How to Spend 3 Days in Taipei, Taiwan: A Quick Guide

Recently came back from a quick trip to Taiwan and this is a short guide of how to speedrun things if you're short of time. For disclosure, this trip from the Philippines costed around  USD 1000 per person for two people. Things may become cheaper or more expensive depending on when and where you book your flights and accommodation, and what food you eat. Mine was relatively more expensive given that this was a last minute trip with booking decided less than a month prior to departure on peak season.

Recommendations before going to Taipei:

1. Book your flights and accommodations on sale as early as possible. This is a no brainer but we would have saved a good $200 each on flights and accommodations if we booked even just a month in advance, more if it were not peak season. 

2. Spend the weekend there and leave on a Monday (or Tuesday). Taipei has a busy night market/nightlife until around 10 pm when activities end. There are a lot of street performers that you can watch, especially during weekends. I advise leaving on a Monday since the museums and some other tourist attractions are actually closed on Mondays so it's a good time to leave. However, if you have extra time, you can spend your Monday on a quieter attraction like Tamsui or use it to travel to another part of Taiwan.

3. Research how to exchange your cash for local currency. This is for those who aren't USD based. Local exchange rates are NOT competitive and for the Philippines, bank exchange seem to be our best best but you'll need time and other documents. ATM withdrawal is what I did but I wish I did the former.

R (person I went with) and I saved money by going on a budget airline and having no check-in baggage. However, we stayed in a hotel which was more expensive than a hostel but was well worth it IMO, for the privacy and the amenities. We stayed at Hotel Papa Whale which was in Ximending (a very good spot, especially for those who like the nightlife). I recommend staying there especially as it is connected to Driftwood, a bar known for their craft beers. You can literally drink then go to your hotel room. Note that the rooms do not have windows, which should not be a problem if you plan to spend most of your time outside. I do NOT recommend getting their breakfast buffet as its very uninspired and you're better of filling up for cheaper at your local restaurants and even at the convenience stores instead.

4. Prebook everything you can before hand: This is obviously not sponsored but I recommend checking prices and using a service that bundles and makes things easier, like Klook. We used Klook to book a lot of things for the discounts:  easycard, museum tickets, geopark tickets and tour group discount. Aside from minimizing costs via bulk discounting, it is also to minimize expenses that come from booking using the local currency.

Depending on your itinerary, it may be cheaper to book for a 3 day pass with a different card along with airport transfers but we chose to get a preloaded easy card instead since our flight arrived way too early and we didn't want to wait a minute longer than we should have. I'd recommend getting the former if you arrive at normal hours.

Extra: budget airlines have terrible hours and everything in the airports close early. However, there is a convenience store that is easily accessible and the airport as free wifi and charging stations so you won't have a hard time waiting for the metro or bus lines to open.

5. Join the raffle (for 2024 and 2025).  Look up the link for Taiwan the Lucky Land.Tourists have a chance to win NTD 5,000 just by going to Taiwan. Neither R nor I won but the guy behind us won.

Once in Taiwan and you've got your loaded Easy Card or Metro Pass/iCard (counter opening at 7 am), take the Express (purple train) to the main station and to your hotel/hostel. You can leave any luggage behind even before you check-in in the afternoon.

Here is the list of locations/activities I recommend doing:

Day 1:
AM
Peace Park 
National Museum
Presidential Hall
Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall - changing of the guard every hour

PM 
National Palace Museum
Red House
Ximending Road

Note that the museums close at 5 pm (you should be done by 4:30). There is also a 45 minute to 1 hour travel time to the national museum so you should budget your time accordingly. If you do have time, I would recommend spending an entire day on the National Palace Museum alone.

Day 2:

AM to PM
Yehliu, Jiufen and Shufen

Highly recommend taking a bus/car tour. A bus tour is definitely not leisurely but allows you to see a good number of sights. I had a full tea experience at Jiufen but it was definitely on the expensive side: I paid for the tea and for each person with me (totaling NTD 950 for 30 minutes of chilling in a tea house) but well worth it for me as it was served beautifully and traditionally and was something in my must do list. Note that other tea houses may be cheaper or more expensive and the tea I got was a midrange tea so prices will vary. You can also do the entire lantern experience for NTD 200-250.

PM
Temple Hopping
Ximending Road

Our tour ended around 6 PM so we decided to go to a temple (we ended up in Longshan and the night market) but you may have time to visit more depending on the time of day and tour you book. Of course, we ended back at Ximending since it was on our way back to the hotel.

Day 3:
AM
Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall- changing of the guard at every hour
Songshan District/Songshan Ci Hui Temple
Elephant Mountain

PM
Taipei 101
Xinyi district

This is a good time to shop at the higher end malls or to go to a temple. We did the former since we met up with some people but if not, I would recommend the latter. By around 4 PM, start making your way to Elephant Mountain. R went all the way to the top but I stopped halfway because it was too difficult for me as a lazy girl.

After the sunset, we walked to Taipei 101 and went up the observatory. Everything up was expensive so we bought some exclusive souvenirs there but we ended up at the basement for dinner. We walked around a bit at Xinyi district watching the performers. However, for those with money to burn, this is a good place to burn cash with BV, Chanel, Diore Loewe, LV, YSL everywhere.


We spent an extra day in Taipei and spent it at Tamsui, but if we had the time, it would have been nice to spend a full week to see the lakes and the hot springs. Maybe on the next trip.

Estimate of expenses:
Flight USD 200 per person
Accommodations USD 200 per person for 3 nights (400 for 2 people with a breakfast buffet we regretted)
Prebooked tour and expenses USD 100 per person.

Costs can vary depending on where you come from, and where you go within Taipei. In the Philippines, tickets can get very cheap depending on seat sale bookings and I believe this can easily go down to 100-150 USD with judicious planning.  Note that our flight did not include the ~30 USD terminal fee for a frankly terrible airport. We each loaded around 700 NTD including the initial 400 NTD our easy cards came with and it was enough for 4 days. If you do stay for 3 days or less and don't mind waiting a bit, you can save the extra USD 5 by going for other Klook offers.

The rest of our expenses were on food, extra transportation, souvenirs and extras. R was able to go under USD 800 (we each loaded NTD 700 on our cards but I spent a significant amount more T__T (I paid for lantern and tea since they were activities I wanted to do. I also spent a significant amount of milk tea as well because when in Taipei...)

All in all, I strongly believe that with good planning, anyone can do a 3 day tour in Taipei for under 1,500 USD per person (depending on airfare) and well under USD 1000 if you come from the Philippines.