Hi
I'm going to Taiwan for 10 days and trying to create an itinerary. I usually like to spend 2-4 nights in each place before moving on but after researching Taiwan I'm considering to just stay in Taipei for my entire trip since there seems to be so many interesting daytrips. Would this be sensible or do you think I will be missing out? Not so much interested in beaches - more dayhikes and culture.
Thank you for any info
Although you could spend all the time in Taipei, it would only give you a limited perspective of Taiwan. Taipei is a large and busy metropolis. If you travel to some of the smaller cities and rural areas in Taiwan you can experience something quite different. I suggest a few days to travel to Hualien and Taroko Gorge.
Everyone is different, but I have a feeling that most travelers would not want to spend 10 days in Taipei. If you have the money, traveling by HSR (High Speed Rail) makes rather long journeys quite practical. Be warned that you should NOT attempt to charge any tickets on the HSR as they don't do real credit card charges. It will come as a cash advance against your credit card and you'll be charged interest on the purchase daily until you pay off the entire card balance.
Tainan is quite far south, but the HSR makes it a practical day trip. It has a lot of old temples and buildings. Note that the HSR station is outside of the main downtown area, so you may want to take a taxi or figure out how to go by bus to get to the main downtown area.
Kaohsiung is the last stop south on the HSR and I don't recommend going there. It's not a bad city to live in, but it has little of interest for tourists.
Sun Moon Lake might be of interest to you, but I must warn you that if my Taiwanese friend had not gone with me, I probably would never have been able to get there by myself without being able to speak Mandarin or Taiwanese. We went there from Taichung by bus. Here's some info on getting there from Taipei, which might be better than what we did.
http://wikitravel.org/en/Sun_Moon_Lake
Thank you for your advice both of you. I thought about Tainan but figured out that it might be too long for a daytrip because of the inconvenient location of the HSR station but of course I could go and stay for a couple of days if there is enough to do. I also thought about going to Taroko Gorge. Is one full day enough? I know that it sounds lazy but what could a good first-timer itinerary be?
Ten days is far too long. Taipei is very different from the rest of Taiwan, so you should do yourself a favor by getting out and experiencing other parts of the country. As the others suggest, Tainan and Taroko Gorge are just two of the many places outside of Taipei worth spending at least a night in.
Hello, I just returned form Taiwan and I suggest the Toroko Gorge. You can stay real close to the Gorge. I did not know the best way to get through the Gorge as it is huge. I took a one day tour that was nice, but I did not get to stop where I wanted to. A taxi might cost you more, but at least you can stop where you want. One day is not enough to see the Gorge if you want to go hiking. I stayed in Hualien City and it was nice. Lots of places to eat and it has the coast right there. The night markets were small , but still good eats. Have Fun, Taiwan is Awesome!!!
You could actually spend ten great days in Taipei with all the day trips, but I don't recommend it if you are a first-time short-term traveler. THe two suggestions here - Hualien and Tainan, are good ones. You could take the HSR and spend 2 days in Tainan (I've been to Tainan 4 times and still haven't run out of things to do there) and take the Taroko Express for a few days in the Hualien area.
I promote this a lot, but if you can organize it, I'd also see the gorgeous mountains in the center of Taiwan. You could take a train or bus to Taizhong and catch the mountain-bound bus to Dayuling or Lishan, and head back down to the east coast to Yilan or Hualien and see Taroko Gorge from there before heading back. The mountains are just spectacular and you miss a lot of the best views if you only stay in the gorge.
The problem is that it can be very hard to get good information on bus routes through the mountains if you don't speak Chinese (and sometimes even if you do!) and there are usually only 1-2 buses/day in those parts.
When will you be in Hualien/Taroko gorge? Right now I have been here for 48 hours and it has been raining nonstop. Locals tell me it has been raining for more than a week now. As I am hell bent to see Taroko Gorge I will try to wait this bad weather out. Unfortunately I have to go back to Taipei on Saturday, and leave the country on Sunday. I had a wonderful time in Taipei though with nice weather.