These are my ultimate top 5 things to do in Taipei especially if you’re a first-time visitor. I just came back from Taipei a couple months ago and thought I would write a blog post about this since traveling to a new country is always overwhelming. I’ve been to Taipei before about 8 years ago, but I fell sick and was unable to do anything except pretty much sleep. So, this time around, it really felt like it was my first time and below is what I would definitely recommend to all my friends and family. 

• Related Post: The Ultimate Guide to Visiting Fushimi Inari Shrine

 

Top 5 Things to Do in Taipei

1. Elephant Mountain Hike

It’s probably the most cliché thing to do in Taipei, but there’s a good reason for it. You probably won’t get a better view of the Taipei 101 building and Taipei’s cityscape than from this vantage point. The hike is mostly stairs and it’s straight up. It took me about 30 minutes going at a relatively good pace. I did stop once or twice to take some pictures, but I don’t think anyone in relatively good health should have any problem. Just take it nice and slow.

For you photographers out there… the best time to go is probably 30 minutes before sunset so you can catch golden hour and then stay until blue hour when the city lights up. I probably stayed up there for at least an hour since there are some other trails up there that you can take to get a better viewpoint of the city. 

 

2. Eat Your Little Heart Out

Taipei is food centric city so make sure you explore as many delicacies as you can. You probably already know places like Din Tai Fung or your typical boba/bubble tea shops, but there’s so much more that you can explore. This is definitely tied for first place along with Elephant Mountain on the top things to do in Taipei. Below are the places I would recommend.

• Raohe Night Market: Even thought Shilin Night Market is the most famous, Raohe Night Market is known to be the best foodie night market. Make sure you get the pepper buns at Fuzhou Pepper Buns and the sticky rice and sausage at Makauy Sausage and Rice.

• Hang Zhou Xiao Long Bao: Everyone by now has probably heard of Din Tai Fung and their famous soup dumplings. But there’s another place in Taipei that can seriously give Din Tai Fung a run for it’s money. To be honest, I like Hang Zhou much better because the line is faster, there’s more variety of the menu, and most importantly, it’s CHEAPER.

• Chia Te Pineapple Cakes: So there’s three big pineapple cake companies in Taiwan: Chia Te, Sunny Hills, and LeeChi. I really wanted to try all 3 during my trip, but I could only get to two of them which were Chia Te and Sunny Hills. I’ve been to Chia Te before and knew I really like theirs so I decided to go try Sunny Hills first. To be honest, I didn’t really like Sunny Hills. The crust was too crumbly and I felt like the filling was a little dry. I knew that Chia Te was about a 10 minutes walk away so I decided to go over there to see if it was as good as I remembered and it was. You can also tell by how popular it is because of the long line wrapped around the block.

 

3. Spend the Whole Day or Night at Jiufen

Technically, Jiufen is not in Taipei, but in a small seaside village in New Taipei City about 35-40 mins away by Uber. My Uber ride cost me $1,212 Taiwanese dollars (~$38-39 USD) if you need a price reference. There is a bus that can take you up there that’s a lot more affordable, but if you are short on time, I would suggest taking an Uber. Especially, if you want to catch sunset, you don’t want to miss it just because your bus was running late. I heard the bus can take twice as long.

The whole Jiufen area is one of the prettiest places I visited in Taiwan by far. I could have stayed there all day and wander all the cute little streets. There’s an infinite amount of of food, tea houses, and shopping to be had. Also, make sure to stop by the outside of Amei Teahouse. It’s supposed to be the inspiration for some of the scenes from the animated movie, Spirited Away. If you haven’t watched it yet, I highly recommend!

 

4. Visit Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall

Even though it’s a bit controversial, the grounds itself is worth a visit if you are into architecture and photography. I went on a cloudy day and everything still looked amazing.

 

5. Explore Taipei’s Craft Cocktail Scene

I was blown away by the cocktail culture in Taipei. I couldn’t believe how many bars and speakeasies there were. It really made me wish that Los Angeles has a scene like this. I was lucky enough to have some friends that were there the same time that took me around. We went to a bunch of bars, but below are my Top 3:

• Draft Land/Testing Room (Upstairs of Draft Land): I went both to Draft Land (downstairs) and Testing Room (upstairs). Both were great and caters to a diverse crowd. Draft Land has a bunch of pre-mixed cocktails on tap, while Testing Room provides more of a artisanal cocktail experience. If you go with a big group, both places should be able to please everyone.

• Ukitsu Bar: Super cute Japanese-themed bar. I felt like each drink came with a little snack which made me love it even more. Below is a picture of my drink that came with a little sakura mochi ball!

• Hanko 60: This is a speakeasy and it was kind of hard to find. If it weren’t for people coming out of this random wall, I don’t know if we would have found it as fast as we did. If you see the Hello Kitty 7-11 across the street, you know you’re in the right place. I love the old movie-like feel to this bar. The cocktails were super tasty and came in creative containers. Even the food was surprisingly good. We order french fries and had to order a second batch because we couldn’t stop eating them!

 

Conclusion

There’s definitely no lack of things to do in Taipei, but if this is your first time, these are the places I would really hit. You might be wondering why I didn’t include Taipei 101 on the list. Well, I definitely think you should go there once, but I think it was pretty underwhelming. I actually went during my first trip to Taipei even though I was sick and remembered being only slightly “wowed.” But it could have been because I was sick too. Either way, I didn’t feel the need to go back again. I think the best view of Taipei 101 is from the outside anyways. Hope this blog post helps you on your trip to Taipei!