A Long Weekend in Taiwan: Offbeat

Three days in Taiwan is still Taipei-only if you’re doing this route right, and this one skips Taipei 101’s queue and Jiufen’s lantern crowds for a slower version of the city: a 19th-century trading street, a hillside artist squat, a hot-spring valley, and, on the third day, a cable car into tea country most visitors never bother riding. Taiwan’s capital is Taipei, its currency is the New Taiwan Dollar (TWD, NT$), not the Chinese yuan, and it runs its own visa and entry rules, separate from mainland China’s. Visa-free entry covers roughly 90 days for most Western passports, but since 1 October 2025 every visitor also needs the free TWAC online arrival card, filed within 7 days of landing at the official twac.immigration.gov.tw (skip any site charging a fee, that isn’t the real one). Load an EasyCard, skip the tip, and eat your way through a night-market scene that’s genuinely one of Asia’s best.

Cut the third day and this collapses back into the 2-day version of the same route; keep going and it grows into the 4-day , 5-day , 6-day , or 7-day itinerary, usually by leaving Taipei for the high-speed rail line south or the slower coastal train east to Hualien. At three days there’s still no real time for a train out of the city and back, so every stop below sits inside Taipei, reached by its own metro plus one gondola ride on day three. Taiwan is a self-governing democracy with its own currency and entry rules; its political status is disputed with mainland China, but for a visitor it simply runs as its own place, and this itinerary treats it that way.

Book these before you go:

Day Focus Rough daily spend (TWD)
1 Dadaocheng / Dihua Street, a teahouse or specialty coffee stop, Treasure Hill artist village, Nanjichang Night Market NT$900-1,600
2 Beitou hot springs + Thermal Valley, a riverside YouBike ride, Elephant Mountain sunset, an indie bookshop-cafe corner NT$1,100-2,000
3 Maokong Gondola, a tea house among the plantations, a short trail through the tea fields NT$800-1,500

Day 1: An old trading street, a squatter village, and a market with no queue

Start in Dadaocheng, on Dihua Street, once Taipei’s wealthiest trading quarter for tea, cloth, and dried herbs, and still lined with Qing-dynasty and Japanese-era shophouses that most Taipei 101 day-trippers never walk past. Browse the herbal medicine counters and fabric stalls in the morning, then duck into one of the neighborhood’s renovated-shophouse teahouses or specialty-coffee spots for a slow pot of high-mountain oolong or a pour-over, the kind of hour that doesn’t happen if your only Taipei stop is the observation deck.

By early afternoon, take the MRT south toward Gongguan for Treasure Hill (Baozangyan), a hillside settlement of illegally built homes from the 1960s that Taipei chose to preserve rather than demolish, now an artist village of studios, murals, and a small hostel threaded through the original narrow lanes. It’s free to wander, genuinely lived-in rather than staged, and gives a view over the Xindian River that most visitors to Taipei never see.

End the day at Nanjichang Night Market, smaller, cheaper, and far less photographed than Shilin, with stalls locals queue at for a specific dish rather than for the market itself. Graze five stalls instead of committing to one sit-down meal; menu boards use traditional Chinese characters, not the simplified script of the mainland, so point if you need to.

Day 2: A hot-spring valley, a river path, and the skyline for free

Head north on the MRT’s Xinbeitou spur to Beitou, Taipei’s hot-spring district, and walk up to Thermal Valley, a milky, sulfurous geothermal pool too hot to touch but genuinely worth the short walk for the steam rising off it. Soak afterward in one of Beitou’s public bathhouses (cash only, bring a towel) or splurge on a private tub if the budget stretches; either way, it’s the actual highlight of this day, not a side note before Taipei 101.

From Beitou, grab a YouBike and follow the riverside path back toward the city center, a flat, scenic ride past narrow-boats and fishing spots that most itineraries skip entirely in favor of a taxi between stops. Tap the same EasyCard you’ve been using on the MRT to unlock the bike.

In the afternoon, climb Elephant Mountain (Xiangshan), a 20-30 minute stepped trail a few MRT stops from Beitou’s end point, for the same skyline-with-Taipei-101-in-frame photo everyone takes, minus the ticket queue and the entry fee of the paid observation deck; it’s also markedly better at sunset. Finish the evening in one of the small independent bookshop-and-cafe corners around Fujin Street in Songshan, a quiet grid of low-rise streets with none of Ximending’s crowds and most of its character.

Day 3: A gondola into the tea hills

The Maokong Gondola leaves from a station beside the Taipei Zoo MRT stop and climbs into Wenshan District’s hills, ground that has grown tea for generations and still does on visible slopes right below the cable car; it’s the natural third-day add-on once the first two days have already covered Taipei’s other overlooked corners. The same EasyCard from days one and two works on the gondola, and a glass-bottomed cabin runs on some cars for anyone who wants the view straight down instead of out.

At the top, pick one of the tea houses built directly among the plantations rather than the first one at the gondola exit; most will walk you through a proper pot of local oolong if you ask, not just hand you a menu. A short trail loops through the tea fields themselves for anyone who wants a walk longer than the ride up, with views back over the city that Elephant Mountain’s crowd never sees from this angle.

Ride back down in the late afternoon and spend the evening however days one and two didn’t get to: a last coffee shop in Dadaocheng, a last lane near Fujin Street, or dinner back near wherever you’re staying.

Do you need a visa or arrival card for Taiwan?

Most passports, including the US, UK, EU, Canada, Australia, and Japan, enter visa-free for up to 90 days; check current terms at boca.gov.tw . Separately, since 1 October 2025 every foreign visitor also has to submit a free digital arrival card, the TWAC, within 7 days before landing, at the official twac.immigration.gov.tw . Paid look-alike sites exist; the real one never charges a fee.

Does Taiwan use the Chinese yuan?

No. Taiwan has its own currency, the New Taiwan Dollar (TWD, shown as NT$), with its own central bank, entirely separate from mainland China’s yuan or renminbi. Cash still matters at night markets and small vendors, though cards and mobile pay work at most sit-down restaurants and convenience stores; load an EasyCard for transit and small purchases either way.

Is three days enough for Taiwan’s offbeat side?

Enough for this route, not for the island. Three days covers Dadaocheng, Treasure Hill, Beitou, Elephant Mountain, and Maokong at an unhurried pace without a single train transfer out of Taipei, which is the point of stopping here rather than rushing further. Taroko Gorge, the west-coast cities, and Sun Moon Lake all need the extra days in the 4-day itinerary and beyond, plus honest time for the transit between them. See eng.taiwan.net.tw for the wider trip-planning picture once Taipei’s back streets have stopped being enough.

Taiwan sits on active fault lines and inside typhoon season roughly June through September, both real but well-managed risks in a country the US State Department rates Level 1, its lowest travel-advisory tier; check the weather and any transit notices the morning of, not the week before. One concrete tip: load the EasyCard at the airport MRT kiosk before you’ve even left Taoyuan, since the same card pays for Dadaocheng’s neighborhood transit, the YouBike rental, the Maokong Gondola, and every MRT hop between them.