Visiting Taiwan for 20 days – our itinerary & experience (Part 1)

As many of you know, years ago I created the word Tawcan by combining Taiwan and Canada (it should have been Taican but that’s not very original for me so I changed it slightly). The word reflects my cultural background – Taiwanese Canadian. Thanks to work, I have been visiting Taiwan regularly since 2014, typically between one to three times a year. On the other hand, Mrs. T had only visited Taiwan twice and the kids only once. The last time we visited Taiwan for a personal vacation was back in January 2019, when both kids were quite young so they had very few memories of that trip. So at the beginning of 2024, I created a goal of a family trip to Taiwan. 

We originally planned to visit Taiwan in late 2024. But when we learned that my nephew was getting married in January 2025, we decided to postpone the trip so we could join the celebration. And because the wedding and banquet was a few days before the Lunar New Year and Mrs. T and both kids had not experienced the Lunar New Year in Asia before, we decided to extend the trip a little bit longer. 

So the original planned two-week trip got changed from 2024 to 2025 and was then extended to 20 days. To make planning a bit more complicated, because we used Aeroplan points to book three out of the four tickets, we also had to work around the available dates. 

Here’s our 20-day Taiwan itinerary and experience. Please note that this wasn’t your typical tourist trip to Taiwan. Instead, it was mixed with some tourist stuff and a lot of family visits. 

Please note that there are a lot of pictures in this post… but again, how can you do a trip report without posting lots of pictures?

Since this Taiwan trip report is going to be pretty big, I’m going to break it into three parts, similar to what I did with my Iceland trip report. 

Things to consider for Taiwan

Before visiting Taiwan, here are a few things you need to consider. 

1. Weather 

Northern Taiwan has subtropical weather and Southern Taiwan has tropical weather so it is typically quite hot and humid there. With an average annual temperature of 22 degrees Celsius, you may want to avoid visiting in the summer months. In fact, a while ago I went to Taiwan in late May and I almost melted (it was ~30C). On our trip in January, the temperature reached as high as 26 C and as low as 13 C. 

Typhoon season is between June to September and when a typhoon hits Taiwan, it brings a lot of rain and strong winds (like hurricanes). So visiting Taiwan during typhoon season may cause some trip disruptions and delays (note: in 2024 a typhoon landed in Taiwan in early October which caused major flooding in Southern Taiwan).  

Overall, if you want comfortable temperatures, I’d recommend visiting Taiwan in either spring or fall. 

2. Transportation 

Taiwan has a very good public transportation system. MRT (Mass Rapid Transit) is available in major cities like Taipei, Taoyuan, Taichung, and Kaohsiung. There are also buses available in these cities and smaller cities. The Taiwan high-speed trains are excellent for travelling on the western side of the island. Trains are also available travelling to smaller cities. 

Instead of buying MRT and bus fares each time, I recommend buying an EasyCard and load money on it. You can get an EasyCard at Taoyuan International Airport and convenience stores. The cool thing with EasyCard is that you can use it not only for public transportation but for purchasing items at stores too. 

3. Language 

Since I can speak and read Mandarin and understand Taiwanese, getting around in Taiwan is not a problem for me. 

Both kids and Mrs. T had very little issue communicating with locals while we were there. Many restaurants and cafes also have English menus for non-Mandarin-speaking visitors. So for non-Mandarin-speaking visitors, you should have no problem with English in Taiwan, especially in Taipei.

4. Cash

When I go to Taiwan for business, I have no problem bringing limited cash and using credit cards mostly. But some restaurants, shops, and places like night markets are still very cash-centric (you need to use cash when loading EasyCard). For the personal trip where we went to more local shops, night markets, and local markets, I found that transactions are predominantly cash-based. Many places wouldn’t even accept foreign credit cards!

One saving grace is that many of these places accept Line Pay. Line Pay allows you to add a credit card to your Line account and make payments via QR codes. 

So I’d highly recommend bringing cash when you visit Taiwan. You don’t necessarily need to get Taiwanese money abroad, You can always withdraw money from an ATM in Taiwan.

5. Book your accommodations and high-speed trains

Although there are a lot of hotel options in Taiwan, it is always best to book your accommodations as early as possible to get the best deal. Because we were travelling around Lunar New Year time, we booked hotels early to ensure we got the best prices and preferred hotels. 

High-speed trains are very frequent but during weekends and holidays they can get extremely busy. When we travelled a few days before the Lunar New Year, we could only book seats on the last train of the day (almost 11 PM departure!). While booking seats on high-speed trains would provide the most comfort, each train has many non-reserve carts that you can get on without seat reservations. We ended up taking earlier trains and getting seats in non-reserve carts a few times on our trip. 

6 Watch for deals 

Taiwan is a very tourist-friendly destination and there are a lot of deals you can sign up for to save money. Here are a few we used for our trip.

• Klook.com. We booked discounted train tickets and airport shuttle via Klook.com. There are also many discounted tours you could book via Klook.com. 
• Welcome to Taiwan Lucky Draws – foreign travellers staying in Taiwan for 3-90 days can sign up for this draw 1 day before arriving in Taiwan. Up to 5,000 NTD prices are available. By entering the draws, we had three winners and won 15,000 NTD (~$655 CAD) that we could use toward accommodation (you could also get EasyCard).

Day 1 – Landing in Taoyuan and heading to Beitou (Taipei)

We arrived at Taoyuan International Airport at 5:30 in the morning. Knowing that we’d arrive very early and had a full day ahead of us, we tried to get as much sleep as possible on the plane (we were successful). Because we were travelling with my parents (six people total), I booked an airport shuttle before the trip via Klook.com to take us from the airport to our hotel in Beitou. 

Because I used my Marriott Bonvoy points to book the Aloft hotel in Beitou and Marriott has a stay 5 nights pay for 4 nights benefit when redeeming points, I decided to book hotel rooms for the night before so we could check in upon arrival and get some rest. 

I believe collecting Marriot Bonvoy points is very worthwhile so we travel hack by applying the American Express Bonvoy cards. You can sign up using my referral links and get more points than the regular offers: 

1. Marriott Bonvoy American Express Card – Earn 55,000 Marriott Bonvoy points by spending $3,000 in the first three months.
2. Marriott Bonvoy American Express Business Card – Earn 60,000 Marriott Bonvoy points by spending $5,000 in the first three months. 

Oddly enough none of the Marriott hotels in Taipei have 2 double or queen beds in a room so we had to book two rooms for the four of us (and one more room for my parents). I called Aloft Beitou before the trip to ask to be located on the same floor. We were pleased to get two rooms next to each other with adjoining doors. This worked out really well since the kids had their own space and Mrs. T and I had our own space. 

Since we have been to Taipei and checked out the main tourist attractions previously, we stayed in Beitou which is a suburb outside of downtown Taipei. We also planned to check out less-known attractions while in Taipei. 

On purpose, we didn’t plan much for day 1 other than getting some rest, having lunch with my cousin, and maybe getting a soak at Long Nice Hot Spring.

Thanks to my Marriott Titanium Elite status, we received free breakfasts for four during our stay. So on the first day, my parents and the kids went for breakfast at the hotel and Mrs. T and I explored the surrounding area for a breakfast place. We ended up going to two hole-in-the-wall breakfast places that had great and really cheap food.

After lunch, we took the MRT for one stop from Beitou to Xibeitou to soak in the private rooms in Long Nice Hot Spring.

Unfortunately, when we arrived at Long Nice Hot Spring, all the private rooms were fully booked (I learned that it was very popular and you had to call to reserve a room at 6:30 AM on the same day). The Beitout Public Hotspring nearby was available but Kid 1.0 and I didn’t have swimsuits that met the entry requirements (men have to wear speedos, no baggy swimwear we’re used to in Canada). The other hot springs were in hotels and were three or four times the price.  

So we walked around Xibeitou and checked out the different sights like the Beitout Hot Spring Museum, Beitout Library, and the surrounding area.

Due to jet lag, we had an early dinner at a local izakaya restaurant and went to bed early.

Day 2 – Beitou, hot spring, and Tamsui

On Day 2 I woke up early to call Long Nice Hot Spring by 6:30 AM to reserve private hot spring rooms. After calling for 10 minutes nonstop, I finally reached someone and booked private rooms for 1 PM that day (only the 12 PM and 1 PM spots were left).  

Since my mom used to live in Tamsui when she first moved to Taipei many decades ago, she wanted to check out Tamsui and see if we could locate her old apartment building. With the hot spring private rooms booked, we planned to relax in the morning, soak in the hot spring, then check out Tamsui afterward. 

After going back to the hole-in-the-wall breakfast place again with both kids and Mrs. T, we walked around Beitou and checked out the Beitou traditional market (an eye opener for both kids especially the fish and meat shops). 

The water in Long Nice Hot Spring has a PH value of 1-2 so it was important to be thoroughly cleaned before entering and after soaking in the hot spring.

We got a family-sized private hot spring room with two tubs (my parents got a room with only one tub). There were two taps, one for hot spring water and one for cold tap water, so we could adjust the water temperature accordingly. 

Overall, it was awesome and very relaxing to soak in the hot spring for almost an hour.

After Long Nice Hot Spring, we took the MRT from Beitou to Tamsui.

In Tamsui we checked out Tamsui Old Street where there are a lot of different food and souvenir shops along the street. For me, Tamsui Old Street is very similar to Jiufen but not as picturesque because Jiufen is on the mountains which provides a nice picturesque view. 

My parents tried to find the old apartment building that my mom used to live in but Tamui had changed a lot and a new building stood where the old building stood. My mom told both kids a lot of stories from the time she used to live in Tamsui while we rode the MRT back to the hotel. 

Day 3 – National Palace Museum, Addition Aquatic Development, Roahe Night Market

Since we’re homeschooling both kids, we wanted them to learn about Taiwan during the trip. Therefore, we decided that going to the National Palace Museum would provide an excellent learning opportunity. 

As expected, both kids were fascinated by the museum displays and learned some histories and stories about the displays. Unfortunately, the crown jewels of the museum – Jadeite Cabbage and Meat-shaped Stone were being displayed in the Southern branch. 

We spent almost 5 hours in the museum. With bellies hungry, we headed to Addition Aquatic Development for a super late lunch or an early dinner. I have been to Addition Aquatic Development a few times on my work trips and always enjoyed the sushi from there so I wanted to take the family there so they could experience it.

After Additional Aquatic Development, we took the MRT to Roahe Night Market. We visited Roahe Night Market when we visited Taiwan in 2019 and to my surprise, both kids still remembered the night market and the Songshan Ciyou Temple at the entrance of the night market. 

We spent about two hours in Roahe Night Market. Mrs. T thought there were a lot of people but I thought it wasn’t all that busy. Kid 1.0 and Kid 2.0 both enjoyed the night market experience especially the different street foods we got to try and fresh dragon food juice. They even asked if we were going to have a proper dinner at one of the night markets on the trip. 

Summary – Visiting Taiwan for 20 days, our itinerary & experience (Part 1)

We are three days into our 20-day Taiwan trip and this post is already getting a bit long. Therefore I decided to end it here. I hope you’ve enjoyed all the descriptions and pictures so far.

Please stay tuned next week for Part 2 of our Taiwan trip report.