4 days in Taiwan, including 2 days in Alishan

Summary

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The real draw to Taiwan is the food. Unique, plentiful, delicious, and cheap.  The unique highlight of this itinerary is day 3, the overnight stay at a tea farm guesthouse in Alishan and the fun drive there.  One of the most memorable days of my travels.  This itinerary can also be extended to 1 week to visit to the east side of Taiwan.

Some people may hesitate on visiting Taiwan because it can be more difficult to reach and they aren't sure what they are going to do there.  There's not a lineup of well-known traditional attractions.  But you don't need that.  Go for the food, and you can find things to do and make a fun adventure, especially if you like outdoor activities. If you are still unsure, this is your template for a few days in Taiwan and add it to a larger Asia trip.  Taiwan could also be a great place to work in stopovers on air tickets.

Day 1 & 2: Taipei

Taipei's public transit agency, MRT, runs an express train from TPE that takes just ~35mins to their city center, although it's quite a bit longer to reach your final destination.  

There are a few tourist activities to do in Taipei (plenty for a couple of days), and all the walking around helps work up hunger between meals. That's great because the food is seriously delicious.  And cheap.  The hardest thing is sorting and picking through all the options - what type of food, which night market, what at the night market, etc.  I won't try to create a food guide, but there is more food than you can sample in a trip. I'll cover personal highlights then move on.

Breakfast. I don't think I've seen breakfast taken more seriously anywhere else.  The Taiwanese really love their breakfast. There are breakfast-only stores and stalls on every corner in Taipei.  There were of course steamed buns, but what seemed more uniquely Taiwanese was:

• Soymilk - with every breakfast
• Turnip cakes - firm and lightly fried, not mushy and oily
• Fried egg pancake things - I think these would be super popular in the US, the other fried egg breakfast king.  They'd be a hit with the bacon-egg-cheese crowd, egg sandwich crowd, breakfast taco crowd, etc.  I think Taiwan's tastes better than all three of those.

Beef noodle soup. The broth is both sweet and savory. I think this is why tomatoes taste especially good in it (photo is of a non-tomato version.)

Street snacks - I really liked hujiao bing, an oven-baked beef bun.  Mid-afternoon some street corners in Taipei filled with their smell baking in tandoori-looking brick ovens.  It is fun to see them being inserted, baked, and removed from the oven. Even more fun to eat.  The bun is perfectly crunchy on the outside yet filled with meat juices on the inside. Be careful not to burn your mouth with the hot juices - and risk spoiling your tastebuds for days!

Night Markets - Taipei is famous for its night markets, and its well-deserved praise.  I'll give special praise to a xiao long bao / soup dumpling stall 湯包棧 at Nanjichang Night Market / 南機場夜市. The dumplings were fantastic and a clam soup was also great. We ordered a second round of dumplings here.

Dessert - I really enjoyed eating grass jelly and ai yu jelly desserts. I have had the jelly desserts elsewhere (e.g., a USA version) and it's just not good. But here I'd eat it anytime. I hear it's also low calorie. 

We stayed at Orange Hotel in Ximen. The room was tiny and a bit stuffy after showering, but it was clean, well-located, and an incredible value at less than $100/night.  They also had a sparkling water machine in the lobby, another way to win me over. 

Day 3: Chiayi to Alishan road trip, teahouse overnight 

The side trip from Taipei is the Alishan mountain area, making fun stops along the drive. High mountain oolong tea is grown in Alishan, and it's possible to stay at a guesthouse on a tea farm for the night in Shizhuo.  You can find very speciality oolong here, and given the steep altitude inclines in the range - the tea is even sold (and priced) by altitude of the farm. 

We took the high speed train from Taipei to Chiayi.  The train service is great. The train is a Shinkansen train, trains run every ~30mins, and the prices are low.  We covered more than half the length of Taiwan in 90 minutes.  Do buy your ticket at least ~2 days in advance as trains or your preferred seat does sell out. 

I rented a car from IWS, close to the train station. It was hard to make a reservation, until I DMed the company on Instagram, then they were super responsive and took my reservation. I guess I am too old-fashioned for Taiwan!  I walked the ~20mins from the station to the agency. They had sent someone to meet me at the train station and drive me, so they were surprised to see me walking in.  The car was in great condition.

Now it was time for the road trip east, from Chaiyi to our Alishan teahouse.  Our first stop was lunch at a goose restaurant. It was located on goose restaurant street in a small town called Minxiong, and there was an easy (paid) parking lot across the street near a local train station.  This day was actually Thanksgiving Day in the USA so eating poultry also felt like a great fit!  The goose was delicious.

Then we stopped at pineapple farms just east of the town.  The first stop was Pineapple Hill Culture Park. Their draw was pineapple cakes, but also had other very unique pineapple things, like pineapple yogurt, cider, and juice and vinegar made of pineapple rinds, in their zero-waste effort. We bought a yogurt and ciders.  The pineapple cakes were very good. They had plenty of things to interact with, like windows to see into their pineapple cake bakery, a second floor explaining their history / operation, and walking paths around a pineapple farm in the back.  [They also had a stall at the Chaiyi train station.]

Across the street there was another pineapple store called 阿美鳳梨 / A Mei.  They had less traffic without the lure of a free pineapple cake, which was a shame because their products were great.  They had many preserved pineapple things, like jams, jarred, and dried pineapple. Dried pineapple was sold aged different lengths, which brought unique flavors to the pineapple (samples offered.)  They also were cutting fresh pineapple which I bought on a whim and WOW, I can't imagine how any pineapple can be better.

[I don't have a photo of the pineapple :( if you go, please take one for me & share]

It was peak pineapple: the pineapple was sweet yet deeply flavorful and perfect texture, firm on the outside, soft on the inside.  There are a few other tourist/farm things you can do in the area, but we were starting to push against time and headed straight for the tea farm guesthouse.  

We didn't know what to expect at the 傳說民宿 Guesthouse (map) but we had an awesome experience overall. Just walking into the office / reception on arrival smelled amazing. They were roasting tea leaves in the reception. I think they saw me enjoying the smells so they showed me the roasting machine and offered a pot of tea.  The family were experts at using Google Translate; don't worry about only knowing English deep in the countryside.  They also had friendly farm cats. 

The room was great.  It was huge, super clean, and had a beautiful patio overlooking mountains and lower-altitude tea farms.  As we were settling in the owner came back to deliver the tea. 

Then we just walked around the tea farms. There was an established trail network (Shizhuo) that was very well maintained. Don't worry about getting a ton of trail information in advance. Just head to one of the trailheads (well marked on Google) and walk from there. Everything is pretty compact and well-signed once you're there. One could easily spend an entire afternoon, or even day, just walking around and breathing in the tea plants. 

We walked around the tea trails until dark. Dinner was a problem - there were some restaurants around but we had missed their last call, or didn't prebook.  This is a remote farming area. All the restaurants were catering to tourists, so they would cook more elaborate meals and some needed a reservation to pre-buy ingredients.

There was a takeaway fried chicken stand: 嘉義阿里山公路-第二好吃mafe(炸物/飲品). We walked to it, it looked and smelled good, so we were hopeful.  And we hit the jackpot, because the chicken was absolutely delicious.  Perfectly (and freshly) fried, spiced, and salted, with meaty chunks of chicken.  They also offered a really good grass jelly dessert, made fresh.  The fried chicken washed down perfectly with the pineapple cider we bought earlier in the day.  Fried chicken, pineapple cider, eating on a spacious balcony over the smells of tea fields - we assembled an excellent meal!!

This day was really a highlight of the entire trip - it was full of surprises, cemented by good food. I guess that is the best way to sum up Taiwan.  Let's recap: I ate goose, had the best pineapple and fried chicken I had ever eaten, smelled crisp mountain air infused with tea plants, I discovered a love for good grass jelly, tried pineapple cider, and rode on a bullet train. What more could you want in a day??

Day 4: Yushan hike & Alishan National Forest

Our teahouse acquired a typical Taiwanese breakfast for us. Delicious as expected.  We ate it on our patio while watching the sunrise. 

We woke up to a beautiful day.

We bought some tea from the farm as we were leaving. This is not even prepackaged; the farmer went to his storage shed to fill boxes for us. 

For the rest of the day, I suggest two options.

Option A - More walking around the tea farms / trail network and arrive in Taiwan for dinner. I'd prefer this if I do the trip again.  The trails around the tea farms however, are one-of-a-kind and worth spending more time at.

Option B. Yushan hike and/or Alishan National Forest.   I did this, which was fine, but it added a lot of movement and time pressure for things that were not highlights of the trip.  Below is Option B's plan.

After leaving the guesthouse, drive to Yushan, the highest mountain in Taiwan, to hike the the Front Peak. This is not the highest "main" peak.  But the main peak is almost impossible to do in a day, and this is almost the same altitude gain reached in significnatly fewer hours. Permits are required even for the Front Peak. So don't forget that. They sell out on weekends or on very short notice. 

if you are used to quick ascents, it's an easy hike.  The initial portion, which shares a trail with the Main Peak, is flat and wide. After some time, you turn left and begin a steep incline to the Front Peak. It is steep but safe. I never felt unsafe or exposed.

On the drive back to Chaiyi, I stopped in Alishan National Forest. This forest area is a victim of Japanese logging in the 1900s but it is recovering.  One of the vestiges of the logging operation is a railroad, which the park still operates as a tourist train. It was so fun to ride.  I rode the railroad from the entrance to Shenmu, then walked back to the entrance.

Some of the trees are huge in the forest. It's also interesting to see the multi-generational trees. These are new trees that grow on the same root system as previous generations that had died. 

At this point we were tight on time to make our evening train at Chaiyi, so no detours or stops except for fuel. The rental car company drove us to the train station.

I arrived late in Taipei and missed my dinner plans. I was meeting with friends who happened to be in the city.  They indulged me in another meal, especially as I didn't have a meal since breakfast, and I ate a huge serving of LATE NIGHT DUMPLINGS, two ways.  Then, some night markets are still open for more food or dessert.

We stayed at Hotel Intrendy to be closer to TPE.  The room was very nice and still on an MRT station, although not as well-located for things in Taipei. It might be worth staying here if you want to tradeoff more space and a nicer hotel vs location. I chose to stay here vs at the airport because I wanted to easily eat dinner in Taipei one more time.

Travel day: Depart TPE

We had a 6:30am flight, too early for even the first train to TPE, and had to take an Uber.  It was easy to get an Uber at 5am (~850 TWD) and there was no traffic. 

There is a good deal to be found at the airport.  Taiwan has a good whisky distillery called Kavalan.  You can visit their distillery near Taipei, and in Taipei they have multiple showroowms and a whisky bar.  I didn't do either, but purchasing their whisky at the airport or onboard (pre-order) duty free can be a good deal.  Their whiskys are sherry-heavy, which is divisive. Vinho Barrique is one of their lightest on the sherry influence and I don't think I'd like more than that. It's also very good and one of the best duty free deals, on EVA or Singapore, for about half the price (or better) than you can find in the USA at least.

Suggestions for a 1 week itinerary

For a 1 week trip, I suggest 2 days in Taipei, 2 days in Alishan, and 2-3 days on the eastern side of Taiwan, where there's Taroko Park, Hualien, hot springs, and more.  [Check the status of Taroko Park and Hualien beforehand; they may be closed as recovery from the 2024 earthquake continues.] I have read there are biking opportunities on the east side too.  An epic trip could be renting a car one-way and driving between east and west, to avoid a lot of day trips from Taipei.  There is no easy way to cross between east to west though (because mountains), there are only three roads between east and west, so it may involve some backtracking.

How to get here

• Air - Taipei has a typical two airport setup: Taoyuan (TPE) is the big international one and Songshan (TSA) has regional international flights and closer to the city center.  There are also regional international flights to Kaohsiung (KHH), so you could do a "one way" trip through Taiwan. It's hard to get here on oneworld miles - let's hope that changes soon (go Starlux!),
• Ferry - It is possible but hard to take a ferry between China and Taiwan.
• How I traveled here - I arrived into TPE from Osaka Kansai KIX.  I bought a last minute ticket on Peach (ANA's ULCC subsidiary) for ~$150 total.  It was expensive for Peach but still the cheapest option. I flew the night before in Japan Airlines First Class from JFK-HND-KIX for 80,000 American Airlines miles + $6 USD, and stayed at Henn na Hotel near KIX ($55 USD) on Osaka Bay, walkable from the first stop off from KIX, and had an outdoor onsen overlooking the airport. I departed on EVA as part of a larger trip, KIX-KMQ for $300 USD.
• Tips to save money on flights
  • If from the USA, there is a lot of competition from the West Coast: EVA, China Air, Starlux, United, Delta all have nonstop flights.  Tickets from other origins are still expensive. Travelers may save money by buying a positioning flight to SEA, SFO, or LAX and a separate ticket to TPE. There are risks though to separate tickets and this may significantly extend your travel time.
  • VA often sells tickets that offer cheap stopovers in TPE. 
• Click for packing and preparation tips.  I can also help you plan your trip.

How to get around

• Taipei:  Good public transit and rideshare is cheap enough if needed.  Taipei has good public transit, but it's also a sprawling city with large boulevards, and getting places often involves buses, transfers, and/or lots of walking.  The buses are frequent which makes the public transit workable, but it can be slow.  Taipei could be a transit model to a city like Los Angeles: for public transit to work in a sprawling city, what's needed are a few key train lines and buses arriving every few minutes in most arterial streets. 
• Alishan:  Self-driving by car is necessary to fully enjoy the Alishan area. You can make it via infrequent buses and a local train, but this seems painful and also impossible to enjoy the stops along the drive.  Alishan requires driving on winding mountain roads; they are built safely, but can still be unnerving to some. Tourism is more established in the eastern part of Taiwan where you definitely can get by without a car in the major spots.