The best things to do in Taipei are the observatory at Taipei 101, the National Palace Museum, Longshan Temple, Shilin Night Market and the sunset climb up Elephant Mountain. Give the city four to five days, come in October, November or March for dry, mild weather, and buy an EasyCard at the airport so the metro and the buses stop being a decision.
Taipei is a capital you can read in four days and keep unpicking for years. A metro that reaches the mountains, a night market within walking distance of almost any hotel, and sulfur springs inside the city limits. Below are the ten things worth your time, each mapped, plus the neighbourhoods, temples and day trips that fill the gaps between them.
The tower held the title of world's tallest building from its completion at the end of 2004 until Burj Khalifa took it in 2010, and the observatory still gives you the whole basin in one turn. The reason to linger is between floors 87 and 92: a 660-tonne steel sphere slung on eight cables, the tuned mass damper that keeps the building steady through typhoons. Observatory hours are 10:00 to 21:00, so an early-evening slot buys daylight, dusk and the lit city in one ticket.
Time2 hrs
CostFrom NT$600
Best atAn hour before sunset
TipBuy online, ticket counter is on Office Tower 1F
Museum· No. 221, Sec. 2, Zhishan Rd., Shilin District, Taipei
One of the largest collections of Chinese imperial art anywhere, and far too much of it to attempt in an afternoon. Open Tuesday to Sunday, 09:00 to 17:00, with ticket sales closing at 16:30 and the whole museum shut on Mondays. Foreign visitors pay NT$350; under-18s go free. Arrive at opening, take the jade and bronze galleries first, and treat the rest as a return visit.
Built in 1738 by settlers from Fujian and still a working temple rather than a monument, which is the point. Doors open daily at 06:00 and the gates lock late in the evening; come at dusk, when the forecourt fills with people who are there to pray rather than photograph. The surrounding Wanhua streets, Bopiliao and Huaxi Street among them, are the oldest part of the city.
Time the guard change at Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall
Landmark· No. 21, Zhongshan S. Rd., Zhongzheng District, Taipei
The hall opens daily 09:00 to 18:00 and the surrounding Liberty Square from 05:00 until midnight, all of it free. The changing of the guard runs hourly on the hour from 09:00 to 17:00, and since 2024 it has taken place out on Liberty Square rather than in the upstairs statue room. Rain cancels it. The square is flanked by the National Theater and Concert Hall, which is worth a look at the evening programme.
Food· Around Jiantan MRT station, Shilin District, Taipei
The largest and oldest of the headline markets, running from about 16:00 until midnight and busiest between 19:00 and 22:00. Come out of Jiantan station exit 1 and work the basement food court before the surface stalls. The three things people queue for are the oversized fried chicken cutlet, the oyster omelette and flame-seared cube steak.
Viewpoint· Lane 150, Sec. 5, Xinyi Rd., Xinyi District, Taipei
The Xiangshan trail starts a ten-minute walk from Xiangshan MRT exit 2 and climbs 183 metres on stone steps, less than a kilometre from Taipei 101 itself. It is open around the clock and free. Start about ninety minutes before sunset and you get the daylight city, the sunset and the lit tower from the same rock platform without walking down in the dark.
Hot springs· No. 2, Zhongshan Rd., Beitou District, Taipei
Twenty-five minutes from the centre by metro and a different city entirely. The Hot Spring Museum occupies the 1913 public bathhouse, the largest in East Asia when it was built, and admission is free; it opens 10:00 to 18:00 and closes Mondays. Uphill, Thermal Valley steams over green sulfur water that deposits hokutolite, a radium-bearing mineral found in only one other place on earth. Bring a swimsuit if you want the public pools on Zhongshan Road.
Viewpoint· No. 8, Sec. 2, Xinguang Rd., Wenshan District, Taipei
The cable car climbs from beside Taipei Zoo into the Wenshan tea terraces, and the crystal cabins with glass floors run on the same line for the same fare. Fares are NT$70 to NT$120 depending on how many stations you ride. It closes on Mondays unless the Monday is a national holiday or the first of the month, so check before you commit an afternoon. At the top, order Muzha Tieguanyin at one of the terrace tea houses.
Neighbourhood· Sec. 1, Dihua St., Datong District, Taipei
Taipei's oldest commercial street, and the centre of the island's tea and textile trades since the mid-1800s. The shophouses still sell dried goods and herbs, with design studios and coffee bars wedged between them. Stop at No. 61, the Xiahai City God Temple of 1859, which packs more than six hundred deities into 152 square metres, the densest concentration of statues in Taiwan.
A national park inside the city, built on a volcanic field: fumaroles at Xiaoyoukeng, grassland at Qingtiangang, calla lily fields at Zhuzihu. Qixing Mountain tops out at 1,120 metres and is the highest volcano in Taiwan. Entry is free and the headquarters visitor centre opens daily 08:30 to 16:30. Parking is scarce, so take the bus.
Four to five. Two days cover the Top 10 inside the city, a third buys Beitou or Maokong at an unhurried pace, and a fourth or fifth gets you out to Jiufen, Yehliu or the Pingxi line without rushing back.
When is the best time to visit Taipei?+
October and November: temperatures around 19 to 27 degrees, low rainfall and the summer humidity gone. March is the other window. Avoid the plum rains from April to June, and note that typhoons are most frequent from mid-July to early October.
Is Taipei expensive?+
No, by East Asian capital standards. A hostel dorm runs around NT$700 and night-market eating around NT$400 to 600 a day, so a shoestring budget of NT$1,400 to 2,000 works. Mid-range travel with a hotel and sit-down meals lands nearer US$120 a day.
How do I get from Taoyuan Airport into Taipei?+
The Airport MRT Express runs to Taipei Main Station in about 35 minutes for NT$160, with luggage racks and wireless charging on board. Buy an EasyCard at the station while you are there and use it on the metro, the buses and in convenience stores.
Do I need cash in Taipei?+
Yes, for night markets and small eateries, which are largely cash. Everything else takes cards, and an EasyCard covers the metro, buses, the Maokong Gondola and most convenience-store purchases.
After dark
Best night markets in Taipei
Six markets, from the one everyone visits to the one your hotel receptionist eats at.
A single straight lane beside Songshan station, 16:00 to midnight, so nothing is hidden down a side alley. The pepper-bun queue at the entrance moves fast.
Small, old and almost entirely local: a 170-metre pedestrian street of family stalls, open from about 17:30. Taipei's oldest oyster omelette shop has been here since 1965.
The covered market beside Longshan Temple, and the strip that gave Snake Alley its name. Traditional stalls, herbal soups and a slower pace than Shilin.
A short strip inside a public-housing block near the river, trading to the neighbourhood rather than to visitors. Several stalls carry Michelin recommendations.
Dedicated to Guan Yu, patron of merchants. It stopped burning incense and joss paper in 2014 and removed its furnaces, so the air is clear and the blue-robed volunteers do the rituals in place of smoke.
Dedicated to Baosheng Dadi, the god of medicine, and honoured in the 2003 UNESCO Asia-Pacific Heritage Awards for the quality of its restoration. The carving and painted decoration are the best in the city.
Southern Fujianese architecture with no statue of the sage, only a spirit tablet. The birthday rites are held here at 06:00 on 28 September, presided over by the mayor.
More than six hundred deities crowded into 152 square metres, the densest concentration of statues in Taiwan, including the matchmaker god people fly in to petition.
Taiwan's first museum given over entirely to contemporary art, opened in 2001 on Chang'an West Road and still the most consistently interesting programme in the city.
Across the road from the National Palace Museum, and the counterweight to it: the material culture of Taiwan's indigenous peoples. Tuesday to Sunday, 09:00 to 17:00.
The source: a steaming green sulfur lake that deposits hokutolite, a radium-bearing mineral found in only one other place on earth. Look, do not touch.
