Offbeat Taipei and Beyond: 6 Days
By day six, this itinerary has fully committed to treating Taipei as a gateway rather than a destination in itself, and to skipping the one day trip everyone else automatically books. Two days in the capital, one day at a quiet tea town instead of a crowded lantern staircase, one day out to Taichung and Sun Moon Lake by bullet train, and a full day further south to Tainan, Taiwan’s oldest city, before circling back for a last easy morning.
Book these before you go
- Sun Moon Lake day tour from Taipei , if you’d rather not manage the Taichung bus connection solo
- Tainan day tour , useful if you want a guide fluent in the city’s Dutch-era history
Day 1: arrival and old Taipei
However you land, Taoyuan or Songshan, get settled and start in Wanhua at Longshan Temple, incense-thick and full of people actually praying. Walk the surrounding old-town alleys before Dihua Street in Dadaocheng in the evening, tea merchants and dried-goods shops that feel like Taipei before it got glossy. Dinner: Raohe or Ningxia night market over Shilin, better food-to-crowd ratio for the same NT$50-70 stinky tofu.
Day 2: tower, museum, and a free view
Morning: National Palace Museum, NT$350, one of the world’s genuinely great collections of Chinese imperial art. Afternoon: Taipei 101, tallest building on the planet only 2004-2010, before the Burj Khalifa. The 88F ticket runs NT$600; skip the roughly NT$3,000 outdoor add-on and catch Elephant Mountain at sunset instead for the same shot, free. Dinner at Din Tai Fung, homegrown Taiwanese since 1958, NT$500-800 per person.
Day 3: Pinglin, not the crowded alternative
Skip the automatic Jiufen day. Pinglin, a tea town about an hour out by bus from Xindian MRT station, sits partly inside the watershed feeding Feitsui Reservoir, Taipei’s drinking-water source, and that protection kept it quiet while Jiufen filled with tour buses. Spend the day on the old street’s tea-egg stalls and the Pinglin Tea Museum, the actual case for Taiwan’s tea culture.
Day 4: Taichung and Sun Moon Lake
Taiwan’s High Speed Rail hugs the west coast and covers Taipei to Taichung in about an hour. From Taichung HSR station, a Taiwan Tourist Shuttle bus (roughly 1.5 hours) runs out to Sun Moon Lake, the island’s largest natural lake, ringed by forested mountains. Spend the afternoon on a boat across the lake and at a lakeside temple before heading back to Taipei, or stay the night near the lake if the pace has worn you down and continue south the next morning instead of doubling back.
Day 5: south to Tainan
The HSR gets you from Taipei to Tainan in around 1 hour 40 minutes, and Tainan earns every minute of it: Taiwan’s oldest city, capital under Dutch and Qing rule alike, narrow lanes, centuries-old temples, and a food culture locals will argue is the island’s best. Anping Old Fort, built by the Dutch in 1624, anchors the old harbor district; the Confucius Temple, Taiwan’s first, sits a short walk from the modern city center. Eat milkfish and danzai noodles here specifically, dishes you won’t find done as well back in Taipei.
Day 6: back to Taipei, then home
Return north by HSR (about 1 hour 40 minutes from Tainan) and use the last stretch of the day for something easy rather than another full sight. Tamsui, directly on the MRT, gives you a relaxed riverside afternoon. Or spend it in Beitou instead, free public foot baths and the steaming Thermal Valley. Take after five days of comparison: Beitou beats an overcrowded Jiufen for a low-effort half-day, similar payoff, far fewer tour buses, and a hot soak to end the trip on rather than a crowded staircase.
Six days at a glance
| Day | Focus | Distance/time from Taipei |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Longshan Temple, Dadaocheng, night market | In the city |
| 2 | National Palace Museum, Taipei 101, Elephant Mountain | In the city |
| 3 | Pinglin tea town | ~1 hr by bus from Xindian MRT |
| 4 | Taichung, Sun Moon Lake | ~1 hr HSR + 1.5 hr shuttle bus |
| 5 | Tainan | ~1 hr 40 min HSR |
| 6 | Tamsui or Beitou | Direct MRT, no transfer |
Should I book Sun Moon Lake or Tainan lodging ahead if I’m doing this as a loop back to Taipei?
For this six-day version you’re not overnighting outside Taipei, so lodging is only a concern if you choose to break the loop and stay near Sun Moon Lake on Day 4. If you do, book ahead; rooms there are far scarcer than Taipei’s hotel stock.
Why does Tainan get a full day instead of a quicker stop?
Because Tainan rewards slowness in a way a rushed afternoon can’t capture, temples, old lanes, and a food culture that’s genuinely distinct from Taipei’s. A full day lets Anping Old Fort and the Confucius Temple both get proper time instead of a photo-stop pace.
An EasyCard handles everything inside Taipei; book the HSR separately, a few days ahead for the Tainan leg especially on weekends. Cash matters outside Taipei’s tap-everything bubble, night markets, Pinglin’s shops, and plenty of small Tainan eateries are cash-only. Keep Days 3 through 5 flexible if you’re traveling June through October, since typhoon season (peaking August-September) can delay trains with little notice. For the version that pushes on to Taroko Gorge, see the 7-day itinerary .