Taipei 6 days - Critique My Itinerary!!

Taipei foods, restaurants and Night Market - what's worth it? What did I miss?!

Other Taiwan-Specific Foods to Try at Night Markets, etc:

• Hotstar Fried Chicken
• Oyster Omelette
• Pig Blood Cake
• Pepper Pork Buns
• Small Sausage in Big Sausage (大腸包小腸) - double sausage snack
• Others…?
• Any place to eat live OCTOPUS!?

Restaurants / Eating Places to check out:

• Fried Chicken Founding Headquarters (鹽酥雞)
• Din Tai Fung (鼎泰豐) for epic dumplings, etc.
• Zhishan Garden (至善園) Near National Palace Museum Park: Fried Chicken Nuggets and Rice Sausage
• Spring City Shrimp Fishing Restaurant (春城釣蝦美食廣場) - Go fishing for your own shrimp and then BBQ yourself!
• Addiction Fish Market (上引水產) (super-fresh seafood, sashimi, etc)
• Snow King Ice Cream Shop (雪王冰淇淋) (Many kinds of Ice Cream, including alcoholic)
• Acheng Goose Restaurant (阿城鵝肉) - One of the best goose restaurants in Taipei
• Xishuikeng Tofu Street (洗水坑豆腐街(清安豆腐老街)) - Street food location specifically for tofu.
• Cafe Wilbeck: Black Sugar Latte
• Haidilao Hotpot

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Night Markets to Visit (High Priority):

Shilin Night Market (士林夜市)
- The most famous night market.
Huaxi Night Market (西街夜市)
- Lots of weird foods. Snake Alley (Eat Snake meat, venom, blood).
Ximending Shopping District + Night Market (Fashion, Food, Misc) (西門町)
- Eat Ay-Chung Flour-Rice Noodle
- Eat Lao Tian Lu (Braised Duck)
Linjiang / Tonghua Night Market (臨江街夜市 (通化夜市))
- Highly underrated and easy access
Keelung Night Market (基隆廟口夜市)
- Good for seafood

Night Markets to Visit (Lower Priority):

• Ningxia Night Market (寧夏夜市)
• Raohe Night Market (饒河街觀光夜市)
• Nanjichang Night Market (南機場夜市)
• Lehua Night Market (樂華夜市)
• Gongguan Night Market (公館夜市)

No Beitou? You're missing out if you don't explore that area.

You want to try black pepper buns, however you have Raohe market low on your list. Raohe is home of one of the best black pepper buns, so move that up the list. It is a good sized market with lots of food to eat. Mark Wiens did a good walkthrough and covers a lot of the food there:

13inches wrote: ↑ No Beitou? You're missing out if you don't explore that area.

Thanks for the tip... I heard Beitou was the place for hot springs, but that it was a scam and they force you to buy this expensive swimsuit.
Do you have some more detailed recommendations on what that area has to offer?

For Taipei 101 and the elephant mountain hike, I would do one during the day and another at night, just so you get different views of the city. Also, be prepared for a long lineup at Din Tai Fung at Taipei 101 during peak times (lunch/dinner). There is also a food court at the base of the 101 if you want something relatively cheap and quick.

I would also suggest eating breakfast at Yong He Soy Milk King on one of the days. They have all the usual assortment of breakfast options (soy milk, pancakes, fried dough). Besides that, your list of foods to try seem very comprehensive. Besides the usual night markets, make sure to try braised beef noodle soup, which you can find at restaurants around every couple blocks.

easylistener wrote: ↑ For Taipei 101 and the elephant mountain hike, I would do one during the day and another at night, just so you get different views of the city. Also, be prepared for a long lineup at Din Tai Fung at Taipei 101 during peak times (lunch/dinner). There is also a food court at the base of the 101 if you want something relatively cheap and quick.

I would also suggest eating breakfast at Yong He Soy Milk King on one of the days. They have all the usual assortment of breakfast options (soy milk, pancakes, fried dough). Besides that, your list of foods to try seem very comprehensive. Besides the usual night markets, make sure to try braised beef noodle soup, which you can find at restaurants around every couple blocks.

Great tips thanks... is it even safe to hike on Elephant mountain at night? It sounds dangerous...

I'm not a fan of soy milk + youtiao bread (tried it in China) but I'll definitely make a note of the braised beed noodle soup!

Also, regarding Din Tai Fung, I noticed it has many branches. Are the other locations just as good?

Jucius Maximus wrote: ↑ Thanks for the tip... I heard Beitou was the place for hot springs, but that it was a scam and they force you to buy this expensive swimsuit.
Do you have some more detailed recommendations on what that area has to offer?

There's lots of different ways to experience the Beitou area. The public hot spring is probably the worst choice. Look into the private bath houses or staying at a hot spring hotel or resort. There's also the sulfur valley to explore as well as Yangmingshan National Park which is a simple bus ride away. And of course, lots to eat in the area too.

Bath house example:
https://www.boundingoveroursteps.com/ex ... ou-taiwan/

Jucius Maximus wrote: ↑ Also, regarding Din Tai Fung, I noticed it has many branches. Are the other locations just as good?

I always stay near Da'an Park and eat at that branch, which is the original location.

I'm heading there next month for a few days. Thanks for your itinerary!

borfborfborf wrote: ↑I'm heading there next month for a few days. Thanks for your itinerary!

Glad to be of help... Just be aware the National Museum of History is under renovation, cross it off the list!

101 din tai fung... just go at like 2 pm.

lin dong fang beef noodle... this restaurant is off in a tiny side street. It's worth finding in Zsongshan no ragraets. NONE. Beef noodle soup is a national treasure.

When I went through snake alley I think most of that stuff has gone the way of the dodo. The governing body wanted to make it a bit less sketchy. there was only 1 place that had snakes out in aquariums but I don't think they were serving it.

Keelung is not as big as the episode of the layover made it out to be. It was interesting but it's about a 40 minute uber or bus ride out there.

Add the national palace museum. All the treasures of ancient china were evacuated to taiwan and are on display here when the communists overran the nationalists.

The ROC armed forces museum is also interesting if you want the history from the point of view of the nationalists. the CKS memorial will give you some of it, the armed forces museum covers the the military/government loss and retreat in greater detail. This history is not really taught in western courses, if you are interested in history at all, this would likely be of interest.. especially with china looming over and threatening to take the island back by force. This bit of history may not exist for much longer.

lurkknight wrote: ↑ lin dong fang beef noodle... this restaurant is off in a tiny side street. It's worth finding in Zsongshan no ragraets. NONE. Beef noodle soup is a national treasure.

Is this the restaurant you're talking about?

Lin Dong Fang Beef Noodle (林东芳牛肉麵)
No. 4-3, Andong Street, Zhongshan District, Taipei City, Taiwan 10491
+886 2 2752 2556
https://maps.app.goo.gl/YKo5a

Thank you so much for your other comments, they are very helpful! I wish I was departing for Asia tomorrow!!!

that's the place.

I went to Taiwan just last October. Your plan is quite similar to mine and the timeframe is about the same. I visited most of the places you plan to visit and I wouldn't take anything off the list.

Food:
-For night markets, you can easily visit at least 1 every single night. So your plan makes sense. They close pretty late.
-Ding Tai Fung is overrated and severely overpriced in my opinion but maybe just go because it's a bucket list thing. Ultimate tourist trap.
-If you visit 3-4 night markets you will naturally end up eating most of the things worth eating. I didn't have a strong preference of any night market over another. They are all about the same. I had 5 days in Taipei. By the 4th night we more or less tried everything worth trying already.
-Aquatic Addiction! Search for this place. One of the best seafood experiences I've had in Asia. It's far from other attractions but I made the trip and glad I did
-When you visit the Chang Kai Shek Memorial, be sure to check out the best bubble tea (in my opinion) in Taiwan. There is a hidden shop inside the left pavilion in the ground level. Forgot the name. It's relatively much more expensive than other bubble tea places in Taipei but totally worth it.
-You absolutely need to research on beef noodles. I had it 2 times when I was in Taipei. Once at Yongkang (forgot store name). Another time I ordered at some random street vendor. Both times were amazing. Nothing in Toronto comes close. I didn't see beef noodles at night markets.

Sights:
-I had some issues at Taroko but those were unanticipated no matter how much I planned. I would consider renting a car. I took the tourist bus thing and that bus was consistently late. Just 1 day would not give you much time for hiking. A lot of people do Taroko as 2 days. But it's up to you whether you're into nature. 1 day is sufficient in my opinion. Saw lots of monkeys (wild) in the temple (last stop on the tourist bus route) and it was very nice.
-I didn't find Maokong very special. But hey, if you are going to the zoo, it's right there anyways
-For Jiufen I went with a tour and that was a very good combo. Include Yehliu Geo park and a few other places. The amount of time allotted to each attraction was decent. The miner's park was stupid but hey, it's on the way. This is one trip I recommend going with a tour to better manage the logistics
-I wouldn't put hot star on your list. We have in Toronto. The best fried chicken I had was at Shilin night market. It was right outside the subway and before the main market. Fried chicken is every where and I don't think you need to really go out of the way to look for it.
-Tamsui area is nice. Not sure if it was due to typhoon season but when I went, it was a ghost town. In a way that made it better because we had the place to ourselves. Old street has a romantic charm to it.

BananaHunter wrote: ↑ -For Jiufen I went with a tour and that was a very good combo. Include Yehliu Geo park and a few other places. The amount of time allotted to each attraction was decent. The miner's park was stupid but hey, it's on the way. This is one trip I recommend going with a tour to better manage the logistics

Your whole post is full of great info. Thank you!

For your Jiufen tour, was this like a group tour or something? Can you recommend a tour company?

Most of the tours I've seen so far are for groups of 2-16 booking together, so you cannot really do them solo.

My friend booked the Jiufen tour. I think it was kkday. I am sure a lot of tour companies accept single travelers. It's like the easiest to squeeze into a group. Yes you will be going with a group. So it's not really "solo". You can be solo but the group may be 20-30 people.

Oh, how could I forget..... go to Costco and get the Bulgogi bake! It's delicious

A few thoughts on Maokong:
If you're a hiker, hike up then take the gondola back down.
There are a number of routes to do the hike depending on the detours you want to do. Definitely do the extra route to the temple-behind-the-waterfall once you get to the top. Unfortunately getting back from that trip sucks, so prepare yourself.
The gondola ride is really nice on a clear day. Choose wisely and you'll be rewarded.