Taiwan

October to April is the best stretch: dry, clear, and 18-28°C. November and December are the sweet spot — comfortable days, low rain, and lantern-glow evenings in Jiufen without summer's tour-bus crush.

May and June bring the plum rains, and July to September is hot, humid and typhoon season — a direct hit can shut trains and attractions for a day or two. Summer trips work, but buy flexible tickets and keep one buffer day at the end. The upside of summer is fruit season — mango shaved ice at its best.

Two event windows are worth targeting: the Pingxi Sky Lantern Festival just after Lunar New Year (dates shift each year), and the cherry-blossom spots around Taipei in February and March — a quieter, cheaper alternative to Japan's sakura crowds.

Taipei is the anchor and deserves three nights: Taipei 101's observatory, the National Palace Museum, Longshan Temple, and the Shilin and Raohe night markets. Day trips make it: Jiufen's hillside teahouses, the Shifen waterfall and sky lanterns, and Yehliu's rock formations all fit into one northern-coast loop.

Kaohsiung in the south is Taiwan's harbour city — the Pier-2 art district, Lotus Pond's Dragon and Tiger pagodas, and the Liuhe night market. The high-speed rail gets you there from Taipei in about 2 hours.

Taichung sits midway and is the gateway to Sun Moon Lake, Taiwan's postcard lake with its cable car and boat loops. The city itself adds the hand-painted Rainbow Village and Miyahara's ice-cream-in-a-bookshop.

We also list Tainan — the old capital, a temple-and-street-food city that Taiwanese people rate as the best eating in the country — and Hualien on the wild east coast for the Taroko Gorge marble canyon. Check trail status before booking Taroko: large sections have stayed closed since the 2024 earthquake.

Taiwan is one of East Asia's cheapest, lowest-stress family destinations, and Taipei is the only base most families need. The best kid day in the city is the Taipei Zoo (entry NT$60 / $2) with the Maokong Gondola from its doorstep. Releasing a sky lantern at Shifen lands with every age.

Toddlers get the zoo and the riverside parks. Kids 6-12 add the gondola, the Shifen waterfall walk, and — if you head south — Taichung's National Museum of Natural Science. Teens will happily live in the night markets and up Taipei 101.

The MRT is stroller-friendly, with elevators at every station, but night markets at peak hour are not — go at opening, around 5-6 pm, if you have wheels or small kids. Picky eaters are easy here: dumplings, fried chicken and bubble tea are everywhere, and little of the food is spicy. Watch for scooters on smaller streets.

Taiwan runs on cash more than its tech image suggests. Night markets, small eateries and temples are cash-first; cards work in hotels, malls and chains. NT$100 is about $3, though the rate moves.

Withdraw cash from 7-Eleven or FamilyMart ATMs — they accept most foreign cards and are everywhere. Load an EasyCard (the transit card) with cash; it also pays at convenience stores and many taxis.

Budget roughly NT$1,000-1,800 ($30-$55) per person per day for eating very well at markets, transit, and one paid attraction.

Vegetarians do surprisingly well. Taiwan has one of the world's highest vegetarian rates thanks to its Buddhist population, and "su" (素) buffet restaurants — pay by plate weight — appear in every district. Night markets always have veg dumpling and scallion-pancake stalls.

Night markets are Taiwan's main event, and grazing is the way to do them. The classics to hunt: stinky tofu, oyster omelettes, pepper buns from a charcoal oven, and oversized fried chicken cutlets — most items NT$50-100 ($1.50-$3). Bubble tea was invented here, so have the original at least once.

Sit-down meals stay cheap. Beef noodle soup, Taipei's signature dish, runs NT$150-250 ($5-$8) at the well-known shops. Din Tai Fung, the soup-dumpling restaurant that started in Taipei, is worth one queue — the original branch draws lines, but other Taipei branches move faster.

Take pineapple cakes home. They're the standard Taiwan gift, sold everywhere from bakeries to the airport. Vegetarians eat well here — the "su" buffets covered above are in every district.

Taipei's MRT is clean, frequent and bilingual, with rides at NT$20-65 ($0.60-$2) on an EasyCard. The same card works on buses, the Maokong Gondola, and local trains.

The High Speed Rail (HSR) runs the west coast: Taipei to Kaohsiung takes about 2 hours and costs around NT$1,490 ($46) standard fare, with early-bird discounts of up to 35%. For the east coast (Hualien), regular TRA trains do the scenic run.

Day-trip country like Jiufen, Shifen and Yehliu is reachable by bus and train, but a guided day tour saves real time by chaining all three.

Taipei's Taoyuan airport has direct flights from every major Asian hub, plus nonstops from Europe, North America and Australia. The airport MRT reaches the city in about 40 minutes for NT$150 ($4.70).

With 7 days, base in Taipei first and work south, one direction only. Days 1-3: Taipei, including one combined Jiufen-Shifen-Yehliu day trip. Day 4: HSR to Taichung for Sun Moon Lake. Days 5-6: continue to Kaohsiung, adding a half day in Tainan on the way — the two are a short train ride apart. Day 7: HSR back to Taipei, about 2 hours, for your flight.

Because the route runs straight down the west coast, you never backtrack until the final day. If changing hotels isn't your thing, skip the south — Taipei alone fills five days once you count the day trips.

Save Hualien and Taroko Gorge for a second trip, and check trail status before you commit — large sections have stayed closed since the 2024 earthquake.