Blessed with an incredible opportunity to spend 3 weeks in Taipei for Victor’s work, we used the time to explore and get to know the vibrant city. Taipei has easily become one of our favorite places—something we don’t say lightly! While we experienced a lot this trip, we’re counting the days until we return as there’s still so much more to do.
Below, we list our top 10 favorite things to do in and around Taipei. For now, at least ☺
In Short:
- Songshan Cultural and Creative Park
- City Temples
- Taiwanese Breakfast and Soy Milk Spots
- Quality Tea and Coffee
- Dihua Street
- Night Markets
- Take the MRT
- Jioufen and Shifen
- Yehliu Geopark
- Hot Springs
Bonus: Other Worthwhile Activities in Taipei
In-Depth:
1. Thrive in the creative and lively spirit of Songshan Cultural and Creative Park.
The Songshan Cultural and Creative Park, a converted tobacco factory, serves as an arts and cultural hub for the city. At the park, you will find a variety of pop-up shops, exhibitions, and art installations. Additionally, the natural greenery and quaint pond help create a tranquil, yet inspiring ambience. Furthermore, the people watching opportunities are endless: designers coordinating photography shoots, elders on their daily strolls, babies losing their balloons, and crews constructing art pieces. The Huashan 1914 Cultural and Creative Park has a similar feel. However, having spent half my days in Taipei working in the Songshan park, I’m likely biased. Try both creative parks out to see what you think!
Digital nomads: I highly recommend Songshan Creative Park for wi-fi independent tasks. There’s easy access to bathrooms, water, and a combination of outdoor + indoor seating.
2. Visit the city temples.
Across Taipei, you’ll encounter temples of all sizes dedicated to a variety of deities and religions. To illustrate, these temples include everything from the famed Longshan Temple to corner temples only slightly larger than a bathroom. This article provides a nice overview of a few temples in Taipei and what each is dedicated to. Furthermore, coming from the US, we loved how open and outwards facing most temples were in comparison to the largely enclosed, door-laden religious buildings back home. Relatedly, we watched people at all times of day, in all styles of dress, stop to pray at the temples. Some spent only 10 seconds bowing three times to the altar before continuing their walk to work, while others went through a more detailed prayer lasting 10+ minutes. Make sure to pay your respects to temples both large and small on your visit.
3. Enjoy the simplicity and tastiness of Taiwanese breakfast and soy milk spots.
Eating at the local breakfast spots and vendor carts in Taipei was one of our favorite things to do. In truth, we’re still dreaming of the xiaolong baos, hot soymilk, dumplings, and crispy egg omelets that so nicely started our days. Simple, warm, tasty, and affordable, these spots are a must try. And try many! Here and here and here were some we enjoyed. Even better, many breakfast and soy milk spots are open well into the night or 24 hours, making for great late-night snacks too.
4. Take advantage of the abundance of quality tea and coffee.
Man, oh man, did Taipei fulfill my caffeine cravings! As someone who favors high-quality tea to coffee, Taipei had no shortage of options. Firstly, choices for boba tea are endless, and we’d expect nothing less from the birthplace of the prized drink! Classic milk-tea boba, high-quality oolong with fruit jelly, taro-boba in taro-milk, sour winter-melon with aloe pudding. With one drink ranging from $35-80 TWD, or between $1-3 USD, why not try it all? Additionally, more traditional Taiwanese oolong teas can be found at many establishments. Surprisingly, even the Family Marts and 7-Elevens sell strong and tasty bottled tea for affordable prices. Coffee-lovers can also easily find great coffee in thy city with prices comparable to the US. The sesame latte from CAMA Coffee Roasters in Songshan Cultural may be my favorite latte, ever. Other recommendations for coffee houses include Oasis Coffee, Fika Fika Cafe, and Rendezvous.
5. Experience the exhilarating and historical Dihua Street.
Taipei’s oldest street, Dihua Street is a bustling hub with numerous vendors, shops, and markets. Walking along the lively street, vendors will offer you samples of nuts, candy, tea, dried goods, and much more to try. As one vendor told us, “It’s like a buffet!” The black sesame candy and black-roasted peanuts we got from a vendor next to the Xiahai Temple are incredible (read: you must try!). While there, stop by the surprisingly awesome Dadaocheng Visitor Center. The space offers interactive exhibits designed to help visitors learn about the history of the street. For example, you can get advice on what traditional Chinese medicines you should use in their mock medicine shop or learn about vintage Taiwanese clothing in their boutique.
6. Embark on a culinary adventure in the night markets.
Taipei’s many night markets offer locals and tourists alike the opportunity to delight in delicious bites. Shilin, the largest, has an overwhelming number of options. We went as a group of 6, split nearly everything, and still got too full to try all that we wanted to. Our favorite selections were the grilled king oyster mushrooms, sea snails, oyster omelet, and cold sesame noodles. Find more great recommendations here, but truly let your curiosity lead the way. Raohe Night Market is a smaller, yet similarly delicious choice. If visiting, make sure to check out the impressive Ciyou Temple at one end and head to the top of the Raohe parking lot at the other for incredible views of Taipei 101. Other night markets include Ningxia and Huaxi Street Night Markets, the latter of which is also referred to as Snake Alley (we did see both alive and cooked snake there).
7. Take the MRT, Taipei’s Metro System.
Taipei’s MRT blew us away. Trust us. People queue up, calming music plays, and monitors let you know how crowded each train car is. It’s a truly pleasurable experience. Plus, each ride will cost you as little as $20 NT, or $0.60 USD. In addition to the relative serenity of the metro system, be on the lookout for personalized metro passes when entering. We’ve seen Pokemon cards, Sanrio keychains, and even one person who used a wand to “Alohomora” their way in.
8. See and light lanterns in Jioufen and Shifen.
Jioufen, a small mountain town, lies 40 minutes east of Taipei. The narrow, lantern-strung streets have caused many to claim the place inspired Hayao Miyazaki’s film Spirited Away. While the comparison is likely wishful thinking from anime-weibos, the town truly does have an enchanting beauty. If visiting, we recommend trying some incredible oolong tea and amazing melt-in-your-mouth-tea cakes at the Jioufen Teahouse. On the way back to Taipei, we stopped in the town of Shifen known for floating lanterns. Our awesome tour guide told us that the lanterns were once used as signals to notify surrounding communities that a given place was safe from danger. More recently though, this shop in old town facilitates enchanting floating lantern experiences for visitors like us. The experience of writing our aspirations on huge lanterns, lighting them up, and releasing them to the night sky was truly magical.
9. Marvel at the rocks and butterflies of Yehliu Geopark.
When visiting some of Taiwan’s beautiful parks in the Northern part of the island, Yehliu Geopark stole the show for us. As a geopark, rock formations constitute the primary focus of the park. The most famous formation is the Queen’s Head, which is said to resemble *you guessed it* a queen’s head. While the rocks were impressive, we thought the most special part of the park was the hike out to the lighthouse. Climbing the hill, we were quickly surrounded by majestic mountains and a beautiful coastline. Along the path, which tends to be quieter than the rock area below, we encountered numerous butterflies. In the region, we also visited Yangmingshan National Park, ripe with cascades and streams, and Jinshan Shitoushan Park, viewpoint for the Twin Candlestick Islets. While we enjoyed both, we hope to return soon to explore the parks more thoroughly.
10. Relax in hot springs.
The natural choice to enjoy hot springs from Taipei would be in Beitou, less than an hour away from the city center on the MRT. While we unfortunately did not make it out there this trip, we did get to relax in the hot springs at the Yangmingshan Tien-La Resort. We can confirm, it was niiiiceeee. The resort has public baths—both the outdoor, co-ed, bathing-suit and swim-cap required ones, and the gender-specific, must-be-naked kinds—in addition to the private baths on each room’s balcony. At the public baths, we alternated between the cold, warm, and really hot baths, all while enjoying the sun setting behind the mountains. In the morning, we enjoyed a hot bath on our private balcony. We couldn’t decide whether sulfur truly has healing properties, but the relaxation from the baths was enough to convince it’s a healing experience regardless.
Other Worthwhile Activities
Since we loved so much about Taipei, here are a few other awesome activities to consider trying:
- Get hot pot. Great hot pot places can be found all over Taipei! You’ll get to choose from a variety of soup broths for the base, and then select the food items you want to cook in the pot. Choices of thinly sliced meat, vegetables, mushrooms, tofu, and seafood will overwhelm you in a great way, and many places will let you select these in an all-you-can-eat fashion. We tried Mala Hot Pot, Mo-Mo Paradise (technically shabu-shabu), and Haidilao.
- Go to the top of Taipei 101. One of the tallest buildings in the world, the observation deck on the 89th floor includes many nicely curated photo opportunities. The elevator up may be our favorite part. It is the second fastest elevator in the world and has cool constellation lights on the ceiling. Every elevator afterwards felt like the world’s second slowest!
- Explore the Taipei 101 shopping labyrinth. The ground floors of the 101 make up a luxury shopping mall. However, our favorite part about the shopping area is the impressive web of malls interconnected by string-lit bridges to the northeast of the 101. Wander into one, and you’re likely to get lost. In our case, getting lost led to an awesome 20th anniversary Naruto exhibition, so no complaints here!
- Visit the Chiang Kai-Shek memorial. While Chiang Kai-Shek is a controversial figure in history, the memorial hall itself is quite impressive with its blue-tiled roof and shiny white walls. Stay to watch the changing of the guards that happens on the hour. On your way out, gaze into the gates beyond, the style of which is usually reserved for emperors. Bonus: Find the small circle directly between the National Concert Hall and National Theater in front of the Memorial Hall where, if you clap, you’ll hear shock waves.
- Exercise in Taipei. One of our favorite things to do in new cities is visit local gyms! The Songshan Sports Center has an impressive pool. The lap pool is heated, and be prepared to get out-lapped by some super fit seniors. Other cool options for working out include the T-Up Climbing Gym, a bouldering gym, or the many public parks around the city, often offering great walking space and public exercise equipment.
Note: We visited Taipei in January, right before the Lunar New Year. As such, the weather was not as humid as it will be at other times of the year, AND there were a lot of additional preparations and excitement happening for the holiday. Some descriptions in the post might be affected by context.