take you where you need to go. When you go to the MRT - MAKE SURE you get an easy card (also called yo-yo card) and add some cash to it. There's a dispenser outside the mrt or the counter-people will sell you one. They're fully refundable if you go to the counter when you leave the country. If you're going to travel around the city/country for more than 1.5 weeks, I'd recommend you opt for the unlimited (the name slips my mind) pass which will pay for itself.
Another thing: this country is one of the safest in the world for petty crime. No one (except the yellow taxis) will knowingly rip you off and if you're drop something people will chase you down the street to return it. Women go jogging in the park late at night in the dark - just to give you an idea of how safe it is.
Here's my list of things to check out: although, you didn't really mention time-line or interests, you did mention that daytime won't always be available for you.
This leads to 2. Ubike pub crawl. Taipei has more convenience stores per capita than any other country and they are slightly better than the ones in Japan. I've seen 3 7-11's on the same block here. Food, alcohol, t-shirts, postal delivery, fresh coffees/teas. Family Mart and 7-11 are your best friends and most people here are shocked if one doesn't stay open 24/7. One great thing to do is get a ubike, ride until you're hungry/want a beer, stop at the nearest one (don't worry about locking up a ubike), then go on and repeat until you're done for the night.
The bars here aren't always the best and can be expensive. It's really hard to justify paying 200 for a beer at a bar when you can walk outside to a 7-11 and pay a quarter of the price. If you want to drink at a specific place, Taipei has a pretty great speakeasy scene and is slowly getting a cocktail scene. Unfortunately one of the better pubs is currently in the process of finding a new home, but if you want western-style pubs I'd recommend either On Tap, Beer Geek, Revolver, or any of the ones in Maji Square near Yuanshan (this one really changed in the past 6 months or so). Speakeasy's might be harder to find but I'd recommend either Book Ing Bar which will look like a bookcase, (pull the white book) or Al Cicchetto Huashan Bistro (they have a sake bar hidden behind a bookshelf at the back).
Sights - many of these will really only be open during daytime hours so check your times. In no particular order I'd recommend:
-immediately north-east of 101 is Xinyi which is a big mall area that you can walk along all the way to Taipei City Hall.
-Xindian/Xiaobitan very interesting area with some small cliffs, duck boats, suspension bridge, restaurants
-Da'an Park. Large park with a tiny bird sanctuary/island in the middle. You can go at any time. Then nearby on the weekend you can also check out the flower market which has TONS of flowers & plants. So many orchids too.
-Ximen - this is the considered the most 'Tokyo-like area'. Big screens/advertisements. Lots of stores. A place to see/be seen especially on weekends. Also was the gay-friendly area (now that's pretty much everywhere). It's not uncommon to see people walking around in COSplay there. Also worth seeing the temple and the Red House there.
-Longshan temple. Closer to Taipei and still pretty cool. The night market nearby has stayed closer to traditional. You used to also be able to go there to eat snake (I think only one place still does it).
-hiking - Taiwan has hiking like it has convenience stores. They range from a breeze to a nightmare in length/difficulty. The more common ones are Elephant mountain, Yangmingshan has different ones, and even easier ones South-East of Jiantnan
-Jiufen - just outside of Taipei but only like a 40 minute bus ride, it's built into the side of a mountain and is full of tea shops with a stunning view down to the sea. The town itself is kind of boring but probably worth seeing once. Make sure you take a bus home from the top of the village because that's where people first get on. By the time the bus goes down, those seats and even standing room get filled.
Food:
-as I said before, skip the 101 Din Tai Fung. Go to B2 of the SOGO at Zhongxiao Fuxing. Usually the least busy one. I'm not big on Din Tai Fung and there are 2 in Vancouver which have even less of a lineup to get in.
-Ba Feng - almost the McDonald's of Taiwan food in some ways. Cheap, fast dumplings (try the curry!) but now most locations have branched out into soups, noodles as well. Really good. Not always easy to find but they look pretty distinct.
-Shaved ice - not everybody's cup of tea but find a place that does shaved snow with fruit of some kind or mango shaved ice. Everybody loves that. Avoid the Taro King at Dongmen. Everybody goes there and you'll wait. They have other locations or other places do the same. There's one a block east or so from the Ximen MRT station that looks decent.
Other quick notables: Yundish, Ramen Nagi, Yi Ping fresh shrimp, or a buffet joint - vegetarian or otherwise.
I could type much more but I'll leave it at that. If you let me know more of what you're interested in seeing, I can type more.
I lived in Taipei for a year and so far everything has been great advice. To add a couple things, I would consider getting an easy card as this can make paying for things things much easier. Easy cards can be bought from most convenience stores (maybe 100-200NTD, I actually can't remember), and you can add money on them at most convenience stores too. You can use easy cards in a lot of the same places you would otherwise use a credit card, most noticeably the MRT and in convenience stores.
Speaking of convenience stores, don't be afraid to eat a meal or two at them. Most sell decent ready-meals, which they will also heat up for you and often provide seating to eat at as well. If you're in a rush or not confident at risking it with a dodgy Google translation, a ready-meal is imo fair play. (Locals eat them a lot so it's not like you're missing out on the food culture if you eat there once or twice, ALTHOUGH, Taiwan has some of the best food in the world so I really would encourage you to branch out, especially the street food).
In terms of activities, if you have time of during the day or on a weekend, Jiufen is an excellent day trip, where you can see the tea house that allegedly (but didn't actually) inspired Spirited Away, and has had a pretty interesting cinematic history as well as having stunning scenery. Alternatively, a nice afternoon activity that doesn't require a whole day is to head to the south of the brown line on the MRT and go on the Maokong gondola. It takes you up to Maokong on cable car where you can get great views of the city, hike, see cats, and drink tea in one of the many teahouses on the mountain.
Others have suggested Ximending and 101 as excellent places to go and I fully agree, but if you are interested about Taiwan's history Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall, the 228 peace park, and the presidential office building (nothing special and not worth its own trip, but it is across the road from the peace park) are also interesting places to for a wander about.
I loved my time in Taipei and could go on about it forever so if you have anymore questions feel free to ask more, either here or in DMs. I hope you enjoy your trip!!
Din Tai Fung is great! Taipei 101 has a great thing (although a bit expensive) where you can go up to the top and see the counterweight in the building (plus all of Taipei).
Din Tai Fung also has restaurants internationally, including some in the US! I know it's odd to say this for a chain, but they legitimately have some of the best dumplings in the world, so I would recommend anyone to go there and try it out. They have vegan options as well!
I can second that the Taipei 101 tour to the counterweight was worth it. The view is great and the tower gives perspective!
I was lucky enough to meet an acquaintance who's a local to Taipei. He drove us outside of Taipei proper to more farm-like areas. The dining there was incredible, and you get to see what things are like outside the city. I have no idea how you'd be able to do something similar without a local connection though, depending on who's at the conference?
Shopping at a large electronics store was also an extremely fun experience because of all the sorts of gizmos and gadgets I'd never seen before. Entire product categories that don't seem to have made it to the Western markets.
Walking through Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall is great.
Also would highly recommend checking out some night markets and rechao.
If you love cafes, try hopping around and reading in the many cafes in Dong Men.
Night markets are fun, and have a lot of weird but great food (well, weird to me).
I've heard that Taiwan have the best japanese food outside japan, so that might be something.
Going up elephant mountain is a nice trip, it's steep, but nothing crazy. You can take some nice photos of Taipei from up there.
Visit a temple, there's a lot of them, so should be easy to find one that fits.
Gonna hijack this thread; sorry OP! My dad and brother are headed to the Philippines in a couple weeks for vacation. I think they have a layover in Taipei each way. One is like 2hrs, but the other is about 6hrs. During that longer layer, they were talking about leaving the Taipei airport. My parents and I did this before in Seoul (ICN) when we had a ~12hr layover; it was like a free tour the airport put on. But ICN was shockingly easy and quick to get in and out of; Like customs/passport control was like 5min each way. And of course 12hrs is quite a long time.
Is Taipei like that? Is 6hrs enough time to get in and out of TPE, even just to grab lunch?
The main airport, Taoyuan, is a ways from the Taipei main train station. About 40 to 45 min. But if you take the train there you can see plenty of fun parts of Taipei including Ximending market and Chiang Kai-shek memorial by foot. And getting around on foot is the best way to see Taipei in my opinion. Its the small street vendors that really make it shine, especially at night. So 6 hours is enough for an experience if you are quick. I don't know how to stash luggage though. You might consider hiring a driver for the 4 to 6 hours. The prices are reasonable compared to US prices and they could keep bags in the trunk.
Visit a couple of different night markets and some hot springs. The city's surrounded by some beautiful landscapes dotted with small towns and villages, too- might want to look into a day trip to somewhere like Jiufen if you can find the time.
The whole island is one of my very favorite spots in the world btw, so enjoy!
Hot springs get my vote.
The official site has tours and recommendations
https://eng.taiwan.net.tw/m1.aspx?sNo=0002035