Booked 2 weeks over Christmas/NY on a whim, as got a good deal. Current plan:
Taipei
Hualie
Chishang
Kaohsiung (with day trip to Tainan)
Kenting
Then back to Taipei before flying home
Anyone been? Recommendations of any kind welcomed.
I went in 2024 and with some friends and absolutely loved it. Beautiful place with loads to see and do and awesome people. We had about 15 days and did a lap around the coast using the excellent trains. We visited:
- Taipei
- Chiayi planning to go to Alishan
- Guanziling after we couldn’t get Alishan train tickets. This was a very pleasant surprise, it’s a beautiful mountain hot spring resort with great atmosphere
- Tainan
- Liuqiu Island which is incredible for swimming with sea turtles - there were so many I genuinely couldn’t believe my eyes
- Ruisui for hot springs and a very fun rafting trip down a canyon
- Hualien only for a night because the Taroko gorge was closed. Fantastic night market and cool hilltop park.
- Beitou district of Taipei for a final night in a hot spring hotel
For the places on your intinerary:
Taipei
- Take the cable car up to Maokong and get tea overlooking the city. We timed it for sunset and it was spectacular, plus riding down in the gondolas with no lights is an experience. It’s worth queueing for a glass bottomed one if it’s not too busy
- We stayed near Ximen which is a good nightlife hub, the Red House has a bunch of LGBT friendly bars and a friendly crowd
- A day trip out to Jiufen to see the Ghibliesque old street and teahouses is pretty much mandatory. If you like cats, gorges or coal mining it combines well with a visit to Houtong Cat Village. The noddy train ride/tour of the coal mining museum is surprisingly fun.
- Taipei Botanical Garden has a lot of interesting plants and animals to discover.
- We managed to miss the time to go up Taipei 101 after getting distracted by the offerings in the food court downstairs, so we did a night climb of nearby Elephant Peak which was intense but worth it for the view.
- If you do a night in Beitou and enjoy a cocktail, I strongly recommend finding the Art Bar. It’s a speakeasy type place hidden in a bookshop in an alleyway, staffed by art students from a local university. The drinks were delicious and creative and the staff were super friendly, cool and interesting.
Hualien
- It’s hard to miss but Dongdamen Night Market is great fun, there’s an absolutely massive selection of things to try, including millet wine cocktails
- If you don’t mind getting sweaty the various hill trails offer some amazing views.
Tainan
- I’d recommend making a bit more time for it to at least stay for a night, it’s a brilliant city to explore and spend time in, full of sights and a photographer’s dream. It’s also got a vibrant cultural life and festival calendar. We came across an open air Taiwanese clown show.
- There’s a massive all ages paddling pool in the foundations of an old shopping centre that’s a unique place to cool off with a drink
- Xiaobei Night Market takes over a car park and has a proper fun local energy. Complete with lots of games to lose at and mysteriously sloganed tshirts. Plus a ‘British Imperial Family’ tea stall
- There’s a charming Japanese feeling area with great Izakayas around Kangle Street
If you can stand more after reading that I’m happy to answer questions or give general tips about transport, hotels, food, drink etc.
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Hell of a first post!
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Thank you so much and welcome to the boards!
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Taiwan is mega, great memories of hitchhiking around Taroko Gorge
I think it’s probably the most underrated country I’ve been to in Asia - not that touristy, lovely people, (mostly) great weather and brilliant food scene
Would love to go back for a couple of months
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Thanks, turns out Taiwan reminiscing was the perfect encouragement to delurk. What kind of stuff do you enjoy on a trip? We did a lot of outdoorsy stuff and carousing and missed out on some of the cultural highlights like the National Palace museum.
Been many times now, but more to visit family than as a tourist so @Piezo’s recommendations are probably better than anything I can suggest!
Paying for stuff:
Bring several cards with you - not every UK bank’s cards will work in all stores. Chase and Monzo are both good for no fee + good acceptance. Starling didn’t work last time I tried it.
Generally contactless works where cards are accepted, but street food, market stalls and suchlike may only accept cash. If your card works, you can withdraw at most ATMs while there - pretty much every corner store has one somewhere. If you make friends with anyone Taiwanese while there then offer them your receipts for the monthly lottery.
Do get yourself an easycard when you land at the airport - it’s basically a National Oyster card. Top up is only with cash, but you can use them on all city metros, most buses and a fair chunk of the Railway. Check which trains you’re catching as you travel around the island as you might need to book and get a paper ticket for things like High Speed, Tourist trains etc.
Don’t chew gum or eat/drink on public transport - they take it seriously!
As with Japan, convinence stores like 7/11, FamilyMart, HiLife etc are decent, reliable places to pickup more or less anything and they’re basically everywere.
Things in Taipei I’ve enjoyed beyond @Piezo’s suggestions:
- National Railway Museum (cheap!)
- Bopiliao Historical Block and the Lungshan Temple (walkable from Ximending)
- Wandering around the 1914 Creative Park and Songshan Creative Park - often see some interesting exhibitions or makers crafts around those.
- If you’re into tech, then the Symtrend and Guang Hua Digital Plazas are worth a mooch.
- Wandering the underground malls around Taipei Main Station (Z, K, Y and R malls) Z and Y malls in particular have some really interesting shops.
- 10m air pistol shooting at the NYU Sports Centre
- National Palace Museum
- Basically any festival that’s running in a city while you’re there.
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Oh, I forgot to say, contactless card payments for public transport instead of easycard are rolling out, but when I was there in April it was pretty hit and miss which gates you could use on the Taipei metro and it wasn’t everywhere - hence suggesting getting the easycard. Might be better now.
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Gone and changed my itinerary, haven’t I. 
Your power! Tips for Liuquiu greatly recieved!
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All for Taipei:
Parklife Plus bar. Good tunes and pinball machines.
Maybe catch a show at Revolver, Taipei’s only rock/metal bar and venue?
If you eat meat - Bogart’s BBQ. Arrive early and hungry, the line goes on for ages. Cool American owner.
Go to Fuhe Bridge Flea Market. It’s like Taipei’s version of a massive car boot/jumble sale. Chongxin Flea Market is also good.
Pay to see the mass dampener inside Taipei 101.
Taipei Astrological Museum is trippy and cool.
Wulai Old Street - easy day trip from Taipei. Lovely streets and hot springs.
Outside Taipei:
Yehliu Geopark. Cool Star Wars-esque rock formations.
Wan Li UFO Village. See all the cool abandoned UFO houses.
Eighteen Wan Gong Temple. See the HUGE giant dog statue.
Hou Tong cat village. Make sure you go during the day in good weather.
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Fingers crossed I’ve not led you astray. Hope I’m not about to put a damper on things, but a few points I’d consider:
- If you want to get the best from it, you’ll need water shoes and a snorkel mask (<£10 jobs from Sports Direct or Whatever are fine) and to be somewhat comfortable swimming on coral beaches.
- For best swimming experience I’d recommend not going in a guided tourist group, but make sure you know how to swim responsibly around turtles and coral.
- The interior of the island is not that nice, a weird mix of rural mess and excessive tourist development. Definitely plan on sticking to the coast.
- It’s quite a popular regional tourist spot, so it might be better to avoid on weekends if that works with your itinerary
But aside from that the coastline is beautiful, there’s spectacular sunsets and some amazing snorkeling. The giant semi-open air BBQ restaurants are another highlight with a brilliant festive atmosphere. In a day we did a lap of the whole island’s coast with several swimming stops, the highlights being:
- Beauty Beach which has really clear water and the most turtles, particularly when the tide was coming in
- Vase Rock a famous sight with more decent snorkeling
- Lobster Cave a fun little ‘hidden’ beach you have to climb a rope to get to
- Secret beach is probably the most accessible swimming beach with a sheltered sandy area to ease in to the water. Lots of turtles here too.
- Sunset Pavilion, does what it says on the tin with the bonus of an enterprising bloke selling cool fresh lagers to enjoy with the view
- This bar ‘脈岔’ in the big complex on the north coast has some big hammock net things where you can sit over the ocean and drink the strong and unpleasant beer ‘Red Horse’
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I’ll level with you: I can’t swim 
I basically just want 2-3 days of being by the sea and it looks nicer than Kenting!
Very good tips regardless though, thank you!