Beyond Taipei: Offbeat Taiwan
Almost every Taiwan trip funnels through the same photo: lantern-lit Jiufen, shoulder to shoulder with everyone else who saw the same photo first. Taipei is genuinely a gateway, that part of the standard advice is correct, but the trips worth taking from it are quieter than the postcard suggests. Treat the city as your base, then use the transit network doing the actual work here, MRT, bus, and Taiwan’s High Speed Rail, to reach a tea town, a set of hot springs, and (with more time) two cities that outdo Taipei’s own old quarter.
Gateway essentials
| Detail | What to know |
|---|---|
| Days needed | 1-2 in the city core, plus at least one full day trip; add 2-3 more for a rail hop south |
| Best months | October-November and March-May; keep flex days June-October for typhoon season |
| Daily budget | NT$2,500-4,000 in the city, add NT$1,200-2,000 for a guided day-trip combo or a one-way HSR ticket |
| Booking warning | Guided Jiufen-Shifen-Yehliu combo tours sell out on clear-weather weekends; book a few days ahead in season |
Getting in: Taoyuan versus Songshan
Most international flights land at Taoyuan Airport (TPE), about 40km southwest, where the Airport MRT Express reaches Taipei Main Station in roughly 35-38 minutes for a flat NT$160, tapped off the EasyCard you’ll use for everything else on this trip. An airport bus is cheaper (NT$135-145) and slower (50-70 minutes); a taxi runs NT$1,000-1,200 for the same 40-60 minutes a train just skipped. If you’re arriving on a shorter regional hop, Songshan Airport sits inside the city, directly on the MRT’s Brown Line, with no highway transfer at all.
Three day trips better than the standard Jiufen combo
Pinglin, a tea town in the hills southeast of the city, exists in its quiet, low-rise state largely because it sits inside the watershed that feeds Feitsui Reservoir, Taipei’s main drinking-water source. A public bus from Xindian MRT station gets you there in roughly an hour; once you arrive, the old street’s tea-egg stalls and the Pinglin Tea Museum make the case for Taiwan’s actual tea capital better than a Taipei teahouse ever could. It needs a bus rather than a straight MRT line, which is precisely why it stays this quiet.
Beitou, by contrast, sits directly on the Xinbeitou MRT branch, no transfers at all. Free public foot baths line the district, Thermal Valley steams away like the city’s own private hot tub, and paid spa hotels exist for the full soak. Same MRT ease as Jiufen’s bus-and-train combo, similar atmospheric payoff, a fraction of the tour buses.
Yehliu and Shifen, paired on the same day, cover coastal rock formations and old-railway sky lanterns without needing Jiufen’s crowded staircases at all. Yehliu Geopark’s wind-carved formations, including the famous Queen’s Head, sit about 75 minutes out on bus 1815; Shifen’s sky-lantern releases and its old railway street, where the train passes feet from the food stalls, usually round out the same day. A guided combo tour covering both removes the transfer math if you’d rather not manage two bus routes solo.
Is Jiufen worth it at all?
Genuinely, yes, on a weekday morning or evening. The lantern-lit alleys are real and photogenic, and the town earned its reputation honestly. The problem is entirely about timing: go on a weekend or holiday and its narrow staircases turn into a slow-moving crowd rather than a scenic escape. If your dates only allow a weekend visit, Pinglin or Beitou deliver a comparable payoff with none of that crush.
Which parts of Taiwan deserve the rail trip out?
Taiwan’s High Speed Rail hugs the west coast and reaches Taichung in about an hour, where a connecting bus continues to Sun Moon Lake, the island’s largest natural lake, ringed by forested mountains. Push on to Tainan, roughly 1 hour 40 minutes from Taipei by rail, Taiwan’s oldest city and its former capital under Dutch and Qing rule alike, with Anping Old Fort (built 1624) anchoring a genuinely different food and street culture from anything in Taipei. Hualien and Taroko Gorge sit on the east coast on a separate rail line entirely and come with a real caveat: Taroko’s marquee trails have been closed since the 2024 earthquake and remain only partly reopened as of 2026, so go there for the recovery story itself, not the classic hike your friend did in 2019. Plan a Sun Moon Lake day tour if you’d rather not manage the bus connection from Taichung yourself.
Where to stay for easy access to the trains
Zhongshan or Ximending keep you close to both the city-core sights and Taipei Main Station, the starting point for every rail leg above. Compare current rates on Agoda before booking; prices swing hard around weekends and Taiwanese holidays.
When to go, and the honest caveat
October through April is the sweet spot, especially October-November and March-May, with temperatures in the high teens to high twenties Celsius and drier air. Typhoon season runs June through October, peaking August-September, and it is exactly the kind of thing that strands a day-tripper mid-transfer or delays an HSR leg with little warning, so build slack into any trip that includes more than one day trip in that window.
FAQ
Do I need to book Taiwan’s High Speed Rail in advance?
Not usually for a single leg outside holidays; tickets are available at THSR stations or online same-day. Book a few days ahead specifically around Lunar New Year, national holidays, or weekend Tainan legs, when seats do sell out.
Is Pinglin reachable without a car?
Yes, but only by bus, not a direct MRT line; that’s the whole reason it stays quieter than Jiufen. Take the MRT to Xindian and connect to a public bus from there, roughly an hour to the old street.
Should I visit Taroko Gorge in 2026?
Only if you’re curious about the recovery itself and have a flexible schedule. The visitor center and Tianxiang area are open along with a handful of trails, but Shakadang and Zhuilu Old Road remain closed and private-vehicle access runs on a timed-release schedule, so the classic marquee hikes aren’t currently on the table.
Does the EasyCard cover the High Speed Rail?
No. EasyCard covers Taipei’s MRT, buses, YouBike, and the Kuo-Kuang bus toward Jiufen, but the HSR and the east-coast rail line are booked and paid separately.
Book the Yehliu-Shifen combo or your HSR seats the moment your dates are fixed, not the morning you plan to travel; everything else on this list, Pinglin’s bus, Beitou’s soak, Taipei’s own MRT, still works on a walk-up basis. Our 7-day offbeat itinerary plots the full week-long version of this route day by day.